Tip 1: Use a Planner

Failing to plan is planning to fail. This is true. Specially if you have a big task coming up. A big test like the board exam.

Planning is the reason why you go to review centers. It’s not because of the content really. There’s a lot of reference books out there. You enroll in review centers because of the organization of their review sessions. You are paying for their well organized schedule.

But there is a limit to this. Review centers can only take you as far as their sessions (4 hours of lectures) go. When you go home, you have to discipline yourself in using your extra time. Use this time wisely.

Tip 2: Prioritize

List the three most important tasks. When you complete these three, your day is completed.

This tip save me lots of energy. It made my review days more manageable. Just focus on three things per day. Then rest if you want. Enjoy.

Tip 3: Use a Pomodoro Timer

It’s a technique I use to avoid burn-out. A pomodoro timer can be downloaded as a mobile app on your phone. It’s a timer that forces you to do things using predetermined blocks of time.

I review for 25 mins then rest for 5 mins. I do this for four cycles then take a 15 minute long break. Use a regular short break. It helps to avoid stress. And you feel more productive.

Check Your Lifestyle

Tip 4: Sleep Well

8 hours of sleep is very important if you want to be productive. Sleeping well gives you energy for the next day.

A well rested body is an important part of successfully passing the board exam.

I find it best if you achieve what they call REM (Rapid Eye Movement) Sleep. It’s a stage of very deep and relaxed sleep. It also helps in retaining more information. Think of dreams like your brain is reorganising all the data you have learned.

Tip 5:Exercise and Eat Healthy

Lifestyle is linked with work productivity. Exercising for at least 15 minutes a day in the morning will give you more energy. Think of it like activating your fats :)

Tip 6: Find a Dedicated Study Space

Some students will spend the first 20 minutes of their study time just looking for somewhere to study. A key to ongoing time management is to find a dedicated study space free from distractions where you can concentrate. If you want to change up your study space, that’s fine, just make sure to find a study space that works and stick with it. from:education corner

A well-lit space is ideal. Make sure you are away from noise and other disturbances.

When Solving Problems

Tip 7: Divide and Conquer

Work on small bits/chunks. It is easier to answer 5 questions a day than 100. Make use of your time by spreading out your review sessions. Do not procrastinate! If you review just a week before the board exam, chances are, you’ll fail.

Rome wasn’t built in a day; College takes 7 (hey, we’re in engineering right?) years to finish.

Tip 8: Avoid Distractions

Throw away your internet and television. Don’t reload your phone. Don’t do the laundry. Don’t go to movies with your non-existent girlfriend.

During a group review, place all your mobile phones in a container. Whoever picks-up their phone buys cheeseburgers for everyone :)

Bonus: Enjoy the Journey

Always Be Happy!

Time Management Resources

Managing Your Time Time management 6 Time Management Tips for College Students

Passing the board exam is one of the biggest milestones in the life of a young engineer here in the Philippines.

There is no right or wrong way of preparing for it. It depends on each individual. Here’s the plan I adopted when I was preparing for the board exam.

The 3-Step Process

I learned this process during our engineering management class. It is a relatively simple exercise and involves answering 3 questions:

1. Where are you going?
2. Where are you now?
3. How do you get there?

I used it as a guideline during the review for the board exam.

Here’s how.

Step 1. To Pass or Fail. Where are You Going?

Of course, everybody wants to pass the board exams. Who wouldn’t want that?

But, I’m not asking your words here. No. What you say is sometimes different from what you do.

Your actions speak louder than words.

Are your actions in line with your goal of passing the board exam? Do you practice solving problems every day? Or, do you say you want to but end up texting and surfing Facebook instead?

Be clear on your goals. Write them down. Spend the first 15 minutes of your day to remind yourself of the things you want to achieve. Start your day knowing where you’re headed.

Step 2. Test yourself. Where are You Now?

What is your current ability? Regular diagnostic tests will help you. Actively track your progress.

Everyone wants to show-off their strong points. But I find it more effective to concentrate on your weaknesses. Make a conscious effort to know your weaknesses.

That’s why I did the track your progress thing a little bit different. The normal progress tracking is to list you score then see if your score is getting higher. What I did instead is to track my errors and mistakes. So I can go back to them later, and fix it.

Step 3. Work on Your Weaknesses. Practice. How to Get There?

This is the longest step. It is also the hardest.

Review centers often follow a two-phase plan, the review course, and the refresher course.

During the review course (usually the first 3 to 4 months), concentrate on understanding concepts rather that the quantity of the problems you solve.

Prioritize quality. Gain more knowledge and new techniques.

Follow a problem-solving strategy like what I did. It’s really effective.

1. List the givens.

Have you ever experience answering a problem, getting a wrong answer, searching for hours why only to realize the number you used at the start was wrong.

I did. Many times. It was frustrating.

I wanted to avoid doing this all the time. So I got into the habit of circling the givens. You can even list them if you want. This simple tasks will help you avoid the pitfall of using the wrong number.

Also, by listing them, I can compare the units of each measure if they are consistent with each other. Always work with consistent units of measure.

2. What is asked?

I remember during my early school days, we always answer this question when solving math problems. Understand what your goal is. When you know where you are headed, it becomes easier to visualize your path to get there.

Knowing the goal will help you do the next step.

3. Recall a key concept or strategy.

Will you use the quadratic formula? Should you set the calculator in radian mode? Will drawing figures help you?

4. Solve.

When writing your solution, be organized and neat. It will help you to easily track your mistakes later. Clear your thought process and think about the problem in a logical manner.

Always ask yourself why. I always believe that the correct way to solve a problem is to understand it first. Understanding the essence of a question is different from knowing how to solve it by following a strict instruction set.

Are you familiar with this kind of instruction?

1. Press mode 3-2:
2. enter the 0 and n in the x column
3. enter the first cost then the salvage value
4. press AC
5. press 7 then shift-1-5-4
6. press equals

This is the calculator technique for linear depreciation. I know I got the right answer. But I do not understand (BTW, I actually know now).

5. Evaluate Intuitively.

Do not look at the correct answer at first. Check you answer by talking to yourself internally. Ask - Does it make sense?

You have to get a feel for how should the answer look like.

For example, the problem gives you 5 pieces of paper. How many should you use to blablabla. Then you solve it and got 7 pieces. You’re confident your solution was right. But wait, I only have 5 pieces. This can’t be right!

Or when designing an isolated footing. You computed the required steel area for the reinforcement is -25.45 square mm. A negative area? Really? I must have missed something.

Make sure that your answer makes sense to you.

6. Check.

This should always be your last step when using review books. Do not look at the answers and solutions at the back of the book unless you have tried solving the problem.

Always try to learn actively. Active learning starts when you try to do it yourself. You will remember more of the things that you did yourself than passively reading what others did.

The refresher course usually starts when the exam is near (2 to 3 months before the exam). During this time. Focus on gaining experience. Mastery is your goal here. This is the phase where quantity prevails.

By now, you should have gathered a plethora of review materials. It probably consists of past board exam problems.

Write a schedule. Try to finish answering all of the past board exam problems that you have. Practice, practice practice.

It is also a good time to simulate the actual board exam conditions. Set a time when you’re reviewing. Answer 100 problems in 3 hours. The board exam is a time pressuring event. Be ready for it.

But always remember, concentrate on your weak areas. Borrowing from Einstein’s famous quote, I present you my board exam version:

When all your weak points have been addressed, whatever remains, however improbable, is passing the board exam.

Conclusion

What, where, and how.

I presented here a simple and effective plan to prepare for the board exam. But just reading what I wrote won’t guarantee a passing grade. It is your hard work and dedication that will make your dreams come true.

Goodluck! I hope I affected your journey in a good way.

Be sure to comment below. Subscribe to my blog for updates and tips on how to pass the board exam. Thanks for reading!

Usually, in order to practice your profession, you need to pass some kind of licensure exam. Like the one given in the Philippines - the Board Exam.

For fresh graduates of civil engineering, the next step is preparing for the exam. This preparation takes about 6 months. At first this seems a lot but believe me, without following a strict plan, 6 months is a very very short amount of time.

Yes, just like thousands of others, I also took the exam.

It was a nerve cracking experience, the time pressure is real. Not just on the exam itself - but the days even weeks before the exam.

But I endured. I did my best. And now I am a licensed engineer here in the Philippines.

In this post, I’m giving you a basic outline of what I did to be successful at the board exam.

Here’s a secret you should remember:

Outlined below are some of the general steps I took before the board exam. It worked for me, I hope it does for you.

Build a Study Library

The first step I did was to get all the review materials I can get my hands on.

Books, hand-outs, notes, problem collections, sample exams, and specially copies of the past exams, whatever year they may be.

I do not try to answer them at first. Just collect and categorize them.

Spend time to organize the materials that you have.

If you have copies of the pass board exams, you can list and identify the vital topics and analyze the trends as suggested by Engr. Virata (top 10)

here.

I started this step when I was still in 2nd year of college.

Collecting study materials is not a one-day event. It’s a process. It takes time to build your library. Your library should grow with you.

Preparing for the board exam does not start after you graduate. Nor it starts when the review center you enrolled on starts their classes. You decide when to do it. And starting early is key.

Schedule and Plan your Review

Time is not infinite. You don’t have 25 hours a day. You cannot even use all 24 hours. Time is a non-renewable resource. Use it wisely.

Failing to plan is planning to fail.

After categorizing the materials I gathered, I block off time slots for my review.

You don’t have to plan all 6 months of your review. You can do what I did. For 15 mins before I go to sleep, I write down the things I want to accomplish for the next day.

Focus on your Tasks

Research shows that mastery of a skill takes 10,000 hours of dedicated training. That means doing it 8 hours a day for more than 3 years.

I didn’t have 8 hours a day just for reviewing for the exam. And 3 years is not really practical for most of us.

I needed to prioritize.

Here’s a technique I did while reviewing:

List the three most important tasks of the day. Yes just three. Then do them. Get a calendar. Whenever you complete a day, put an x-mark on the date.

For example, I would:

• Answer 30 problems in Engineering Surveying
• Answer 30 problems in Engineering Mathematics
• Review my mistakes from my review session yesterday

One by one I would accomplish each of these task. It won’t matter if I finish the three tasks early. As long as I did all three then my day is complete. What ever time remains, I consider them as bonus time for other things. Or maybe an extended review session.

The goal here is to consistently do the three most important things of the day. To build a habit. To mark all calendar dates with x’s.

This is my challenge for you, how many complete-day streaks can you do?

Another important thing is to eliminate factors that diminishes your focus. One of the biggest time waster is your social media account. So here’s a pro (yeah I’m a pro now ) tip:

Deactivate your facebook account when starting to review. After the the board exam, you can reactivate and your first post should be anything along the lines of “I passed the board exam! Hooray!.” This should be one of your biggest goals during the review.

Join Study Groups and Like Minded Communities

I did not learn everything by myself. No one is an island after all.

But my friends are, err…

If you think about it, peer pressure is really hard to counter. When all your friends wants to play video games (ehem, dota)

Yeah, peer pressure.

What if I tell you it’s not all bad at all? Use it to your advantage.

When you enroll in a review center, you are placing yourself in an environment where everyone has a common goal - to pass the board exam. It is common for review centers to give regular assessment quizzes. Everyone prepares for them. Everyone wants to get a passing grade on these quizzes. Everyone around you wantsto answer all the problems. This kind of peer pressure is the good kind that you want.

Now I’m not saying enrolling in a review center is what you should do. No. That’s just one option.

Here’s another one.

Create a new facebook account.

Hey, but you said facebook is a nuisance right? You even told me to deactivate my account.

Yeah, but this is different. You will not use this new account to connect socially with others. It will be purely for educational purposes only. How’s that you say?

Use this account to exclusively join study groups. There’s a lot of review groups on facebook. There’s a group about review books. Another about calculator techniques. And there are groups which constantly post past board exam problems and their solutions.

By doing this, the only notifications and content you see on your newsfeed would be about the board exam only. You won’t get birthday invitations of your friends (you’ll miss one special day, but the board exam can define your life). You won’t be bothered by your pals looking for another player. And you won’t be attracted to endless pictures of cats, dogs, and funny videos - very effective time wasters.

Here are some of those groups, be sure to check them out:

• Civil Engineering Board Exam Problems (Philippines)
• May 2017 CE preboard exams and Lectures
• C.E PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS
• CE Problems
• Pass the Board Exam
• CE Reference
• CALculator TECHniques

This is by no means a complete guide to pass the board exam. These are just general tips. You are still the master of your fate. Goodluck future engineers!

There is no sure way to pass. But you can be sure to prepare well.

I hope everyone who reads this is able to pick up one thing or two. Share this to your friends. Let me know your comments below. Thanks for reading!