Staying on Track

 Anyone who works around large infrastructure projects understands that scheduling is a fiction. Why is that? Unrealistic expectations and poor planning, I must say. 

Past results indicate that for the Professional Engineering exam, 300 study hours, or 200 quality study hours, are recommended to pass the exam. For most examinees, that amounts to two hours per day from the time they are authorized to test.  Realistic to ally, one preemptively cancels out major holidays, and other known events . Taking this measure makes the schedule more robust, and approachable for adherence. Myself, yes, unexpected things pop up, like an evening plumbing repair or a real estate meet-up. But I am aware of my study plans, and make sure to catch up as soon an as possible. Written on a scheduled skip day for Halloween. 

Addressing Elephants in the Room

 When starting a new endeavor, I like to go into it with a clear a mind as possible, Which means tying off loose ends of unfinished tasks. One of these is the sustainability of my neighborhood payphone (as written  in a blog post on Oct. 31, 2020). It's not a growth industry, and I looked at options ranging from microgrants to forming an endowment consisting of telecom stocks. The solution came to me in the form of a different coin-operated machine: I could buy into an equity share in a local and established car vacuum business. The return on investment would support the phone operation. In fact, the vacuum business had started as a payphone operation, and according to records, he still maintains a couple of phones in his hometown.

The second loose end was the phone bill. For the past year, my neighborhood payphone  was treated as a general business line instead of a payphone. My local service provider has 132,000 employees, and finding the responsible party was like finding a needle in a haystack. In the past decade, its coin-operated telephone division has moved long distances. Now it is no longer an office of its own, but a group email address. It was in Bloomington, Illinois; a part of the country where state governments have sought to maintain payphone service; then in Garden City, New York, a suburb of New York City, home to 1 out of 5 payphones in the USA. Finally, the "department" found a home in Silver Spring, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, DC, where federal telecommunication regulations are made. Once I found my point of contact, my service issues were resolved quickly. 

Of course, I have other "want to do" and even a few "need to do items". But I do feel that the pressure has lightened. 

Approved to Test

 "Who knows when thou mayest be tested? So live that thou bearest the strain!"

From "The Laws of the Navy", by Rear Admiral Hopwood

I've been through the routine of large exams: US Coast Guard Marine Engineer Licensing, twice, National Registry for Emergency Medical Technicians, and the NCEES' own Fundamentals of Engineering. Now, it's time for the Professional Engineering exam. 

In contrast to school exams, predictably scheduled,  professional exams occur based on the ebbs and flows of work experience, completion of prerequisites such as career training, and by the individual's own volition. So there is a general sense of when things will come together, but the "statutory" readiness occurs when it does. As for the individual readiness of studying, it's good to be prepared ahead of time, but to prevent knowledge attrition, the six-month period before the exam is critical. 

Which brings me to the point of scheduling the exam. Exams for certain desirable positions, such as high-end firefighting and ship's harbor pilots, only test twice a decade. More commonly, they might be twice-annually, as the Professional Engineering exams used to be. So you would typically schedule for the next exam available. And when there is flexible, daily test availability? Just schedule it and hold yourself to that date.