SE Study Planner
A Tool To Help You Create an Actionable, Accurate, and Flexible Study Plan
From the desk of Andy Lin, S.E —
Founder of Structural Engineer HQ
July, 2013 — We were on the plane, flying back to LA from Turks and Caicos, where my wife Razan and I had just spent a week celebrating our one-year anniversary.
It was a beautiful place and we had quite an incredible time.
We went horseback riding in the water, snorkeling in the clear ocean, driving on the left side of the road, and just relaxing and getting suntanned on the beach — surrounded by pure white sand.
It was a paradise, except… that the SE exam was coming up in a few months and I couldn’t worrying about it even while I was on vacation.
Colleagues had warned me that studying for the SE was going to be VERY time-consuming; but I just couldn’t find the motivation to get started earlier.
And for some reason, procrastination and not studying actually made me feel…guilty.
Guilty that I was out having fun … and not trying to advance my career.
Guilty that I had spent over a thousand dollars on the exam plus the study materials… but wasn’t doing anything to prevent the money from going to waste.
And the reason I was feeling this way, was because I did not have a plan.
Most of us have spent the first twenty-some years of our lives perfecting our test-taking and studying skills… but mostly for tests that didn’t require spending more than a few dozen hours of studying.
SE or PE exams however, consistently require a couple hundred hours of studying due to the wide range of topics they cover.
No wonder that the passing rate for the 16-hour SE has been hovering around 20% to 50% since 2011… no one had ever taught us how to plan for such a monster exam — which is part of the reason that half of us have been failing miserably.
If you remember from the email I sent you, I had only 66-days left to study by the time I got around to it… and out of the 9 weekends within that time-frame, I was busy with 3 of them.
Going to a birthday gathering for my really good friend in Palm Springs and going to a wedding in Catalina were definitely going to be lots of fun — but this time, I wanted to feel guilt-free and not have the thought of SE exam in the back of my mind.
And having a thorough plan, definitely helped me put my mind at ease.
Knowing that I would be able to finish all of the study materials before the exam allowed me to free-up my mind and not think about it whenever I was not studying.
And now, you can do it too.
Introducing the SE Study Planner
A Tool To Help You Create an Actionable, Accurate, and Flexible Study Plan“I like the overall presentation and the customization options for the schedule.
I think the Planner will help me stay focused studying for the lateral exam.
I had actually started a tracking log spreadsheet of my own but I didn’t try to project my studying rate and see if I would have time to finish. That’s the nice thing about the SE Planner.”
“I bought your study planner yesterday and this will definitely help!!
I’m excited to start back and put it to use!”
“Once I had everything in, it gave me a much clearer perspective on how much material there was to study and how much time there was to go through it all.
This was the aspect that I liked the most and that helped me the most. Seeing the amount of work I had left kept me focused on trying to maximize how much time I spent on day to day studying.”
“I am confident that with study planner I will hit my target study window with perfect timing.
Thanks for your interest and effort in putting this great tool together and sharing.”
Watch How Easy It Is To Create A Plan That You Can Actually Stick To
Yup, that took less than 3 minutes. And now you know whether you’ll be able to finish your study before the exam, as well as what you have to do each and every day (instead of spinning your wheels every time you sit down to study).
SE Study Planner Features
Flexible Availability
The schedule is based on your actual availability and can easily be modified when unforeseeable events occur
Flexible Study Materials
You can edit and choose your own study materials - even include sessions from your review course
Defined Tasks
Once set up, you won't ever have to spin your wheels trying to figure out what to study next
Track Progress
Progress meter helps you see that you are actually getting things done
Study Speed Modifier
The speed factor is a changeable variable - the faster you can absorb new information means the shorter your required study time
Fudge Factor
By default, each study session is rounded up to the nearest 0.5 hours -- entering a higher number allows you to be more conservative and vice versa
Realistic Projection
A plan based your unique situation means that the Planner can actually project an accurate "end date" of your study
“I used SE Study Planner to help provide an accurate and flexible study schedule that enabled me to meet my studying goals.
It was instrumental in helping me prepare for the SE exam and I would highly recommend SE Study Planner to every single person taking the SE exam to maximize the effectiveness of their studying schedule.”
Here's What You Get If You Purchase Today
After purchase, you will immediately receive a link to download the SE Study Planner Premium Spreadsheet.
You will also get 3 short “Quick-Start Guide” PDFs that can get you started in no time.
Who is this for?
If you would like to study with a strategic plan rather than spontaneously study whenever you can — this is for you.
Also, if you are taking the exam “soon” (ie. in a couple of months), this one may be your best option.
“And There’s More!”– Two Free Bonuses
Bonus #1: AASHTO Tabs For the SE Exam
($20 value)
This is a PDF document where I show you exactly which sections of the AASHTO that you absolutely need to insert tabs for future quick references.
This is especially useful for building engineers since we rarely deal with the bridge code — having the important sections tabbed will save you a lot of time on questions related to bridges.
Also, since roughly 10% to 20% of the SE exam morning sessions will be bridge questions, having these critical sections tabbed, you will up your chances of passing the exam.
Bonus #2: Checkpoint Technique Video
($29 value)
From talking to a number of past exam takers, I found out that one of the top reasons engineers fail their exams was because they ran out of time.
So to help with that, I created an instructional video where I demonstrate a technique that you can use to significantly reduce your chances of “running out of time” during the multiple-choice portion of the exam.
This technique can be applied to both the PE and the SE.
SE Study Planner Worked For “Non-Engineers” As Well
“…It was only when I discovered The Study Planner, I was able to actually organize all the study material for the exam and develop a study schedule that worked for the first time.
With The Study Planner, I was able to customize my study time and priorities based on my work and life responsibilities. …I found myself being able to organize and manage my time more efficiently almost instantaneously after using The Study Planner.”
“…life happens and some days I just did not feel like studying the full amount of hours I was supposed to or things came up with friends and family that I had to make a decision if I was going to have fun or study.
Having the planner made these decisions a bit easier because I was able to track my progress and can tell if I was “able to afford” half a day of fun or not, and then make up that amount of studying by adding extra hours or so of studying for the following week.
Also, the other aspect that I truly appreciated was the guilt free feeling I had when I was done studying for the day and had time to have fun! In the pre-planner studying days, I constantly felt that I needed to keep on studying and fun time was not allowed till after the exam.”
Questions?
Feel free to let me know.