My PE License Day

It was July 16, 2020, my PE license was issued. July 11th, I attempted the PE exam and passed it. This is a significant event in my life, maybe not as significant as the birth of my child but still a big one.

There was a lot of uncertainty surrounding my Amplified Records containing the 4 years of work experience. Whether I can attempt the PE test depended on the approval of my Amplified Records by the occupational licensing board within Pennsylvania Department of State. The Board has a reputation of rejecting the Amplified Records to people who submitted from my office previously on the grounds that the work experiences submitted were not enough engineering. Mine was approved in February 2019 and I was cleared to take the test. 

Then came the preparation time. Since many concepts in the environmental engineering field were new to me, I needed extra time to prepare. I also wanted to learn the materials not just study for an exam. I stared preparing to take the test in August 2019.

Then came the news of our baby in March of last year. The baby would be due in October of the same year. I got excited about the baby and started thinking about it. I probably spent more time searching for baby names than actually studied for the exam. I realized I was not spending enough time studying and it’d better to take the exam the next year. Let’s get the baby first. I rescheduled the exam for April 2020.

After the baby arrived in October, I started to invest a little bit of time everyday in studying for the exam again with a goal for the exam in April.

Then came the Coronavirus pandemic. From mid March, the Pearson test centers closed in response to the widespread infections. I was told to reschedule the exam in April for any date later.

I rescheduled the exam for July 11th. By mid April Pearson like other businesses stared to reopen with social distancing and other recommended health precautions in place. Rescheduling the exam twice gave me ample time to prepare. By the end of June, Coronavirus had killed more than hundred thousand people and infected more than a million in the US, and it was scary to go to the test center.

At last, the day came. I went to the exam on July 11th. I wore a mask the whole 8 hours which was a bit uncomfortable. I felt good about majority of the 80 problems on the exam and had no clue about a few.

On July 15 I found out that I passed the exam. A sigh of relief and excitement at last. A special dinner was cooked at home, and my wife bought some flowers, a congratulatory balloon and a cake to celebrate.