Updated January 4, 2023

The 16-hour format of the Structural Engineering exam was introduced in April 2011. Beginning in October of that year, I started recording the pass rates after each exam administration. The information provided here was obtained directly from NCEES unless otherwise noted. I’ve also developed a “Difficulty Rank” metric in an attempt to quantify how difficult each exam was relative to every other administration of the exam since 2011 (a rank of 1 = hardest exam since 2011 relative to every other exam listed in the table).

This table is updated twice a year in January and June.

If you have data you’d like to share with me so that I can include it here, please get in touch via email.

Historical SE Exam Pass Rates and Relative Exam Difficulty

Date	SE Vertical Forces (First Time / Repeat)	SE Lateral Forces (First Time / Repeat)	Vertical Difficulty Rank	Lateral Difficulty Rank	Overall Difficulty Rank
10/2011	47% / 30%	35% / 25%	T13	7	10
4/2012	45% / 34%	46% / 40%	15	22	21
10/2012	43% / 30%	25% / 16%	11	1	2
4/2013	52% / 34%	41% / 42%	20	21	24
10/2013	50% / 34%	38% / 43%	18	20	22
4/2014	45% / 26%	43% / 37%	10	19	18
10/2014	41% / 24%	40% / 31%	6	16	9
4/2015	53% / 34%1	43% / 32%	22	18	19
10/2015	58% / 42%	35% / 28%	24	T11	20
4/2016	49% / 31%	50% / 37%	T16	T23	23
10/2016	45% / 23%	38% / 29%	8	14	8
4/2017	51% / 25%	38% / 25%	23	T2	11
10/2017	48% / 37%	31% / 28%	19	6	14
4/2018	40% / 18%	29% / 19%	4	T2	1
10/2018	36% / 21%	36% / 38%	3	17	7
4/2019	46% / 34%	39% / 26%	T16	13	15
10/2019	42% / 18%	33% / 28%	5	9	6
4/2020	NO	EXAM	-	NO	EXAM
10/2020	45% / 32%	33% / 29%	T13	10	13
4/2021	44% / 31%	39% / 31%	12	15	16
10/2021	40% / 29%	24% / 27%	9	4	T4
4/2022	36% / 30%	28% / 26%	7	5	T4
10/2022	47% / 40%	30% / 33%	21	T11	17
4/2023	34% / 21%	31% / 30%	2	8	3
10/2023	26% / 25%	39% / 48%	1	T23	11

Mean	44% / 30%	35% / 31%
Std. Dev.	6.9% / 6.7%	6.8% / 7.6%

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