Updated January 5, 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 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).

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%	T11	7	9
4/2012	45% / 34%	46% / 40%	13	21	19
10/2012	43% / 30%	25% / 16%	9	1	2
4/2013	52% / 34%	41% / 42%	18	20	22
10/2013	50% / 34%	38% / 43%	16	19	20
4/2014	45% / 26%	43% / 37%	8	18	16
10/2014	41% / 24%	40% / 31%	4	15	8
4/2015	53% / 34%1	43% / 32%	20	17	17
10/2015	58% / 42%	35% / 28%	22	T10	18
4/2016	49% / 31%	50% / 37%	T14	22	21
10/2016	45% / 23%	38% / 29%	6	13	7
4/2017	51% / 25%	38% / 25%	21	T2	10
10/2017	48% / 37%	31% / 28%	17	6	12
4/2018	40% / 18%	29% / 19%	2	T2	1
10/2018	36% / 21%	36% / 38%	1	16	6
4/2019	46% / 34%	39% / 26%	T14	12	13
10/2019	42% / 18%	33% / 28%	3	8	5
4/2020	NO	EXAM	-	NO	EXAM
10/2020	45% / 32%	33% / 29%	T11	9	11
4/2021	44% / 31%	39% / 31%	10	14	14
10/2021	40% / 29%	24% / 27%	7	4	T3
4/2022	36% / 30%	28% / 26%	5	5	T3
10/2022	47% / 40%	30% / 33%	19	T10	15

Mean	46% / 31%	36% / 30%
Std. Dev.	5.4% / 6.6%	7.0% / 7.0%

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