PE Civil Structural Exam Study Advice 9

[Struct_Dre]

Hello All!

I am preparing to take the PE Civil Structural exam for the first time in October 2021. Please reply with what each of you used to study and pass the exam. I have found a lot of engineers who recommend the CERM book and NCEES Civil Structural Practice Exam book. I have also seen others who benefitted from taking online courses, School of PE for example. I would like to try the School of PE course, but it is very expensive (about $1,900!). Any tips, tricks, or advice is welcome!

I am a bit nervous and I would like to avoid unnecessarily spending heaps of money. If any of you studied on your own, what books did you use to practice and how long did you study before taking the test?

 

[Rabbit12]

I studied on my own with a couple practice exam books. I think one was the Civil Engineering Reference Manual but it's been long enough I don't really remember. The PE is not the most rigorous test. IMO if you have a job where you are exposed to a wide range of construction types (wood, CMU, steel, and concrete) your daily work goes a long way toward preparing you for the PE.

One thing I will say is know your codes (IBC, ASCE7, AISC 360, etc.) and have them tabbed so you can efficiently find sections.

 

[StrucDesignPE]

I am going to take the Civil PE Structural in April of this year. I just received my application approval from my state board last week. I have just signed up for the EET Civil breadth and structural depth on-demand courses. I expect to receive their study material soon, but it was given high marks from folks on the engineerboards.com forum and other places. I will let you know what I think of it after I get through some of the coursework and webinars.

 

[Struct_Dre]

Thanks so much! @StructDesignEIT I look forward to it!

@Rabbit12 Thanks for the advice. when you say the PE is not the most rigorous test, what do you mean? Did you find any of it difficult??

 

[dauwerda]

The SE 16 hour exam is much more rigorous.

 

[strucbells]

I took and passed it a few years back. I just did self-study, but it depends on your habits and learning style. Courses are a lot more expensive but maybe your company will cover or partially cover the costs. I did practice exams using the CERM and the various codes as a reference. The CERM is pretty good for covering the breadth section.

The NCEES practice tests are good. I found the PE Prepared books are reasonably close in difficulty to the exam. The Goswami practice exams seemed harder than the actual exam for me.

Know what your strengths and weaknesses are. For the depth section I had no AASHTO knowledge and limited masonry so just made an educated guess without spending much time on those few problems and focused on the rest.

The test overall isn't too hard if you're reasonably prepared. Just don't panic if you get some curveballs. I was expecting to ace the breadth section based on my study preparation and got a few weird questions in one category that had never come up in my prep. Don't waste time on things that you have no idea how to attack. There's plenty of free points for lookup questions if you know where to look.

 

[dold]

+1 to what strucbells said. It depends on your learning style.

Take the NCEES practice exam. Ask around your office for any practice exam books from a year or two in the past also. Treat it as if you were actually taking the exam. Flag problems that you struggle with and go back later to study them. Dont waste time trying to 'figure out a way to solve it' - that is what you do when youve completed the rest of the exam. I think I spent about 20 hours total studying - running through practice exams and then reworking parts where needed. But at that time I had been working at a structural firm for 4 years - which is far more valuable than any study material.

I wouldn't bother with any of the courses or any of the expensive study material unless you find that youre struggling with the practice exams. The study material is generally much more difficult that what you'll see on the exam. My theory is that PPI (or whomever is peddling this stuff) likes to psych people out and get them to buy more and more material because they struggle with the high bar set by PPI, et. al., whereas in reality the exam is not quite as difficult.

When I took the PE exam a few years ago I had the following materials: CERM (I'd recommend tabbing the INDEX of this book by alphabet. The index is like 200 pages long. It was a huge help), SERM, ASCE 7, IBC, AISC360, ACI318. That's pretty much all had with me and I passed. I took the huge AASHTO binder, but there was one AASTO question and I didn't even know where to look in the book.

Another important item is to pay close attention to what the questions are asking. Sometimes they'll give you a lot of info that has nothing to do with the question, just to throw you off (also an important skill in your career - learn to filter out the useless info).

 

[phamENG]

I used the ASCE study course. It wasn't cheap, and I was a bit disappointed in the physical materials (there were none - just power point slides I had to print off and bind), but it was good prep overall. A couple of the presenters were academics and seemed to forget they were teaching a professional test prep course and not a sophomore college course every once in a while, but nearly all of them had written the exam in the preceding 5 years.

My method of study probably isn't great for most people - I relied on my daily work for a large part of my test prep (I do a wide variety of design) and then crammed recorded sessions from my course in the two weeks leading up to the exam. There were only 2 questions on the test that I wasn't certain about.

As far as the price goes, it was more than worth it. Without that material and the insights from the instructors, I probably would have had a tough time moving through the exam material as quickly and as efficiently as I did. I received a pay raise the day the exam results were released that covered the cost of the course in about 5 weeks. So don't think of it as an expense - think of it as an investment in your future earning potential. Talk it over with your employer. If there is a significant advantage to having another license in the office, they may be willing to pay for the exam or at least for part of it.

 

[Rabbit12]

Struct_Dre, if I'm being completely honest like Dauwerda said the 16 hour SE is very rigorous...it's very difficult. I just didn't find the PE difficult. I think I guessed on two questions in the AM which were both hydraulics questions that I hadn't had any experience since college. In the afternoon I was pretty confident I knew how to attack every question.

This is my experience and I don't mean to minimize the test at all because there are people that struggle with it. I think the people that struggle either are bad (nerves, anxiety, etc) at taking tests, have limited knowledge/design experience in more than 1 of the main construction types, or poor mentorship. I was fortunate that my first job out of college I worked for a firm where I designed structures using all the major construction types and had a handful of mentors w/ 20-30 years experience. That was hands down the best preparation I had. I could see an engineer that only does timber really struggling.

I still think the most important part is to know the layout of the codes. There will be opportunities for lookup type answers if you can find the correct code section.

 

[CrabbyT]

Aside from all the well-known tips, my advice is to get a container and pack all your books ASAP. I found myself scrambling the night before to load everything into my tote, and it took substantially longer than what I'd hoped. It led to a lot of undue stress, and I think I only had (3) hours of sleep going into the test.

Also, be sure to drink a lot of water in the weeks leading up to the test. After the morning session, I got such a bad hand cramp that I wasn't able to physically grab my pencil. I ended up using my left hand for a while, and I legitimately thought I was going to be unable to finish the test. It went away after like... 15 minutes.

Other than that, be aware that the non-NCEES practice tests are generally a lot more difficult than the actual test. I was very discouraged when I started going through the problems, but then I tried the NCEES practice test and it was not nearly as tough.

Tab your books, familiarize yourself with the index, and know how to find info. At the very least, you should familiarize yourself with the names of the chapters in each book. If you see a question relating to codes, you should look it up even if you think you know the answer. I had a trick question on mine that I would've missed if I would've just assumed I knew what I was talking about.

 

[cvg]

verify ahead of time which version of codes are required for the test. study the correct version. bringing the wrong version is not recommended and not allowed. it isn't always the most recent

 

[Struct_Dre]

Woah! Thanks for the feedback! @cvg I didn't know this and I'm happy you told me b/c I would've purchased the newest codes.

 

[North2South]

My recommendation is to print out the NCEES exam specification. Use the CERM to study the items specifically listed in the specification. You can waste a lot of time trying to study everything in the CERM. Other than the CERM I only had the design codes and that was all I needed.

I had a printed index of the CERM I binded separately. I printed the NCEES exam specification and wrote what sections of the CERM had information related to the spec item. That way when I got a question on whatever the subject was I knew where to look.

IMO a study course is not necessary. Nights and a couple of weekends of diligent studying should be all you need.

Again, study the spec. For the breadth section, I knew what section of the CERM to look at for every question I had.

The NCEES practice exam is the best practice exam.

 

[JoelTXCive]

verify ahead of time which version of codes are required for the test. study the correct version. bringing the wrong version is not recommended and not allowed. it isn't always the most recent

I agree with CVG's comment EXCEPT for the PCI Design Handbook. The PCI Institute wants $500 for the 8th edition. It is total highway robbery in my opinion.

You can get a used 7th edition or 6th edition for less than half that if you start checking now on Amazon & Ebay.

At most, there will be 2 afternoon exam questions on that might use this reference (I only had 1 question on my exam). Odds are, the older editions will have the answer to 1 of the questions.

If you are tight on funds, then this book is a place to save.

Like others, I highly recommend the CERM manual. There is a soil phase diagram table in there that is worth the whole purchase price. It has all the phase diagram equations in 1 spot (void ratio, soil saturation, etc...)

 

[Landon Bell]

Thank you for such valuable information. I was looking for a long time detailed explanation. Really appreciate your reply!

 

[DrZoidberWoop]

Study ASCE 7 and CERM thoroughly. Your book should look like a tab forest by the time you're done, like mine lol. Then create a topic-based index so you can find relevant sections quickly. I've attached the one I made for the exam in 2017.

 

[AaronMcD]

I know this isn't the newest thread, but still

I used the CERM and a couple practice tests. The CERM is too much to go through. I went through the practice tests and made sure to learn how to do everything in them. Maybe a bit of extra study on topics that I had no clue how to do. I didn't get hung up on every topic. For instance - I don't work with masonry, no one I know works with masonry, we don't like masonry in California, and no one has the masonry code. I completely ignored CMU design. It would have taken too much time from other stuff that I COULD learn. I went through the test, got all 2 CMU questions wrong and a couple others, passed just fine.

There will 100% be questions that are impossible to answer without the internet or prior very specific knowledge. Skip em. Come back and spend time on an educated guess at the end.

Honestly I think I spent more time figuring out all the complicated rules and hoops to jump through to take the test than I did studying lol!

Oh and also I have the CERM printed out in a binder but haven't cracked it since the test. If someone wants it for the cost of shipping let me know.

http://www.hellodwell.design

 

[AaronMcD]

Oh and while I did not study the CERM fully, I DID make damn sure I knew exactly where everything was and major sections tabbed. I've never been a "tabber" but I think it's worth it for this.

http://www.hellodwell.design