Question on classes to take for PE Exam. Testmasters, PPI, or School of PE.

[oengineer]

I have been approved to take the PE Exam in October and I plan on taking a class to prepare. What class is the most helpful: PPI, Testmasters, or School of PE. I plan on taking the Civil: Structural Exam. I am open to any tip, suggestions, and/or advice.

 

[TehMightyEngineer]

I teach 1/2 of PPI's SE course so I know their process, though I don't have much experience with their PE courses I'd recommend them if you want to develop a thorough baseline of the theory. Not as heavy on the sample problems so you'll want to do a lot of that on your own. I'd recommend this course if you're comfortable with the material but want a rigid schedule, a course to fill in any knowledge gaps, or need to refresh your knowledge on areas often unused in your practice. I wouldn't recommend it if you have to learn a lot of the material from scratch.

I've heard a number of good things about School of PE but don't have any personal experience. Probably similar to the PPI course, I'd go with whatever you feel fits you best.

I've seen more negative than positive comments about Testmasters. Again, no personal experience.

Professional and Structural Engineer (ME, NH, MA)
American Concrete Industries

http://www.americanconcrete.com

 

[SLTA]

I took civil/structural and I did the School of PE course. It was fabulous for the civil part but not so great on the structural part. But, I went in totally ready and passed, so there you go.

Please remember: we're not all guys!

 

[HamburgerHelper]

The electrical Testmasters binder is ridiculous. They pack pack too much into it for how complex the problems are. The most amount of time I spent on one problem was maybe 15 minutes and that was just digging through a code book. The electrical PPI PE prep book is the same way. Too much stuff for the amount of time you have on the exam.

 

[structSU10]

Personally I felt the PE was rather straight forward. I did 2-3 booklets of practice problems, and tagged my code books and the CERM and that was more than enough. The NCEES practice test and the CERM were the most important things for the morning session. If you feel a class would be helpful, go for it, but if you are a good test taker and know your way around the references I don't see a need to spend the time and money on them.

 

[spieng89]

I second structSU10 comments. If you can structure your studying by yourself then no need for the class for the PE at least. SE may be a different story. I used the CERM and did almost every practice problem in the book, but took note at problems that were taking me more than approx 6-8 minutes and skipped those all together as time went on since those problems most likely wouldn't be asked. Getting the companion practice problem booklet to the CERM was helpful as well. I usually did the first 10 problems of each section as after problem 10 the difficulty of the problems was not relate-able to actual test questions. The six minute solution booklet was helpful as well for afternoon section. Again take note of problem length and practice according to what will most likely be on test. Long story short study concisely and smart not hard and laboriously and you'll be better prepared and can retain more.

 

[oengineer]

Thank you all for your input. I plan on studying on my own as well but I would like to take a class. Also I have been told to buy the Civil Engineering Reference Manual for the PE Exam, Print (Hardcover), 15th Edition to study. Are there any other books recommended to prepare for the PE examm? Has anyone used the Practice exams on the NCEES website?

 

[structSU10]

A good representation for the morning section I found was Mike's Civil PE exam guide. The questions were in line with what NCEES provided. It is outdated, but give more realistic practice problems more in line with the actual exam. I also used the NCEES practice exam.

I took both of these practice test a few times. The first time through I completely skipped ones I didn't know how to do, made note of those, and studied based on what I didn't know. Then I did it again, saw how I did, and focused on what I got wrong. Then I took it to see how fast I could go, doing all the problems. For me it reinforced which problems I knew I could do in my sleep, and got me comfortable with the stuff I was rusty on. I quickly realized the majority of them rely on how well you can get to the appropriate place in reference material and churn through the right equations.

The plus with both of these is they have the answers completely worked out, so if you make a mistake you can see what you did wrong in a step by step way.