SE Exam Reference material

[eit09]

I plan on taking the SE Exam in October and looking for advice on study materials as I will be choosing the buildings modules. PPI has ton of reference materials see list below of just some references available.
I am looking for advice on study/reference materials.

1.Structural Engineering Reference Manual (STRM8)
2.16-Hour Structural Engineering (SE) Practice Exam for Buildings (STBDPX3)
3.Structural Engineering Solved Problems (SEPPM5)
4.Six-Minute Solutions for Structural Engineering (SE) Exam Morning Breadth Problems
5.NCEES Structural Engineering Practice Exam (NCPSE6)
6.CodeMaster - Seismic Design Category (SDIA12)
7.CodeMaster - Allowable Stress Design for Masonry (ASDCM12)
8.CodeMaster - Structural Wood Design ASD/LRFD (SWD12)
9.Seismic Design of Building Structures: (SEIS11)
10.Concrete Design for the Civil PE and Structural SE Exams (CSCO2)
11.Steel Design for the Civil PE and Structural SE Exams, 2nd Edition (CSSL2)
12.Timber Design for the Civil and Structural PE Exams, 7th Edition (CSTB7)

 

[WiSEiwish]

I thought that practice exams were very helpful. Get them all and do them all.
Get to know ASCE 7 very well. Spend a lot of time getting to know seismic and wind then spend some more.
I had the STRM and thought it was very helpful. Work through the example problems. Make sure you are understanding things rather than just completing the problem.
Outside of that I found that the NEHRP technical briefs were very helpful. They had a lot of illustrations which worked very well for me.
I went into depth in ACI 318 and illustrated as much as I could of the seismic chapter and I that worked out well for me.

You will obviously need the required codes/standards.

 

[Archie264]

What is the "STRM"?

 

[sforesman]

Get the three volumes of SEAOC examples. These will be your afternoon lateral problems!

 

[WiSEiwish]

STRM = structural engineering reference manual. I prefer the SERM acronym personally!

 

[Archie264]

Ah, ok, thanks.

 

[eit09]

@ sforesman,
There are 5 volumes I am guessing your refferencing 3,4, &5 see below?

Volume 1: Code Application Examples
Volume 2: Building Design Examples for Light-Frame, Tilt-up and Masonry
Volume 3: Examples for Concrete Buildings
Volume 4: Examples for Steel-Framed Buildings
Volume 5: Examples for Seismically Isolated Buildings and Buildings with Supplemental Damping

 

[Guastavino]

Get "The analysis of irregular shaped structures" by Terry Malone. If you can master the basics of it you'll have a great, great, handle on how lateral forces work through a building. It goes well beyond the SE exam too. It's hands down the best book I have in terms of how good the examples are.

Also, you'll see this in working through sample exams, but study the fine print of the codes. The SE exam likes to test you on whether or not you read the fine print. Best example is that there was a formula in the Supplement 2 of ASCE 7-05 that controlled a seismic question. At the time I was studying I didn't even know the supplement existed. That's an extreme example, but nonetheless shows what they are known to do.

 

[WiSEiwish]

njlutzwe is spot on with regards to the fine print. I remember doing an example problem prior to taking the test that I was sure I did correctly, but for some reason I kept getting the wrong answer. Lo and behold Cs,min = 0.044SDS >= 0.01 which was from Supplement 2.

 

[sforesman]

Whoops, I'm familiar with the SEAOC 2009 version where there were three volumes, I guess they've expanded.

 

[Archie264]

These types of things never constrict, they only expand. It takes a good structural engineer to design the bookshelves to hold them.