Six-Minute Solutions

I'm sure this topic has been brought up, but I couldn't find anything recent. How helpful are the Six-Minute Solutions for the disciplines? I have the Goswani All-In-One and the Lindeburg books (Sample Exam, Sample Questions & Answers, etc). Is it worth it to get the Six-Minute Solutions too, besides the fact that it you get an different set of problems to work? Did anyone find them very helpful for before and during the exam?

LA07 said:

I'm sure this topic has been brought up, but I couldn't find anything recent. How helpful are the Six-Minute Solutions for the disciplines? I have the Goswani All-In-One and the Lindeburg books (Sample Exam, Sample Questions & Answers, etc). Is it worth it to get the Six-Minute Solutions too, besides the fact that it you get an different set of problems to work? Did anyone find them very helpful for before and during the exam?

Click to expand...

I guess it would depend on which discipline you take in the afternoon.

I selected Geotechnical in the afternoon and used the the Six Minute Solutions book, I thought it helped. Especially learning concepts better, I did most of the problems. I tried to answer the problems using the CERM as a reference, sometimes other references such as Foundation Engineering by Das, were needed to answer some questions, where the CERM was vague.

This helped me know where things were in the CERM. I also used Lindeburgs PE sample exam and the NCEES 2008 sample exams, they were very helpful.

Badger said:

LA07 said:

I'm sure this topic has been brought up, but I couldn't find anything recent. How helpful are the Six-Minute Solutions for the disciplines? I have the Goswani All-In-One and the Lindeburg books (Sample Exam, Sample Questions & Answers, etc). Is it worth it to get the Six-Minute Solutions too, besides the fact that it you get an different set of problems to work? Did anyone find them very helpful for before and during the exam?

Click to expand...

I guess it would depend on which discipline you take in the afternoon.

I selected Geotechnical in the afternoon and used the the Six Minute Solutions book, I thought it helped. Especially learning concepts better, I did most of the problems. I tried to answer the problems using the CERM as a reference, sometimes other references such as Foundation Engineering by Das, were needed to answer some questions, where the CERM was vague.

This helped me know where things were in the CERM. I also used Lindeburgs PE sample exam and the NCEES 2008 sample exams, they were very helpful.

Click to expand...

If you planning to take Geotechnical as your depth, I will also recommend the book "Principles of Geotechnical Engineering" by Braja Das as well as the references that Badger is mentioning above. I'm taking the test on April again and I'm studying this book, so far I can tell you that you will find basic concepts explained in a very undestanding form. This will help you 100% for the morning section and maybe 50% for the afternoon. So, I will say that this book is a must have in your references. For deep foundation you will need other references and also experience in this field.

chess5329 said:

Badger said:

LA07 said:

I'm sure this topic has been brought up, but I couldn't find anything recent. How helpful are the Six-Minute Solutions for the disciplines? I have the Goswani All-In-One and the Lindeburg books (Sample Exam, Sample Questions & Answers, etc). Is it worth it to get the Six-Minute Solutions too, besides the fact that it you get an different set of problems to work? Did anyone find them very helpful for before and during the exam?

Click to expand...

I guess it would depend on which discipline you take in the afternoon.

I selected Geotechnical in the afternoon and used the the Six Minute Solutions book, I thought it helped. Especially learning concepts better, I did most of the problems. I tried to answer the problems using the CERM as a reference, sometimes other references such as Foundation Engineering by Das, were needed to answer some questions, where the CERM was vague.

This helped me know where things were in the CERM. I also used Lindeburgs PE sample exam and the NCEES 2008 sample exams, they were very helpful.

Click to expand...

If you planning to take Geotechnical as your depth, I will also recommend the book "Principles of Geotechnical Engineering" by Braja Das as well as the references that Badger is mentioning above. I'm taking the test on April again and I'm studying this book, so far I can tell you that you will find basic concepts explained in a very undestanding form. This will help you 100% for the morning section and maybe 50% for the afternoon. So, I will say that this book is a must have in your references. For deep foundation you will need other references and also experience in this field.

Click to expand...

I plan to take the Transportation Depth, so I may at least get the Six-Minute Solutions for that discipline just to have the extra problems to work. Badger, from your experience, do you think the Six-Min. solutions for Geotech would be worth getting just for help on the morning questions? Or would the sample exams from Lindeberg and NCEES be enough since it sounds like the Six-Min. Solutions are more in depth than what the morning would ask. The same for Structural, Transportation, and Water Resources, if you could have, would you have gotten all of them or are the Lindeberg and NCEES problems enough for the morning?

Thanks

The Six-Minute solution books are a bit of a double-edge sword. For the breadth problems, they're spot on as to what one would expect in the morning exam. For the depth problems, they can be a bit overwhelming and sometimes too much of what you would be asked on the exam. That being said, I recommend purchasing at least one of them, or share with someone who may be taking a different depth since it's better to over-study and pass than the alternative.

Good luck!

sac_engineer said:

The Six-Minute solution books are a bit of a double-edge sword. For the breadth problems, they're spot on as to what one would expect in the morning exam. For the depth problems, they can be a bit overwhelming and sometimes too much of what you would be asked on the exam. That being said, I recommend purchasing at least one of them, or share with someone who may be taking a different depth since it's better to over-study and pass than the alternative.
Good luck!

Click to expand...

I felt the same way about the Water Resources Six Minute Solutions. Seem a little over kill compared to the actual exam.

mattbail said:

I felt the same way about the Water Resources Six Minute Solutions. Seem a little over kill compared to the actual exam.

Click to expand...

Oh, the Water resources 6 minute book has several examples of uber-theoretical and obtuse problems that have zero probability of being on the PE exam. I agree, that book is not very representative.

LA07 said:

chess5329 said:

Badger said:

LA07 said:

I'm sure this topic has been brought up, but I couldn't find anything recent. How helpful are the Six-Minute Solutions for the disciplines? I have the Goswani All-In-One and the Lindeburg books (Sample Exam, Sample Questions & Answers, etc). Is it worth it to get the Six-Minute Solutions too, besides the fact that it you get an different set of problems to work? Did anyone find them very helpful for before and during the exam?

Click to expand...

I guess it would depend on which discipline you take in the afternoon.

I selected Geotechnical in the afternoon and used the the Six Minute Solutions book, I thought it helped. Especially learning concepts better, I did most of the problems. I tried to answer the problems using the CERM as a reference, sometimes other references such as Foundation Engineering by Das, were needed to answer some questions, where the CERM was vague.

This helped me know where things were in the CERM. I also used Lindeburgs PE sample exam and the NCEES 2008 sample exams, they were very helpful.

Click to expand...

If you planning to take Geotechnical as your depth, I will also recommend the book "Principles of Geotechnical Engineering" by Braja Das as well as the references that Badger is mentioning above. I'm taking the test on April again and I'm studying this book, so far I can tell you that you will find basic concepts explained in a very undestanding form. This will help you 100% for the morning section and maybe 50% for the afternoon. So, I will say that this book is a must have in your references. For deep foundation you will need other references and also experience in this field.

Click to expand...

I plan to take the Transportation Depth, so I may at least get the Six-Minute Solutions for that discipline just to have the extra problems to work. Badger, from your experience, do you think the Six-Min. solutions for Geotech would be worth getting just for help on the morning questions? Or would the sample exams from Lindeberg and NCEES be enough since it sounds like the Six-Min. Solutions are more in depth than what the morning would ask. The same for Structural, Transportation, and Water Resources, if you could have, would you have gotten all of them or are the Lindeberg and NCEES problems enough for the morning?

Thanks

Click to expand...

For the morning you wouldn't need the 6 min geotech.

You need to know:

index properties

phase problems, phase diagram. Could come up in const morning too.

borrow pit/embankment compaction type questions with optimum moisture content/ max dry density. Could show up in trans or const morning also.

Know how to determine lateral earth pressure coeff., ka, kp, and ko. Lateral pressure resultant Ra = .5kaYh^2. Chap 35-37 CERM.

Should know about total overburden stress, effective stress, and pore pressure.

Need to know about overturning or sliding retaining wall questions Ch 37 CERM, simple problem may come up in structural or const morning.

I would do a simple consolidation and time consolidation question, simple plug and chug eqn, have to be careful with units.

Good luck.

Here is what I told an engineer who was preparing to take the exam.

I went through all morning (breadth) portions in the 6 Minute Solutions For The PE Exam in their entirety. I also went through the afternoon (depth) portion of the 6 Minute Solutions For The PE Exam in my discipline in its entirety.

The name of the study guides is 6 minute solutions, however to complete a majority of the example problems in 6 minutes one would have to be a genius. The advise I was given was to go through the problems and not worry about the time it took to complete the practice problems. So that fact that it took longer than 6 minutes to complete many of the practice problems did not discourage me. After I went through the problems and could answer about 80% of them with out much struggling I thought I was ready for the exam. And I was.

However if a person preparing for the exam cannot go through the 6 Minute Solutions For The PE Exam and get 70% or greater correct, I would suggest a refresher course or some other form of additional training on the subject.

I thought that they are worth it.