I’ve talked to several people who have taken the PE exam over the past year, and every one of them tells me that the Sample PE Exam by Lindeburg/PPI is “Way harder than the actual exam”, and that when they took the practice exams towards the end of their studies, they were pretty shocked by the complexity of the problems and really questioned how prepared they were for the exam. I am studying using a combination of the Goswami book, CERM, and 6 minute solutions, and when I get through each section, I feel pretty good about each unit, but also get really discouraged when looking at these sample exams. I understand what they are going for, the whole “if you can do this, then you can definitely pass the PE Exam”, but at the same time it’s pretty stressful when you have already put hours of study in and feel like you’re in good shape to feel like you studied the wrong things. I know that there is good information in these tests, so I don’t want to discount them completely, but I’m curious as to how people use these practice exams to study, or if there are better sample exams out there that would be more helpful.
Lindberg/ppi sample exams
- Thread starter owiewave
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sac_engineer
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The books you already have are more than enough to prepare for the breadth exam. You will need to bring additional material that are specific to your depth. Even though it's better to over-prepare, you don't want to overwhelm yourself by getting into problems that would not take more than 6 minutes to solve.
Just remember to tab all of your books so that you can quickly look up topics during the exam.
Good luck!
Just remember to tab all of your books so that you can quickly look up topics during the exam.
Good luck!
blybrook PE
Veteran 10k Spammer
I utilized the following practice exams:
NCEES
6-minute solutions - Civil / Structural
Lindeburg Sample Questions
The best one that I felt prepared me was the 6 minute solutions, but I had worked through ALL of the above for my depth. It really helped me. Have not tried others.
NCEES
6-minute solutions - Civil / Structural
Lindeburg Sample Questions
The best one that I felt prepared me was the 6 minute solutions, but I had worked through ALL of the above for my depth. It really helped me. Have not tried others.
I took the Lindeburg exam about a month before the real exam and got crushed and then I took some provided by NCEES and did much better. Take the Lindeburg for what it is, just another way for you to see where you need to brush up. By the way, when I took the actual exam (civil water resources), I crushed it and couldn't believe how easy it felt. Prepare for the worse, don't underestimate it and you'll be pleasantly surprised come game day.
NCEES samples are the easiest and Lindeburg Samples are the hardest.
All In One book's author has good practice samples too. In last October exam, some question I got it from his sets.
JKG
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Goswami's All-In-One and the NCEES sample problems were close to what were on the exam, for the most part. If anything, I thought the exam questions were easier.
Totally agree about the Lindeberg sample problems. Way too hard, and I don't think that is a valuable way to spend your time. Especially if it leaves you feeling crushed and discouraged, like it did me. I read where someone said that helped them to get more serious about studying. Fine and good then, but I benefited more by working more problems at an appropriate level than wasting time frustrated with problems at a higher level than what are on the actual exam. That worked for me anyway, and I passed (water resources/environmental depth).
Totally agree about the Lindeberg sample problems. Way too hard, and I don't think that is a valuable way to spend your time. Especially if it leaves you feeling crushed and discouraged, like it did me. I read where someone said that helped them to get more serious about studying. Fine and good then, but I benefited more by working more problems at an appropriate level than wasting time frustrated with problems at a higher level than what are on the actual exam. That worked for me anyway, and I passed (water resources/environmental depth).
ptatohed
Licenced to Spell
I hesitate to reply because I haven't received my 04-11 results yet (but I 'think' I passed) but I felt the exact same way. I was spending 20-30 minutes on some of those "6 min" problems. Like you said, it is very frustrating. Especially when the author is telling you it should only take 6 mins. The NCEES practice exam is very representative but, in my opinion, all of the other practice exams (PPI, Goswami, etc.) are more time consuming than what you'd expect to see on the exam. My advice? Do them anyway. Don't get bummed out when they take 15+ minutes, just do them anyway. The training is still good. Good luck.
Boomer01 PE
Boomer Sooner!
The NCEES problem and solutions books helped me more than any other. Their problems are much more similar to the ones on the test than the 6-minute solutions or CERM problems. Buying them was the only thing I did differently between the first test (failed) and the second test (passed).
When I studied I noticed the same disparity between the question sets and felt that the NCEES was the most similar to the test. In all honesty this issue of understanding exactly what was going to be on the test was frustrating. A coworker and I recently develop a database of questions that we felt were very similar to the test and outlined all the steps needed to answer each question (another issue we struggled with). We just launched the database so there is still a bit more work to be done but I think people should like the way it is setup. Since it is our first season of the test we are only asking $15 for access to the database until the test in October, which has a bit over 50 questions now and we are adding more each week. You can check it out at here - PE exam questions
