How did you study with young kids at home?

I'm back - I've been gone a while! For reference, I'm a mechanical engineer, have been working in my current gig for 9 years, married to a non-engineer, one kid who will be 2 in August. I picked up my EIT in 2008, 5.5 years after graduation - I passed the FE on the first try but spent a solid six months studying for it. I just finished an M.S. in Engineering Science with a focus on materials engineering & metallurgy. I waited until our daughter was a year old to re-start grad school and those last two semesters were extremely stressful between working full time, carrying my courseload, and handling home and family. That's why I worry about prepping for the PE.

I'm planning to apply for the April 2013 exam; I've run out of time to get an application together for October. It's our hope/plan that I'll be expecting a second child next summer or fall, so if I don't pass in April I would be unlikely to be able to take the October 2013 exam and would need to defer to 2014. My EIT will expire in 2018 and I'd like to not have to wait to the bitter end to try for the PE (I also don't ever want to have to take the FE again).

My concern is that I work full time and my time with our daughter and my husband is precious. My husband's work schedule is such that I have to parent solo after work/early evenings and on Saturdays. So, those of who you successfully prepared for the PE exam with little ones at home - how did you do it? Did you start preparing sooner or did you find babysitters?

Katiebug, I can't say I am a successful PE (civil) tester yet, I took it in April and unfortunately will be setting again in the Fall. I just want to you to know you not alone in your dilemma. I have a 4 yr old boy and a 19 month old little girl, a house, husband and a full time job. I commute a hour to work and back so time in the evenings with my kids is sparse. It is a hard balance. My first time out I believe I was ADD in my studying. I was all over the place, but this time I have a designated spot and am following the NCEES outline. I try to study 1 hour after dinner and my husband has been great about taking the kids for that hour. I can't say that you will not feel guilty about the time away from the kids, but that is who you are doing it for right. Anyway good luck it is not easy and a bit overwhelming. I did the FE with one child and trust me with two it is a different ballgame. It is a tough endeavor in itself but I think being a Mom of small children puts it on another level.

Katiebug said:

I'm back - I've been gone a while! For reference, I'm a mechanical engineer, have been working in my current gig for 9 years, married to a non-engineer, one kid who will be 2 in August. I picked up my EIT in 2008, 5.5 years after graduation - I passed the FE on the first try but spent a solid six months studying for it. I just finished an M.S. in Engineering Science with a focus on materials engineering & metallurgy. I waited until our daughter was a year old to re-start grad school and those last two semesters were extremely stressful between working full time, carrying my courseload, and handling home and family. That's why I worry about prepping for the PE.

I'm planning to apply for the April 2013 exam; I've run out of time to get an application together for October. It's our hope/plan that I'll be expecting a second child next summer or fall, so if I don't pass in April I would be unlikely to be able to take the October 2013 exam and would need to defer to 2014. My EIT will expire in 2018 and I'd like to not have to wait to the bitter end to try for the PE (I also don't ever want to have to take the FE again).

My concern is that I work full time and my time with our daughter and my husband is precious. My husband's work schedule is such that I have to parent solo after work/early evenings and on Saturdays. So, those of who you successfully prepared for the PE exam with little ones at home - how did you do it? Did you start preparing sooner or did you find babysitters?

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Welcome back.

EITs expire???

I waited until my wife and baby (now 22 months) went to bed at 10/11pm and I studied until 2am. Back up at 6-6:30 for work. It's just something you have to make work. Good luck.

A pot of coffee at dinner time, up late studying.

Leave the books out and ready to go, so you don't have to reset all of your references every time you study. It's messy, but it saves time. You can put everything away after you pass.

envirotex said:

A pot of coffee at dinner time, up late studying.

Leave the books out and ready to go, so you don't have to reset all of your references every time you study. It's messy, but it saves time. You can put everything away after you pass.

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There you go. I'm a firm believer in regular bedd time for the kiddos. There's no reason kids 2 to 4 yo can't go to bed sharply at 8PM each night. Then you have 3-4 hhours of study time.

Similar to what the others said. I had 2 kids under the age of 3 when I was studying. The two things that helped me a lot was getting the kiddos to bed at the same time every night (8:30ish) which gave me evenings to spend an hour or two to study, and establishing a "study zone". My study zone was an area of the house that would remain as my sanctuary for my books, notes, supplies, etc that I could leave setup and not have to worry about anyone messing with.

It can also be helpful to utilize other periods of the day and week for studying that wouldn't take away from family time. Maybe leaving for work 30 minutes earlier and studying at your desk, others have found success in finding a quiet place in a nearby park to study during lunch (also packing their lunch to avoid waiting for fast food lines). Depending on your workload, you may even be able to get permission to dedicate an hour each day at work to studying (only working 7 hours and studying for the 8th). You could also spend a couple hours on early weekend mornings while the kids were still in "wake-up" mode where they are awake but not very active.

A supportive spouse is also key. If they understand the process and what you're going through as well as willing to help you with some of the extra things around the house (dishes, laundry, cooking, cleaning, watching kiddos, etc). I know spouses already have a lot on their plate, but remember that this is a very short period of time of your collective lives.

I agree with MA_PE, you put the kid(s) to bed at 800pm, and you can study for 1-2 hrs before you go to bed. That is what I did, also on the weekends you try to wake up eariler than the family and get your 1-2 hours in the morning so you can enjoy the rest of the day. I don't believe in 3-4 hours of studying a day, it is too hard to block that time off with a family. I think the key is being consistent and making sure you put at least a hour in everyday for 5 months. If you do that, you will pass.

Like others have said, I know it can be done because I did it with a similar situation. When I started studying for my PE, about 6 months before the exam, my daughter was around 27 months and my son was about 3 months. I would get home from work around 5:30 and spend all the time I had from when I got home to when they went to bed which was between 7:30 and 8:00. I would then study for 2-3 hours. It wasn't ideal, missed a lot of time with the wife but she understood. Toward the end of my prep time, the last month or so, I started studying at 7:00 or so every night to get in some extra problems. I had to deal with the 'please don't work daddy' and that was hard but I think i twas the right choice. I was able to pass the first time and avoid a second round of studying and more time missed. So I recommend toughing it out the first time so hopefully you don't have to go through it a second time. I was also lucky that my wife would take them on Sat. while a did a 3 hour review course. I always left Sundays open to spend with the family.

I was very lucky in that my wife is a stay-at-home mom. My girls at the time were 5.75 and 3.25 years old; what I would do is get home from work and immediately study for 3 hours (3 out of the 5 weekdays), then spend an hour with the family before putting the girls to bed. On the weekends (both days), I would get up at 5:30am to start studying by 6:00am and would go until noon or 1:00pm, then enjoy the rest of the day with the family. It sucked, but I crammed all of my studying into 9 weeks before the exam. I spent close to 200 hours studying at home and was fortunate that my employer let me spend 90 hours spread out over 4 or 5 weeks to study during work hours (basically first half of day was studying and second half was work). So in total I studied 290 hours in 9 weeks....the nice thing is that it was only a couple months of hard times with the family, but they understood what I was doing and why (well, at least my wife did). Luckily, I passed on the first try because if I had to do it again I probably would have ended up killing somebody!

My son was 9-12 months old when I was studying for the exam. I stayed after work and studied for about an hour or so and studied a couple of days a week. After dinner, his bath, and putting him to bed, I studied for another half an hour to hour. On the weekends, I would go to panera bread and study for a few hours on a weekend day. Make the most of your time and breaking into smaller time periods will allow you to pick a subject topic and really hammer it for that short time. When you get closer to the test, try to study for a longer period on the weekend to get use to the mental stamina it will take on the exam day.

It also helps to have a wife that is understanding and supportive of what it means to you and your career. Start early and make every study period count. Good luck! You can do it. By the way, I passed on my first try.

hoffmajl said:

It also helps to have a wife that is understanding and supportive of what it means to you and your career.

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Or a husband or other family. The OP is a woman, after all. :wave2:

Just to clarify, I'm not all GRRR about this. Just teasing!

I have a 23mo. old daughter when I took the exam on April 2012. I wanted to study and also spend time with my daughter because for me that is important. I started studying about 4 weeks before the exam, I went to our office building on Saturdays from about 11am to 8pm to study and my wife would take care of our child. I would then study on Tuesdays and Thursdays at home from about 6pm to 2am/3am and my wife and daughter will be in the bedroom; we live in an apartment so they have to be in a separate room so it will be quiet when I study. I spend time with my wife and daughter and also rest/catch up on sleep during the days I do not study. Resting helps because I can do more during my study times. One of my motivation in studying is that once I pass I do not have to study again, unless I decide to take the SE, and spend more time with my family. Good thing I passed the exam.

I have a three year old. Weekdays I would study after dinner, my wife would keep him occupied for a few hours, I was also studying before bed but after a few months realized that this was probably hurting more than helping. Found that if I got stuck on a problem it would cause me to lose sleep trying to figure it out in my head.

On the weekends I studied during his naptime which would last anywhere from 2-3 hours. I also take the bus to work and could pick up an additional 1-2 hours each day plus some time during lunch. All in all I'd say I put in about 400 hours.

I think one thing that needs added to this list of suggestions:

Quality of studying versus quantity of studying. Don't log hours studying if you're not getting anything out of it. For example, like gte said above, if you're studying interferes with sleep, you won't retain as much info. You need to find a time and place where you can truly focus on the material, where you will retain the most amount of info and learning. Think back to your college days of what you found to be helpful when studying for exams and try to duplicate it. It can be anything from who to study with (if you prefer groups), where and when to study, to how to study (reading material versus working example problems).

I've seen dozens of stories over the years here on eb.com of people studying for several hundred hours and not passing and others passing with only studying for a month. It all comes down to people knowing what works best for themselves.

Had a 3 month old at the time of exam.

I studied mostly at night from 10p to 3a during the hone stretch because I knew the baby was going to be up at some point during that time and I'd need to give her a bottle.

It worked, I did pass on the first try.

See if your employer will be flexible with you. See if you can spend a small amount of time each week during work hours to study. Maybe you can adjust your work hours to allow you to schedule study time when you would normally be working and make up the hours at the beginning/end of other shifts. I did a little of both of these and it worked out well, however I didn't have two kids. Maybe even use some vacation time.

i had luck by either coming in an hour early and/or staying an hour late from work. this is in addition to studying during lunch.

if you can somehow make this work, then you won't be so overburdened while at home trying to do a little extra studying. unfortunately there's no easy way to do it, but at least that means it'll be even sweeter when you do pass.

I think these are all great ideas. I had two kids (2 and 4) when I took the Civil PE Exam and Structural I exam. I did a combination of all of these things mentioned, and mostly without comprimising my family time (too bad)...

I generally would study an hour or two before work, then an hour at luch and an hour after work. I also was on a schedule that alowed me to leave at 11:00 am on fridays. I did study some weekends, but mostly I studied during the week. I took at least two saturdays to work the two sample exams. Other than that I mostly managed the studies during the week. And I was usually home by six and available in the evenings to spend time with the fam.

The key is to remember that there are 168 hours in every week. To pass the exam, you need to put in about 200-300 hours, which averages about 15-20 hours a week depending how many weeks out you plan. That is just 12% of the week. From that standpoint it doesn't sound too bad Also, since the average person in the US watches around 3 hours of TV a day , you might want to unplug!

I think it is all about choices and focus. Focus on the goal, and sometimes you will need to choose to study over doing some things. it is a shrot period of time, and when you have that stamp in hand, it will be worth it!

BTW, on a side note... love this statement by NBeebe...

My girls at the time were 5.75 and 3.25 years old;

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Only an engineer would refer to their children's ages with three sig digs

BTW, on a side note... love this statement by NBeebe...

My girls at the time were 5.75 and 3.25 years old;

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Only an engineer would refer to their children's ages with three sig digs

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I figured I had a choice of giving their ages in years or months....I guess I just chose whatever I felt like at that time B)

its tough to say the least, how much harder it is to study with kids, i had three kids, all under 7 at the time.. my wife was in nursing school when i was studying for the exam so we were both trying to find study time..

we just agreed that the exam was very important and that for 3-6 months family time wasnt a priority. we literally scheduled out when we would study and scheduled it on a calendar, some nights i would deal with the kids and she would study or be at school and others i would come home and eat and see the kids for an hour and then either go to the local college library or some other place..

i am the kind of person that cant study at all with background noise such as tv, kids, phone calls, etc. it drives me nuts!

DO NOT GO TO WORK AT NIGHT AND STUDY! for me anyways (the first time i took the exam.. hint hint) I would go to work late at night and on weekends and study.. i always found myself reading work emails or doing something quick work related that turned into an hour and looking back i wasted about 20% of my study time.. also other people would show up to work on the nights and weekends and their idle chit chat cost me study time.. I did use work conference rooms and study at lunch during my succesful second attempt, people are less apt to bother you when a door is closed

good to see you again. good luck!

and it may be painful but you have to weigh the costs (time) to have to study for a 2nd attempt. so hit it strong and sacrifice the family time...