Quantity of Reference Material?

How much reference material is too much for test day?  If you brought a bunch of materials to the exam did you find it helpful? 

I was amazed on Friday seeing the different material everybody brought to the exam. You had the people that fit everything into a book bag, some had 1 file box or small crate and others had rolling luggage. If going to bring a crate or box I would definitely recommend going with the small carry-on rolling luggage as it keeps your materials dry (luckily I had my daughters Tsum Tsum blankie in the car to put over the top of my crate and keep it dry). What amazed me were the people who had the large rolling luggage bags and additional items.  I think there was 1 person that had 2 large luggage bags in addition to their book bag and another bag with snacks/lunch. 

It's also heavily dependent on which exam you're taking.

I took two rolling bags (~80lbs total) of references in for the SE. And that was the required codes plus SERM and CERM. Not much extra material -- I ended up using 90% of it.

Some tests (Mech, maybe?) are more conducive to fewer references.

Anything more than one Banker's Box is overkill in my humble opinion.  At least for the Civil PE.  But do bring a lightweight folding dolly so that you don't have to carry the box. 

ptatohed said:

Anything more than one Banker's Box is overkill in my humble opinion.  At least for the Civil PE.  But do bring a lightweight folding dolly so that you don't have to carry the box. 

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I put mine in the milk cartons, had them neatly in there ready to go, and the proctor told me I couldn't set them on top of the table. Had to get all the books out and set them on the table. This was happening during instruction reading. Was very annoyed by it since I had been sitting there for 20 min waiting to begin and nobody had mentioned anything. I don't see what the problem was with the boxes. My book stack was just as high in front of me. 

I had two bankers boxes in a big roller suitcase. One box for morning, one box for afternoon. Basically, what I brought boiled down to my EET binders (which are rather large), one small binder with practice problems and additional reference material that I use at my job, the CERM, and all the codes I brought with me for the structural depth. The codes were almost a banker's box in themselves, and I didn't even bring all of them.

Edit: I put the bankers boxes in a big suitcase so I didn't have to carry them in my arms. Luckily, the biggest suitcase I had just barely fit them when expanded!

leggo said:

I had two bankers boxes in a big roller suitcase. One box for morning, one box for afternoon. Basically, what I brought boiled down to my EET binders (which are rather large), one small binder with practice problems and additional reference material that I use at my job, the CERM, and all the codes I brought with me for the structural depth. The codes were almost a banker's box in themselves, and I didn't even bring all of them.

Edit: I put the bankers boxes in a big suitcase so I didn't have to carry them in my arms. Luckily, the biggest suitcase I had just barely fit them when expanded!

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Did you place the boxes on the table to have easy access for the books? 

Hemi79 said:

Did you place the boxes on the table to have easy access for the books? 

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Nope, I had only one out at a time (depending on which part of the exam I was doing). I pulled a few of the main references I knew I would need to have on the table, and pulled references as I needed them during the exam.

I actually am not sure if the proctors at my test location even allowed people to have the boxes up on the tabletop. I didn't see anyone do it. 

leggo said:

Nope, I had only one out at a time (depending on which part of the exam I was doing). I pulled a few of the main references I knew I would need to have on the table, and pulled references as I needed them during the exam.

I actually am not sure if the proctors at my test location even allowed people to have the boxes up on the tabletop. I didn't see anyone do it. 

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you're not helping my case!!! Lol.

Thats cool, I guess I was wrong for doing so. The first time i took it several people did what I did and so I thought it would be ok. 

I took the construction PM session.

I took 3 milk crates. Could have put it into 2 crates, but also packed my lunch and water bottle so I had lots of extra room.

I used all of my references except for the CWMB. I am someone who likes to validate answers so even if I knew the answer, I would take the time to verify my answer and write in the book where I found it and what equations I used. This is obviously not the best practice when you need every minute you have, but it always made me feel better  because I can make silly mistakes where I put a '+' in an equation instead of a '-' or something similar.

It definitely depends on the subject but I'd rather take a few more references.

I brought about two boxes worth of references for the Civil/Transportation session.  I ended up using about half the references I brought for morning (CERM, CERM Equation book, School of PE notes, and some undergrad textbooks) and also about half the references I brought for the afternoon.  I also brought all my practice problem books and worked-out practice problems which ended up being entirely unnecessary, but I'd rather have too many references than know exactly where to find something in a book that I left at home.  

I highly recommend having an easy way to carry your books in one trip.  I put all my books in reusable shopping bags and had to make two trips.  It was terribly annoying and I was kicking myself all morning for not buying a dolly or something.