Preparation for PE Civil Structural

In early january 2017, I did the same thing you are probably doing right now which is trying to get as much possible information and hints on how to prepare for the exam.  There is a lot you can find on this subject but because my situation is quite unusual and I have succeeded on my 1st attempt, I would like to share my experience.  

I am a 25 years of experience structural eng. from Canada seeking for a PE licence.  It is easy to imagine how challenging studying for the FE exam could have been after all those years out of school... After almost 4 months of preparation, I did FE exam on December 24th.  Yes, that's how crazy I am, I felt I was ready and didn't want to lose my sharpeness during the holidays... I passed FE, so 2 weeks later I was ready to prepare myself for 2nd round: April's PE.  I have ordered everything I felt useful: CERM (highly recommended by most people), Goswami All-in-One, PPI Structural depth Reference Manual and also 6 minutes solutions, Goswami practice exam (breadth+depth), NCEES practice exam and all required Codes except Bridge & Prestressed concrete.  

While waiting for all my purchases, I have tried the breadth part of the NCEES PE practice exam just to evaluate my skills.  I got 33/40 just using the FE Handbook and my studying for FE.   Not bad at all!  It became obvious that studying the civil part of the FE handbook was the way to go.  Then I received all my books.  CERM is as thick as a dictionary, I felt a bit discouraged.  Advice #1: You have to know very well the stuff you bring to the exam.  I figured I didn't have time for this and you don't read a dictionary anyway.

Studying for the depth part was my main focus.  I started reading structural-related chapters in Goswami and do the exercises at the end of each one.  Than I studied PPI Depth Reference manual completely.  I didn't quite understood why they got so deeply in some particular topics (concrete truss & ties for example) but I did it anyway.  I would say both documents were very useful.  Goswami was helpful for most topics except wood and masonry for which PPI manual was the one to use.

After several weeks of studying I tried Goswami exam.  The level of difficulty is similar to the actual exam.  Then I started doing the 6-minutes solutions by PPI.  I have solved them all but I have struggled on a large number of problems.  Some are simply impossible to do in 6 minutes.  That's not too good on confidence but don't worry, those are way much harder than the actual exam.  

I have spent a lot of time getting familiar with the Codes, mainly the AISC Manual, ACI 318 and ASCE 7.  I have put colored tabs on everything I brought to the exam, separating chapters, sections or to quickly get to coefficients in NDS wood code etc.  You have to find things quickly during the exam so you can have spare time for more difficult problems and more important, to revise your calculations.

During the last weeks of preparation, I revised the breadth part using again my FE Handbook, in which I have added personal comments and highlited main equations.  Cross reading a few chapters in Goswami completed my studying of the morning part.

During the exam, many people have recommended first to read all questions and solve the ones you can do easily and then do a second and 3rd pass.  I completely disagree with this method.  Time is a key to succeed.  Having to read, understand and figure out how to do a question several times is a loss of time.  You could also lose track of your progression vs time.  I did the questions 1 by 1, advice #2: read the questions CAREFULLY.  Don't get stuck on a question if you feel that you're not confident you will come to something within 6 minutes.  You should have time at the end to go back to the 3-4 questions you have more problems with.  Advice #3: use the time you have left at the end to revise first.  It could take only 20 minutes to do so and you may find 2-3 silly mistakes you did instead of strugling on 2-3 tough questions that you might get wrong anyway.

I have used most of what I brought to the exam.  I have opened CERM just once in the breadth, not sure I got the answer right.  I used it as a dictionary, the index is impressive. For the price (and weight), I could have easily done without it.  My FE handbook was very useful for the breadth as anticipated.

After all this studying the pressure to succeed become very intense.  I was very nervous during the week prior to the exam.  Last advice: don't study too late and have sufficient sleeping time during the week before the exam. 

I hope this could help, good luck!

Thanks for sharing Robert and welcome to the Board.  And congrats!  I agree with much of what you said.  Yes the CERM is too thick, including too many topics not on the exam, and as such can be intimidating at first.  Though I do think all examinees should have the CERM.  Yes, the 6 Min problems are good but not 6 minutes!  Like you said, don't let them discourage you.  Yes Goswami products are good.  I like your advice about using the FE Manual for the PE.  As for your advice to work all the exam problems in order, you are the first person I have ever seen recommend this.  I disagree with your suggestion.  I guess, in theory, if you know with 100% certainty that you'll have enough time to get to all problems, then I guess your method would not hurt.  But, if you are like me, and you can only get to 36 or so problems out of 40 before the 4 hours expires, you'd better have a strategy of making a first, second, and third pass to work the easy, mediums, and hards.  Anyway, good stuff, thanks for sharing. 

On the contrary I used the CERM almost exclusively for the Breadth section and only used 2 Das books in addition. It just goes to show you how everyone's methods can be completely different but yield good results.