CA Seismic Survey Reference Materials

I'm sure there's a post on this somewhere but a quick search didn't find it...

How much can I expect to spend on reference materials for the CA Seismic and Survey exams? Looks like it might be somewhere around $500 +/-.

Trying to figure out if it's worth the time/money/effort to get CA PE.

I would think that you either want/need CA registration or you do not. It seems to me that the cost of study material should not make that decision for you. ? Here is a link to the Surv/Seis discussion subforum. http://engineerboards.com/index.php?showforum=41

I don't think there is an easy answer to your question. You could take a class for each at $400-$500 ea and buy a lot of additional study material and be way over $1,000. Or you could just take classes and be at $1,000. Or you could just buy two $100 workbooks and be at $200. Or you could borrow everything and be near $0. Or you could be anywhere in between. It depends on how you plan to prepare.

I already had ASCE 7, and taking CA Seismic put me over the edge to decide to buy IBC, but other than that I didn't spend any additional funds for the California specific tests.

And in my case, the 2 year head start was definitely worth it.

Lomarandil said:

I already had ASCE 7, and taking CA Seismic put me over the edge to decide to buy IBC, but other than that I didn't spend any additional funds for the California specific tests.

And in my case, the 2 year head start was definitely worth it.

Click to expand...

You can download a pdf of the California Building Code 2013, Volume 2 for free. Just google it. Print out the whole thing or just the chapters you need. I believe all you need are chapters 16,17,18, &19. This is what I did and just put it in a binder. I had our admin at work, make tabs for me, but you don't need 'em. This will keep your costs next to zero (assuming you can print for free at work).

Excellent! Thanks for the info. CA PE is probably not a need for me (at least right now) but it's always good to learn new things... or re-learn old things and having an end goal helps to focus.