Please recommend a Civil/Construction review course

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billyluv

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Would any of you successful PE civil/construction Engineers recommend a review course? Any help would be appreciated. I studied really hard and put in a lot of long hour but still came up short. None of the questions were really unfamiliar but I feel I must of have really fallen for the 1st tricky incorrect answer.

Thanks in-advance for your help!

 
I did not take a review course, but I used study material from School of PE that a friend had. The way I studied was that I went through all the material at a pace where I would finish a semi-quick review with about a month to spare. For the last month I just did a ton of practice problems. Start with difficult problems.

 
I didnt take a review course but I highly recommend using the NCEES sample tests. I had 3 or 4 different versions of them. The questions were very similar. I dont recommend the in depth PPI sample tests. They are too difficult and do not show up on the test.

Good luck, you'll pass

 
I have not heard anything bad about any of the review courses. I have seen some that just cover the morning breadth and leave the afternoon part to you. ASCE offers both morning and an afternoon depth online and I opted for the construction depth. It was very helpful. I watched some classes a 2nd time and learned things that didn't click the 1st time I watched. I relied most on the class material during the exam.

If you are doing construction, Google OSHA 1926 and download and print the 600 pages and put it in a binder. Flip through just to know where to find things. I did this the day before the exam and had a couple problems that were straight up look up from there.

 
I have not heard anything bad about any of the review courses. I have seen some that just cover the morning breadth and leave the afternoon part to you. ASCE offers both morning and an afternoon depth online and I opted for the construction depth. It was very helpful. I watched some classes a 2nd time and learned things that didn't click the 1st time I watched. I relied most on the class material during the exam.

If you are doing construction, Google OSHA 1926 and download and print the 600 pages and put it in a binder. Flip through just to know where to find things. I did this the day before the exam and had a couple problems that were straight up look up from there.
Thanks KevinA! I actually used OSHA 1926 manual and nailed it 3/3. LOL. Looks like temp structures 0/5, Structure 2/8 and Earthwork 0/4 were my big mistakes. Ouch! That's 15 losses in 3 areas and I don't remember struggling on those types questions. The rest of the areas I did OK. I really got to improve in those areas. Congratulations Kevin on your pass!

 
School of PE has a really good Construction component. Teacher is really good. I did the on demand class and highly recommend it.

 
Testmasters is really good and I got some free resources from learncivilengineering.com

 
I agree with EMO4488, school of PE construction teacher was great. School of PE does a great job getting you prepared for the AM portion. I am sure the depth portion would be great with that instructor.

 
School of PE was great prep for the morning! As far as the afternoon, let me get my results back first and I'll let you know. :hung-037:

The Construction Depth portion seemed very different this time around and a little different from what the instructor expected to be on the exam as well(based on the information provided).

 
I did not take a review course while preparing for my first attempt in October 2013. This time, I took School of PE. As said above, it made the morning portion seem easy. It was also very helpful for the Construction Depth. Beyond taking School of PE, I also bought every single reference manual listed on the NCEES site. I foolishly tried to leave a couple out the first time. I used every book except one.

 
1) School of PE was great. The instructor who taught construction was probably the best of the 5 disciplines as well.

2) Use the practice NCEES test as a guideline. It really is VERY VERY close to the test in terms of how difficult/long the problems are.

3) IMO, 6-minute Solutions are far too hard. I found this on my own, then verified that previous takers agreed. I scrapped them immediately because they made me feel slow/bad at subjects I was good at! For example, I rocked most all horizontal curve problems, but some of those in the 6MS stumped me.

 
My raw score for Civil/Construction was 51/80 so I came up short too :( Looking at the diagnostics, I think they had someone else's test, LOL... I did great in a couple areas I thought I was going to struggle with and vice versa... oh well, I think I studied harder in those areas and it definitely shows.

I am thinking School of PE sounds like the winner...

 
If you search the boards you sort of see a theme when failing; lots of people think they did great or passed only to find they failed. I think this is a result of rushing the problems they are familar with or that seem easy. A person can totally understand the problem, know how to do the problem closed book, but if they forget to convert to match the units the answers give; still wrong.

I did not allow myself enough time to re-check like I wanted, but when I did quickly check I found two simple mistakes on probably the easiest questions on the test in my opinion. That could be the difference in passing or failing.

 
If you search the boards you sort of see a theme when failing; lots of people think they did great or passed only to find they failed. I think this is a result of rushing the problems they are familar with or that seem easy. A person can totally understand the problem, know how to do the problem closed book, but if they forget to convert to match the units the answers give; still wrong.

I did not allow myself enough time to re-check like I wanted, but when I did quickly check I found two simple mistakes on probably the easiest questions on the test in my opinion. That could be the difference in passing or failing.
Agreed. I think I rushed through the problems that I "knew" and spent more time on things I was less comfortable with... resulting in higher scores on those subjects and being embarrassed with my results in the areas I work in every single day. Ugh.

 
I took the School of PE review class and passed Civil: Construction on my first shot. They have you do a weekend for every module and I took the additional afternoon depth webinar as well. Their notes are excellent and were all I needed for around 75% of the questions.I finished the morning portion in 2.5 hours (including checking everything) and finished the afternoon 20 minutes before the deadline.

They really get you to understand the fundamentals and work out problems slightly more complex than what's on the exam, which is a good thing when the test gives you information that you previously had to solve for when studying for the exam.

I'm not sure how long you studied for, but I put in 290 hours (I made a schedule and tracked my progress). It was probably a bit of an overkill, but I did not plan on taking this exam twice.

 
My raw score for Civil/Construction was 51/80 so I came up short too :( Looking at the diagnostics, I think they had someone else's test, LOL... I did great in a couple areas I thought I was going to struggle with and vice versa... oh well, I think I studied harder in those areas and it definitely shows.

I am thinking School of PE sounds like the winner...
It seems school of PE is the way to go. I'm embarrassed to say; I did the NC State review course and still failed. Not making excuses but I've been out of school for a while and I didn't network with any other people taking the exam. I only found this site recently on the web.

I spent a lot of time studying as well. I just need to re-focus my studying in the "right" direction. I've got to quick sulking and pick myself up and think about the best way to tackle the next exam.

 
If you search the boards you sort of see a theme when failing; lots of people think they did great or passed only to find they failed. I think this is a result of rushing the problems they are familar with or that seem easy. A person can totally understand the problem, know how to do the problem closed book, but if they forget to convert to match the units the answers give; still wrong.

I did not allow myself enough time to re-check like I wanted, but when I did quickly check I found two simple mistakes on probably the easiest questions on the test in my opinion. That could be the difference in passing or failing.
Agreed. I think I rushed through the problems that I "knew" and spent more time on things I was less comfortable with... resulting in higher scores on those subjects and being embarrassed with my results in the areas I work in every single day. Ugh.
I am with you on that. I scored 50/80 and failed. I scored exceedingly well in my weak areas and scored low on the run of the mill ones. I also agree that the Construction depth was different than what was taught in the School of PE Class. The School of PE notes came in really handy for the AM but I felt helpless in the PM.

 
School of PE definitely focuses on the AM portion of the exam. The 8 hour review of the PM portion is just a quick refresher, just enough to get you looking through the correct reference materials.

I took the Transportation PM SoPE review and it made me sure that I had the right materials and gave me a lot of problems to work. It was enough, but again the SoPE aims to get you 90% on the morning session and leaves the afternoon for self review.

 
Don't waiver. If you do construction for a living, then take the construction test again.

I agree some of those questions in the sample test can be oddball or overly hard than the actual test.

However, they all have something in common, the common questions. See what pops up in several practice tests. Focus real hard on it.

Not a civil guy, but the main tables in the back of the main PE review book, know how to use them.

IF you have not done so, try to remember the actual questions. Don't harp on the oddballs, but the ones you studied.

Going back to the big book. Likely, you need to know 1/4 of the book to pass. A few chapters will probably never be in there at all. However, probably 5 chapters or so, you need to know 1/2 the chapter well.

also, we make mistakes. Learn from them. Write down what mistakes you made on a list as you study. Then you can quickly review the test for these basic mistakes you tend to make. Maybe it's mixing up psi with psf. A big helper for me is a calculator you can see a few lines back, make sure you didn't put in a typo.

Time management is a huge key. Put the time in for the easy stuff and the stuff you know well. Any doubt or just seems like too much math to get there, don't even blink, pass to the next one. Sometimes putting that question in the back of your head and letting it cook is the best method.

Also, the hard to do problems are actually real easy to do. Look for the common sense answer. Like that can be negative, or wood can't possibly be that strong, etc......... They put one or two in there.

You know the math, you know the processes involved in the field, and you have that experience that doesn't look right eye. They ask questions that involve those in that order, and sometimes you need to use one over the other.

Just learning the practical test groove is probably worth 20% of your time. IF you get something wrong, don't just say ohh yeah, so and do it right. Even better see the ohh yeah part, then try to do it again 2 or 3 days later.

Like concrete, just laying it down will work so-so. But, going back and watering it makes it solid.

If done right 400 hours of study wont be as good as 100 hours of well directed study. Keep with the test taking as you learn the core subjects more. If you took a practice test 2 weeks ago, still take it again.

Search for older copies of practice tests. Maybe even call you old engineering teacher and senior engineers you know locally for old practice tests. Wouldn't take much work to find 12 different ones.

 
With the review of the test.

Writers put the stuff on paper, then check for content, then check for grammar. You have time on the test, write it down. You might see your math mubblings wander elsewhere. Or did the core thing right, just forgot to convert to the right thing. Write the numbers, units, and process how to get there down.

Before doing the math, look at the answers, maybe it's a logical choice. Maybe it's one of those zero things, where the basical rules make it zero. Like uneeded truss members for example. They put those in there, yeah you can solve in 6 minutes, but your basic knowledge can answer it in 5 seconds.

Every 5 questions or so, write the time down on paper. Also, double check your putting the right answer in the right circle on the right question number. If you mix things up, no problem. You wrote down the answer, circled the answer, put the answer in units on paper, and wrote down what letter the answer corresponds to.

Remember the Karate Kid movie. He learned his moves slowly and smoothly. Then when it came time to react, it happened just fine.

 
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