12 replies to this topic

[jbuckley]

Does anybody have any advice on which is the better review course - School of PE or EnvPETutors.com? I like the idea of a structured review course offered by School of PE, but I'm worried that it's all crammed into 5 weeks and doesn't start until almost mid-September. Unfortunately the Penn State review course in my area was cancelled due to lack of interest so I'm stuck with an online/self-study course.

Any reviews of either would be helpful!

[VTEnviro]

I don't have experience with either of those, sorry.

[FLBuff PE]

I don't have any experience with either of those, either. I used the NC State review DVDs for my third attempt, and they pushed me over the edge.

[houston]

Does anybody have any advice on which is the better review course - School of PE or EnvPETutors.com? I like the idea of a structured review course offered by School of PE, but I'm worried that it's all crammed into 5 weeks and doesn't start until almost mid-September. Unfortunately the Penn State review course in my area was cancelled due to lack of interest so I'm stuck with an online/self-study course.

Any reviews of either would be helpful!

I am currently using the EnvPETutors and I would recommend them. I was given an aggressive study schedule along with notes, exams, quizzes and sample problems. Having taken the PE before, I do believe that these tutors have covered and narrowed down the material that is fair game for the exam. If you need an actual in person type of setting than this may not be for you but I would still give them a try. They have been helpful with answering all of my questions and I wish I had used them when I first took this test. I am just happy that I at least found them now. I feel like I have a fighting chance and that there help will get me to pass this time. I hope this helps.

[twindadtodd]

I don't have any experience with either of those, either. I used the NC State review DVDs for my third attempt, and they pushed me over the edge.

I used the NC State review course as well and found it to be very helpful. It was pricey, but still cheaper than all the in-person review courses I came across.

[Dleg]

For what it's worth, I didn't have any of those resources available to me when I studied for the PE exam 4 years ago, but I still passed. And there are several others here who did, also. I very well may have taken advantage of one or more of these resources if they had been around at the time, but the point I wanted to make is that you CAN do this yourself. Setting an aggressive study schedule is not a difficult task. Keep it simple and broad. Here is how I did it:

2 months intensive, scheduled studying - 3 hours per day, working your way through the ENVRM and its companion "Practice Problems" book:
- 2 weeks air pollution
- 2 weeks water subjects (water resources, wastewater)
- 2 weeks hazardous and solid waste management
- 2 weeks misc subjects - toxicology, industrial hygeine, etc.

Then, with the time left (if you started today, you would have close to 3 weeks left before the exam), you work your way through other problem books (101 solved problems is the best choice), study up on weaknesses, etc. Schedule a timed practice exam from the PPI practice exams book about 2 weeks prior to the real exam. Go through the NCEES practice exam to get a better feel for what the questions will really be like. Tab your references with post-its as you study, then convert them to "permanent" tabs the last week.

The two-month study schedule is intentionally non-detailed. You will find that some subjects (air and miscellaneous topics, in my case) take only a week to get through, and some (water) take much longer. But it you firmly commit to it, and spend quality time on a daily basis, you CAN do this yourself.

(I'm not trying to take away from anyone's business, but I feel a balanced discussion needs to include the possibility of doing this all by yourself, and proof that many of us have been able to do it this way)

[Wyatt72]

I highly recommend EnvPETutors.com. I failed the exam twice and used them on the third go around and passed.

My best advice when choosing a study path for the exam is to look at yourself and see what type of person you are when it comes to studying and taking exams. If you are a person who can catch on to multiple subjects quickly and have no problem taking time sensitive multiple choice exams then maybe you can use Dleg's schedule.

However if you are a person who struggles a bit and needs guidance in your studies then the tutors are the best way to go.

The main thing is be honest with yourself when choosing which study path to follow. Don't go all hero if you are not one. Believe me I took the PE exam 3 times. The first two time were hero syndrome the last time was being honest with myself. That meant identifying that I learn better with personalized instruction.

[peengineer122]

As somebody mentioned balanced discussion is needed here. This is not a review course. Instrctors have copied material from different standard textbooks and sell it for you to read thorugh that. Although they claim that you can call them if you have any problems reading throught this. Anybody who has passed the evvironmental PE exam could start doing this. Some material is copied from Indian textbooks and you can see refereces of Indian cities in the material. The problems are retyped or copied from various sources and they do not follow any logical sequence. Also, lots of typos. What puzzles me the most is the instructors (sellars) are PEs and I expected better output from them. If really want to do this course then do not pay entire price at once and try to get material by subject and proceed with remaining material only if you feel satisfied. Again, this is my personal experiance and your experiance may be different then mine.

[buddingpe]

As somebody mentioned balanced discussion is needed here. This is not a review course. Instrctors have copied material from different standard textbooks and sell it for you to read thorugh that. Although they claim that you can call them if you have any problems reading throught this. Anybody who has passed the evvironmental PE exam could start doing this. Some material is copied from Indian textbooks and you can see refereces of Indian cities in the material. The problems are retyped or copied from various sources and they do not follow any logical sequence. Also, lots of typos. What puzzles me the most is the instructors (sellars) are PEs and I expected better output from them. If really want to do this course then do not pay entire price at once and try to get material by subject and proceed with remaining material only if you feel satisfied. Again, this is my personal experiance and your experiance may be different then mine.

I agree with Peengineer122. When I had taken the course had similar experience, notes had many materials copied but the instructor failed to acknowledge in their collection /notes. There were a lot of typos, and some of the theory associated with problem was not explained since stuff was copied.
+ ve – the instructor was responsive (email or phone).

[TX-FL PE]

I took the School of P.E online course and passed the April 2011 Exam. In the exam I used the school of P.E material for almost 80% of the questions. Very Good Course !!! The good thing is I didn't spend time studying any other materials. All I did was attend the online classes (sat and sun) for 5 weeks, took two NCEES practice exams, and spent a maximum of 50 hrs reviewing EERM.

[Dleg]

^Sounds like a shaky strategy to me. No studying other materials?

What do you mean by saying you took 2 practice NCEES exams, when there is only 1 that is published by NCEES?

[TX-FL PE]

^Sounds like a shaky strategy to me. No studying other materials?

What do you mean by saying you took 2 practice NCEES exams, when there is only 1 that is published by NCEES?

I borrowed an old one from my friend and bought a new one from NCEES. They are essentially the same with only minor differences. Anyway, I took the practice exam twice.

Even though, I did not study other materials, it doesn't mean i didn't use them at the exam. I was flipping through the Indexes of several books like a crazy person at the exam.

[CPuerta]

All-

Not trying to provide a biased opinion, but given the discussion I wanted to chime in on a few items.

From our course (envpetutors), we try to provide a focused study schedule and materials that are relevant to the exam. We believe that we provide a significant amount of value to our students, especially considering that you can't pick up the phone and call Mike Lindeburg with questions.

Its nearly impossible for any author to provide a study set of materials that dont rely on other sources. The course notes do include graphs, charts, and tables from books, and are all used with the original author's permission (same with other courses). We work very closely with many published authors from the books that you probably have on your shelf for material and content for our course. The notes, quizzes and problems are almost entirely privately developed, and are unique to the strategy of our course, focusing on relevant study topics to make sure you pass the test. We do admit to some typos in the problem sets, and we are always working to get those kinks out, but overall, we think we have a pretty stellar review program, especially if you dont have much time to study and only want to focus on important topics.

I encourage any of you to email me at craig@envpetutors.com if you have any specific questions or concerns about the course, same for past students as well. My office line is always on as well, 917 952 8216. Good luck to all preparing for October

-Craig