32 replies to this topic

[june]

I am approved for the April 2012 PE exam in california and looking for some good classes. I am OK with going onsite, or online (something with archived classes may be helpful?) can you please recommend a good website/course? I have seen ensys.net but 1000 hours seem too much to cover. Any recommendations for CA seismic/surveying classes? help

[jco0518]

i took school of pe, i think it was good overall, but majority of the topics they cover are for the morning part, and they have a webinar session for the PM part. They prep you good for the morning, but for the afternoon, you are on your own....

[treyjay]

I took School of PE on-line and it was great not having to drive to a class & deal with it all.

I thought the course was good...both for morning & afternoon...how good?....won't know for another month.

[ptatohed]

I am approved for the April 2012 PE exam in california and looking for some good classes. I am OK with going onsite, or online (something with archived classes may be helpful?) can you please recommend a good website/course? I have seen ensys.net but 1000 hours seem too much to cover. Any recommendations for CA seismic/surveying classes? help

june, I had never heard of ensys.net until you mentioned it. OMG - How confusing and busy and long and complicated is their website??? I wonder how many potential customers get scared away.

I know everyone is different but it is my contention that every one of us possesses the ability to pass the exam via self-study.

Good luck.

[monkeywinky]

Pending results I might be able to give better insight, but I took the Hiner Seismic review and I found it to be excellent.

I agree with ptatohed that you should be able to pass with just self study. Having taken the Hiner course, I think if you just buy the workbook and go through it and do all the problems twice or 3 times (which takes a long time) you should be equipped to pass seismic

Survey I used Cuomo and Mansour's books and just did a bunch of practice problems from those books, 120 solved problems, sample survey exams, and reza - I finished Survey with 30 minutes to spare - who knows if I passed though =)

8 Hr, I self studied - my friends who took classes said it prepared them well for the AM but the PM was still challenging. I felt the same way about the test so...maybe the class wasn't worth it?

Everyone's different, you might get better responses after the results come out. Good luck to us all =D

[jco0518]

how much did you pay for school of pe online? and how many hours of lecture?

[treyjay]

you posted previously that you took school of pe....so why are you asking?

[jco0518]

i didn't take the online version...relax...

[JoeBoone82]

jco0518: The online School of PE course is the same as in the class. They even say that it's identical, except that you are at your own computer. 5 weekends, both Saturday and Sunday. It's a live interactive webinar. I thought it was pretty good. I would recommend it to others. The details are on their website. In my case, it was cheaper than the on-site class because they ended up cancelling the on-site in my city, so the online course was my only option, so they cut the price down.

[kenny911]

Do you get practice problems with the school of PE too. I missed passing it by 2 points and my struggles were in the morning. Sounds like it would be up my alley to pass.

[treyjay]

I took School of PE and found out today that I passed the exam. For me, the course really helped. I found the CERM a little overwelming by itself and taking the course was great for focusing on exam topics. The notes are great and, yes, you do get practice problems.

[geo pe]

I didn't take any classes but got notes from one of my friend. School of PE notes are good for Constr, Geotech and partly transpo, Kenny911-I think it would help if you look at your diagnostics report and know which section in the morning you need to work on. I also found "All in One by Indranil Goswami" to be useful for morning section. Both CERM and Goswami are a must for morning. I bprrowed Goswami from Library as I used it only for reference.

[Environmental_Guy]

I recommend Professional Engineering Course Center in Brea, if you're in SoCal. I took their FE and PE Civil classes and nailed both first try. The classes are small, no more than 10 people, so there is a lot of opportunity to ask questions and get individual help. The course fees also include a binder with class notes which were very helpful on the exam. Likewise for the Surveying and Seismic exams as well.

[AMiller]

I took PEreview.net online. I am already in the online mindset for my masters so it wasn't hard to get used to. I passed on my first try, Civil/Structural, even after having a BSME and not a ton of civil education. It offers a lot of problems and solutions as well as simple puzzles to get your brain working on days that it just doesn't want to study. I would highly recommend it to future test takers. It tracks your results and progress and gives you a good idea of what you need to work on. Good Luck.

[Illini86]

anyone take the ASCE review course online?? my company bought it for us and it looks to be pretty solid, but i don't know...it obviously can't hurt and says that it focuses on what you need to know and doesn't give you bs like the cerm and kaplan books do as they cover both the morning and afternoon topics....

anyone anyone??

[kenny911]

I signed up for the school of PE online and took the first course this past weekend. I have to say its a great course so far and the notes are excellent. The problems that they gave out are very similiar to the problems on the test. The only bad thing is that it does kill your whole weekend because its 8 hours on Sat/Sun. It makes you feel like you're working 7 days a week now. I'm kicking myself for not signing up in the fall.

[JFlores]

I signed up for the school of PE online and took the first course this past weekend. I have to say its a great course so far and the notes are excellent. The problems that they gave out are very similiar to the problems on the test. The only bad thing is that it does kill your whole weekend because its 8 hours on Sat/Sun. It makes you feel like you're working 7 days a week now. I'm kicking myself for not signing up in the fall.

I did as well. Its a great course, I wish they would break up in AM PM parts, there are some parts of the construction stuff he went over that would not be part of the AM. Can't wait to this weekend where Water Resources and Enviormental is what I will be taking.

[kenny911]

We are supposed to have 2 3 hour sessions in March with our PM subject but they haven't really given any dates on that as of now.

[lady_j]

I also signed up for School of PE onlline, and so far I really like it. I will agree with Kenny911 though that it really kills your weekend....but it definitely forces you to study. I've spent all week studying water resources in prep for our "classes" this weekend. I liked the construction notes, the water notes are OK but I've found a couple mistakes.....

See you all this weekend!

[JFlores]

what mistakes do you find?? The construction notes were done very well. Water is not too bad but not as detailed.

[kenny911]

The problem I'm seeing in water right now is that we seem to be doing some FE style problems and not many PE style. Or problems that have zero chance of being on the AM section. Hopefully day 2 is better because this was one of my weaker subjects on the PE.

[JFlores]

The problem I'm seeing in water right now is that we seem to be doing some FE style problems and not many PE style. Or problems that have zero chance of being on the AM section. Hopefully day 2 is better because this was one of my weaker subjects on the PE.

I agree, did you do the water resources for the pm??? BTW i recommend you get the goswami book and goswami came out with some problems to work on.

[JFlores]

Not as good as I thought it would be atleast the water resources part. Spent too much time on pumps when in reality there is at most one question.

[kenny911]

I'm doing transportation. Day 2 was better than day 1 but I think we needed to spend some more time on Hydrology.

[lady_j]

I agree with you both about the water resources class. I also thought that it was slghtly misleading when the instructor would say "this is representative of an AM problem" and he would be referring to a one or two line simple calculation problem that required almost no thought. He'd also do the same thing "this is a PM problem" when in my experience (having taken the exam before) the question he was referring to was probably something we could expect as a breadth problem.

All that being said, the class definitely forces me to study....and concentrate. I spend all week reading the notes and CERM (and Goswami) and doing practice problems, and then all weekend in front of the computer. I am putting in a lot of hours that I would never have done on my own.

[JFlores]

What you guys think of the structural lecture?? I think he spends too much time on theory.

[kenny911]

I didn't think his practice problems were representative on what you may see on the morning PE. He didn't spend enough time on moment and shear diagrams and it was really confusing at times when he would doodle on the screen and you had numbers all over the place. In terms of ranking week 1-3, I would say week 3 was the worst so far. His notes were good and since I failed once I kind of know whats going to be on the AM for structural but I bet the people that have never taken it are freaking out right now thinking steel design will be on there. He made it a lot harder than it actually is.

On the other hand, I'm excited we have a 2 week break. Really need my weekend back.

[JFlores]

I didn't think his practice problems were representative on what you may see on the morning PE. He didn't spend enough time on moment and shear diagrams and it was really confusing at times when he would doodle on the screen and you had numbers all over the place. In terms of ranking week 1-3, I would say week 3 was the worst so far. His notes were good and since I failed once I kind of know whats going to be on the AM for structural but I bet the people that have never taken it are freaking out right now thinking steel design will be on there. He made it a lot harder than it actually is.

On the other hand, I'm excited we have a 2 week break. Really need my weekend back.

Agree on the bolded, I will take the time the next two weeks to go over the notes. Work out sample problems. i wish all the notes were done like the construction notes, those notes are outstanding.

[kenny911]

I thought the geotech was excellent this weekend.

[JFlores]

I thought the geotech was excellent this weekend.

I agree as well, very well presented and at the right pace. Construction and Geotech notes are by far the best notes out of the set. I have not seen the trasnportation yet. Can not wait to this week to do the Water Resources and Environmental depth classes.

[kenny911]

Just wanted to update this thread. I passed the PE and greatly attribute this to School of PE. The bonus PM transportation class was good because he talked about a few problems that just happened to be on the test that I know I never would have figured out on my own. Also, the construction notes were money for the AM. I highly recommend this course. Just wondering if they are going to send us surveys now to find out if we passed.

[JFlores]

I would also like to update this thread, and say that I passed. I am sure the school of pe did help out as well.

[kenny911]

Looks like Lady_J passed too. Well as you can see, school of pe produces good results with studying of course.