8 replies to this topic

[Calixico]

I am sure someone here has taken the Dr. Indranil Goswami Online Review class. Could someone share their thoughts on the class. The +/- so I that I can make an educated decision on if I should take it or the school of PE Review class.


Thank you.

[kenny911]

My review of the course.

The practice problems he gives out are great. The notes are ok and his book is great. The only problem is that his questions are tailored to his book and I ended up using the CERM alot more on the test than I thought I would so it tripped me up a bit. The one bad thing about his class is that it wasn't structured and he was jumping all over the place and it seemed like a few people dominated the class and we could have learned more if it wasn't for them asking a lot of questions. My advice would be to buy his book and take School of PE because they focus on using the CERM.

[Callan74]

I have nothing but good things to say about the School of PE (SoP) online course. Don't get me wrong I was hoping for an in-residence class when I signed up but due to lack of enrollment I had to take the online class. I was presently surprised on how much I enjoyed the class, what i learned, and how fast the 16 hour weekend classes went by. I spent a lot of time studying on my own but the SoP kinda sealed the deal for me. It provided clarification and honestly I found about 10 calculation mistakes I was making that felt solid on before the class.

I agree with Kenny, I definitely used both the Goswami and CERM "books" for the PE..they compliment each other. And take the School of PE!

C

[biofem2011]

I took Dr. Goswami`s review class last October and passed the Water Resources Exam. Yay!!!!

I took Dr. Goswami`s EIT review class in 2007(traditional class) and passed the EIT. Yay!!!!

Like someone said, the class isn`t structures; partly because he was trying to let us know how interconnected the subject areas are; for example he would be talking about geotech and jump to how something similar might come i in construction or structures- which I like to a certain extent, and some people are just full of questions!! ha ha ha. But seriously, that guy is a genius. (Trust me I`m not in any way related to him and I have not been paid)

Now, did I solely rely on the class to help me pass? NO NO NO.
I was going to study solo but hit a road block with some problems and decided I needed to be in a review class. Dr. Goswami`s class was the most convenient for me. With 3 kids, a full time job and 9 credits of grad school work.............( I must be crazy....) Also, the fact that I could email him questions and he`ll respond gave me peace of mind. I felt like I had a problem solving machine (ha ha ha). Even though Dr. Goswami uses his Al in One book, he`s still flexible as he entertained questions from CERM. I used the CERM mostly and used the all in one as a supplement. The all in one had a lot of quick formulas that saved me time during the exam...(you can say that again)

What else did I do? I made sure I studied before the class. I covered 99.9% of the topics before the class so I was never lost when I attended.
I collected materials from a colleague that took the SoPE class previously and studied them like they were the only thing in the world. Did I say I almost memorized the CERM?. Dr. Goswami's exam like questions were the bomb. I made sure I solved those questions and understood them, I could almost recite them. Oh well... I was still scared of failing going into the exam.

Will I recommend Dr. Goswami having taken his class? Absolutely- if you are disciplined. Let me add that I only attended the WRE PM sessions for Dr. Goswami`s class. I have 3 kids to take care of and didn`t think the depth sections of the other areas were necessary. I love that he separeted the AM and the PM classes. No business with Geotech PM? no problem.

For the classes that I missed out of laziness, the recordings were emailed to us. I didn`t feel like I missed the transportation classes even though I had it on in the basement but was in the kitchen making dinner. I went back and listened to some of the recordings when my kids went to bed, studied until morning, slept for a maximum of 4 hrs, went to work, went to school and acted like a zombie for 10 weeks.

The drive to the SoPE location is about 3 hrs both way for me. There`s no way I`ll drive that far. No way!! Will I recommend the SoPE? If the 5 weekend class works for you, if the schedule works for you. I love love love the school of PE materials.

Would I have passed without Dr. Goswami`s class? No.
Would I have passed with only the SoPE materials? No.

PIck the one that works for you.

[Callan74]

I have nothing but good things to say about the School of PE (SoP) online course. Don't get me wrong I was hoping for an in-residence class when I signed up but due to lack of enrollment I had to take the online class. I was presently surprised on how much I enjoyed the class, what i learned, and how fast the 16 hour weekend classes went by. I spent a lot of time studying on my own but the SoP kinda sealed the deal for me. It provided clarification and honestly I found about 10 calculation mistakes I was making that felt solid on before the class.

I agree with Kenny, I definitely used both the Goswami and CERM "books" for the PE..they compliment each other. And take the School of PE!

C

BTW...I passed Civil PE!

[Jazzymania]

I have nothing but good things to say about the School of PE (SoP) online course. Don't get me wrong I was hoping for an in-residence class when I signed up but due to lack of enrollment I had to take the online class. I was presently surprised on how much I enjoyed the class, what i learned, and how fast the 16 hour weekend classes went by. I spent a lot of time studying on my own but the SoP kinda sealed the deal for me. It provided clarification and honestly I found about 10 calculation mistakes I was making that felt solid on before the class.

I agree with Kenny, I definitely used both the Goswami and CERM "books" for the PE..they compliment each other. And take the School of PE!

C

I would also like to take the online School of PE but the weekend schedule does not work for me since I work weekends.
Do they record the class and can I view it at any time? Please let me know...Thanks!!

[kenny911]

I'm pretty sure they do record the videos but I would give them a call or send them an email to double check. The class starts in 2 weeks.

[Ted L]

I just took the PE/CIVIL/CONSTRUCTION exam in April 2012. I took the Goswami online class (spring 2012) and thought it was very useful. His notes were very useful too, and he does record his lectures, so you can re-review them. I found his book to be more direct and summary than CERM and found that I used his book and/or notes for subjects I understood. I tended to go back to CERM for concepts I didn't understand for a deeper review. I also used the new AM/BREADTH DVD quite extensively (ppi2pass) "PE Referesher course for the civil engineer-morning topics" I used this as much or more than the Gowswai notes. I also used the new CONSTRUCTION DEPTH REFERENCE MANUAL (PPI Korman). I found during the exam I used:

1) CONSTRUCTION DEPTH REF MANUAL
2) CIVIL PE REF MANUAL - Lindeburg 6th edition
3) CERM
4) DVD (screen shots) - AM breadth review notes
5) Goswami notes

I noticed several questions requiring my OSHA 1926 book too. These were my main books used both during my review and during the exam. I had a bunch of other books, and actually did use a few of them, so didn't regret taking so many. My focus for prep was working as many problems as I could. I left feeling pretty good. Hope this helps.

[guillermog]

I graduated from college in 1976 and will be 60 years old this year AND I work as a Construction Manager so I rarely need to use the design skills of my engineering education. This is relevant because I am not a genius and after taking Dr. INDRANIL GOSWAMI’S class I passed on the first attempt!! There is no doubt in my mind that without his class I would have never passed. If you read nothing else on this thread read this: DR. GOSWAMI’S CLASS WILL GIVE YOU EVERYTHING YOU NEED. PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT HE SAYS FOR YOUR PREPARATION, STUDY FAITHFULLY AND YOU SHOULD PASS. HIS KNOWLEDGE IS REALLY BROAD SPECTRUM AND BECAUSE HE TEACHES THE WHOLE CLASS THERE IS CONTINUITY. HE IS ALSO VERY SENSITIVE TO FEEDBACK AND WILL ANSWER EVERY QUESTION YOU HAVE AND WILL TAILOR THE CLASS BASED ON THE PARTICIPANTS IN THAT PERIOD AS OPPOSED TO A CANNED PRESENTATION FOR AN UNDEFINED AUDIENCE.

This is how I prepared:
I chose, every time, to attend the online lectures and then a few days later repeat them again from Google Sucks +. Sometimes it took me another 5-6 hours, per lecture, to make sure I really understood what he was discussing and explaining. I trusted that by understanding and building a good foundation I could always figure things out; this also gave relevance to my efforts as I realized I would carry the newly re-discovered knowledge with me for the rest of my life.
I put in about 140 hours over a period of 14 weeks (I was fairly disciplined but still had more lapses of no-study days, than I would have wished for) and spent less than 20% of my time doing problems as I concentrated on reviewing his lectures. I bought all kinds of problem practice books (5-6) “to do problems, problems, problems” but ran out of time and I never even opened them and chose instead to learn and understand from Dr. Goswami’s lectures. I only used Lindeburg’s and Goswami’s books as references, barely reading them. I hardly even did the problems in Goswami’s reference chapters, instead I concentrated on doing the problems from the lectures (which I could always replay for help) and I would come back to them a few days/weeks later to make sure I really did understand the concepts rather than just knowing how to do problems by pure technique.

As an anecdote to positive thinking: I felt ok with not having even done ONE problem in the books which I never opened (honest!), since I was planning on concentrating on doing problems for the next exam after tasking the first one as a “warm-up”. Apparently my strategy (which took some of the tension off for this go-round) was good enough since I passed the exam on the first attempt and didn’t have to study for another exam.

Hang in there, study as hard as you can, have faith, find a way to take some of the pressure off, and follow Dr. Goswami’s instructions and you’ll get all you need to pass the Civil PE exam.