Difficulty of the Environmental Exam

[Dleg]

For those of you who have taken or studied for the Environmental Engineering PE exam (the full 100-question exam, not the 80-question civil/enviro exam), how difficult would you rate it?

I ask because I recently received a surprising e-mail from my sister, who works in an administrative job at an engineering firm that specializes in hydrology. She told the engineers there that her brother (ME!) had taken and passed the Environmental PE exam, and, according to her, they were "amazed" and told her that they thought the only people who could pass that exam were folks who had an MS in environmental engineering.

I'm kind of scratching my head on that one. I found it easily doable, even though my degree is only a BS and is in Mechanical Engineering. Of course, I have been working now for over 16 years, but I really felt like that contributed only a little to my being able to pass the test. It was mostly the studying that did it for me, although I admit that the work experience made the studying a little easier.

What do you guys think? How would you rate the "difficulty" of the exam? Do you think a Master's degree is a major benefit to passing this exam?

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

OK, I have an M.S. in Envl and took the 100-question special so I can answer your question.

I thought the preparation and exam were tough, but I felt very good afterwards on the day of the exam. Most of that was because I felt very well prepared. 300 hours over 4.5 months including 4 practice exams and a shitload of practice problems. The reason it was 'doable' was because I put in the prep work. Simply having a master's wouldn't have made me pass.

The M.S. helped in a couple ways. I started studying 6 months after I graduated, so the material was fresh in my head and I still remembered how to study. I thought many of the quantitative questions were comparable to a short senior level or grad homework problem. Obviously the 2 month term design projects were not relevant.

There was still quite a bit of material I had never seen before: some of the legislation, OSHA, workplace safety, radiation, noise, personal protective gear, some of the solid waste stuff, etc. This was stuff the master's never covered.

However, I do think it helped me because part of graduate school is learning to how to think and learn and assimilate information.

 

[Guest]

Even though I haven't taken this exam, I helped a number of people prepare for it. I think the MS Environmental Engineering, to the extent that it gives you direction on what references/resources are available for design criteria or contraints is helpful. Otherwise, I think it is more important to simply be able to reason your way through problems by understanding the underlying processes.

Actually, I will make one additional caveat - the combination of my education/work experience has made me better prepared to answer qualitative questions regarding regulatory issues and biological/chemistry issues that typical engineers don't run across. I have had a several classes specifically dealing with water/wastewater chemistry as well as the biological functions of water/wastewater/waste as it pertains to microbiology and marcrobiology (ecology). Is it helpful - yes. Necessary - I don't think so.

:2cents:

JR

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

I have had a several classes specifically dealing with water/wastewater chemistry as well as the biological functions of water/wastewater/waste as it pertains to microbiology and marcrobiology (ecology). Is it helpful - yes. Necessary - I don't think so.

I had a few of those classes at the senior and grad level. I loooooved e-chem, it explains why a lot of things work the way they do. I took this one grad class that heavy into the biologoical side of treatment. It wasn't a class on treatment with a few mass balances on sludge, it was a micro bio/chem/genetics/kinetcs class where the bugs were then applied to a treatment technique. Brutally hard but it helped me a lot on the W/WW questions.

 

[JRO]

I was suprised to find that the Enviro PE exam was actually understandable (much to my surprise). Especially, since my educational background is a B.S. in ChE, so all my environmental background coming from on-job-training. Based on what I have encountered thus far, I consider Enviro. Eng to be applied ChE unit operations.

However, I would think that taking the Civil PE much harder. If all you would working in was the environmental/hydraulics areas for after graduation, having to re-learn and apply the other aspects of civil engineering (such as Geotech, Transportation and Structures) in an exam situation would be tough.

 

[Guest]

^^^ It is !!!!!!!!!!!! :true:

My one saving grace was that I was contemporaneously completing a MS in Civil (Geotechnical) that helped put it in persepctive.

JR

 

[Dleg]

That's been my thoughts as well - I would have a much harder time with the Civil exam than with the Enviro Exam.

 

[VA_Env_Engr]

I have an MS in Environmental Engineering as well, but its been about 9 years since I finished grad school. I agree with the points made above that preparation was the key in my passing it on first try. I studied for about 5 months, solved a lot of problems and took the practice tests. The hardest part of course is the regulations, especially air and haz waste. Since I don't work in those areas, I felt that to be my weakest. I did my best to prepare for them, but focused mostly on the areas I knew or was comfortable with. I don't believe you need an MS in environmental engineering to pass this test, but I certainly gives you an edge. I think it would provide even more of an advantage if someone were to take air and/or haz waste or env laws and regs elective courses.

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

^ I took a elective envl law class senior class senior year that was so helpful in studying for the PE. The Environmental Law Handbook is an essential reference in my opinion.

 

[Guest]

^^^ The curriculm I took in college actually folded applicable state/federal statutes and rules (regulations) into the coursework. A number of my class projects required research into looking up Federal Registers to find out what rules were promulgated during what time periods and how they were revised over time. Understanding the history of the rulemaking behind environmental legislation was always key to understanding how it is implemented. As a regulator, I cannot say ... well here is what makes sense. I have to lead folks down the primrose path by showing how history has brought us to where we are today. Most people welcome that sort of discussion.

I have actually had a role in developing rulemaking in my state as it pertains to hazardous waste (RCRA) and assisted in the defense of a statutory challenge to the interpretation of that rulemaking. :true:

JR

 

[Dleg]

I do a lot of rule-making work. Maybe that's why this test wasn't as hard for me as it perhaps should have been. I've written major amendments to on-site regs, stormwater regs, groundwater management regs, state water quality standards, and even wrote an entire "state" Subtitle-D solid waste permitting program (inlcluding regulations) from scratch (with two other people). I agree with JR - a key to understanding the regulations is to have a firm grip on the legislative history. Read those "preambles." But even so, most of the regulation writing I have done is for subjects the test doesn't cover at all, so RCRA, CERCLA and the Clean Air Act were very confusing for me. The EPA "orientation manuals" that you can download for free were a big help.