Currently, I’m in the same shoes with the tread owner (deciding between the water resources/ environmental depth or the transportation depth). It will be about a year before I can walk through the door of the PE test taking site, but it doesn’t hurt to plan ahead in life. How I plan to approach my final decision between the two subject depths will be base on my comfort level on each of the sub-subjects from water resources/ environmental and transportation. Below is a list of subject depth’s sub-subject and my comfort level ratings for each. The complete list is listed on the NCEES website.
Civil—WATER RESOURCES and ENVIRONMENTAL Depth Exam Specifications
I. Hydraulics – Closed Conduit 15%
II. Hydraulics – Open Channel 15%
III. Hydrology 15%
IV. Groundwater and Well Fields 7.5%
V. Wastewater Treatment 15%
VI. Water Quality 15%
VII. Water Treatment 15%
VIII. Engineering Economics 2.5%
Since I recently graduate from college and my field deals with water resources I feel comfortable going through the test if it focused on sub-subjects I, II, III, IV and VIII. Totaling my comfort sub-subject percentages, that equates to 55% of the afternoon depth.
Civil—TRANSPORTATION Depth Exam Specifications
I. Traffic Analysis 22.5%
II. Geometric Design 30%
III. Transportation Planning 7.5%
IV. Traffic Safety 15%
V. Other Topics 25%
My last graduate course was traffic engineering, so sub-subject I and IV is a definite comfort level choice. Geometric Design and Other Topics was cover during my college years, so sub-subject III and V is also a definite choice. Totaling the transportation depth comfort level, it equates to 92.5% for the afternoon depth.
Narrowing down my two choices, 92.5% sounds better than 55%. I hope this example can help you in your decision between the two afternoon subject depths.
Although I work in the field of water resources the addition of the environmental sub-subjects made the water resource/ environmental afternoon depth unattractive. I can spend the time on learning the environmental portion and re-learning my least favorite subject of waste water engineering or save time on reviewing the subjects I already know and feel comfortable with (i.e. traffic engineering, geometric design, hydraulics, etc.)
Obviously, everyone will have a different situation than me, but my reply is about the approach to the decision making for the afternoon depth. Pretty much the approach is the same as the “process of elimination” method used in multiple choice test taking. In this case, due to “process of elimination” the choice for me is the transportation depth for the afternoon portion of the PE examination.
