What books were most helpful

[pissed_off_eng]

what books did people find most helpful for the PE exam. I took the civil w/ geo in the afternoon. Got creamed for the second time. I used the cerm and das books. alot of stuff i couldn't find. I saw people with entire libraries with them, hand trucks, dolleys, suit cases, ... WTF? Their has got to be an alternative or "a premium set of books". I'm looking to a start a comprehensive list of what books you really need for this exam. Lets put this board to good use.

CERM - good for the morning - not good enough for the afternoon

SMS - not good enough to pass

DAS- soil mechanics and foundations txt - useless for the exam

NAVFAC manual - can compliment the cerm as far formulas

These are the books i brought with me and some mickey mouse geotech book i got off of amazon - paperback and all spelled wrong- absolutely useless.

Their has got to be something that is comparable to the CERM that can be used in addition to it.

 

[maryannette]

For all the exams I took, I found an engineering dictionary helpful.

 

[JSteven]

what books did people find most helpful for the PE exam. I took the civil w/ geo in the afternoon. Got creamed for the second time. I used the cerm and das books. alot of stuff i couldn't find. I saw people with entire libraries with them, hand trucks, dolleys, suit cases, ... WTF? Their has got to be an alternative or "a premium set of books". I'm looking to a start a comprehensive list of what books you really need for this exam. Lets put this board to good use.
CERM - good for the morning - not good enough for the afternoon

SMS - not good enough to pass

DAS- soil mechanics and foundations txt - useless for the exam

NAVFAC manual - can compliment the cerm as far formulas

These are the books i brought with me and some mickey mouse geotech book i got off of amazon - paperback and all spelled wrong- absolutely useless.

Their has got to be something that is comparable to the CERM that can be used in addition to it.

Useful - CERM, the most updated NAVFAC Manuals (2005 I believe), Class notes from School of PE, Bowles, Structural Analysis

Useless - Das, Terzaghi,

 

[sac_engineer]

I just took the exam in October and only brought a backpack with me. Unless you're taking one of the specialized exams, like structural or geotechnical, then you don't need to bring your entire library from home into the exam. I saw one person bring a 500-page chemistry book into the civil exam. Why??

I highly recommend the following text for the Civil PE exam that I found on Amazon: "All in One Civil Engineering PE Breadth and Depth Exam Guide" by Indranil Goswami (McGraw Hill, 2009). It was the only book I needed for about 75% of the questions for both morning and afternoon (transpo) sessions. My only complaint is that there are a few misprints in the sample problems which added a few hours in my study time. Since this is a new book, there may be an errata document coming out soon.

This book, in combination with the CERM, is pretty much all you need to pass the exam.

Please note that I haven't received my results yet, but I felt pretty confident after the exam since this book had many of the same type of questions and easy-to-find tables and equations.

Good luck!

 

[roadwreck]

It was the only book I needed for about 75% of the questions for both morning and afternoon (transpo) sessions.

It's a well known fact that the transpo test is the easiest of all the exams. Any idiot could pass that exam with nothing more than a paper clip, needle nose pliers, a stick of gum and a few strips of beef jerky.

 

[wilheldp_PE]

It's a well known fact that the transpo test is the easiest of all the exams. Any idiot could pass that exam with nothing more than a paper clip, needle nose pliers, a stick of gum and a few strips of beef jerky.

Hell, with that assortment of items, MacGyver could have passed the exam and built himself a car to drive home in.

 

[dneva]

I believe the construction is the easiest of all. Just bring a 2x4, safety glasses, and a measuring tape.

 

[Santiagj]

I took the civil w/geo last april and passed on my first try. This is the list of books I brought in order of which ones I used the most to least. I thought it was pretty straight forward. My goal was to pack as lightly as possible because I did not want to spend all my time rummaging through reference materials. I read the entire CERM and tabbed the hell out of it. My tabs were color coded. Each subject was a different color and then I tabbed the formulas or areas which I thought were important. I think that helped alot.

1. CERM

2. Principles of Foundation Engineering, 5th edition by Das

3. Foundation Engineering Handbook by Day

4. Manual of Steel Construction LRFD 3rd Edition

5. Geotechnical Engineering Principles and Practices by Coduto (barely used)

I brought my LRFD steel manual for general reference. It has some useful stuff like basic shear and moment diagrams, units and conversions. I would recommend bringing this too. I also brought the sample questions book I got off the NCEES website.

Here are a couple of pictures of my CERM tabbing.