Civil PE Passing Zone

I failed my second try and thinking to get a little help. Did any one took Civil PE Passing Zone. Did it helped? It bothers me, that it always ends one week after exam is off. Does it means that everyone is loosing a week of study or any other reason to have this 11th week after the exam ends? Can you ask questions and receive the answers? Well, before I pay for this class, I'd like to know how it works.

Tanya said:

I failed my second try and thinking to get a little help. Did any one took Civil PE Passing Zone. Did it helped? It bothers me, that it always ends one week after exam is off. Does it means that everyone is loosing a week of study or any other reason to have this 11th week after the exam ends? Can you ask questions and receive the answers? Well, before I pay for this class, I'd like to know how it works.

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I took the passing zone course for the civil PE. I found that it wasn't nearly as helpful as I had hoped. The weekly questions didn't seem to be very reflective of the actual PE problems. I saw their strategy of giving much more difficult problems so more concepts would be learned in one problem but having hour long pipe flow problems didn't seem to be very useful. The course is separated into weekly modules the facilitators only answer questions about the specific weeks subject area. This once again makes sense but isn't very helpful if you need in depth help in a subject area in a week that the topic isn't being covered. The additional cost for the exam cafe was kind of disappointing as well. I would say using the PPI study books is good and if you aren't a very structured person the schedule could help you. Every little thing can help but I wouldn't advise anyone to enroll in it for an added edge. The only way to get through the exam is to study your butt off and work as many problems as you can. The 10 weekly problems in each subject area wasn't enough for me. Hope this helps.

Milo223 said:

Tanya said:

I failed my second try and thinking to get a little help. Did any one took Civil PE Passing Zone. Did it helped? It bothers me, that it always ends one week after exam is off. Does it means that everyone is loosing a week of study or any other reason to have this 11th week after the exam ends? Can you ask questions and receive the answers? Well, before I pay for this class, I'd like to know how it works.

Click to expand...

I took the passing zone course for the civil PE. I found that it wasn't nearly as helpful as I had hoped. The weekly questions didn't seem to be very reflective of the actual PE problems. I saw their strategy of giving much more difficult problems so more concepts would be learned in one problem but having hour long pipe flow problems didn't seem to be very useful. The course is separated into weekly modules the facilitators only answer questions about the specific weeks subject area. This once again makes sense but isn't very helpful if you need in depth help in a subject area in a week that the topic isn't being covered. The additional cost for the exam cafe was kind of disappointing as well. I would say using the PPI study books is good and if you aren't a very structured person the schedule could help you. Every little thing can help but I wouldn't advise anyone to enroll in it for an added edge. The only way to get through the exam is to study your butt off and work as many problems as you can. The 10 weekly problems in each subject area wasn't enough for me. Hope this helps.

Click to expand...

I totally agree! I wouldn'twaste the money. Buysome practice exam books and practice problem books and use this site and you can get much better information for free. I took the test 3 times and finally just passed. The first time I thought that I was prepared, but had no idea how much they tried to trick you with the wording of problems and such. The second time I would say I was over prepared and it worked against me. I spent too much time trying to find the similar problem to get the right answer. I spent too much time looking and not enough time doing. The third time my stratagy was different. Prepared a little less, took less books, stayed as calm as I could and concentrated on just working the problem. As everyone knows there is on average 6 minutes a question...so don't over think what they are asking you. Overall what worked for me....less searching more doing!

StaceyG said:

Milo223 said:

Tanya said:

I failed my second try and thinking to get a little help. Did any one took Civil PE Passing Zone. Did it helped? It bothers me, that it always ends one week after exam is off. Does it means that everyone is loosing a week of study or any other reason to have this 11th week after the exam ends? Can you ask questions and receive the answers? Well, before I pay for this class, I'd like to know how it works.

Click to expand...

I took the passing zone course for the civil PE. I found that it wasn't nearly as helpful as I had hoped. The weekly questions didn't seem to be very reflective of the actual PE problems. I saw their strategy of giving much more difficult problems so more concepts would be learned in one problem but having hour long pipe flow problems didn't seem to be very useful. The course is separated into weekly modules the facilitators only answer questions about the specific weeks subject area. This once again makes sense but isn't very helpful if you need in depth help in a subject area in a week that the topic isn't being covered. The additional cost for the exam cafe was kind of disappointing as well. I would say using the PPI study books is good and if you aren't a very structured person the schedule could help you. Every little thing can help but I wouldn't advise anyone to enroll in it for an added edge. The only way to get through the exam is to study your butt off and work as many problems as you can. The 10 weekly problems in each subject area wasn't enough for me. Hope this helps.

Click to expand...

I totally agree! I wouldn'twaste the money. Buysome practice exam books and practice problem books and use this site and you can get much better information for free. I took the test 3 times and finally just passed. The first time I thought that I was prepared, but had no idea how much they tried to trick you with the wording of problems and such. The second time I would say I was over prepared and it worked against me. I spent too much time trying to find the similar problem to get the right answer. I spent too much time looking and not enough time doing. The third time my stratagy was different. Prepared a little less, took less books, stayed as calm as I could and concentrated on just working the problem. As everyone knows there is on average 6 minutes a question...so don't over think what they are asking you. Overall what worked for me....less searching more doing!

Click to expand...

thank you, guys for your reply. I have my own schedule and strategy, and will follow it. I just need somebody to ask questions sometimes. I guess, it would be this Board.

I took the course, and agree with the comments above. I followed the schedule, but did A LOT more problems than the course dictated. I passed, first time, so I guess it I can't dog it too much. The one thing those hour+ long problems did for me was scare the crap out of me so I studied very hard. They have a forum, but it was full of people asking for help with specific solutions when they should have been learning how to find the information on their own so I never used it.

If you've taken the test, you know what on there and what the questions look like, so I wouldn't recommend the course. I will say this though, the CERM was the primary reference I used in preparation and during the exam, and if you do the Lindburg Practice Problems you will learn the CERM inside and out.

I'm trying School of PE. It gets good reviews, especially on this board it seems.

PPI's Civil Engineering Passing Zone ends a week after the exam so that participants can say, "Goodbye" to their fellow studymates and "Thanks" to the PZ instructors, as well as ask the inevitable questions: "How do you think YOU did?" and "What color was your pencil?"

Tanya, so sorry you didn't make it this time. Keep your head up and keep studying and I'm positive you will pass. I was fortunate to pass this time but here's some tips which might helped.

1. Get the All In One PE Guide by Goswami and see if you can sign up for his class. I took the Passing Zone and to tell you truth I didn't use a single note sheet during the exam. It's more of a "keep you on track" tool than anything else. But Goswami's online class suppose to be great he's a really good advisor and you can ask him any questions you want.

2. Sign up for a local review course. I did this the second time around and I felt that it helped in some ways. Again, it kept me on track and I had a set schedule of what to study.

3. Find a study partner. I was taking the exam with another co-worker and we would set up a time on every tuesday and thursday to do timed problems. I think that helped a lot cause it really put you on the spot to do problems as fast as you can.

4. Make an index of all your key books, the CERM, HCM, Greenbook, MUTCD, etc. I combined all these index into one book and it was so helpful.

5. Take several practice exams. We must have taken 4 practice exams in real life situations. This really tested your ability to work under pressure.

6. I believe the NCEES recently updated their study books. Pick up the Transportation PE Sample Questions and Solutions book. I'm sure it will be worth gold as a study tool.

7. If you have the time, go through the Lindeburg Practice Book. It does get you familiar with the CERM in and out.

If you want you can share your diagnostics and maybe I can help in certain areas or others on the board can help. I know you can do it and this race is not over for you yet, next April will be another lap, and you will continue until you will pass and then your race will be done. Good luck!