Best civil prep course

Hey, I've been looking around for civil PE prep courses and I've found a few and I'm trying to figure out which one is best for me. I need something that's a bit more in depth I think because I didn't graduate from a civil program and don't have experience with some of the topics like transportation or water resources.

So far I've looked into the School of PE, Testmasters, PEreview.net, the Goswami online review, and then the ASCE CD review. Has anyone done any of these courses that would or would not recommend them? And if so how was the format for the one you took? I wanted to stay away from simply just having someone do problems and get a bit more of an actual lesson.

Thanks!

VAPSU said:

Hey, I've been looking around for civil PE prep courses and I've found a few and I'm trying to figure out which one is best for me. I need something that's a bit more in depth I think because I didn't graduate from a civil program and don't have experience with some of the topics like transportation or water resources.
So far I've looked into the School of PE, Testmasters, PEreview.net, the Goswami online review, and then the ASCE CD review. Has anyone done any of these courses that would or would not recommend them? And if so how was the format for the one you took? I wanted to stay away from simply just having someone do problems and get a bit more of an actual lesson.

Thanks!

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I recommend School of PE. They do a great job for the general portion of the exam (AM) but as for the afternoon section for the Structural exam I felt the course wasn't able to cover very much. I have no idea about the other disciplines.

CitMark said:

VAPSU said:

Hey, I've been looking around for civil PE prep courses and I've found a few and I'm trying to figure out which one is best for me. I need something that's a bit more in depth I think because I didn't graduate from a civil program and don't have experience with some of the topics like transportation or water resources.
So far I've looked into the School of PE, Testmasters, PEreview.net, the Goswami online review, and then the ASCE CD review. Has anyone done any of these courses that would or would not recommend them? And if so how was the format for the one you took? I wanted to stay away from simply just having someone do problems and get a bit more of an actual lesson.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

I recommend School of PE. They do a great job for the general portion of the exam (AM) but as for the afternoon section for the Structural exam I felt the course wasn't able to cover very much. I have no idea about the other disciplines.

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I'm looking for the same thing. If I'm going to spend all this money on PE Review I want it to be the best. I have a friend who recommended School of PE too.

I too am looking for the best review course. I have narrowed it to School of pe or Testmasters. I need to know which has the best practice problems. Since I have taken the test several times it nows boils done to practice problems until my eyes bleed. Can anyone give advise?

Civil Eng Chick said:

I too am looking for the best review course. I have narrowed it to School of pe or Testmasters. I need to know which has the best practice problems. Since I have taken the test several times it nows boils done to practice problems until my eyes bleed. Can anyone give advise?

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How about PEReview.net? How good are they for the construction depth?

I attended School of PE and passed first attempt in October. I would highly recommend it to anyone, especially for the AM portion. They give you an excellent notebook with tons of practice problems. They also do a live webinar for your specific depth portion. Mine was Transportation, and it was pretty good. Whatever you decide, do not rely solely on the class to get you ready, as I do not think that would have worked for me, especially for the depth exam.

Rine said:

I attended School of PE and passed first attempt in October. I would highly recommend it to anyone, especially for the AM portion. They give you an excellent notebook with tons of practice problems. They also do a live webinar for your specific depth portion. Mine was Transportation, and it was pretty good. Whatever you decide, do not rely solely on the class to get you ready, as I do not think that would have worked for me, especially for the depth exam.

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Is that live webinar for the depth portion included with your refresher/workshop fee? Or is it an additonal fee?

You mention that you don't think the class alone is enough to soley rely on for test preparation - does that statement still hold true if you also go through the depth webinar?

Thanks!

rkelachim said:

Rine said:

I attended School of PE and passed first attempt in October. I would highly recommend it to anyone, especially for the AM portion. They give you an excellent notebook with tons of practice problems. They also do a live webinar for your specific depth portion. Mine was Transportation, and it was pretty good. Whatever you decide, do not rely solely on the class to get you ready, as I do not think that would have worked for me, especially for the depth exam.

Click to expand...

Is that live webinar for the depth portion included with your refresher/workshop fee? Or is it an additonal fee?

You mention that you don't think the class alone is enough to soley rely on for test preparation - does that statement still hold true if you also go through the depth webinar?

Thanks!

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I did the School of PE as well, and passed the first try after taking it. The live webinar for depth is included with the cost. You are still going to need to study more than what this class can offer, especially the depth portion. You will be wasting your time and money if you don’t. This isn’t a shortcut around studying properly, but a more focused one so you don’t waste your time on unnecessary subjects.

The webinar is only 3 hours and occurs only a week or two before the test. I did the Structural and the depth webinar was poor. I know a lot of people were upset because he pretty much seemed to go back over the same things as the in-person class. Definitely not enough to do well on the afternoon.

For the morning portion though, I felt pretty good without much more preparation. You have to be sure to go to both classes, the review and the workshop where they do practice problems. I hadn’t touched Civil stuff in over 10 years but I did both classes over the weekend then spent Monday doing more practice problems from the subject we just did. I usually felt pretty good after that. The rest of the week, I studied my depth subjects.

For my depth, I read all of the codes, did a lot of practice problems and made a lot of notes around formulas to make sure I didn’t make any stupid or common errors.

All in all, the School of PE is great for the morning, but it’s not a cure all and it isn’t meant for the afternoon. Although, I probably got 35 to 38 in the morning right which sure gives a lot of room for error in the afternoon.

kengineer said:

I did the School of PE as well, and passed the first try after taking it. The live webinar for depth is included with the cost. You are still going to need to study more than what this class can offer, especially the depth portion. You will be wasting your time and money if you don’t. This isn’t a shortcut around studying properly, but a more focused one so you don’t waste your time on unnecessary subjects.
The webinar is only 3 hours and occurs only a week or two before the test. I did the Structural and the depth webinar was poor. I know a lot of people were upset because he pretty much seemed to go back over the same things as the in-person class. Definitely not enough to do well on the afternoon.

For the morning portion though, I felt pretty good without much more preparation. You have to be sure to go to both classes, the review and the workshop where they do practice problems. I hadn’t touched Civil stuff in over 10 years but I did both classes over the weekend then spent Monday doing more practice problems from the subject we just did. I usually felt pretty good after that. The rest of the week, I studied my depth subjects.

For my depth, I read all of the codes, did a lot of practice problems and made a lot of notes around formulas to make sure I didn’t make any stupid or common errors.

All in all, the School of PE is great for the morning, but it’s not a cure all and it isn’t meant for the afternoon. Although, I probably got 35 to 38 in the morning right which sure gives a lot of room for error in the afternoon.

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Thanks kengineer!

I'm also going to be going the Civil exam with structural depth. Let me ask your thoughts on this...At my job, we do typical building design. So I have been exposed to much structural steel design, timber design, and reinforced concrete design as it pertains to foundations. Some of the other topics in the structural depth, I have limited experience such as masonry and non-foundation applications of reinforced concrete. And other topics I have never worked with (bridges, precast/prestressed concrete).

Do you think not having experience in bridge or precast/prestressed design and limited experience in masonry topics is a huge handicap going into this exam?

Hey rkelachim,

No, a lack of bridge, precast and masonry experience won’t hurt you a whole lot. I’m not great in those subjects either. I’ll tell you what you’ll need to know and what to get.

For Bridges, get the Structural Engineering Reference Manual, 4th Edition by PPI. It has enough to probably get you a few questions. If you want a bit more backup, try Highway Bridges, LRFD, 2nd Edition by Barker and Puckett. I took a graduate level bridge class and that was the text book. It’s a pretty good book. For Civil-Structural, you can probably get by without the AASHTO code. For the pure Structural Test, you would need the AASHTO.

For Precast, the PCI Manual, 6th, is a must have. It’s pretty cheap compared to most codes and there are some great example problems in there that match the theories of the NCEES practice tests. There are also some great examples on rigid shear wall load distribution. It was a help for me during the test.

For Masonry, the Structural Depth Reference Manual, 2nd Edition was pretty good. And yes, it’s different from the SERM, 4th. Probably so PPI can make more money. I have both and the SDRM, 2nd was better for Masonry, and it made more sense than the SERM. So I used the SDRM for Masonry on the test. You will also need the Masonry code, you will need it as a reference because they may ask a question from the code.

Overall, these will give you what you will need to fill in the gaps. You probably won’t get every question right, but it should give you enough to get through the test.

Just make sure you have your experience areas down well, it will be like free points on the test. Do not make the mistake of thinking because you do it every day that you don’t need to study it. The test is very, very different from real practice. Do the NCEES practice problems until you understand their methodologies and how they think. If you can do that, you should pass the test.

Took School of PE twice and passed.

I took the On-Demand classes put on by Engineering Education & Training, or EET, and passed with no problem! The classes and instructors are great, and up to date. They are always very quick to reply to questions, and help make heads or tails of anything that you may be struggling to understand. After taking this class, when sitting for the exam I found myself completely done with the morning session with nearly 2 full hours remaining! 

I took the construction PE, and Samir for EET was the instructor for all the construction depth material. He is a great teacher, and I definitely recommend him and the course EET puts on if you feel the need to have a refresher course before you sit for the PE exam! Good luck!

While I do not necessarily condone the 7 year old thread bump , I do concur that EET is top notch.  

ptatohed said:

While I do not necessarily condone the 7 year old thread bump , I do concur that EET is top notch.  

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LOL!

I was about to post, “what Goswami online review”? @VAPSU @ptatohed @knight1fox3

I recommend Professional Engineering Services passpe.com, their courses and books are very good prep for the PE exam.