Mechanical background taking civil structural

I am planning to take Civil structural depth Oct 2017. All my education (including Master's) and most of my experience is all mechanical (structural mechanics, not thermal/fluids) and my current job is mostly structural design. So want to give a shot at it. What are my chances ? Here is my proposal to make it work. 

1) Register for EET breadth and depth (web live classes)

2) Learn new stuffs about soil mechanics, water resources etc that I never learnt in my life since my educational background is all mechanical.

3) Willing to spend atleast 25 hours a week for 4 months starting may or june (my second son is due on may first week so possibly June). Solve problems after problems. 

4) Have a consulting structural engineer who stamps all our company projects. He is in business for last 30 years. Might seek his expertise occasionally and of course tap on you guys then and there

5) Look for a study partner in houston area. I am doubly effective with group study

I would appreciate if you (civil guys) could provide some thoughts. My only drawback or that one thing that holds me back is subjects like geotechnical, water resources, transportation which I have never had in my undergrad.. However I am very interested in learning structural and I am already little familiar with design aspects, asce 7-10, IBC etc through work.

I know it is not easy but willing to take the challenge. Thanks for your assistance.

If you stick to this plan, you have a very high chance of passing in first try.

I don't think you will need #4 or #5. Most if not all of the morning stuff (Geotech, Water Resources, Traffic, etc) are all cook book where you apply the formulas from CERM and be done.. I finished the morning session in 1.5 hrs versus 4.

If you solve enough number of problems with enough diversity, you will be alright in the afternoon session as well since the questions don't go deep enough to differentiate a practicing structural engineer. 4 months of 25 per week will definitely allow you to do just that. A strong morning session helps any afternoon deficiency if needed.

I suggest that you divide your time in 3 equal durations to make 3 passes on each subject. First pass will be heavily reading, understanding the concept with a few example questions. Second pass is 50-50, refreshing the materials from first round and then solving problems. Third pass should be all problem solving and re-learning your weak points where you could not get the questions right.

Good luck...

SoCalBound said:

I suggest that you divide your time in 3 equal durations to make 3 passes on each subject. First pass will be heavily reading, understanding the concept with a few example questions. Second pass is 50-50, refreshing the materials from first round and then solving problems. Third pass should be all problem solving and re-learning your weak points where you could not get the questions right.

Good luck...

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Great suggestion. Also, if I may add, figure out how much time you will be able to devote to preparing for the exam and make a schedule so that you can follow it rigorously. In general, it takes about 250-300 hours of total prep time for the NCEES PE exams for Civil. That should give you a ball park estimate of the time you need to allocate each week towards studying. With a full time job and other obligations, 10-15 hours of studying every week can be a challenge. 

Best of luck.

Thanks so much for your responses. What is you recommendation for heavy reading and for solving problems with enough diversity ? Just CERM and EET materials is good enough ? Since I am new to these subjects I want to limit myself to just the right materials, not too much and bombard myself.

My suggestion would be to buy the latest CERM and the latest Goswami. These two books will be your main study books. You may need adding codes like ASCE 7-10, ACI 318-11, etc. as you go.

Toward the middle of the period, you will need to buy some sample exam books as well.

I also suggest that you finish first 2 of your 3 passes before the EET classes start. This way, class material will be easier on you and you will be ahead of the curve.

I did not take any classes while preparing for the PE, so I don't know about the study/reference material they provide during the classes.

I would print and get it spiral bound at Office Depot for the material you will receive. It makes it much easier to go through during the exam rather than 3-punch binder with huge rings to go around every single time you turn a page...

I would reassess the 25hr/week target. That averages to about 3 hrs a day. If you really feel you need 300+ hrs to study start now and do 1 hr a day after work or before and 2hrs on the weekend. You'll thank yourself later and will be able to keep the pace I would think.

StandardPractice said:

I would reassess the 25hr/week target. That averages to about 3 hrs a day. If you really feel you need 300+ hrs to study start now and do 1 hr a day after work or before and 2hrs on the weekend. You'll thank yourself later and will be able to keep the pace I would think.

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You guys were right. Currently doing roughly 20 hours a week with other commitments. See a feel-good progress in reading and solving prob in soil mech, materials, structural depth. Hoping I can complete the first pass before the eet classes begin on the respective subjects. Second pass is during the live web class and 3rd pass is catching up in the last 3 weeks by just solving prob. But here is where I need some input.

1) Lots of topics on soil mech, structural breath, materials etc are very new. This week got frustrated with not able to go back and identify some topics that I completed few days/weeks ago. How to improve this ? Doing tabbing, markups etc on the go but not enough. Unfortunately, there is no search index in the eet materials. 

2) Haven't even started structural depth yet. How much time is recommended to devote for the afternoon prep ?

3) If there is a selected few topics that it is kinda difficult or not having a high chance in the exam, what it could be ? I might consider ignoring them instead of preparing every single topic for the exam.

Thanks in advance.

1) I'd tab your EET notes in relation to the NCEES study guide topics. It will help reduce unnecessary tabs maybe. PPI offers an online problem solving for 30 day or 60 day access that was useful for me for the morning breadth. 

2) I put about a month into the afternoon structural portion, not including practice exam time. Averaged about an hour or two a day (45 hrs in total probably). This is very person specific though and I'd advise taking the afternoon practice exam now to see how much of the topics you are unfamiliar with. If you take the afternoon practice exam from NCESS or PPI I wouldn't focus on # correct, but rather how many times did you have a viable solution path. That tells you more if you are familiar with topics than if you got problem correct. You can work out small kinks if you got a problem wrong but was "close".

3) This is dangerous and take any advice with a grain of salt lol, but rely on the problem estimates from NCEES. It's usually very close to actual. If a topic only had 1 estimated problem on exam I didn't focus too hard on it.

Take a look at this video about the PE exam afterthoughts and structural afternoon portion. It might help some: