Advice from those who Passed Civil

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ads0221

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First post here although I lurk from time to time,l... first time taking it this fall... I made a 42/80 Civil Structural. Trying not to get too down on myself and as ironic as it sounds it's extremely motivated me and I've applied to take it again in April.

I don't want to risk studying alone again and looking over the same stuff so I'm looking at a prep course to refine my depth portion where I struggled the most.

I'm looking at both School of PE as well as EET. Right now I'm leaning towards EET as of this moment.

My question is for those who have taken EET Civil-Structural as well as any other depth. Is it best to get the On-Demand prep for the breadth portion? On the depth portion will the Live Webinars be better in having the ability to watch live and ask questions? Any and all comments are welcome.

Those of you that have just found out you passed  Congratulations!!!

 
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I've taken SoPE in the past but this last round, I decided to go with EET.  Even though I'm an enviro, I was so weak in water that I figured I'd need all the help I could get.

I can't speak for the structural exam, but EET is really good about providing a great binder, lots of practice exams, and homework questions.  I seriously think it's one of the main reasons I passed this round.

 
I have heard good things about School of PE. I passed the April Transportation depth 1st try, but I did not take any classes, so I cannot personally attest to any of them. Just passing along what I have heard from other people that I know personally, and SOPE comes up a lot.

Hope this helps, and keep after it!!

 
I think I'm just the person you are looking for. I took Civil Structural in April 2018 and failed with 48/80. I took it again this October and passed! The first time around I used School of PE for breadth and depth portions. I found the breadth to be very good from School of PE, however the depth was greatly lacking. The second time around I used EET. I did not like their breadth notes and lectures, however their depth was AMAZING! The notes they provided for the depth were so good I rarely need to reference anything else. I'm not sure if your company would reimburse you for these courses, but I know a big part of my success was taking the best of these two courses and combining them. For the exam I took my breadth notes from School of PE and my depth notes from EET, along with all the other required references. 

I also am a big fan of on demand, because you can start much earlier than the live classes. I don't think the live schedule leaves you with enough time to do practice problems on the material. If I had to take the exam again I would start the at the beginning of January. That gives you one month to watch lectures for breadth, one month for the depth lectures and the month before the test (March) just for practice problems. Last but not least, get familiar with your notes provided by the course you are going to take. 

I know exactly where you are coming from taking it the second time. One of the hardest parts of the exam is structuring your study schedule. Don't hesitate to ask any question you have on the courses or anything else. 

 
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USC_Engineer PE said:
I think I'm just the person you are looking for. I took Civil Structural in April 2018 and failed with 48/80. I took it again this October and passed! The first time around I used School of PE for breadth and depth portions. I found the breadth to be very good from School of PE, however the depth was greatly lacking. The second time around I used EET. I did not like their breadth notes and lectures, however their depth was AMAZING! The notes they provided for the depth were so good I rarely need to reference anything else. I'm not sure if your company would reimburse you for these courses, but I know a big part of my success was taking the best of these two courses and combining them. For the exam I took my breadth notes from School of PE and my depth notes from EET, along with all the other required references. 

I also am a big fan of on demand, because you can start much earlier than the on demand classes. I don't think the on demand schedule leaves you with enough time to do practice problems on the material. If I had to take the exam again I would start the at the beginning of January. That gives you one month to watch lectures for breadth, one month for the depth lectures and the month before the test (March) just for practice problems. Last but not least, get familiar with your notes provided by the course you are going to take. 

I know exactly where you are coming from taking it the second time. One of the hardest parts of the exam is structuring your study schedule. Don't hesitate to ask any question you have on the courses or anything else. 
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You hit the nail on the head. Thank you so much for the advice and congratulations on passing.

Did you take On demand or live webinar specifically for Structural Depth?

 
I took On Demand for all of the topics including structural depth. If you are diligent with a study plan I think its the best option. Just make sure you do the homework problems that correspond with each topic as you watch the lectures. It helps the lecture material sink in more.  

 
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Thanks again man. I think I’m going to go ahead with EET and use a few School of PE notes for the morning which I heard were good.

 
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No problem, if you go that route I have no doubt you will pass the test with ease. Good luck on your next attempt. 

 
ads0221 said:
Thanks again man. I think I’m going to go ahead with EET and use a few School of PE notes for the morning which I heard were good.
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Just saw that I made a typo above, I meant to say the live classes don't leave you with enough time. Also one last piece of advise make sure you take every reference listed listed by NCEES. 

 
I’ve got all the references. I’m thinking about doing live for the depth exclusively in case I have any questions as well as keep me on a schedule.

 
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I’ll add another recommendation for EET. The reference binders are great. Here’s a good (disturbing) bit of proof: I made a very dumb mistake and meant to sign up for the Water Resources PM exam, but somehow selected Construction instead. I didn’t know of my mistake until I sat down to take the test. I had taken the Water Resources depth EET course, and the EET breadth course as well. The EET binder for breadth luckily contained a lot of things needed for the Construction PM exam, and I was able to pass. I had other references as well, but the EET binders were invaluable.

 
I took the PE Civil Transportation in October for the first time and passed the exam. EET was great to help me to be prepared in such a short time of two months. Special thanks to Samir who was always available to answer my questions!

 
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I second the opinion about School of PE: great for morning preparation (really great, I feel I could answer correctly around 35-40 questions, and still had 1 hour left), but very weak for Structural afternoon part.

 
Don’t feel down. According to some of the Texas posts, this was an extremely hard exam! I think the cut score is around 46/47. That’s really low. I took structural last April, my 3rd attempt, and it was the hardest exam. You can do it. Just keep going at it. I highly recommended EET. Also, having done this 4x, there’s a bit of luck as well. It’s crazy how different each exam can be and you just never know what they’ll throw at you. 

 
USC_Engineer PE said:
I think I'm just the person you are looking for. I took Civil Structural in April 2018 and failed with 48/80. I took it again this October and passed! The first time around I used School of PE for breadth and depth portions. I found the breadth to be very good from School of PE, however the depth was greatly lacking. The second time around I used EET. I did not like their breadth notes and lectures, however their depth was AMAZING! The notes they provided for the depth were so good I rarely need to reference anything else. I'm not sure if your company would reimburse you for these courses, but I know a big part of my success was taking the best of these two courses and combining them. For the exam I took my breadth notes from School of PE and my depth notes from EET, along with all the other required references. 

I also am a big fan of on demand, because you can start much earlier than the live classes. I don't think the live schedule leaves you with enough time to do practice problems on the material. If I had to take the exam again I would start the at the beginning of January. That gives you one month to watch lectures for breadth, one month for the depth lectures and the month before the test (March) just for practice problems. Last but not least, get familiar with your notes provided by the course you are going to take. 

I know exactly where you are coming from taking it the second time. One of the hardest parts of the exam is structuring your study schedule. Don't hesitate to ask any question you have on the courses or anything else. 
Click to expand...
now my recommendations for you - support EBdotcom and make sure you stick around to help others! :)  

 
Mate,

I took SoPE as well as EET this fall. With little over three weeks for the examination, it was a tough call. SoPE was great with breath portion. I was not happy with the depth, although I was looking for more practice. EET feel right through for depth. I got the recommendation for EET in this site. Hands down, I would recommend EET. All the very best for your spring exam. Thanks.

 
ads0221 said:
First post here although I lurk from time to time,l... first time taking it this fall... I made a 42/80 Civil Structural. Trying not to get too down on myself and as ironic as it sounds it's extremely motivated me and I've applied to take it again in April.

I don't want to risk studying alone again and looking over the same stuff so I'm looking at a prep course to refine my depth portion where I struggled the most.

I'm looking at both School of PE as well as EET. Right now I'm leaning towards EET as of this moment.

My question is for those who have taken EET Civil-Structural as well as any other depth. Is it best to get the On-Demand prep for the breadth portion? On the depth portion will the Live Webinars be better in having the ability to watch live and ask questions? Any and all comments are welcome.

Those of you that have just found out you passed  Congratulations!!!
Click to expand...
I am on the same boat except I failed structural twice. I would love to get ideas from Civil - Structural examinees here and not study by myself

 
USC_Engineer PE said:
I think I'm just the person you are looking for. I took Civil Structural in April 2018 and failed with 48/80. I took it again this October and passed! The first time around I used School of PE for breadth and depth portions. I found the breadth to be very good from School of PE, however the depth was greatly lacking. The second time around I used EET. I did not like their breadth notes and lectures, however their depth was AMAZING! The notes they provided for the depth were so good I rarely need to reference anything else. I'm not sure if your company would reimburse you for these courses, but I know a big part of my success was taking the best of these two courses and combining them. For the exam I took my breadth notes from School of PE and my depth notes from EET, along with all the other required references. 

I also am a big fan of on demand, because you can start much earlier than the live classes. I don't think the live schedule leaves you with enough time to do practice problems on the material. If I had to take the exam again I would start the at the beginning of January. That gives you one month to watch lectures for breadth, one month for the depth lectures and the month before the test (March) just for practice problems. Last but not least, get familiar with your notes provided by the course you are going to take. 

I know exactly where you are coming from taking it the second time. One of the hardest parts of the exam is structuring your study schedule. Don't hesitate to ask any question you have on the courses or anything else. 
Click to expand...
This is very helpful! 

 

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