CERM and general advice needed

Hi all, I am planning on taking the Civil Structural PE exam April 2020, I have all the necessary reference codes, but I am wondering about the CERM. I have the 14th edition CERM, but am tempted into buying the new 16th edition. Should I save my money, and just use the 14th ed, just wondering how effective the CERM was for ya, for those of you who have taken the exam and passed.

Also if any of yall have any advice into other things I should bring with me for the exam, pointers, or anything that would help me study for the exam in general, please feel free to comment!

I would only consider buying new if the codes have changed. if they have, PPI does a thing where you can send in the front cover of an old one and get a 50% discount on the new edition, so watch out for that sale if you decide to "upgrade"

tj_PE said:

I would only consider buying new if the codes have changed. if they have, PPI does a thing where you can send in the front cover of an old one and get a 50% discount on the new edition, so watch out for that sale if you decide to "upgrade"

Click to expand...

You’re referring to the upgrade program. Just go to the website, fill out the form and mail in the front cover to get the 50% discount.

Anyways I don’t know how big of a difference the 16th edition of the CERM is to the 14th edition but personally I wouldn’t take any chances. Better to just fork over the $$ than worry if I’m missing something. Especially with the discount. 

I used the 15th edition this past April and would not have had any issue using the 14th. As tj_PE stated though, check if there have been any significant changes.

The CERM is very useful but I found myself using my School of PE notes much more.

pland said:

Also if any of yall have any advice into other things I should bring with me for the exam, pointers, or anything that would help me study for the exam in general, please feel free to comment!

Click to expand...

A lot of people will tell you take a break the week before the exam or at least a few days. I wish I would have taken this advice as I tried to go over everything the day before.

It ended up being a waste of time as I was so burnt out and you really only know what you already know in the final week before the exam.

Long story short: Try not to burn yourself out and take a break within the final week before the exam

Thanks everyone for the advice, I bit the bullet and bought the latest cerm! 

Now if I can get my hands on a cheap or free copy of the 7th edition aashto, I'd be in good shape. Can't seem to find it anywhere, I do have the 6th edition, do yall think that would suffice for the exam? I don't see myself using it after the pe at all... 

The 6th edition has like 1600+ pages, is there specific sections I can print instead of the whole book? 

I'd hate to miss any questions regarding the aashto, so I'd like to bring it if possible, but would hate to have to print out the whole book. 

Also if anyone has it digital or hard copy please pm me! 

Also if anyone has any good cheat sheets, notes, practice exams or anything else they wouldn't ming sharing id really appreciate it. 

I have a few but the more the merrier

For the SE exam I would say bring every code referenced and make sure it's the correct edition. For the PE exam though I don't think that's necessary. When I took the exam I didn't bring the AASHTO at all and managed to pass. I relied heavily on the CERM for the referenced codes I didn't bring. I would think you would be fine with just the 6th edition. Bring the whole book just in case. Make sure to tab the different chapter, and put the index and the TOC at the front so you can get to them easily. The NCEES design specs say there are only 6 problems on average in the codes section of the PM portion and that covers all of the codes (steel, concrete, wood AASHTO etc) so you should be fine imho.

Edub24 said:

For the SE exam I would say bring every code referenced and make sure it's the correct edition. For the PE exam though I don't think that's necessary. When I took the exam I didn't bring the AASHTO at all and managed to pass. I relied heavily on the CERM for the referenced codes I didn't bring. I would think you would be fine with just the 6th edition. Bring the whole book just in case. Make sure to tab the different chapter, and put the index and the TOC at the front so you can get to them easily. The NCEES design specs say there are only 6 problems on average in the codes section of the PM portion and that covers all of the codes (steel, concrete, wood AASHTO etc) so you should be fine imho.

Click to expand...

Cool I appreciate the advice, I've read other posts about people not bringing in the aashto and they were fine. I figure having the rest of the codes would be fine, and I don't wanna bring too much in, especially if I'm not familiar with the material. 

pland said:

I don't wanna bring too much in, especially if I'm not familiar with the material. 

Click to expand...

Don't be afraid to bring too much. I brought all the design standards for Transportation and didn't use half of them but there were a few questions I got after perusing relatively unfamiliar sources.

at minimum I would bring chapters 1-4 of aashto. should fit in a 1" binder and give you any basic load information you might be able to find in a short amount of time.

Ranger1316 said:

Don't be afraid to bring too much. I brought all the design standards for Transportation and didn't use half of them but there were a few questions I got after perusing relatively unfamiliar sources.

Click to expand...

Thanks for all the advice I really appreciate it! 

tj_PE said:

at minimum I would bring chapters 1-4 of aashto. should fit in a 1" binder and give you any basic load information you might be able to find in a short amount of time.

Click to expand...

Awesome, I got it printed and bound! I appreciate you telling me about those chapters, they seem to be what I need.