References for the Construction Depth

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Road Guy

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Since this is a new module, what references did you use for the exam?

Trying to build a sticky to help current and future test takers...

 
I own all of the NCEES recommended references and plan on taking them to the exam. Three additional references I like and plan on taking with me are Construction Planning, Equipment, and Methods by Peurifoy, etal; Standard Handbook for Civil Engineers by Ricketts, etal; and the Caterpillar Handbook.

 
Good idea road guy. I'm interested in knowing because some of the listed references cost $$$
I don't know about the construction references... but I know that obtaining all of the structural references set me back quite a bit of $$$. Believe me, IT WAS WORTH IT!!! Sure, after the exam, I realized that I probably could have done without one or two of the recommended references... but it would have killed me to not have something that I did need.

My recommendation is to buy, borrow (or steal?) everything on the NCEES list.

 
Did someone use the Ruwan Rajapaske Construction Book?

I would like to know how good was this book for this module

thanks

 
Some must haves:

CERM (latest version)

MUTCD

OSHA standards

Bob's Rigging and Crane Handbook (I think they're up to the 6th edition).

Having a timber/framing book would be helpful, as would one on Masonry, but I'm not really sure what's available or what is exactly on the NCEES list.

Obviously the remaining books on the NCEES list are also important, but I didn't have access to them when I took the exam back in April '08.

 
I don't know about the construction references... but I know that obtaining all of the structural references set me back quite a bit of $$$. Believe me, IT WAS WORTH IT!!! Sure, after the exam, I realized that I probably could have done without one or two of the recommended references... but it would have killed me to not have something that I did need.
My recommendation is to buy, borrow (or steal?) everything on the NCEES list.
This avatar is not fair!

 
Does anyone else think the available review material for the construction portion sucks? The CERM covers very little and the sample problems from Lindberg have errors and don't even come from CERM material. The Ruwan book is very convoluted and disorganized. It would be nice to have a book written by somebody who has knowledge of the construction module. I've already offered my services to Ruwan to help edit his next edition.

 
Yatkins, agreed 200%. And to top it off, I took a $600 review course for the PE. When we got to the end of the class they were handing out practice tests for AM and PM disciplines. I got kind of excited because I thought I was going to get some good review questions. Of course, the guy is like oh yeah sorry we don't have a practice exam for the Construction PM part....arghhhh!!! In retrospect, I wish I would have signed up to take Geotech.

I'm not a fan of that new rule that you can only take the PM section that you put on your application...now I'm stuck with Construction...

 
I'm not a fan of that new rule that you can only take the PM section that you put on your application...now I'm stuck with Construction...
WTF? Last I knew they just give you one booklet that contains all of the afternoon sections and you just have to fill in a bubble on the scantron form as to which one of the them you are answering.

Is this a state specific thing, or has the NCEES changed the rules?

 
WTF? Last I knew they just give you one booklet that contains all of the afternoon sections and you just have to fill in a bubble on the scantron form as to which one of the them you are answering.
Is this a state specific thing, or has the NCEES changed the rules?



I think it may just be North Carolina...dunno. But I'm hating it now....lol.

 
Since this is a new module, what references did you use for the exam?
Trying to build a sticky to help current and future test takers...
I used two references by the same author (Ruwan Rajapakse):

- Civil PE Exam Construction Module (Third Edition).

- Civil PE Exam Construction Module. Practice problems.

But take care, there are a lot of mistakes in those books.

 
I'm interested in taking the Construction portion. For those that took the exam, can you provide some feedback into what books were more helpful than others?
3 questions or so were straight from the OSHA book, I think I used each of the other books on the ref. list about once to pull material from.

Mostly schedule and earthwork questions and things like that. There were a couple crane selection. maybe 1 on rigging

I'd say about 8-10 answers could be found in the ref. books.

I've been in Construction for 10 years and had to guess on a couple... but felt the majority of the questions were pretty clear and managable. I had a much harder time in the morning

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I'm interested in taking the Construction portion. For those that took the exam, can you provide some feedback into what books were more helpful than others?

Besides the CERM...The book I used second most was All-in-One Civil PE Exam Guide by Indranil Goswami. Honestly this book was worth it's weight in gold. If I couldn't find a question in the CERM..found it in Goswami!!

Another great resource was the quick reference for the CERM...used this alot too...great place to include extra notes and formula's...

Top 3 ref I used for CM PE

1) CERM

2) CERM Quick reference

3) Goswami

 
1. Civil Engineering All-In-One PE Exam Guide: Breadth and Depth by Indranil Goswami (May 2009)

2. Civil PE Professional Engineer exam Construction module,Third Edition by Ruwan Rajapakse

3. CERM

4. Welders Pocket Guide

5. SmartPros Material(Bought the review class and printed out all of the material and had it bound)

6. 1926 OSHA Construction Industry Regulations

7. All of the recommended references from NCEES except the wood design book (wished I would have)

8. ACI SP-2

 
The short answer is I used (successfully) the following references for the October 2010 Civil/Construction exam:

(1) CERM

(2) PE Exam Construction Module, by Rajapakse

(3) NCEES sample Civil PE exams

(4) Lindeberg’s (PPI2Pass) sample Civil PE exams

(5) CFR1926 (Construction)

(6) MUTCD

(7) SP4 - Formwork for Concrete (includes ACI 347)

(8) ACI 347.2R-05

More detail on my usage and methodology here:

http://engineerboards.com/index.php?s=&amp...t&p=6865156

 
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