# Lateral Study Schedule



## jillhill (Jul 19, 2011)

Ok, I'm thinking of making an attempt at the Lateral SE portion only in Oct.

1. Because I feel like time is running out to study for both

2. I hear they are changing the codes in April 2012 and I'd rather just take the Vertical than Lateral (incase I did pass).

Anyone have any suggestions on a study schedule with some good books with problems, Specifically the afternoon portion. I only have the NCEES practice exam and it only have 4 afternoon problems, that doesn't seem like enough to get a feel for what the exam is even going to be like.

Let's start studying, who's with me?


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## ibbo (Jul 19, 2011)

jillhill said:


> Ok, I'm thinking of making an attempt at the Lateral SE portion only in Oct. 1. Because I feel like time is running out to study for both
> 
> 2. I hear they are changing the codes in April 2012 and I'd rather just take the Vertical than Lateral (incase I did pass).
> 
> ...


Here's what I recommended to a friend:

Steel

AISC Design Examples (spent a good portion in connections here—it was a good review of plate girders and composite steel as well. Worked through enough examples until I was comfortable and could do the problems without help.)

Concrete

PCA Notes for 318-05 (primarily looked at two way slabs and a lot of chapter 21 stuff in here)

PCI Design Handbook (looked at some examples in here, like distribution of forces in a rigid diaphragm)

Wood

Breyer Book (read through maybe a quarter of this book, tried to do most of the examples)

NDS Design examples (an okay reference if you want step by step)

Masonry

NCMA TEK manuals (only really used TEK 14-1A)

The Masonry Design Handbook (read through the ASD chapter and worked out the full building design problems)

Seismic

IBC Seismic Design Manuals (3 volumes) (worked out all of volume one and a little bit of volume 3- very helpful to get comfortable with chapter 12 of ASCE 7 )

AISC Seismic Design Manual (worked out the examples for SCBF, EBF and SMF)

General

6 minute solutions for the SE1 by Subasic (slightly harder than the NCEES problems, good prep for time management. Worked through entire book.)

Structural Engineering PE Review by Kaplan (Worked through the first quarter of this book before I ran out of time. Problems are tricky but harder than anything on the SE. It utilizes a lot of design that forces you to be familiar with basic principles or the codes). If I were to do it again, I would try to go through this entire book as it is very involved.

I worked through the above problems for about 12 weeks, 15-20 hours/week and passed the first time around (April 2011). I am a solid believer in working out problems as a learning tool.


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## jillhill (Jul 19, 2011)

ibbo said:


> jillhill said:
> 
> 
> > Ok, I'm thinking of making an attempt at the Lateral SE portion only in Oct. 1. Because I feel like time is running out to study for both
> ...


wow, thats a lot. I better get started. Did you just take the lateral or was the for the vertical as well? Did you find after all that studying that the essay portion just came naturally or did you have to do anything special to prepare for the afternoon.


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## ibbo (Jul 20, 2011)

I took both parts. The afternoon portion was still tight on time, but I was able to finish every part of each question with (what I thought) a reasonable answer. The Kaplan book has the kind of curve balls you'll see in the afternoon, although the NCEES problems aren't as hard as the Kaplan. The way I looked at the exam prep is that I didn't want to have to study again in the fall (I took the PE Oct '10 so I had been studying from August-October, and Jan-Apr). Another round of July-Oct didn't seem appealing.

Usually I studied two to three times during the work week in 2.5 hour segments. All of Saturday would be devoted to studying (10-12 hours w/breaks). Then Sunday afternoon/evening for 3-5 hours. I found that the frequency of studying helped as I didn't have as much mental fatigue at the beginning of a study session (compared to Saturday nights). Those three months of 10-12 hour Saturdays helped develop mental fortitude -- I wasn't totally exhausted after the first day of testing-- I actually felt that the lateral day was easier.

What worked for me was studying in 2-4 hour blocks in different locations. I would go to 3-4 different places (coffee shops, city library, college library, bookstore) on Saturday so I wouldn't always be in the same location. I feel that it's difficult to marathon through problems in the same settings over and over again.

Hope that helps.


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## bwherrmann (Jul 20, 2011)

Ibbo,

Thanks for the recommendations above. How did you study for the morning bridge problems that were out of the AASHTO book? I took the lateral in April, and it seemed there was a lot of seismic requirements that were buried in the AASHTO book.


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## ibbo (Jul 20, 2011)

bwherrmann said:


> Ibbo,
> Thanks for the recommendations above. How did you study for the morning bridge problems that were out of the AASHTO book? I took the lateral in April, and it seemed there was a lot of seismic requirements that were buried in the AASHTO book.



I used the NCEES Structural book as well as the old SE1 book NCEES used to print. It's sort of based on luck -- if you don't work with the AASHTO regularly, you'll have to at least look at the table of contents for each chapter before the test. Sorry-- don't have much more advice than that. Usually though, the AASHTO problems are easy enough to plug and chug if you can find the appropriate section/equation.


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## thp108 (Sep 27, 2011)

ibbo said:


> I took both parts. The afternoon portion was still tight on time, but I was able to finish every part of each question with (what I thought) a reasonable answer. The Kaplan book has the kind of curve balls you'll see in the afternoon, although the NCEES problems aren't as hard as the Kaplan. The way I looked at the exam prep is that I didn't want to have to study again in the fall (I took the PE Oct '10 so I had been studying from August-October, and Jan-Apr). Another round of July-Oct didn't seem appealing.
> Usually I studied two to three times during the work week in 2.5 hour segments. All of Saturday would be devoted to studying (10-12 hours w/breaks). Then Sunday afternoon/evening for 3-5 hours. I found that the frequency of studying helped as I didn't have as much mental fatigue at the beginning of a study session (compared to Saturday nights). Those three months of 10-12 hour Saturdays helped develop mental fortitude -- I wasn't totally exhausted after the first day of testing-- I actually felt that the lateral day was easier.
> 
> What worked for me was studying in 2-4 hour blocks in different locations. I would go to 3-4 different places (coffee shops, city library, college library, bookstore) on Saturday so I wouldn't always be in the same location. I feel that it's difficult to marathon through problems in the same settings over and over again.
> ...



hi,

which kaplan book are you referring to, the one by alan williams?


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## ibbo (Sep 30, 2011)

Yup, that's the one.


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## dakota_79 (Jun 20, 2012)

Just wanted to push this post back up top, since I think ibbo's advice in these comments is so thorough and worth its... character count(?)...in gold. I followed his advice pretty religiously and passed both days on the first try as well.


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