# Tabbing the CERM



## Pizza

Anyone have any recommendations or a list of things they had tabbed for their CERM. I haven't started tabbing yet, just highlighting equations and information I've used in my studying. I have a pretty good idea of where things are located from flipping back and forth while studying.

I have never tabbed my engineering books, and I was going to just use the printed glossary. Anyone have any input?


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## ptatohed

I think I am in the minority here but I never really got into tabbing. I seemed to end up memorizing the location of stuff just due to repeated practice with my reference(s). I looked around and, oh my gosh, there were some CERMS that had so many colored flags sticking out the side, top and bottom, I wondered if they weren't causing more confusion than assistance for themselves. I think I flagged just a few commonly used tables and equations and that was it. Between all my Seismic, Survey and 8-hr/Transpo books, I could count my tabs on two hands. But, everyone is different. Do what is best for you.


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## roadwreck

I'm a proponent of the Shaggy Method:

http://engineerboards.com/index.php?showtopic=3714&amp;p=6583876

I flagged the pages that I used regularly while working practice problems, a week or so I went back through my book and replaced those flags with color coded tabs like Shaggy did. It's awesome. I still have the tabs in my CERM to this day (6 years later?) and find them helpful if I need to quickly look something up.


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## MikeMcC215

Dont waste your time with tabbing, do more problems.


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## MWC PE

Know your references well enough you don't need tabs.


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## Tim_Nelson

In addition to tabbing common equations, I also added about 8-10 tabs within the index, labeled 'A', 'C', 'F', ... .

This saved me some time because my CERM (11th Edition) has 64 pages of index, which would result in a worst case scenario of 6 total page flips (binary search) to find the correct term. And this got old after a while, so the index tabs helped.


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## roadwreck

MikeMcC215 said:


> Dont waste your time with tabbing, do more problems.








MWC PE said:


> Know your references well enough you don't need tabs.




I didn't know my references well enough to flip to exact page with the formula I needed. Sure I knew my references well enough to have a good idea where it was, but being able to flip to the precise pages is pretty handy. I think the tabs are useful and worth the time to do right. I never removed my tabs and still use them to this day.


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## TheyCallMeJohn

What i did to prepare (and it seemed to work well for the test) was that as I was doing the practice problems, I flagged pages with the half inch post-it notes. I left most these blanks but added as I did more and more practice problems. Some times I would jog down what I wanted and highlighted key components on those pages. Then I replaced each of those post-it notes with the plastic flags with relevant content.

This part may have been a little OCD but I typed each flag out using the DYMO label printer and then stuck them on the flag. It may seem like a waste of time but it forced me to figure out what was relevant and concise way to represent it. Also my handwriting sucks...

I also flagged the Index by letter.


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## intern_no_more

Print the index! I actually had all of my indexes (indices?) printed and tabbed in the same binder and kept it off to the right side of the table for quick page flipping.


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## nsgoldberg

+1 on the shaggy method. Spend the time before the exam to save time during the exam. It's a no brainer.

Also had the index printed in a 3-ring binder, with my other notes and whatnot.


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## roadwreck

still_an_intern said:


> Print the index! I actually had all of my indexes (indices?) printed and tabbed in the same binder and kept it off to the right side of the table for quick page flipping.


This is a good tip. I did this when I took the exam, it doesn't seem like much but it makes it so much easier to find things in your references if you don't have to flip back and forth to the index all the time.


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## dana

You can't memorize all the books and codes without tabbing, remember you don't have the whole life in the test, time is your passing grade in this test.


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## ketanco

dont need to tab much. i just tabbed several key places. it has black separation marks anyway, you can easily know the five main areas.

but, i am talking from thepoint of view of geotech PM may be. because all others i didnt need to tab and geotech section of CERM is kind of thin


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## jarrowsm

Pizza said:


> Anyone have any recommendations or a list of things they had tabbed for their CERM. I haven't started tabbing yet, just highlighting equations and information I've used in my studying. I have a pretty good idea of where things are located from flipping back and forth while studying.
> 
> I have never tabbed my engineering books, and I was going to just use the printed glossary. Anyone have any input?


For a Water Resources depth, I tabbed a few equations here and there during my practice problems...but honestly, the index is excellent. Most of the time, I just went to the index or the glossary or the appendix and found what I needed. Speaking for myself, I wasn't pressed for time on either the morning or the afternoon, so I don't feel like the extra 60 seconds I spent using the index instead of tabs mattered.


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## tmanker

Has anyone tried these tabs yet? http://peexamtabs.com/


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## johnnyusma08

My recommendation for tabbing is this: As you are working through problems you will find yourself constantly flipping back to the same equations or the same appendix in the back of the CERM; as you notice yourself wasting time doing this, then simply tab it. By the end you will have a ton of tabs in the book that are all extremely relevant and helpful because you tabbed based on necessity on problems. In addition, I spent the entire day prior to the test (8 hours) going though all my tabs to ensure that all information I used frequently was tabbed. It made no sense to me to tab areas I didn't use.


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## blondebedhead

[SIZE=10.5pt]Two friends of mine took it in April 2014 and passed it and they both gave me copies of their CERM 13th edition and some other study material as well until I was able to get CERM 14th edition. One friend took PM in Transportation and the other friend took it in Structural. [/SIZE]

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[SIZE=10.5pt]Structural PM friend tabbed the CERM like it wasn’t anybody’s business. Transportation PM friend tabbed it not as much but it was color coded for each discipline (water, Trans., Geo, Const., Structural)[/SIZE]

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[SIZE=10.5pt]I am doing my own thing after seeing two CERM books tabbed quite the opposite.[/SIZE]

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[SIZE=10.5pt]I am doing color coded for each discipline of course, I am very particular as to how I tab as well. No overlapping of tabs unless I am going top to bottom again. I also write what I’ve tabbed on the clear part of the tab that stays inside the book. If I am using equation from my SofPE material from the class; I write that on the clear part of the tab e.g. “SofPE Refresher Notes Pg. 116”. If I am using CERM equation then I write equation number e.g. “Eq. 47.8”. I studied before the class started and now that I am taking the class; it makes much more sense to have everything tabbed beforehand. [/SIZE]

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[SIZE=10.5pt]I was also going to take the CERM Index separately but now that I have studied one time; I see no reason to do that so I have tabbed them by each alphabet letter on the CERM. [/SIZE]

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[SIZE=10.5pt]The only thing I recommend is color coding; other than that do you own thing because tabbing varies based on how organized you are and how you respond to what you have tabbed. Figure out your own method that works best for you. [/SIZE]


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