# What are the Top Practice Exams you've seen?



## S28 (Feb 23, 2013)

Trying to find good practice exams, below are the ones I've tried and/or heard about. Can you please comment on any you've used or seen and/or suggest other ones that aren't listed below...

NCEES Practice Problems (2011) - I have these, although have not looked at them yet as I was trying to wait until closer to the exam to "build confidence" going into the exam as I've seen other people on this board put it.From what I've heard these are by far the best.

Four Sample Exams by Ruwan Rajapakse - I went through these over the past few weeks on the weekends to simulate an actual exam. The transportation questions he asks on these are mostly questions which won't be found on the exam anymore (according to NCEES Outline) ie. Level of Service Questions, Peak Hourly Factors, etc. Although the transportation issue was kind of frustrating, he has great example problems asking about unit hydrographs which from the discussions I've seen on this board, many people believe is something that the CERM and AI1 kind of neglect, so that was cool.

Goswami's Practice Exams - I recently ordered this, but have not looked at it yet. Although looking at a thread on here last night regarding the errata in it, now I'm kind of regretting ordering it.

Mike's Civil PE Exam Guide - I purchased an updated printing, so the previous mistakes were fixed. I just went through this last night, and found this pretty helpful. Maybe it's only me, but for some odd reason the shear diagram question took me awhile as I've never seen a shear diagram calculated from Right to Left. It just looked really funky. Maybe it's just me, but every textbook in college, and every resource book I've looked at to study up for the PE has ALWAYS shown shear/moment diagrams calculated left to right. Of course it's fine to do it either way, but I've never actually seen it done this way, and for some reason it tripped me up a bit. I'm glad I saw this question, now if NCEES does it on the real exam, I won't stare at it for 5-6 minutes like I did last night wasting valuable test time.I also liked how it had some conceptual questions in it, where I used the index to look something up to see what the best answer would be. I've heard alot of people talking about doing this on the actual exam, however I haven't come across many problems which actually made me go through the process. And especially since it sounds like the last AM test in October had a lot of this going on (Conceptual/theory questions), the more practice I can get at this, the better. The one complaint I have about this is he has a earthwork cut/fill problem in which he doesn't use the pyramid formula when calculating one of the stations when one of the end areas is 0. I would think even in the morning session NCEES would expect everyone to use the pyramid formula when one end area is 0 wouldn't they? Even so, only one complaint is way better than the number I have for other sample exams.

Practice Exams purchased from PECivilExam.com - These are okay... more problems to go through which is good, although some things were extremely frustrating such as they used factored loads which aren't correct (thanks to those who helped me out on this in another thread).

LIndburgh Practice Exams - I have these, seriously contemplating not even doing this as from what I've heard on threads here these are just super frustrating, and will make me question my readiness for the exam.

Well, that's all I have... Any other good practice exams anyone can recommend? I'm honestly suprised there aren't like 10 other copies of ones similar to "Mike's Civil PE Exam Guide" out there. I'd much rather buy 10 in that format as opposed to these big publishers with all their mistakes.


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## ptatohed (Feb 24, 2013)

Hi S28.

What depth module are you taking? It sounds like Transpo?

I have never seen Rajapakse's practice exams. But why do you say LOS, PHF, etc. problems are not on the PE Civil Transpo Depth exam? Don't those fall under 'Traffic Analysis"?

Yes, the NCEES published sample Q&amp;Ss are the best sample exams out there. 100% equal in difficulty to the actual exam. Although older (and partially outdated), I'd recommend tracking down older versions of past NCEES sample questions. Warning: they can be hard to find and expensive when you do.

I wouldn't be concerned with some errata for Goswami's practice exams. They are good practice exams. Just like pretty much any practice exam you'll come across except for the NCEES publications, Goswami's problems are more complex than those on the actual exam so don't beat yourself up when they take more than 6 mins - but they are still good problems.

Mike's - I didn't use these but in looking at the preview of it on amazon, it looks ok. I heard the first printing was riddled with errors but, like you said, that should be fixed now. I wouldn't worry about the average end area method vs. the pyramid formula when one of the beginning/end segments are zero. I believe you'll still be close enough to the "best" answer.

PPI - yes, these take (sometimes way) more than 6 mins but I'd still work them if you have time.

If you like Mike's (AM only), you may like Tim Nelson's (also AM only) too. http://www.amazon.com/Civil-Engineering-Practice-Examination-1/dp/0615646220/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1361692541&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=pe+practice+exams+tim+nelson

There is also pe-exam.com (although $40 + shipping seems pretty high for 40 problems). http://pe-exam.com/

To me, there isn't really a shortage of AM problems, it's the (in my case) Transpo depth problems that were hard to find. Although not a 'practice exam', consider the 6-min solutions book (although they took me way longer than 6 mins).

Good luck!


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## S28 (Feb 24, 2013)

Sorry, taking construction depth. I meant LOS, PHF, etc aren't on transportation breadth exam.

Thanks for the input!


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## Tim_Nelson (Feb 25, 2013)

Another practice exam to consider is 'Civil Engineering Practice Examination #1' link --&gt; http://tinyurl.com/7fv6vd7

This is a practice exam I created last year, which is similar to the exams you mentioned in your post, S28.

I'm not claiming it to be better or worse, just wanted to add it to the discussion.


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## ptatohed (Feb 25, 2013)

Tim_Nelson said:


> Another practice exam to consider is 'Civil Engineering Practice Examination #1' link --&gt; http://tinyurl.com/7fv6vd7
> 
> This is a practice exam I created last year, which is similar to the exams you mentioned in your post, S28.
> 
> I'm not claiming it to be better or worse, just wanted to add it to the discussion.




Tim, I listed this in Post #2.


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