# The effective time to prepare for PE exam



## Chunhui Jiang (Apr 19, 2016)

Hi, I got one question, how long is the effective time in hour to prepare for PE exam in order to pass it?

I think the time such as "three months" is not a specific time because we could study 1 hour per day, or 8 hours per day, so using hours is more scientific.

I have graduated for more than 2 years, and I have already forgotten lots of theoretical knowledge.

I heard some people said 300 hours should be a effective time length.

Thanks


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## TWJ PE (Apr 19, 2016)

What field?


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## scatsob (Apr 19, 2016)

I have been out of school and not practicing engineering in my career field (active duty military) and I studied for 2 hours per day for about 200 days and was well prepared for the exam. I took the thermal and fluids afternoon of the ME test. I started by just reading the MERM boom to refamiliarize myself with the material, then worked the example problems, then the PPI practice problems, then the 6 minute solution problems, then the PPI practice test, and finally the NCEES practice test. Found that seemed to work for me. The PPI problems can be a little ridiculous ( really hard) but they do a good job of forcing you to understand the material to the point where when you try the NCEES test it all seems so simple. That said the real test is good at tripping you up and you just need to be slow and methodical and you will start to see the trips and chuckle to yourself when you find them.


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## jijir83 (Apr 20, 2016)

I've heard 300 as well. People have all sorts of study logs and timelines. I think what matters is what works for you.

Personally, I put in over 400 hours. I'm waiting for the results but at least I felt prepared for the PM Geotech and over-prepared for the AM. Let's hope that translates to a PASS. If I fail, I'll have to wait a year because I have no clue what I would do differently.

It takes me some time to get going so as soon as I sent in the application, I sat on the ASCE webinars in September. They were free through work. That got me thinking about what I knew how to do, what I knew but would be slow doing accurately and what I didn't know at all. Then, I started collecting references and loads (LOADS!) of problem sets. I used a few sets as a pre-test to see what I need to focus on and then started going through the references based on that. I may have put a few hours on weekends doing that. Unfortunately, we have the Seismic and Survey exams in California so my time was split. I didn't start really studying until January. I put in about 36 hrs per week after work and on weekends for 11-12 weeks. The majority of the time, I was doing problem sets. If there was one problem I couldn't do or I got wrong, I went back to it later to learn the theory, why I went wrong, and made a note to myself on my cheat sheet to never do that again. I started out with one reference book and added others as I went along if something was missing. My main goal was to be very familiar with one or two references and to be exposed to so many problems that I wouldn't be surprised.

I started 7 months ago but I put in over 400 hours studying and doing problems in the last 3 months. Some topics I didn't bother to study. No way I would have learned them properly in the hope of scoring one or two questions. I'm over 5 years out of grad school with 10 years field experience and limited conventional design experience and a bit specialized. I must say though that the experience made a lot of the questions much easier. This test was skewed towards geotech. No complaint


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## DuckFlats (Apr 20, 2016)

I studied just under 300 hrs, including the 80hr School of PE course. I started in December just reading through notes and then in January began problem solving and working through the references. I can't say if that was effective yet, since I won't know my score for another 8 weeks...


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## John QPE (Apr 20, 2016)

I put in about 500 hours over the course of 1 year, with the first 6 months really just building references, highlighting and tabbing the CERM (which I didn't use once on the exam). Then probably about 100 hours preparing for the EET review course, and then easily 200+ hours on the EET review course and all the associated homework.

I'm pretty sure I scored 80/80 on the exam.


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## matt267 PE (Apr 20, 2016)

Remember, it's quality over quantity.

Like John QPE, I put in many many many hours over the course of 12+months (lots of quantity, limited quality). Luckily, I decided to take the EET review course (lots of quality). I'm was very happy to have passed.


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## starquest (Apr 20, 2016)

Took the ME MD exam last week.   12 years since my Masters, almost 20 since Bachelors, and I haven't applied much of my schooling within my profession over the years.    I prepared for 275 hours in a 12 week period.  No prep course; used PPI prep material (6MS, MERM PP), NCEES practice exam, and several problems/videos that I found on the net.  I felt confident going into the exam.  I knew how to approach almost every problem on the test and achieved a solution for all but a few.   We'll see how it results in two months...but I'm not sure how much more I could have given it.  

Regards,

Kevin


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## RBHeadge PE (Apr 20, 2016)

I started studying 3 months out. Spent 1-3 hr/day 5 day/wk until two weeks before the exam. I studied 5-6 hr/day for the duration. I estimate it was around 300 hr total by the day of the exam. It was the nuclear exam, so there wasn't much in the way of formal classes. I mostly read powerplant references, did undergrad textbook problems, the NRC SRO exam bank questions, and the ANS PE Exam study guide problems. I *might* have overstudied some areas, and understudied others, but it was enough to pass the test with a (in retrospect) comfortable margin.


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## Audi Driver P.E. (Apr 20, 2016)

So many factors involved in what can affect the study time required.  I don't know that this can be positively answered.


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## ptatohed (Apr 20, 2016)

Chunhui Jiang said:


> Hi, I got one question, how long is the effective time in hour to prepare for PE exam in order to pass it?
> 
> I think the time such as "three months" is not a specific time because we could study 1 hour per day, or 8 hours per day, so using hours is more scientific.
> 
> ...


Use 300 hours.  When you are at, say 150, reevaluate.  Have you covered 50% of your material?  Adjust accordingly.


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## Chunhui Jiang (Apr 20, 2016)

W9TWJ said:


> What field?


My major is petroleum


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## Chunhui Jiang (Apr 20, 2016)

scatsob said:


> I have been out of school and not practicing engineering in my career field (active duty military) and I studied for 2 hours per day for about 200 days and was well prepared for the exam. I took the thermal and fluids afternoon of the ME test. I started by just reading the MERM boom to refamiliarize myself with the material, then worked the example problems, then the PPI practice problems, then the 6 minute solution problems, then the PPI practice test, and finally the NCEES practice test. Found that seemed to work for me. The PPI problems can be a little ridiculous ( really hard) but they do a good job of forcing you to understand the material to the point where when you try the NCEES test it all seems so simple. That said the real test is good at tripping you up and you just need to be slow and methodical and you will start to see the trips and chuckle to yourself when you find them.


So totally around 400 hours


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## Chunhui Jiang (Apr 20, 2016)

jijir83 said:


> I've heard 300 as well. People have all sorts of study logs and timelines. I think what matters is what works for you.
> 
> Personally, I put in over 400 hours. I'm waiting for the results but at least I felt prepared for the PM Geotech and over-prepared for the AM. Let's hope that translates to a PASS. If I fail, I'll have to wait a year because I have no clue what I would do differently.
> 
> ...


Thanks for your suggestions


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## Chunhui Jiang (Apr 20, 2016)

DuckFlats said:


> I studied just under 300 hrs, including the 80hr School of PE course. I started in December just reading through notes and then in January began problem solving and working through the references. I can't say if that was effective yet, since I won't know my score for another 8 weeks...


As you took the courses, so that is more effective.


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## Chunhui Jiang (Apr 20, 2016)

John QPE said:


> I put in about 500 hours over the course of 1 year, with the first 6 months really just building references, highlighting and tabbing the CERM (which I didn't use once on the exam). Then probably about 100 hours preparing for the EET review course, and then easily 200+ hours on the EET review course and all the associated homework.
> 
> I'm pretty sure I scored 80/80 on the exam.


WOW, that sounds great!


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## Chunhui Jiang (Apr 20, 2016)

matt267 PE said:


> Remember, it's quality over quantity.
> 
> Like John QPE, I put in many many many hours over the course of 12+months (lots of quantity, limited quality). Luckily, I decided to take the EET review course (lots of quality). I'm was very happy to have passed.


Is that expensive?


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## Chunhui Jiang (Apr 20, 2016)

starquest said:


> Took the ME MD exam last week.   12 years since my Masters, almost 20 since Bachelors, and I haven't applied much of my schooling within my profession over the years.    I prepared for 275 hours in a 12 week period.  No prep course; used PPI prep material (6MS, MERM PP), NCEES practice exam, and several problems/videos that I found on the net.  I felt confident going into the exam.  I knew how to approach almost every problem on the test and achieved a solution for all but a few.   We'll see how it results in two months...but I'm not sure how much more I could have given it.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Kevin


That is really specific, thanks.


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## Chunhui Jiang (Apr 20, 2016)

rbheadge said:


> I started studying 3 months out. Spent 1-3 hr/day 5 day/wk until two weeks before the exam. I studied 5-6 hr/day for the duration. I estimate it was around 300 hr total by the day of the exam. It was the nuclear exam, so there wasn't much in the way of formal classes. I mostly read powerplant references, did undergrad textbook problems, the NRC SRO exam bank questions, and the ANS PE Exam study guide problems. I *might* have overstudied some areas, and understudied others, but it was enough to pass the test with a (in retrospect) comfortable margin.


That is good enough.


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## Chunhui Jiang (Apr 20, 2016)

Audi driver said:


> So many factors involved in what can affect the study time required.  I don't know that this can be positively answered.


Well, yes, so just a estimated time length.


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## Chunhui Jiang (Apr 20, 2016)

ptatohed said:


> Use 300 hours.  When you are at, say 150, reevaluate.  Have you covered 50% of your material?  Adjust accordingly.


I have no idea, and I just heard about it.


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## Audi Driver P.E. (Apr 20, 2016)

Chunhui Jiang said:


> Well, yes, so just a estimated time length.


I just used the approach of "study as much as you can once you're accepted to sit for the exam".  Worked for me.


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## ptatohed (Apr 20, 2016)

Chunhui Jiang said:


> I have no idea, and I just heard about it.


You have no idea about what?  You just heard about what?    :scratchhead:


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## Chunhui Jiang (Apr 20, 2016)

Audi driver said:


> I just used the approach of "study as much as you can once you're accepted to sit for the exam".  Worked for me.


Got it thanks


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## Chunhui Jiang (Apr 20, 2016)

ptatohed said:


> You have no idea about what?  You just heard about what?    :scratchhead:


Yes, and I have not started yet, as I am waiting for the new rule about taking exam prior enough experience which will be effected from 05/02/2016.


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## matt267 PE (Apr 20, 2016)

Chunhui Jiang said:


> Is that expensive?


http://www.eetusa.com/classes/civil-pe/breadth

http://www.eetusa.com/classes/civil-pe/depth/wre


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## Chunhui Jiang (Apr 21, 2016)

matt267 PE said:


> http://www.eetusa.com/classes/civil-pe/breadth
> 
> http://www.eetusa.com/classes/civil-pe/depth/wre


Thanks for help!


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## SE_FL (Apr 24, 2016)

I would agree with the others that say three months and about 300 hours to pass the PE  if you're practicing some of the  concepts that are on the exam. 

 I think the SE generally requires about twice as much, because you are studying for both vertical and lateral exams and have to show work in the form of essay answers.  It also depends on the concepts.  For example in the state of Florida, we do not have to design for seismic, but have large wind loads to deal with on a daily basis.  So a Florida test-taker will spend the majority of their time on seismic compared to wind concepts,  although some of the concepts are transferable for lateral and diaphragm design.


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## Doyee5 (May 10, 2016)

3-6 Months.


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