# PM; Transportation Vs Construction



## Civil02 (May 17, 2010)

Hello Everybody,

I am planning to take PE civil in fall 2010 and very confused about PM section between transportation and construction. I am working in construction (transportation) for almost 4 years. The biggest problem I see and also heard from some other people that since construction is a new topic in PE exam and there is NOT a whole lot of review material out there for PM construction. I would like to see comments from those who already took exam in construction or transportation and/or planning to take this fall. Thanks


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## Dexman PE (May 18, 2010)

I was in the same situation when I took the exam, except there was 0 info for me (I took the first offering in April 08). The 11th edition of the CERM (with the "new &amp; improved" construction section) wasn't even released until a couple weeks AFTER the exam.

But anyways, unless you are savvy towards the design side of transportation, I would stick with construction. Construction does provide a challenge with the fact that there is little study material out there, but IMO most of it was experience based. My experience had me working with estimating, earthwork calcs, scheduling, traffic control (MUTCD) and some temporary structures type work. The CERM still does provide an excellent source of information for the morning, but also provides several small tidbits of info that is useful for the afternoon depth exam. Most of these tidbits won't be found in the "construction" section, but rather in their respective previous sections. For example, alot of the calcs for temporary structures can still be found in the structures section or some of the roadway survey staking calcs are still in the transporation section because that's where the equations are more useful and to cut down on redundancy these equations were left in their original locations.

I would highly recommend at least reading through the ENTIRE CERM to familiarize yourself with where some of these equations can be found. It was a big help for me. Additionally, there are several threads in the "construction" section of this website that show other useful references as well as study techniques that may be helpful.


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## sac_engineer (May 18, 2010)

My advice is to look at the test plans for the construction and transportation depths. Go with the depth that will require less time to prepare, i.e. the depth with less topics that you need to learn. That is the how I decided to select the transportation depth versus water/environmental.

Fortunately, you have some time before the next exam and I'm happy to see you're thinking about it. We see many posters asking the same question only a month before the exam.

Good luck!


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## EnvEngineer (May 18, 2010)

I would order the NCEES practice exam and that will give you and Idea of what to look for. If I had it all to do over again I think I would have done transporation. The main problem with constrution is they pull the info from alot of references and the topics are pretty diverse. From what I have heard the transportation is more focused and you need fewer references. A construction background will help you but I think a review of the problems and look at the recommended references will help you decide.


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## yatkins (May 25, 2010)

I agree with the other responses. The construction pm requires knowledge of many topics, but the content generally doesn't require any complicated math or codes to follow. Although not complicated, the math can get involved in the sense that there are many computations to track for some types of questions like scheduling or estimating. A good understanding of the fundamental concepts is necessary whether by experience or education.


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## civilized_naah (May 25, 2010)

EnvEngineer said:


> I would order the NCEES practice exam and that will give you and Idea of what to look for. commended references will help you decide.


In my opinion, the NCEES Sample questions book (2nd printing) DOES NOT give one an accurate picture of what to expect for CONSTRUCTION PM. I believe they put the new material in a hurry in order to come out with this revised version when they changed the exam format. For everything else (content and formatting) it is ABSOLUTELY the closest thing to the actual exam.


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## NEED2009 (Jun 9, 2010)

I will go for transportation since there are just not enough construction material out there to studying on..

just make the right decision, you only got 6 minutes per question.


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## mustangcobra93 (Jun 11, 2010)

I know a few people in construction that tried to take the construction test and they said it was hard. The next time around they took transportation.


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## ROBIAMEIT (Jun 11, 2010)

I took BOTH sections in previous attpemts. At one time i was a Highway Guy, but didnt do many traffic analysis or signalization and found the Trans PM section was pretty difficult even for a Highway Guy.

I took Const. Management once and failed.

I bought ALL the books of the reference list, and some others i found on the internet. i read them ALL.

I passed the PE last April (2009) and i REALLY think the key to the whole thing is NAILING the morning session.When i finished in the morning i only had three problems i had not worked through, and i am pretty sure i got one of those right.

Construction Management section is not to be taken lightly! . . . its passable . . but i studied my BUTT off! . . .luckily most of it has grown back since then


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