# Organization



## owillis28 (Feb 5, 2008)

I am looking for some ideas on how to better organize my design binders for each subject.

Please post how you organized (tabs, numbered tabs with a table of contents, index sheet, etc.). I need to figure out a better way to access notes and problems quickly during the exam. Maybe you designated specific subject areas for each topic in transportation. I would like to know what you did!!!!!

I have spend the past couple of days sorting through my study material and trashing anything that I haven't used on the previous exam.

I am specifically looking for help in transportation, water resources &amp; geotechnical.

Thanks in advance.

P.S. I did research this question for past topics but did not find a current post.

owillis


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## Guest (Feb 6, 2008)

I always found that organizing my materials was one of the HARDEST things to accomplish while preparing for the PE Exam. The biggest problem was being confronted with so much material that I really didn't know where to begin.

For me, a friend let me borrow her Chelapati Manuals for the exam - I had the manuals for WR, Env, Geo, and Trans. I found these manuals very helpful not only in focusing my efforts for studying but also for organizing my assortment of worked out problems and examples, hand-written notes and short-cuts, internet printouts, etc. Since I relied heavily upon the information in those manuals for my problem solving strategies it made a lot of sense to follow that general outline so I had a consistent frame in my mind how things were organized.

So, I still had my materials organized by each of the five discipline areas plus one compendium that consisted of indicies, formulae sheets, unit conversions, and notable shortcuts. The discipline materials were further sub-divided by the Chelapati Manual chapters.

I will say first that in order to accomplish this - it was a MAJOR PITA! I was organizing all the way up until the night before the exam. :true: The way I saw it - the organization was really a work in progress where materials were added (or removed/consolidated) based on how I progressed on my study schedule. In this way, I KNEW what was in my materials and used them for preparation - I could gauge how well I could address different problems. It turned out that this was a good diagnostic tool because some of my references and notes turned out not to be as helpful based on the type of problem I was addressing. This made for a more EFFICIENT method for attacking problems when I took the exam the last time.

In the end, how you organize yourself is really dependent upon what makes sense to YOU.

JR


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## roadwreck (Feb 6, 2008)

My strategy was to tab material in my references as I went. Anything that I felt like it could be important, or formulas or sections that I used heavily in solving problems I tabbed. Later I would come back and look at what I had tabbed and decide if I felt it was really as important now as it was when I first came across that material. At that point I put in new (heavy duty) tabs and labeled all my tabs (yes, they are color coded).

















Beyond the CERM the only organization I did of my other resources was to tab items that I need to use on a day to day basis.






I think I did all my organization the week before the exam, but since I had been marking the material that I thought would be useful along the way it was pretty easy to get it all finalized. I'd advise against relying on to many references, I found the majority of what I needed in the CERM, and had a few more references in my field to use for the look up questions. All the material I used fit into one milk crate.


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## Guest (Feb 6, 2008)

^^^ You got purty hand rittin' !! 

JR


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## roadwreck (Feb 6, 2008)

jregieng said:


> ^^^ You got purty hand rittin' !!
> JR


Thanks JR, I was really hoping someone would appreciate my hours of toil and sacrifice while producing such finely crafted tabs.


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## Capt Worley PE (Feb 6, 2008)

Maybe we should have a 'pretty tabs' contest.

Mine would come in last place. I can barely read them.


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## IlPadrino (Feb 6, 2008)

I am not a tab guy... I like my books virgin. No need to dress up a good book with lots of eye candy.


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## ktulu (Feb 6, 2008)

^^^ kinda like a meat and potatos type of guy, eh IlPadrino?


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## roadwreck (Feb 6, 2008)

IlPadrino said:


> I am not a tab guy... I like my books virgin. No need to dress up a good book with lots of eye candy.


Oh dear. If the tabs means a book is no longer pure then my book must have been used and abused. I wrote on it, highlighted in it (the pages are very thin by the way, so this isn't easy), spilled coffee on it, got sand in it (I went on vacation and would sit on the beach and read it), you name it and my book has probably been subjected to it.

It pretty much didn't leave my sight for 3 months.


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## IlPadrino (Feb 6, 2008)

ktulu said:


> ^^^ kinda like a meat and potatos type of guy, eh IlPadrino?


I almost wrote I like my books like I like my women... but couldn't come up with anything witty.

I don't know what it is but I just don't like to write in reference books. Maybe a few notes in pencil, but GOD FORBID, NEVER PEN!


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## Capt Worley PE (Feb 6, 2008)

^ I used red pen in the MERM and my Shigley and Mitchell. I think if it is a reference book, mark it up and make it easy for you to use.

All my other books are virgin. I go nuts if someone dog ears a page. It did take some getting used to for me to write in a book.


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## squishles10 (Feb 8, 2008)

IlPadrino said:


> I almost wrote I like my books like I like my women... but couldn't come up with anything witty.
> I don't know what it is but I just don't like to write in reference books. Maybe a few notes in pencil, but GOD FORBID, NEVER PEN!



Don't forget, lots of places don't allow pencil notes!


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## bigray76 (Feb 8, 2008)

I selectively used some of the Post-It tabs... mostly in my discipline specific notebooks and the Greenbook/Roadside Design Guide/MUTCD, etc.

I found by organizing my binders by the NCEES breakdown of the subject matter was a help... I did my my practice exams with my crates organized on the table with me as if I was taking the actual exam. I would strongly suggest setting up your binders and practicing using them well in advance of the exam (comfort level and the ability to tweak how you do things).


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## Capt Worley PE (Feb 8, 2008)

You know, except for my MERM, all my references are still down in their crate on the handtruck in the basement. I haven't touched them since that fateful day in October. I guess I could unpack them and put them away today...


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## squishles10 (Feb 25, 2008)

Attached are pics (one good, one blurry) of my CERM. I tabbed the side with the topics on the NCEES list, starting with AM, and then filling in with PM. I tabbed the bottom by larger topic. I found tabs across the top of the book too hard to see wtihout moving the whole book around, so I like the bottom better. Everything is color-coded although there are more colors than topics because of construction and environmental, and I have a separate color for reference info that spans topics.

When in my review class where they just got their books, it's cool to see how fast I can flip to something and how long it takes them. :thumbs:


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## Casey (Mar 1, 2008)

IlPadrino said:


> I almost wrote I like my books like I like my women... but couldn't come up with anything witty.
> I don't know what it is but I just don't like to write in reference books. Maybe a few notes in pencil, but GOD FORBID, NEVER PEN!



Very faint pencil marks are allowed...

But anyone that uses pens or highlighters in any of my books gets a punch in the face!

Back on topic... my CERM is in the process of being colour coded with tabs. I also intent to have separate binders of practice problems (grouped by category)... and a bunch of texts and binders with old class notes...

I haven't really started organising too much... I figure I will do that with 2 weeks to go or so...


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## WVUengr (Aug 13, 2008)

I am confused how are you guys using class notes when all ref. materials need to be bound


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## snickerd3 (Aug 13, 2008)

NCyankee said:


> I am confused how are you guys using class notes when all ref. materials need to be bound


3 ring binder counts as being bound in some states


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## WVUengr (Aug 21, 2008)

snickerd3 said:


> 3 ring binder counts as being bound in some states


as anyone ever been refused spiral bound

North Carolina http://www.ncbels.org/forms/ENGINF.pdf

"OPEN BOOK EXAMINATION - Only handbooks, textbooks or bound reference material may be taken into the

examination room."


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## WVUengr (Aug 21, 2008)

NCyankee said:


> as anyone ever been refused spiral bound
> North Carolina http://www.ncbels.org/forms/ENGINF.pdf
> 
> "OPEN BOOK EXAMINATION - Only handbooks, textbooks or bound reference material may be taken into the
> ...


Well, I broke down and actually used a telephone in this modern age, and called 

The NC Board differs to NCEES

Karen at NCEES Exam services (8/21/8) 2:15 pm

"Bound includes spiral binding, sadle stitch, Heavy duty staples, 3-ring binders"

An answer straight from the source.

Hope this helps. :laugh:


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## Road Guy (Aug 25, 2008)

like others, I tabbed references as I used them to make me more familiar with them.

One thing I did that I really think helped me was I got a spiral notebook, and every time I came accross a new formula or something that seemed useful but wasnt in the cerm, I jotted it down in the spiral notebook, and later made an index for it, over a period of 4 months studying it got fairly full. Its probably useless to anyone else, but it really helped me during the exam. I left room in the notebook so that it ended up being broken down into the 5 test subjects.

I also took transpo so I had a lot of books, I had one of those small wheeled carts and in the cart I put mainly PM books and I had a box on top of the cart (via bungy cord) that was more AM stuff (ENV, Non transpo related water books, soils) Not a huge piece of advice but it saved me some time digging through books.

My 1st time I got 0/8 on AM ENV, so for my 2nd time I took almost every ENV college textbook I could borrow from my coworkers at the time, a lot more informative than whats in the cerm (IMO)


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## squishles10 (Aug 27, 2008)

i know they said heavy duty staples, but i know a lot of people that had stapled books taken away from them. i dont know how they differentiate between a staple and a "heavy duty" staple. i wouldnt risk it.


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## Guest (Oct 13, 2008)

bump

Nice reminder with less than two weeks for the exam!

JR


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