# Preface to the All In One Second Edition



## civilized_naah (Aug 2, 2012)

The second edition of the Civil Engineering PE All-in-One Exam Guide comes out approximately 3 years after its initial publication. During these 3 years, I have received a lot of feedback from engineers who have used the book in their preparation for the PE Civil examination. Most of the feedback has been very useful to me. I have been gratified by the fact that a vast majority of readers has found the book useful, and humbled by the fact that a pretty comprehensive process of copy editing and proofreading can still leave a good number of typos/errors/ambiguities in a manuscript. Those have been corrected in this new edition. I will never again pass comment about a technical book having a long list of errata.

The moniker “all-in-one” has not sat well with some readers of the first edition. In its defense, the name arose simply out of an editorial decision to incorporate the book into an existing series of study guides, called the All-in-One series. It is a little naïve to expect a 900-page book to truly be “all-in-one” in a field as diverse as civil engineering. It is imperative for readers to create a suite of references to support their exam preparation. In particular, those attempting the construction, structural, or transportation depth areas of the PE Civil exam should become intimately familiar with all current references and codes.

The purpose of writing this book was to write a book that discusses “PE-like” topics in a coherent manner. In planning a chapter, or a sequence of chapters, I have tried to create a flow between the topics discussed. Wherever appropriate, cross-references to different subjects have been made, while preserving the flow of the subject at hand. While it would be wonderful to do this in about 3000 pages, covering civil engineering in about 1000 pages means that there will be topics that are left out. One would hope that a candidate would supplement this book with other sources, as deemed appropriate by the official (NCEES) syllabus of the PE exam. I would recommend that readers create a “map” from the current NCEES syllabus to specific pages in this book, thereby familiarizing themselves with both.

There have been notable changes/additions made to the first edition of this book. First, typos, errors, and omissions have been corrected. Second, *an entirely new*

*chapter on highway pavements has been added*. In addition, *nearly 60 pages of new material have been added*, including new equations, tables, and examples as appropriate. Third, in response to comments by some readers, *about 150 end-of-chapter practice problems (and detailed solutions) have been added*. However, not all of the problems have been formatted like actual PE questions. Rather, the intent of these problems is to provide review of the subject matter covered in the corresponding chapter. For questions formatted like the PE exam, the reader is encouraged to seek out a PE practice problems book, one whose primary intent is to present multiple-choice problems similar in content and formatting to the PE Civil examination.

Finally, in response to readers’ comments, this edition has *a significantly expanded alphabetical index*.

To all who choose to use this book, I wish the very best.


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## ptatohed (Aug 2, 2012)

Very well written Dr. G. Thank you and congrats on a great book. Hopefully I'll be able to view the 2nd Ed one day. You addressed many of the things that I might have had issues with in the 1st Ed. First, I did/do find the name a little misleading but I took it with a grain of salt and your explanation does make sense. As for errors/errata, hopefully most examinees will have an understanding that errors are going to happen with any large technical project like this - and your errors weren't excessive I don't think. I did feel the index was a little anemic so that's cool that you beefed it up (I'd looove to be able to take the NCEES syllabus outline and find any given line item term in the AI1 index). You didn't mention it but, if you haven't already, you might consider an extensive conversion table (not unlike the CERM). Since I couldn't use my trusty TI-89 (with its built in conversion capability) on the exam, I relied on the CERM conversion table a lot. (but please don't add the wasteful 'Background' like the CERM!) Lastly, if I had one request for the AI1 (or the CERM) is that AM vs PM topics would be clearly identified. If I am taking, say, Transpo depth, I don't want to spend precious study hours reading/working the entire water, cons, structural and geo chapters. If the "AM level" of info was clearly labeled for each topic, it would help me limit my study to just that "level" and, thus, study much more efficiently. It might not be realistic, but I think that would be very helpful. Again, great book - and great price. Thank you!


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## Jayman_PE (Aug 4, 2012)

I used the All-In-One 1st edition while preparing for the PE Exam April 2012. I found it a very useful text; a perfect companion to the CERM. In particular I found the transportation section much better than the CERM in terms of preparing for the AM exam. The economic section was well written too. Overall very good text and I would reccomend to anyone preparing for the exam.


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## Fed (Sep 4, 2012)

I used it too. It is a very good book. It helped me a lot passing the PE exam.


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