I found my old post on the "the other board" forum, which I posted under Freon's "Time to Pay Your Dues" thread right after taking the environmental exam in October 2006. I've re-edited it in an attempt to be more helpful and complete:
Test you took: PE Environmental Engineering
Where you took it: Tumon, Guam
What books you brought with you:
- ENVRM
- All the sample question books available - "the other board" & NCEES
- Wastewater Engineering (Metcalf & Eddy)
- Environmental Engineering (Salvato et al.),
- Hazardous Waste Management (LaGrega et al),
- Air Pollution Control (Cooper, Alley),
- Applied Hydrogeology (Fetter),
- Handbook of Solid Waste Management (Tchobanaglous et al.),
- NIOSH pocket guide to chemical hazards,
- 2004 Emergency Response Handbook (DOT/Canada etc.),
- EPA RCRA and CERCLA "orientation manuals",
- the downloaded OSHA regulations and manual excerpts,
- federal regulations: EPA's RCRA regulations (2 volumes),
EPCRA, and DOT Hazmat Transp. regs
What books you actually used: I used all of the books I brought, except for the sample problem manuals and federal regulations. I think I looked in the NCEES practice problems book once or twice, but I can't remember now if I found what I needed there. Mostly I used the ENVRM and a couple of other books. "Environmental Engineering" by Salvato was particularly handy for many subject areas, including a couple of the strange ones. I'd definitely recommend that book, because I can see using it for work. Other books I would recommend are "Hazardous Waste Management" by LaGrega, "Applied Hydrogeology" by Fetter, and (but of course) Metcalf & Eddy. I don't think the Solid Waste book was particularly helpful for the exam, though it is for my work (in fact I've already loaned it out to a colleague, so I'm not sure if I have the title right) and I didn't have enough time with "Air Pollution Control" to really get as much use out of it as I thought I would, though it did come in handy on some of the practice exams. ENVRM actually covers air pollution pretty well, but it's always nice to have something more in depth for background reading. Air sampling methods and equipment are covered nicely by Salvato - though the federal regulations can't be beat, as long as you can find stuff in them (tabs!).
Some thoughts on "the other board"'s Environmental Engineering Reference Manual (ENVRM): I feel this book was just cobbled together from the Civil and Chemical Reference Manuals. It would benefit from a serious editing job and some new chapters written specifically for the Env. exam. It is adequate for the water subjects, air pollution, and some of the safety/emergency response stuff. But it is pretty inadequate for hazardous waste and site remediation type stuff. Also, it does not cover contaminant hydrogeology, which would seem to be an easy addition to the groundwater chapter. What I did was write in additional equations at the end of chapters, or in the margins, as I would run into them in the "other" "the other board" books, like Schnetier's 101 solved problems and the 6-minute solutions. I don't know if all states allow that, but it was OK for Guam.
What books did you wish you brought: I had to fly to my exam site, so I had to pick and choose which federal regulations to bring along because my bags had gotten too heavy. Well, it turns out the only federal regulations I needed to reference during the exam were the ones I left at the office. Who knew? Also, I wish I had found some good references on sampling for all different media and contaminants - water, air, and hazardous waste.
General impression about exam and format: Surprisingly, I thought the difficulty was very similar to what was simulated with "the other board"'s pratice exams book. My finish times were identical to the timed practice exam I gave myself two weeks prior. The format is different, of course. The actual exam is much wider-ranging, which I knew it would be. It would be nice if "the other board" could correct that with a new edition of the practice exams that follows the NCEES format more accurately. What was different, though, is that the quantitative questions were easier on the real exam, and the qualitative questions were more difficult.
Advice for Spring test takers: Start studying at least three months prior to the exam. Read everything you can - it's not just the calculations that you need to master! But definitely master the calculations - just focus on the fundamentals - chemistry, kinetics (first order covers most environmental subjects), mass balances (way simpler than it sounds), and the ideal gas law - and by the time you finish practicing, you will be able to solve almost any quantitaive question with nothing more than a quick look-up of the appropriate equation or chemical property. Also, make sure you give yourself a timed practice exam at least a couple weeks before the real thing. It really is helpful, if for nothing else than the knowledge of how you will be able to use your time. For me, I learned that I work plenty fast enough not to have to worry about skipping problems. I had plenty of time to give each problem a thorough attempt before moving on, and I still had plenty of time left to go back to the ones I had problems with, and also to go back and check all my other answers - and still leave the afternoon session early.
Additional thoughts (two and a half months later
I studied for three months because that's all I had left once I found out whether or not my application to take the exam had been accepted. I was able to put in about 300 hours of quality studying time during that time, which works out to 25-30 hours per week. This was only possible because of my work situation - there just wasn't much happening here at the time, and my boss was very understanding. If I were starting again from scratch, I would recommend 4 months just so you have a little extra time. But, I will say that committing myself "body and soul" to the study effort was what made it possible for me. I set a lofty goal of "acing" the exam, not because I thought I could, but because I wanted to be able to walk out of the exam feeling confident, which I did. Over time, of course, my confidence eroded as I discovered that I had been wrong on a number of problems, mostly qualitative questions that I had to guess on.
I didn't set a detailed schedule, but I did initially give myself 2 weeks for each of the four major exam areas (i.e., 2 months): water and wastewater, air, hazardous and solid waste, and safety/emergency response. My study method was to read a chapter in the ENVRM (skipping the basic math sections and most of thermodynamics), do the example problems myself, and then do the practice problems book for that chapter. After I would finish an entire subject (air, water, etc.) I would do the problems in the "Solved Problems" book as sort of a bring-it-all-together excercize, although some of the problems in there were so far removed from the ENVRM that I sould sometimes be sent off on another studying campaign.
Once I got into it, I discovered that some sections were easier than others. Air, for example, took only a week for me. On the other hand, I spent an entire month on water and wastewater, and damn near lost hope. The other two were pretty much right on schedule, with safety/emergency response (and radiation, noice, etc) taking maybe a week. That left me with about a week to go through the NCEES practice exam, and a few days to brush up on the simplest concepts of econ (don't bother going through the whole chapter - only the beginning), and then I took a full practice exam, timed, and in a controlled environment (a spare studio at a friend's radio station), with 2 weeks left. I passed the practice exa with an 84/100, and felt pretty confident. I spent the last two weeks doing the 6-minute solutions book (not for the enviro exam, but somewhat helpful) and going over subjects I felt shaky on.
The day before the exam I ran through the NCEES practice exam one more time, which only took about 4 hours because I already knew how to work the problems, and then I went shopping and relaxed, had a beer with a fish dinner, and got a good night's rest.
The exam, I felt, was most similar to the NCEES practice exam. Focus heavily on that - in terms of types of questions to expect. Try it out earlier than I did in my study schedule. I felt the heavy emphasis I placed on problem solving helped me get through the quantitative questions with ease. The qualitative questions were another story. It was like you either knew them, or you were off on a wild goose chase through the indices of your references to find something you had never seen before. So in that sense, it was more an excercise in finding out how comprehensive your references are, and how good you are at using an index, because I seriously doubt there's any one person who could possibly have experience in all that I saw on the test. So, I suggest in addition to problem solving, you also read as much as possible, and bring all the books you can.
I hope this helps you, and please feel free to ask questions and hang around. It's lonely being an environmental engineer.
Right VTE?
