My study tools (Passed April 2012 Civil Construction)

Ted L · May 31, 2012

My "tools":

4 main books during the exam

1) CERM 12th

2) FE manual (free version)

3) Indranil Gowswami - Class Notes & Book

Preparation. Took Indranil Goswami on-line (live) review course, very beneficial. His "class notes" that come as part of the package with the class were very helpful to me. I also used the DVD (AM Breadth from PPI). Typically, I started with the DVD (before the Goswami class), then worked problems like crazy......literally until I was blue in the face.

I was one of those dorks with boxes of books, but it paid off. I ONLY used the extra books for look ups and they came in handy for me.

Good luck, happy to have that behind me.... Books for SALE SOON

lady_j · May 31, 2012

Thanks Ted. I'll add to your thread with my study tools (very similar to yours)

I passed Civil - Transportation on the 3rd attempt. On my 2nd attempt I was VERY close to passing. Here was my passing strategy:

1) I identified my weaknesses (which were structural and construction) and began with those topics when I started studying.

2) I strongly recommend taking a review course. I took 'School of PE' online review course and I really liked it because it forces you to keep up with the course work and you also have an awesome set of notes. The construction module was particularly great and on the actual test, it helped me with ALL of the construction problems, structural problems, economics and those theoretical problems that I don't even know what topic they come from. THIS COURSE IS WORTH THE $$$! Plus, also know that if you fail, you can repeat the course for free (if you have attended all of the lectures, that is),

3) I put in at least 3 hours of studying per day, and I made a record of when I studied and what topic/chapter. This held me accountable. I bought one of those day-timers and used that the whole time I studied.

4) The books I used on the exam (am):

-CERM 11th ed.

-Goswami "PE all-in-one" text

-My School of PE notes

5) When I was taking the exam, I really made an effort to do the "easiest" questions first, and not get sucked into trying to do them sequentially (which I did the first 2 times). I took the transportation depth, so in the morning I answered all of the transpo questions first. I left the theory ones until the end mostly.

6) I color-coded all of my books: yellow tabs for transport, red for construction, green for geotech, etc etc. This helped me because I could easily isolate where to look in my book. I also felt that even in the CERM, it is well-organized, but there's some overlapp between the topics so I ended up with different colored tabs in one chapter due to subject-matter overlap.

7) I adjusted my attitude. Instead of thinking about all the things I would be missing out on because I had to study...I just kept thinking about how awesome it will feel when I pass (and, believe me, it does!). I gave up most of my favorite tv shows, told my friends I wouldn't see them for a few months and put my hobbies on hold. It was torture at the time, but looking back on it, 3-4 months goes by very quickly and now my life is "back to normal" and sooo much better!

Good luck to all of the October 2012 test takers!

ptatohed · Jul 25, 2012

lady_j said:
Thanks Ted. I'll add to your thread with my study tools (very similar to yours)

I passed Civil - Transportation on the 3rd attempt. On my 2nd attempt I was VERY close to passing. Here was my passing strategy:

1) I identified my weaknesses (which were structural and construction) and began with those topics when I started studying.

2) I strongly recommend taking a review course. I took 'School of PE' online review course and I really liked it because it forces you to keep up with the course work and you also have an awesome set of notes. The construction module was particularly great and on the actual test, it helped me with ALL of the construction problems, structural problems, economics and those theoretical problems that I don't even know what topic they come from. THIS COURSE IS WORTH THE $$$! Plus, also know that if you fail, you can repeat the course for free (if you have attended all of the lectures, that is),

3) I put in at least 3 hours of studying per day, and I made a record of when I studied and what topic/chapter. This held me accountable. I bought one of those day-timers and used that the whole time I studied.

4) The books I used on the exam (am):

-CERM 11th ed.

-Goswami "PE all-in-one" text

-My School of PE notes

5) When I was taking the exam, I really made an effort to do the "easiest" questions first, and not get sucked into trying to do them sequentially (which I did the first 2 times). I took the transportation depth, so in the morning I answered all of the transpo questions first. I left the theory ones until the end mostly.

6) I color-coded all of my books: yellow tabs for transport, red for construction, green for geotech, etc etc. This helped me because I could easily isolate where to look in my book. I also felt that even in the CERM, it is well-organized, but there's some overlapp between the topics so I ended up with different colored tabs in one chapter due to subject-matter overlap.

7) I adjusted my attitude. Instead of thinking about all the things I would be missing out on because I had to study...I just kept thinking about how awesome it will feel when I pass (and, believe me, it does!). I gave up most of my favorite tv shows, told my friends I wouldn't see them for a few months and put my hobbies on hold. It was torture at the time, but looking back on it, 3-4 months goes by very quickly and now my life is "back to normal" and sooo much better!

Good luck to all of the October 2012 test takers!

Congrats lj! Great post - it deserves a thread of its own.

lady_j · Jul 25, 2012

ptatohed said:
Congrats lj! Great post - it deserves a thread of its own.

Thanks Ptatohed! I'd like to thank you personally for your helpful advice and responses throughout this boad. This board helped me a lot, I hope that my little tips can help others

PE-Ana · Dec 26, 2012

Ted:

Would you like to sell your tabbed books?

Anam

Lumber Jim · Dec 31, 2012

PE-Ana said:
Ted:

Would you like to sell your tabbed books?

Anam

I recomend that after getting the tabbed books, you remove all of the tabs and replace them with your own...

I say this because in my experience the "Tabbing" part of the studying process helped me to become familar with the books I used. On test day the tabs were more or less a guide to jog my memory for finding the reference equations that were needed. It may seem like a short cut now but I think you are shorting yourself from REALLY knowing the references that you will be taking into the test...

Just my 2 cents...