April PE Exam civil 2009

[TranspoVA]

when I finished AM exam I thought I made it, but when I got to PM exam( transportation ) I felt like I don't know If I will pass or not , I would like to see other people experience about that

Seems like there were a lot of Intersection Sight Distance and Freeway Questions on the PM wasn't expecting that...but all out of the Green Book at least. I was surprised that I had to bust open the ITE Traffic Engineering Handbook.

 

[txaggie]

My biggest gripe is that they were NOT consistent with slope terminology. You never really knew if it was H:V or V:H. Sometimes they would tell you and others they left it wide open. The need to make sure that they fix that in future exams.
The afternoon transpo was difficult in the fact that you had to use every resource that they listed to bring. I used teh ITE book for at least 2-4 problems. The ITE did really well for the crash analysis (not the braking problems). The green book you had to look up obsure charts that you normally would never think of.

I agree wholeheartedly. OBSCURE charts that you just had to know they may exist somewhere in the green book and I didn't HAVE to use the ITE book but double checked on a couple of problems. There were so many problems similar to each other, didn't seem like it tested engineering problem solving ability as it did whether or not you had the reference manuals.

 

[txaggie]

This is about how I felt for a good chunk of the exam...

HAHA, not quite this bad but there were some crazy questions that some academic is lauging at all of us on that we didn't know the answer.

 

[psucivilengineer]

when I finished AM exam I thought I made it, but when I got to PM exam( transportation ) I felt like I don't know If I will pass or not , I would like to see other people experience about that

I felt the complete opposite when I left the exam. I also took Transportation. I thought the morning was very difficult and was convinced at lunch time that I was going to fail. But when I started on the afternoon part, every answer I came up with was one of the choices...every question. I could not believe how easy the afternoon was. I just kept chugging along. I could hardly focus towards the end because I was so excited. I knew then that I was going to pass.

I made sure I tabbed the greenbook very thoroughly and boy did it pay off. I couldn't believe how many answers I just plucked out of that book. You just had to pull different values from different charts. I also used the Highway Capacity Manual and the AASHTO Roadside Design Guide. I suggest becoming very familiar with your references.

 

[layad]

This was my first attempt. I had started my preparations during the third week of February and studied 2 hrs everyday till 23rd April (4 hrs on weekends). I was very confident about the PM (geotechnical) but very skeptical about the AM exam. However, I found the AM exam to be very easy and the only question I couldn't answer was due to unavailability of a reference. The PM session (geotechnical), albeit intense and exhausting, was good. I may have gotten more than 36 questions right. To summarize, I felt quite confident of passing after the exams but my confidence waned gradually with time. Fortunately for me, the result was positive.

 

[tymr]

^^^ Let me guess....the Green Book question. :angry:

Congrats on pulling it off. I'll be in it for the next go around.

 

[layad]

^^^ Let me guess....the Green Book question. :angry: Congrats on pulling it off. I'll be in it for the next go around.

Thats right! All the best to you!!

 

[ElCid03]

For the construction test references are absolutley cruicial. I got a bunch of questions right due to having the right resources. Bring everything and any thing related to construction, OHSA Manual, ACI Manuals, AISC Steel Manual, AWS Manual, and a rigging handbook would be a good start to include the Lindeberg Book.

 

[tymr]

Thats right! All the best to you!!

Thanks. What geotech references did you use to study?

 

[layad]

Thanks. What geotech references did you use to study?

CERM 11th Edition and Practice Exam

Six Minutes Solutions - Geotech

Advanced Soil Mechanics - Das

Foundation Analysis and Design - Bowles

Principles of Foundations Engineering - Das