CERM vs. NCEES Exam Outline

[Environmental_Guy]

Dumb question, but want to be sure:

The CERM has chapters on Incineration, Municipal SW/landfill, and Environmental Remediation, none of which are mentioned in the NCEES outline.

OK to completely skip these chapters for exam purposes? Any infinitesimal chance of it being on the exam?

Thanks!

 

[jeb6294]

I would go by the NCEES since it's their test. Best advice I would give is to get the NCEES Sample Exam book...it'll be as close to what you'll see on exam day as you're going to get.

 

[stuckinjersey]

Dumb question, but want to be sure:
The CERM has chapters on Incineration, Municipal SW/landfill, and Environmental Remediation, none of which are mentioned in the NCEES outline.

OK to completely skip these chapters for exam purposes? Any infinitesimal chance of it being on the exam?

Thanks!

it is possible that a qualitative question from one of these chapters will arise in the Civil morning. You can study and know it immediately, or you can look it up while taking the exam.

 

[blybrook PE]

I would cover landfill at a minimum; or have it tabbed to reference it should the test have something about it. The ncees outline doesn't specifically mention them; but it doesn't mean they won't throw it at you

 

[Happy]

I'm not sure I follow the above logic. Landfill isn't on the Exam outline, but study it anyways because it is in the CERM?

I do agree that anything not on the exam outline could still show up on the exam to make for a difficult question (what are you going to do about it - ha ha?) Tailing pond waste for example. But tailing pond waste isn't on the outline, it also happens to not be in the CERM. Going by that logic, if I'm studying landfill shouldn't I also read up on tailing ponds, and a hundred other subjects while I'm at it?

Does NCEES look through the CERM to get material to make the exam? I'd guess not. The CERM is a dump of information, much of it overkill to what we need to know (going by the exam outline). Amazingly, some information is missing entirely. How about a Chapter devoted to Wastewater (collection systems) and Water Treatment (hydraulic loading & distribution systems). These are prominently on the outline for the breadth exam, and sadly each receives just a few pages in the CERM.

If there is a question on landfills, that sucks. But hopefully you have the time and resources to look up those few 'Off-The-Exam-Outline' questions. I just wouldn't waste time studying them because time is limited and could be better put into being more prepared for things that are on the outline.

In order of figuring out what is important to study, I'm going by

1. NCEES exam outline

2-999. NCEES practice exams

1000. CERM

 

[blybrook PE]

I'm not sure I follow the above logic. Landfill isn't on the Exam outline, but study it anyways because it is in the CERM? I do agree that anything not on the exam outline could still show up on the exam to make for a difficult question (what are you going to do about it - ha ha?) Tailing pond waste for example. But tailing pond waste isn't on the outline, it also happens to not be in the CERM. Going by that logic, if I'm studying landfill shouldn't I also read up on tailing ponds?

The reason for my post above is because I've taken the Civil test twice (we ALL have the same morning section). Thankfully I don't have to worry about taking the Civil PE again, I can start to work on going after my SE.

As to the test information itself, one is not supposed to disclose actual questions seen on the exam. My above post does NOT disclose a question from the exam, only states that one should have reviewed that material or tabbed this section for use during the exam itself. I know that I was glad that I covered that section as I did see pertinent information directly related to a actual question.

I also know that the NCEES practice test, known to be of old test questions, does NOT fully prepare one for the actual test. The information in the CERM, six minute solutions & the CERM Practice problems were much more helpful (in my mind) than the NCEES practice exam information.

Moderator: If the above is outside of the grey area of disclosing a question or discussing the test; please remove the post & I apologize in advance.

 

[civilized_naah]

Dumb question, but want to be sure:
The CERM has chapters on Incineration, Municipal SW/landfill, and Environmental Remediation, none of which are mentioned in the NCEES outline.

OK to completely skip these chapters for exam purposes? Any infinitesimal chance of it being on the exam?

Thanks!

My sense is - when NCEES combined Water & Environmental into one depth area and called it Water Resources, they want you to study and test on those 'environmental topics' that relate to water. Hence, Air quality, solid waste etc. are out. But the CERM was put together with the old syllabus in mind, where Environmental was a separate depth area and all these topics came into play (and were in the official syllabus). If you were the publisher, would you cut 100 odd pages that were already there and be able to still raise the price of the new edition? Of course, to be fair, the CERM claims to be an overall desk reference for civil engineers and should not cut topics according to the whims of the PE exam creators.