PE Environmental -Tips and recommendations for future candidates
Hello All
I have been following this forum for a while where some good discussions have been posted. I decided that it’s time to provide my comprehensive review of the PE Environmental exam and best ways to maximize the possibility of passing the exam in your first attempt. My discussion will have both qualitative and quantitative items on several topics covered in the PE exam.
Background
To give you a background, I have a graduate degree in environmental engineering and bachelors in chemical engineering with a strong background in chemistry I have been working in the “site assessment and remediation (SAR)” field for the past 8 years focusing mainly on Insitu technologies used for contaminated site remediation.
Given this background provides a certain advantage of performing well since the environmental exam does involve lot of chemistry. However, the catch is that the chemistry being used in the actual exam is not advanced. What you actually need is a freshmen/sophomore understanding of basic principles and for anyone who has not seen chemistry since high school could still get up to speed if you spend some additional time reviewing basics.
The disadvantage for me is that only 12% of the actual PE exam is focused on SAR. If you look into the NCEES guidance document, the main players are as follows
Ø 32 % is water (potable, wastewater, storm water and groundwater)
Ø Air is 23% and solid waste is 18% (both municipal and hazardous) totaling to about 41%
Ø SAR is about 12%
Ø The other sections are environmental health and safety (EHS) *8%) and associated engineering principles (AEP) (7%)
the AM sessions focused on water and municipal solid waste while the PM Sessions focused on Air, haz waste, SAR, EHS and AEP.
What Books you would want to study comprehensively
This is relative but I am going to give you the ones that are good reference materials on all topics above
1. Environmental Engineering Reference manual (EERM) by Lindeberg –This is your centerpiece. You also need the Practice problems (separate book-372 problems) associated with all chapters of the manual by Lindeberg
2. Metcalf and Eddy – for –water and waste water
3. Air Pollution Control by David Cooper and Alley
4. Solid waste management by Lagrega et al
5. Environmental Engineering practice PE exams by Wane Schneiter (3'rd edition)-This book has 3 full exams-
6. Environmental Engineering Solved problems by Wane Schneiter (third edition). This book has problems grouped by the different topics covered in the actual exam including
7. Engineering unit conversions by Lindeberg-Handy book to have since you will be drenched in conversions during the exam-
8. Environmental Law Handbook (Sullivan). Need this for the regulatory and statutory questions.
9. NCEES practice exams-very important- use them as practice exams 2 weeks before to take a MOCK 8 hour test to see how you fare
10. Down load the NCEES free FE handbook. It has most of the important formulas summarized
11. You need a good book on SAR. I had a good book through ESTCP/SERDP long time back at a remediation conference on VOCs. With my experience; this was the least I focused on but others may want to strengthen this area if they are not involved in it.
What books you would actually use in the exam
Honestly, people talk a lot about creating tabs/sticky notes and indexing. My recommendation is as follows:
You would want to use the manuals and books to mainly look at formulas and reference tables (like Hazen Williams constant, periodic table, plume dispersion coefficients etcc). Don’t even think about reading or finding answers straight from any book. Some may be lucky to find one or two. This exam’s main challenge is its breadth. Even within your field that you have experience in, you may not know everything.
Quantitative recommendations-AM SESSION
1. Go through the subdivision of topics in each of the above subject areas.
https://cdn.ncees.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/PE-Env-Apr-2011.pdf
2. Start working on areas that you have had least experience. For eg:, I had the least experience in solid waste (municipal) and water resources. Please start in advance with your weakest areas of expertise.
3. The way to start is read the EERM topic by topic and do problems associated with each chapter from the practice problems book and also look for other sources which has problems associated with respective topics and solve them. The books I suggested above are a good starting point.
How I fared in AM session.
I solved or got answers for 35 out of 50 questions and made educated/engineering guesses/rule of elimination guesses for 10 and remaining 5 were just random hits due to lack of time or no clue about approach.
After I came out at noon, I was not happy because I had prepared strongly but did not even answer 80% correctly. Most people would want to ACE the AM session and do fair or better in the PM session to pass. This option was ruled out for me but I had the confidence of doing well in the PM session since SAR and Air were still to come
Quantitative recommendations-PM SESSION
a) AIR is probably the widest area to cover. Review all topics related to ideal gas laws
b) Air treatment technologies: , Air quality and air pollutants
c) Hazardous waste: and associated regulations
d) Risk assessment:
e) Groundwater remediation
How I fared in PM session: My stronger section. I solved about 44 out of 50 where I got answers provided in the choices and six were educated/engineering/rule of elimination guesses. I don’t remember seeing anything which I had no clue about. My conclusion is PM session is what saved me and gave confidence (atleast a bit) on passing
On a fair note, I did solve 79 correctly in my opinion and should easily pass. However, the PE exam is tricky. If you did not pay attention to units properly or fumbled your calculations, the answer choices are designed in such a way that one of the plausible wrong answers are in these choices and you could pick it easily. This was the greatest threat in my mind which created doubts of getting all 79 correct. I also assumed that all my guesses would be incorrect as LUCK/PROBABILITY has never been in my favor in the past as far as exams are concerned. My intention during preparation was to answer all 100 questions with minimal guess work.
Qualitative recommendations
This is what you need to do in the actual exam to match preparation with performance
a) Time is the key, believe me that 4 hours won’t be enough. My recommendation is don’t ponder over any question for more than 1 minute if you don’t know how to approach it. Skip and come back to questions and keep doing it throughout the exam.
b) Read the question carefully. They give you a lot of unwanted info that is lengthy and may not be required to solve the problem intentionally confusing the candidate. The actual solution is simpler than you may think.
c) Be well versed in UNITS conversion. I am quite versed in SI units and also think in the same traditionally. Last 8 years, I have been involved with US units. Safe to say, I am now confused. Since solid waste management and water resources were newer topics, I could think in inches, gallons, acres etc and I escaped AM sessions unscathed. What I decided in the PM session was that, I will convert and do my calcs in SI (even if question is in US) and convert the final answer to whichever is being asked. Beware that this is a BAD strategy for most people as they tend to make mistakes when more steps are involved. This worked for me but may not for others. Problems in the actual exam will have both units. Always look for what is the UNIT of the answer choices; they may be a little different from the inputs in the problem
d) Think as an engineer. Some choices in certain questions that you may not be able to solve will not make sense logically. Use the rule of elimination to maximize your chances of guessing the right answer.
e) Take the exam as soon as possible after graduation and fulfillment of requirements (eg experience working under P.E etc.). I took my EIT/FE in 2007 after I finished my grad studies which was much easier for me but weighted 8 years (god knows why) for my PE. I should have taken it in 2012.
f) I did not take a full blown PE exam before the actual one. I did the NCEES sample exam but would solve each and every problem and look at the solution immediately. Normally recommendation is to take 3 full blown PE exams and time yourself to see how you fare.
g) Carry as many books as you want if that gives you confidence. But don’t keep searching for answers if you don’t know a particular reference well. Keep those questions to the end.
h) There is no fixed pass % as it is normalized based on the group’s performance. I would say 70% is safe but prepare with the intensity of answering all 100 questions.
i) I put in about 225 hours over a period of 2.5 months as I did not decide until august that I am going to take it in Oct. In addition, my work situation was a little flexible. I would think giving yourself 5 months would be best to spread your hours slowly and steadily during preparation.
j) Get into the habit of problem solving. 75% of the test is problem solving. In some questions, you can look at the answer and back calculate what they are asking for. The more problems you solve, the greater your confidence would be.
k) Qualitative questions are going to depend a lot on experience.
l) Take two recommended calculators with you and be versed in all functions. The way you operate it saves you time.
m) If you think taking a review course will keep you organized, please do so. Some suggestions are school of PE or test masters. They provide a comprehensive review of all topics and people taking them have better success rates than the national average.
In conclusion, diligent preparation in all topics, problem solving skills, time management and educated/engineering guesses would most likely get you beyond the finish line. PE exam as a whole is not tough. It just needs comprehensive preparation given its breadth.
Cheers
RSS
Hello All
I have been following this forum for a while where some good discussions have been posted. I decided that it’s time to provide my comprehensive review of the PE Environmental exam and best ways to maximize the possibility of passing the exam in your first attempt. My discussion will have both qualitative and quantitative items on several topics covered in the PE exam.
Background
To give you a background, I have a graduate degree in environmental engineering and bachelors in chemical engineering with a strong background in chemistry I have been working in the “site assessment and remediation (SAR)” field for the past 8 years focusing mainly on Insitu technologies used for contaminated site remediation.
Given this background provides a certain advantage of performing well since the environmental exam does involve lot of chemistry. However, the catch is that the chemistry being used in the actual exam is not advanced. What you actually need is a freshmen/sophomore understanding of basic principles and for anyone who has not seen chemistry since high school could still get up to speed if you spend some additional time reviewing basics.
The disadvantage for me is that only 12% of the actual PE exam is focused on SAR. If you look into the NCEES guidance document, the main players are as follows
Ø 32 % is water (potable, wastewater, storm water and groundwater)
Ø Air is 23% and solid waste is 18% (both municipal and hazardous) totaling to about 41%
Ø SAR is about 12%
Ø The other sections are environmental health and safety (EHS) *8%) and associated engineering principles (AEP) (7%)
the AM sessions focused on water and municipal solid waste while the PM Sessions focused on Air, haz waste, SAR, EHS and AEP.
What Books you would want to study comprehensively
This is relative but I am going to give you the ones that are good reference materials on all topics above
1. Environmental Engineering Reference manual (EERM) by Lindeberg –This is your centerpiece. You also need the Practice problems (separate book-372 problems) associated with all chapters of the manual by Lindeberg
2. Metcalf and Eddy – for –water and waste water
3. Air Pollution Control by David Cooper and Alley
4. Solid waste management by Lagrega et al
5. Environmental Engineering practice PE exams by Wane Schneiter (3'rd edition)-This book has 3 full exams-
6. Environmental Engineering Solved problems by Wane Schneiter (third edition). This book has problems grouped by the different topics covered in the actual exam including
7. Engineering unit conversions by Lindeberg-Handy book to have since you will be drenched in conversions during the exam-
8. Environmental Law Handbook (Sullivan). Need this for the regulatory and statutory questions.
9. NCEES practice exams-very important- use them as practice exams 2 weeks before to take a MOCK 8 hour test to see how you fare
10. Down load the NCEES free FE handbook. It has most of the important formulas summarized
11. You need a good book on SAR. I had a good book through ESTCP/SERDP long time back at a remediation conference on VOCs. With my experience; this was the least I focused on but others may want to strengthen this area if they are not involved in it.
What books you would actually use in the exam
Honestly, people talk a lot about creating tabs/sticky notes and indexing. My recommendation is as follows:
You would want to use the manuals and books to mainly look at formulas and reference tables (like Hazen Williams constant, periodic table, plume dispersion coefficients etcc). Don’t even think about reading or finding answers straight from any book. Some may be lucky to find one or two. This exam’s main challenge is its breadth. Even within your field that you have experience in, you may not know everything.
Quantitative recommendations-AM SESSION
1. Go through the subdivision of topics in each of the above subject areas.
https://cdn.ncees.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/PE-Env-Apr-2011.pdf
2. Start working on areas that you have had least experience. For eg:, I had the least experience in solid waste (municipal) and water resources. Please start in advance with your weakest areas of expertise.
3. The way to start is read the EERM topic by topic and do problems associated with each chapter from the practice problems book and also look for other sources which has problems associated with respective topics and solve them. The books I suggested above are a good starting point.
How I fared in AM session.
I solved or got answers for 35 out of 50 questions and made educated/engineering guesses/rule of elimination guesses for 10 and remaining 5 were just random hits due to lack of time or no clue about approach.
After I came out at noon, I was not happy because I had prepared strongly but did not even answer 80% correctly. Most people would want to ACE the AM session and do fair or better in the PM session to pass. This option was ruled out for me but I had the confidence of doing well in the PM session since SAR and Air were still to come
Quantitative recommendations-PM SESSION
a) AIR is probably the widest area to cover. Review all topics related to ideal gas laws
b) Air treatment technologies: , Air quality and air pollutants
c) Hazardous waste: and associated regulations
d) Risk assessment:
e) Groundwater remediation
How I fared in PM session: My stronger section. I solved about 44 out of 50 where I got answers provided in the choices and six were educated/engineering/rule of elimination guesses. I don’t remember seeing anything which I had no clue about. My conclusion is PM session is what saved me and gave confidence (atleast a bit) on passing
On a fair note, I did solve 79 correctly in my opinion and should easily pass. However, the PE exam is tricky. If you did not pay attention to units properly or fumbled your calculations, the answer choices are designed in such a way that one of the plausible wrong answers are in these choices and you could pick it easily. This was the greatest threat in my mind which created doubts of getting all 79 correct. I also assumed that all my guesses would be incorrect as LUCK/PROBABILITY has never been in my favor in the past as far as exams are concerned. My intention during preparation was to answer all 100 questions with minimal guess work.
Qualitative recommendations
This is what you need to do in the actual exam to match preparation with performance
a) Time is the key, believe me that 4 hours won’t be enough. My recommendation is don’t ponder over any question for more than 1 minute if you don’t know how to approach it. Skip and come back to questions and keep doing it throughout the exam.
b) Read the question carefully. They give you a lot of unwanted info that is lengthy and may not be required to solve the problem intentionally confusing the candidate. The actual solution is simpler than you may think.
c) Be well versed in UNITS conversion. I am quite versed in SI units and also think in the same traditionally. Last 8 years, I have been involved with US units. Safe to say, I am now confused. Since solid waste management and water resources were newer topics, I could think in inches, gallons, acres etc and I escaped AM sessions unscathed. What I decided in the PM session was that, I will convert and do my calcs in SI (even if question is in US) and convert the final answer to whichever is being asked. Beware that this is a BAD strategy for most people as they tend to make mistakes when more steps are involved. This worked for me but may not for others. Problems in the actual exam will have both units. Always look for what is the UNIT of the answer choices; they may be a little different from the inputs in the problem
d) Think as an engineer. Some choices in certain questions that you may not be able to solve will not make sense logically. Use the rule of elimination to maximize your chances of guessing the right answer.
e) Take the exam as soon as possible after graduation and fulfillment of requirements (eg experience working under P.E etc.). I took my EIT/FE in 2007 after I finished my grad studies which was much easier for me but weighted 8 years (god knows why) for my PE. I should have taken it in 2012.
f) I did not take a full blown PE exam before the actual one. I did the NCEES sample exam but would solve each and every problem and look at the solution immediately. Normally recommendation is to take 3 full blown PE exams and time yourself to see how you fare.
g) Carry as many books as you want if that gives you confidence. But don’t keep searching for answers if you don’t know a particular reference well. Keep those questions to the end.
h) There is no fixed pass % as it is normalized based on the group’s performance. I would say 70% is safe but prepare with the intensity of answering all 100 questions.
i) I put in about 225 hours over a period of 2.5 months as I did not decide until august that I am going to take it in Oct. In addition, my work situation was a little flexible. I would think giving yourself 5 months would be best to spread your hours slowly and steadily during preparation.
j) Get into the habit of problem solving. 75% of the test is problem solving. In some questions, you can look at the answer and back calculate what they are asking for. The more problems you solve, the greater your confidence would be.
k) Qualitative questions are going to depend a lot on experience.
l) Take two recommended calculators with you and be versed in all functions. The way you operate it saves you time.
m) If you think taking a review course will keep you organized, please do so. Some suggestions are school of PE or test masters. They provide a comprehensive review of all topics and people taking them have better success rates than the national average.
In conclusion, diligent preparation in all topics, problem solving skills, time management and educated/engineering guesses would most likely get you beyond the finish line. PE exam as a whole is not tough. It just needs comprehensive preparation given its breadth.
Cheers
RSS
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