Construction or Transportation Depth

[consteng]

My background is construction but I think it is too broad and there are not that many reference materials available to use and concentrate on. I also noticed that many people take transportation and pass. Any comment is appreciated.

 

[EnvEngineer]

I have to agree with your assessment of the construction exam, there are too many refenences needed and it hard to tell what will be important for the exam, if I had failed I would have taken the transportation. Take a look at the NCEES sample exam I think it will help you decide.

 

[consteng]

I have to agree with your assessment of the construction exam, there are too many refenences needed and it hard to tell what will be important for the exam, if I had failed I would have taken the transportation. Take a look at the NCEES sample exam I think it will help you decide.

I appreciate your advice. I actually took construction in Oct and failed. I am now debating whether to take construction again in April. Can you recommend a review course that helped you pass the test?

 

[humner]

I am now reviewing the Transportation portion for April, have taken the Construction unsuccessfully and will be trying my hand in another area. There is just so many areas that need to be covered in construction and to bring reference material is pretty daunting.

 

[cowboy]

many people switch to water

 

[Walker D]

I would stick to Construction if I were you. You have already taken it once so you have an idea of what will be on it next time around. Make sure you have the appropriate references such as the OSHA manual, etc. Make it a point to know the morning material very well. That will take the pressure off for the afternoon section. Work problems until you are blue in the face and "expect the unexpected" when taking the exam.

Aside from the CERM, I used the Ruwan Rajapaske Civil PE Professional Engineer Exam, Construction (Second Edition) study material and I passed. Here is a link to the study material: Construction Study Material

I passed the PE Construction Exam and I am sure you can too!

 

[EnvEngineer]

Walkers discussion points out the issue with the construction exam, I passed by studying alot of references. I think if you can get the project management ie pert and other methods down pat, and costing you can pass. Its not a difficult exam but it covers alot of turf. I got all the references that were used by the NCEES to make the practice exam and that was helpful.

Maybe check in the transportation forum and see what kind of feedback you can get from those that passed and those that failed.

Take note in what Walker said, one key to passing is to do very well in the morning, morning is pretty much straight out of CERM so know it well. If you failed check your score sheet and see where you were weak in the morning.

Good Luck

 

[JEBM PE]

My background is construction but I think it is too broad and there are not that many reference materials available to use and concentrate on. I also noticed that many people take transportation and pass. Any comment is appreciated.

PE REVIEW.NET helps. Construction Module or Transportation Module were good!

 

[Walker D]

Here is a website which has all the Construction Module references you will need for the afternoon grouped in one location.

http://pe-exam.com/Civilpeconstruction.html

 

[jdwood1111]

I had just about all the references required and just failed in October as well however, i did not know my way around them nearly well enough apparently. I was thinking of switching to a different afternoon section too like transportation but i'm going to stick with the construction for the April. I will study for the next month for the morning and then 2 months for the construction then, see what happens and reevaluate.

 

[crashz]

The references in Walker D's last post are a great start. I had most of them, but could have used them all. Don't forget the practice problem book that goes with Ruwan Rajapaske Civil PE Professional Engineer Exam, Construction Module. I think that was the ticket for me. At least it had the most constuction related problems that I had seen from any source. I also found the NCEES practice problems to be helpful.

 

[pugsx]

And the difficulty of the Construction module is coming down so don't lose hope. The past 2 exams were a little too tough so they're toning it down.

 

[tprofessional10]

And the difficulty of the Construction module is coming down so don't lose hope. The past 2 exams were a little too tough so they're toning it down.

Is this true?

Where did this information come from?

Thanks in advance

 

[Dexman PE]

And the difficulty of the Construction module is coming down so don't lose hope. The past 2 exams were a little too tough so they're toning it down.

Is this true?

Where did this information come from?

Thanks in advance

I would advise against making your decision on which one to take based on it being "easier." I took the construction exam back in April of '08 and while i agree it is a broad, there was nothing that seemed out of place. Its important to note that the april 08 exam was both the first one to offer construction, and the last one before the 11th edition of the CERM.

Personally, i was surprised to see that the 10th edition of the CERM provided more than enough information for it to be used as my primary reference. I did have to know that book inside and out however, because there was no construction section and each of the construction topics were buried in other sections and sub-sections.

Honestly, the only references i used on the exam were the cerm, osha, and the mutcd. I had used a couple others to study with (a crane and rigging book, the ncees example exam, and some misc stuff i found online).

Ive said it in other threads, but IMO the exam was very experience critical. My work at a heavy highway general contractor played a huge role in being able to pass this exam.

 

[pugsx]

And the difficulty of the Construction module is coming down so don't lose hope. The past 2 exams were a little too tough so they're toning it down.

Is this true?

Where did this information come from?

Thanks in advance

Yes it is true. This comes for someone who is on the committee that writes the exam questions for the construction module. He works in my company. He's been involved in writing the questions ever since the construction module was introduced.