How to Pass the Civil PE Construction

[Dano_PE]

Books I used

AISC Steel Manual

ASCE 27-02

ACI 347-04

OSHA Standards for th Construction Industry

MUTCD Section 6

Highway Engineering - Paul Wright

FE Ref Manual

CERM

CERM Practice problems

Essentials of Soil Mechanics and Foundations

Civil PE Professional Engineer Exam Construction Module Practice Problems Ruwan Rajapakse

Civil PE Professional Engineer Exam Construction Module 3rd Edition Ruwan Rajapakse

Civil PE Sample Exam - Michael Lindenburg 3rd Edition

Design and Control of Concrete mixtures 14th edition

Method

I studied 3 nights per work week for 4 hours each night

Every Sunday All day

Selected Saturdays

TOTAL 400+ hours of studying

Get as many practice problems as possible. When you solve a problem make a photo copy of it and solve the problem directly under it. Then put all of these problems in a large note book and create an index. Also index good references that refer to that problem. This MASTER BINDER is your bible!! Put all of your conversion factors in there also. Make sure to tab all reference books that have good info.

Then when you go back to solve similar problems you will be able to go your index, find the problem have your conversion factors and equations!! This way you are not grabbing 100 books during the exam. Also if need be you will have your books tabbed and the page will be noted on the sample problem in your MASTER BINDER.

Good luck and get a good night sleep before the exam.

 

[ptatohed]

Dano, congrats! I am surprised that I have read two recent success stories where examinees brought a collection of solved problems that helped them during the exam. I always thought that was a recipe for failure (relying on solved problems by hoping to find a match during the exam). I think even Lindburg warns against this approach in the CERM's intro. I didn't use any solved problems in the Seismic, Survey or 8-hr. But, if it works for some - awesome. Thanks for sharing.

 

[desantmf]

I definitely recommend bringing in practice problems. I not only brought in the ones I did, I also brought in all the practice problem books with the solved problems in the back. I probably only studied for 100 hours, so I didn’t have time do as many problems. You shouldn’t try to find the practice problem to solve every test question, but the ones that you forgot how to do or not so sure on. The practice problems work prefect. I remember a couple of exam problems that I forgot how to do (in my weaker subject areas) and I found a practice problem just like it. If I didn’t have the solved problems with me I probably would have got the answer wrong. So I think of bringing practice problems to the test just like bringing all the references, they are probably good for 3-4 questions on the test.

 

[Dano_PE]

I agree with desantmf. It was only helpful for a handful of problems.

The most helpful thing was the master index I created that included every reference book and practice problem I had for the exam. This is a must do in my opinion. Otherwise you are flipping through 5 indexes in the back of books to find reference material.

The index I made only included items that NCEES outlined in the Syllabus.

 

[who.is.the.gaucho]

CERM - Tabbed Soils, Passive/Active Earth, and a few other sections. I mostly started in the index and worked from there.

Rajapakse...not very helpful (concrete mix design, maybe)

NCEES Problems - I made myself memorize where every problem was, in case there were any similar on the actual test

6 Minute Solutions - Same as above

CE and Construction Quick Reference Guide - Tabbed like a boss. Sections correspond to the CERM.

Test Masters - Has a great set of formulas for calculating rigging and for doing wall length calculations. The example problems were another great reference.

School of PE - I hardly used it, being that the binder was so thick and the material is more for teaching than what I would consider quick reference. I supposed you could tab it out, but even then it would be a pain.

I suggest spending more time tabbing out Test Masters, the problem sets, and the quick reference guides. Having your CERM tabbed to the max looks cool, but if you have 150 tabs, have you really made finding the answers easier than just tabbing the index?

I relied pretty heavily on the test questions from NCEES and 6 Minute Solutions. There are a finite "type" number of questions NCEES can ask. Chances are, on exam day you've seen a similar problem in your studying.

Also, I remember being surprised by the # of AM and PM concept or qualitative questions in Apr. I had luck looking in the back of CERM for a key term within the question, and writing every section number that might apply in the questions booklet. As I starterd to rule out sections as I looked them up, I would cross them off the list I had made. If I wasn't confident when I left that question, at least I had a good starting point when I came back to it. Sometimes, I would come back after a while, and with a fresh set of eyes, the answer seemed apparent. Maybe it's overkill. Just an idea.

Bottom line...Work as many problems as you can get your hands on. Rework them until you feel confident.

A word of caution. I studied for four months leading up to the Apr 12 exam, and missed by 1 or 2, as far as I could tell. I was studying 2 hours a night, and ended up peaking too early, if you can call it that. I was beginning to skip questions and take the studying less seriously. By exam day, I was so burned out, I think I got lazy, and didn't look things up I should have. Oct 12, I started hitting I hard 1 Sep and felt on my game on exam day. Some of that was due to having a base level of knowledge, but my mind was right going into it.

(~):}