need help on Seismic

[peexpress]

I need help on seismic.

I am planning to take the seismic in 2012, but barely know anything about this subject.

I just bought Hiner’s book.

Which code book should I buy? 2010 CBC or 2009 IBC? Someone on the internet said that several problems in the Oct 2011 exam were based on 2010 CBC. The books are not cheap…..Any suggestion?

Also do I need to buy ASCE 7-05?

Thanks a lot.

 

[ptatohed]

Please read the intro in your Hiner Workbook. And I recommend watching his free 1.5 hour seminar. Your questions (and more) are answered.

You can buy either the 2010 CBC or the 2009 IBC. Yes, you'll need ASCE 7-05.

If I did it, you can do it. Be prepared to put in ~200 hours though. Good luck.

 

[peexpress]

Thanks a lot ptatohed. Congratulations to you for passing all the exams. I saw a lot of your posts and really benefited from your information.

I just did a search and saw a PDF version (click on the left of the page) of 2010 CBC online. http://www.archive.org/details/gov.ca.bsc.title24.2010.part02.2

Is this the right one for the exam? Just want to save some money J

Thank you

 

[ptatohed]

Thanks a lot ptatohed. Congratulations to you for passing all the exams. I saw a lot of your posts and really benefited from your information.

I just did a search and saw a PDF version (click on the left of the page) of 2010 CBC online. http://www.archive.o...4.2010.part02.2

Is this the right one for the exam? Just want to save some money J

Thank you

You are very welcome px, glad I can help. Yes, You'll want Vol 2 Part 2 of the CBC. I didn't have the patience to wait for the download but that looks like what is provided in that link. I think you might need just the first chapter of Part 1 as well (I think that is where the occupancy groups are listed...... I'm already forgetting, yikes!).

Thanks for the congrats. It's been a few weeks and I am still skipping everywhere I go!

Let me know if you have any questions. You can do it. I was in the same boat as you. I knew very little about Seismic but I pushed through it and passed. Good luck!

 

[peexpress]

Thanks again ptatohed for the information and encouragement.

Enjoy your life!

 

[EnvEngineer]

Congrats ptatohed, I have been arround a while and I just passed before you. My mind is going to mush but I am pretty sure you still need the IBC as well. The CBC gives specific applications where the IBC gives you all the formulas, tables and applications. In addition you need ASCE 7-05

 

[ptatohed]

Congrats ptatohed, I have been arround a while and I just passed before you. My mind is going to mush but I am pretty sure you still need the IBC as well. The CBC gives specific applications where the IBC gives you all the formulas, tables and applications. In addition you need ASCE 7-05

EnvE, I have never seen the IBC because I just used the CBC from the Building Dept here at work. But, as I mentioned earlier, I am quite certain you can use the IBC or the CBC (you do not need both). Again, please read Hiner's Workbook intro and watch his free 1.5 hour intro clip (you'll see that he says you can use either book). As far as I know, the CBC is everything the IBC is and more. As long as you aren't bothered by the "more", the CBC is fine. It worked fine for me.

 

[peexpress]

Thank you everyone for your tips on passing the exam!

 

[txpaul01]

I passed the October 2011 exam and the advice I took from this board was to work the entire Hiner workbook 3 times. I worked through the workbook, took a couple of weeks off to study different topics and repeat. The third time I worked through it was 1-2 weeks before the test. By the third time, it shouldn't take you more than a day to work all the problems. Also do some practice exams and practice problems from other sources. Use any supplemental work besides Hiner to get more practice with all the permissions and exceptions in the codes.

Hiner has a fantastic workbook, don't get me wrong, but I found that practicing from other sources would open my eyes to something I overlooked before.

 

[ptatohed]

I passed the October 2011 exam and the advice I took from this board was to work the entire Hiner workbook 3 times. I worked through the workbook, took a couple of weeks off to study different topics and repeat. The third time I worked through it was 1-2 weeks before the test. By the third time, it shouldn't take you more than a day to work all the problems. Also do some practice exams and practice problems from other sources. Use any supplemental work besides Hiner to get more practice with all the permissions and exceptions in the codes.

Hiner has a fantastic workbook, don't get me wrong, but I found that practicing from other sources would open my eyes to something I overlooked before.

Very well said tx. I used Hiner as my main go-to source and knew the book in and out and used it to answer all questions (practice and test day). But, I used other books just to get problems (345, 2 practice exams, Mansour, Ahmed Ibrahim, etc.). If I stumbled across problems from other sources not answerable from Hiner, I looked at the solution and added the missing info. to my Hiner. My Hiner was the hub book and I added notes ever where to make it the master source. On test day, you only want your Hiner, IBC/CBC and ASCE 7 on your desk.

 

[EnvEngineer]

My only passing tip is make a plan to skip some of the problems, there are a few (less than 10, maybe 7) that will take too much time. Just skip them, or mark them and come back. I filled in the answere sheet for every problems as I went along, but if I needed to revisit a problem I put a + or - next to it + I would go back and review these if I had time - only after all the + were complete. I go through all the problems, all the + but never went back to the -.

 

[dastuff]

The content from the CBC is heavily based off the IBC. Therefore you can pretty much use them interchangeably. The CBC is the governing code for CA though so if there are any differentiations between the two it would take precedent.

I think that the seismic test is almost unfair for non-structural types. I highly recommend going through the various seismic equations in the hiner book, understanding where all your variables come from, and what the equation is used for.

There are 5 or so different equations used to calculate various seismic forces for different structural systems and you should know them all well. Aside from that Hiner is an excellent reference and studying with that, the ASCE 7 and the CBC (or IBC) should help you greatly understand the topic.