Need help with Transportation Exam

[TimmmyTurner]

Hello all. I am planning on taking the PE transportation depth this October and had a few questions I hope you guys can help me with.

Review course: Which did you guys prefer out of EET, Testmasters, and School of PE?

Besides the CERM, which additional references will I need for the transportation test? Which are free and which do I have to buy?

If anybody has practice exams or anything i can use to help me start studying before the course, can they please message me and i will give my email address.

Thank you all in advance.

 

[Bustosavich]

I took the EET Breadth and Depth Review and passed so I would highly recommend them. Samir, who teaches the Transportation sections plus some of the construction portions, was a really instructor who was very good at answering e-mails whenever you had questions, even late at night. The class did sometimes get bogged down with people asking dumb questions, but Samir was able to get through the topics relatively fast.

In terms of references, the EET Binders are pretty thorough, but I would also bring the Green Book, MUTCD, RDG and HCM. You can purchase the MUTCD for around $30-$35 online through their website but the other references are pretty pricey (over $200 I believe at the minimum). There were a couple of questions from the PED Book and the Pavement Book, but the EET Binders helped with those.

Good luck with your studying!

 

[Road-N-Bridge PE]

I highly suggest you check out the NCEES website, particularly the list of references, and the "syllabus" of question areas that will be on the exam to narrow your focus.

You cannot go wrong having all of the references listed.

 

[Rai]

I also recommend the EET Breadth and Depth classes. I passed on the first try and I don't have a civil engineering background. I used reviews here to compare EET and SOPE. I went with EET because it's depth portion was more relevant and better than SOPE. I also liked that the Breadth and Depth portions are ala carte. Samir (Tranpo, construction) and Nazul (soils, hydro) are very good instructors. I wouldn't have passed if it were not for Samir's help. He has problem solving sessions for the Depth that are very helpful. Amir teaches structural, but I found that to be the weakest part of the Breadth class. His material and accent are hard to understand.

I found the EET test questions to be of similar or harder difficulty when compared to the actual test. EET prepared me well, in addition to the 15 hours a week I studied since Nov 2017. I recognized all the material on the test. I knew where to look in the binders or references if I did not know how to start a question. I used both binders for the majority of the test. As Bustosavich mentioned, there were some questions from the Ped Guide and Pavement Manuals. I bought all the references listed on the NCEES website. I didn't want to be cheap and miss a question, just because I didn't have the reference. Honestly, it could be the difference between passing and failing...but you never know. 

For references you will need at least the Green Book, RDG, HCM 6, and MUTCD. A pavement reference would be helpful. HSM, ped guide, and concrete books are a couple questions. ADA and bike guide would be good too. Occasionally they pop up as 1 question. Remember that the HCM 2010 has been replaced by the HCM 6 starting Oct 2018 tests. I've seen the new HCM 6 and there are some major changes...so don't try to get by with the older HCM 2010. The NCEES practice exam was updated to for the HCM 6 as well, get that to practice.

 

[Shengineer (January J) PE]

I have to take this in October ( this month) as well....Does anyone have a copy of the HCM 6?????

 

[Chowslanddev.com]

I do not recommand any overprice PE class for the exam.

I have put together a 7 step to take the PE transportarion exam in my blog. 

 

[Michael Scott PE]

I do not recommand any overprice PE class for the exam.

I have put together a 7 step to take the PE transportarion exam in my blog. 

I perused your blog and I have some major issues with it.  I'll start at the end.  Your list of items you need for the exam is going to cause people to be kicked from the exam.  You CANNOT bring your own pencil and you CANNOT bring an eraser.  

You have recommended that people only bring the books you think they need.  Any test taker should bring ALL of the books on the required materials list.  Spend the extra money on books.  It can, and will, save you a question or two.

Aside from the blog, I think 95% of the members of this site will recommend a prep course too.

 

[Chowslanddev.com]

I perused your blog and I have some major issues with it.  I'll start at the end.  Your list of items you need for the exam is going to cause people to be kicked from the exam.  You CANNOT bring your own pencil and you CANNOT bring an eraser.  

You have recommended that people only bring the books you think they need.  Any test taker should bring ALL of the books on the required materials list.  Spend the extra money on books.  It can, and will, save you a question or two.

Aside from the blog, I think 95% of the members of this site will recommend a prep course too.

Thanks for the correction, I am updating the blog.

On the other hand, people recommand prep course, but I do not, because I have my theory on how to pass the exam. And I did the exact same thing to pass my PE exam. And I still do not recommend people to buy "ALL" the manuals, not all of them are useful. 

As an engineer, you need you show me some statistics on the 95% of people recommended prep course or I am assuming you just giving out some random numbers here.

Thanks for your reply!

 

[Michael Scott PE]

Thanks for the correction, I am updating the blog.

On the other hand, people recommand prep course, but I do not, because I have my theory on how to pass the exam. And I did the exact same thing to pass my PE exam. And I still do not recommend people to buy "ALL" the manuals, not all of them are useful. 

As an engineer, you need you show me some statistics on the 95% of people recommended prep course or I am assuming you just giving out some random numbers here.

Thanks for your reply!

You do you, but to anyone prepping for the exam I can tell you from experience and multiple attempts on the construction exam that if you do not have one of the required reference books you are guaranteed to miss at least 3-4 questions, and probably more.  I've also spoken to quite a few who took the transportation depth and they have also stated that you have to have all of the books.  You can't predict what questions NCEES is going to write for the exam.  They may pull a definition out of a particular book that you won't find in other books.  Don't take the book and you leave yourself with a 25% chance of getting it right.  Buy all of the books.  I'd much rather spend the extra money and get it done the first time than spend the money to take the exam 4 times.  And that's coming from someone who took the exam 4 times and didn't have all of the required materials 3 out of the 4 times.

You can view this post and add up the responses that recommend a prep course and divide it by the number of different members who responded to see that it actually comes out to over 90%.  Consider it sample data with a very small factor of safety.    Spend some more time on EB and you'll see that a large majority of folks on here recommend a course.  Again, you do you.  If not taking a course worked for you then great.  But it doesn't work for everyone, and it could be very expensive NOT to take a prep course.  I've never personally talked to a single PE who passed the exam without some type of prep course.



Best of luck with the blog.

 

[Chowslanddev.com]

You do you, but to anyone prepping for the exam I can tell you from experience and multiple attempts on the construction exam that if you do not have one of the required reference books you are guaranteed to miss at least 3-4 questions, and probably more.  I've also spoken to quite a few who took the transportation depth and they have also stated that you have to have all of the books.  You can't predict what questions NCEES is going to write for the exam.  They may pull a definition out of a particular book that you won't find in other books.  Don't take the book and you leave yourself with a 25% chance of getting it right.  Buy all of the books.  I'd much rather spend the extra money and get it done the first time than spend the money to take the exam 4 times.  And that's coming from someone who took the exam 4 times and didn't have all of the required materials 3 out of the 4 times.

You can view this post and add up the responses that recommend a prep course and divide it by the number of different members who responded to see that it actually comes out to over 90%.  Consider it sample data with a very small factor of safety.    Spend some more time on EB and you'll see that a large majority of folks on here recommend a course.  Again, you do you.  If not taking a course worked for you then great.  But it doesn't work for everyone, and it could be very expensive NOT to take a prep course.  I've never personally talked to a single PE who passed the exam without some type of prep course.



Best of luck with the blog.

Thanks for your responds. I am new to this forum and it good to know that people here love doing the prep course.

I am an EIT just passed PE transportation the first time without any prep course nor all the manuals and same as most of my co-workers which are EIT & PE. Now you know there are some EIT & PE had never had any prep course and passed the PE transportation first/second attempts. There are technics and methods.

I have summed up the idea and methods I used to passed the PE without prep course and I hope I could help our fellow Civil Engineers saving money and time here passing their PE the first time.

I appreciate your reply!