Need Help

[biswa]

I failed my second attempt this April. I don't have a civil degree (but mechanical). I have been practicing geotech for last 7 years. Based on my both diagnostics, my weak sections are Earth Structure and Earth Retaining Structures. Since Geotech will have a new spec in Oct 11 and the Earth Retaining Structure will be 17.5% of the overall afternoon session. I am looking for a good reference to kill these two sections. I have the following references:

CERM 11th Ed.

Principles of Geotechinical Engineering: Das

Goswami's All in One

All Six minutes Soln.

Any help will be highly appreciated

 

[civilized_naah]

I failed my second attempt this April. I don't have a civil degree (but mechanical). I have been practicing geotech for last 7 years. Based on my both diagnostics, my weak sections are Earth Structure and Earth Retaining Structures. Since Geotech will have a new spec in Oct 11 and the Earth Retaining Structure will be 17.5% of the overall afternoon session. I am looking for a good reference to kill these two sections. I have the following references:
CERM 11th Ed.

Principles of Geotechinical Engineering: Das

Goswami's All in One

All Six minutes Soln.

Any help will be highly appreciated

I would definitely recommend adding the NAVFAC 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3 design manuals to that list - the older publication (Sept 1986) rather than the newer one.

 

[biswa]

I failed my second attempt this April. I don't have a civil degree (but mechanical). I have been practicing geotech for last 7 years. Based on my both diagnostics, my weak sections are Earth Structure and Earth Retaining Structures. Since Geotech will have a new spec in Oct 11 and the Earth Retaining Structure will be 17.5% of the overall afternoon session. I am looking for a good reference to kill these two sections. I have the following references:
CERM 11th Ed.

Principles of Geotechinical Engineering: Das

Goswami's All in One

All Six minutes Soln.

Any help will be highly appreciated

I would definitely recommend adding the NAVFAC 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3 design manuals to that list - the older publication (Sept 1986) rather than the newer one.

I just did. Thank you for your help.

 

[Guest]

I would definitely recommend the NAVFAC series 7.01, 7.02, and 7.03 that have been transitioned to the Unified Facilties Criteria (UFC) guidance manauls that can be found at:

http://www.wbdg.org/ccb/browse_cat.php?o=29&c=4

Scroll down to: SERIES 3-200: CIVIL / GEOTECHNICAL / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

Are there any other weak areas? Deep foundations? Seismic?

JR

 

[Guest]

I would definitely recommend the NAVFAC series 7.01, 7.02, and 7.03 that have been transitioned to the Unified Facilties Criteria (UFC) guidance manauls that can be found at:

http://www.wbdg.org/ccb/browse_cat.php?o=29&c=4

Scroll down to: SERIES 3-200: CIVIL / GEOTECHNICAL / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

Are there any other weak areas? Deep foundations? Seismic?

JR

 

[biswa]

I would definitely recommend the NAVFAC series 7.01, 7.02, and 7.03 that have been transitioned to the Unified Facilties Criteria (UFC) guidance manauls that can be found at:
http://www.wbdg.org/ccb/browse_cat.php?o=29&c=4

Scroll down to: SERIES 3-200: CIVIL / GEOTECHNICAL / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

Are there any other weak areas? Deep foundations? Seismic?

JR

I am pretty good at foundations (deep or shallow) because that's what I do with most of my projects. When I saw my results (52/80), that really made me sick because I know I missed by one or two points. However, for October, I am gonna study like this will be the hardest of all. Thank you for the help and I have already downloaded NAVFAC series.

 

[7amo]

I failed my second attempt this April. I don't have a civil degree (but mechanical). I have been practicing geotech for last 7 years. Based on my both diagnostics, my weak sections are Earth Structure and Earth Retaining Structures. Since Geotech will have a new spec in Oct 11 and the Earth Retaining Structure will be 17.5% of the overall afternoon session. I am looking for a good reference to kill these two sections. I have the following references:
CERM 11th Ed.

Principles of Geotechinical Engineering: Das

Goswami's All in One

All Six minutes Soln.

Any help will be highly appreciated

I would definitely recommend adding the NAVFAC 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3 design manuals to that list - the older publication (Sept 1986) rather than the newer one.

I just did. Thank you for your help.

How about Principals of Foundations; Das do you think it's worth to have, Oct. is my second time taking the Geo, I got 49/80 in april, I missed most of the siesmic and earthquak questions

 

[Bahirdar]

Start with the fundamentals and you should master the basic topics.

I did find the following NRCS website http://www.wsi.nrcs.usda.gov/products/w2q/...g/trng_ser.html

If you scroll down you can see that they have different soil mechanics topics. Just open them browse through, print and work

the problems. These topics are essential to your solving of any type of geotech related problems.

Must have

1. either CERM 11th ed from Lindeburg or Goswami all in one (I had both and I think it was an overkill)

2. Problems accompanying CERM

3. Six minute solution geotech depth - thought initially these were harder

4. NCEES - really look like the actual exam in complexity

Text books to reference

1. Das - Principes of Geotech Eng

2. Das - Fundamentals of foundation eng

3. Robert W. Day Geotechnical Engineer's Portable Handbook - excellent summary of most of the tables from NAFAC and other

geotech resources

4. Robert W. Day - Foundation Engineering Handbook: Design and Construction with 2006 International Building Code - I used

this handbook a lot during my studies and infact answered several questions using it. The reason is all the exercise problems

after each chapter are solved step by step in the "solutions to problems section" in addition most problems are in FPS unit

or dual unit unlike the Das text books, which are mostly in SI.

I thought I needed to do more problems because I did not want to repeat the exam so I got

1. Soil Mechanics and Foundation Design: 201 Solved Problems - Paperback. The organization of this book seemed very

amateurish at best. As if somebody with below average word processing skill put it together. The solutions were helpful

although some times it did not provide enough reasons why some of the solutions have this or that assumption.

2. I got these two ebooks 191 and 300-Solved-Problems in Soil / Rock Mechanics and Foundations Engineering by Prieto from

Florida international University. You just need one of these books more or less the 191 questions version is newer and you

should be able to find it either at Scribd website or just google it.

Vulcan hammer website VulcanHammer.net has the navy manual and others. I would download some of the pdf files, quick browse

through them and print some of the tables that could help you for the theory related questions. However, the follwoing manual

I had printed in its entirety browsed and tabbed.

3. NAVFAC DM 7.01 and 7.02

4. California Trenching and Shoring Manual - This manual should help you with your concern of earth retainng structures.

FHWA - I

5. Geotechnical Engineering Circular No. 11 from http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/engineering/geotec...ary_listing.cfm

My four inch three ring binder of geotech tables and references. This is a compilation of some of the tables equations photocopied text book pages even from some of the above mentioned resources that I organized according to the NCEES CIVIL–GEOTECHNICAL Depth Exam Specifications. Since I organized them myself I was familiar with the content and whenever, I felt lost in some theory quesions, I referenced this and the Robert Day's Geotech portable handbook that I mentioned above.

Although my 2 cents about preparation for the exam: Did you perform badly in the specific area because you know the subject and you did not study enough or you were not familiar at all with the concept and the study of this topic would took you a lot of time and still you did not do well?

My situation like you was in Earth quake engineering and other advanced topics. But also I had a problem with hydraulics and especially with the environmental section. I dealt with it this way.

Water Resources: has eight questions. which has 5 sections according to CIVIL BREADTH Exam Specifications (sections A thru E). I said to myself if I answer half of this, it would be fine. considering how much time I would need to spend to study the other sections D and E. So i focused on sections A,B and C ignoring section D and E

I did the same thing with Earth Quake engineering. I have not worked with EQ and it is 5%, which would be 2 questions. considering the amount of time I need to learn EQ concepts to be confident to answer every question, I decided to not commit hours of study to it. Instead, I just looked at the six minute solutions manual and NCEES problems, highlighted some ideas. Especially since you took it twice, you will remember similar concepts when you see them.

 

[Badger]

I would definitely recommend the NAVFAC series 7.01, 7.02, and 7.03 that have been transitioned to the Unified Facilties Criteria (UFC) guidance manauls that can be found at:
http://www.wbdg.org/ccb/browse_cat.php?o=29&c=4

Scroll down to: SERIES 3-200: CIVIL / GEOTECHNICAL / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

Are there any other weak areas? Deep foundations? Seismic?

JR

I am pretty good at foundations (deep or shallow) because that's what I do with most of my projects. When I saw my results (52/80), that really made me sick because I know I missed by one or two points. However, for October, I am gonna study like this will be the hardest of all. Thank you for the help and I have already downloaded NAVFAC series.

I would definitely get Das' Principles of Foundation book 4-5

 

[Amry69]

Soil Mechanics by Craig. Got me through BSCE, MSc, and Civil PE/Geotech. That's all you need.

 

[Bahirdar]

I had Craig's soil mechanics 7th edition. And it could be good for part of the morning exam. As it does not contain dip foundation, and the Lateral earth theory section in addition to retaining wall design was not adequate in my mind, I went with Das.

 

[Andros]

HI JR,

What book with practice problems are good for Deep Foundations, seismic, earthquake engineering with liquefaction and eccentric foundations?

Andros

I would definitely recommend the NAVFAC series 7.01, 7.02, and 7.03 that have been transitioned to the Unified Facilties Criteria (UFC) guidance manauls that can be found at:
http://www.wbdg.org/ccb/browse_cat.php?o=29&c=4

Scroll down to: SERIES 3-200: CIVIL / GEOTECHNICAL / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

Are there any other weak areas? Deep foundations? Seismic?

JR