After taking both Paper & Pencil in April 2018 and CBT in October 2022, I believe they are making the exam more representative of the style of questions they put in the NCEES Practice Exam.
The Pearson Center I was at was kind of small (only about 15-20 computers), and there were other types of examinees there. As far as I knew I was the only PE Examinee. Other people were social workers, lawyers, etc.
They give you 8 hours total. You’re allowed breaks to use the bathroom or access food/water in your locker at any point but your timer doesn't stop. You get one optional planned break for 50 minutes after finishing the first section and you’re able to take as little of that 50 minutes as you want and then go back into the exam (I took 30 minutes). During this break you’re allowed to go to car, access your phone etc. The morning section you use however much time you want. ( I used 4 hrs 10 minutes). Then the afternoon section is whatever time you have left ( I had 3 hrs 50 mins). My exam had 41 questions in the AM and 39 questions in the PM. When sitting and taking the exam, I didn’t know the timer didn’t stop when you are through the first set of questions. That’s why I went over the 4 hr time in AM portion. I used that extra time to review the problems that I have flagged. However, not knowing that the timer didn’t stop after 4 hours or give me a warning that the AM section was almost up, left me with a little less time in the Afternoon. I was a little more conscious and cautious of my time.
At the end of both sections they bring you to a review screen to click on any questions you flagged and they also notify you if there are any questions you didn't answer. AM portion I had maybe 12-14 questions I was unsure of and PM I had maybe 8 I was unsure of. The morning was heavily conceptual and I wasn’t solving a problem until around question 14. There were drag & drop and type of your answer questions that put a little more pressure on getting and knowing the correct answer(s).
I started studying about 5 months before my exam because I was trying to learn a whole new discipline of engineering. Backstory - I was mostly doing structural bridge design at work a few years ago, so I took the P&P PE Civil: Structural exam and ended up not passing. During the pandemic and working remotely, my work switched to helping other offices out with drafting and CAD work and I got away from doing structural design. I got more all-discipline type of work and took a liking toward the highway work that was handed to me. With that said, with the exam turned to computer-based testing and still wanting to pass the PE Exam, I switched to learning all about transportation engineering and pursuing that career path.
Eyes on all pages and You don’t have to know everything, but you have to know where everything is. That was my approach. I made sure I read through all 10 manuals (1 PE Civil Handbook and 9 Transportation references) – I read more in-depth for the more used manuals and skimmed over the other ones, but I made sure I knew what was and approximately where everything was in all the references. That took 4 months. During the last month of studying, I went through practice exams. I alternated between AM practice exams and PM exams so everything would stay fresh.
I bought a lot of practice exams but in my opinion, the best books available for studying and style of questions were most representative were these books all purchased on AMAZON:
*NOTE* While doing practice problems, have all of the required codes in PDF form so you get used to using them and the NCEES reference manual. You can find PDFs of most of them on SCRIBD, Academia.edu, and PDFCoffee.
HCM, AASHTO GREENBOOK, Highway Safety Manual, MUTCD, AASHTO Roadside Design Guide - These are the most important. The rest of the required codes have only a few questions.
BREADTH:
"NCEES PE CIVIL : TRANSPORTATION PRACTICE EXAM"
"Path to PE Services: CIVIL PE PRACTICE EXAM CBT BREADTH (Updated 3/15/22)"
"Civil PE Practice: CIVIL ENGINEERING PE PRACTICE EXAMS A & B"
"Civil PE Practice: CIVIL ENGINEERING PE PRACTICE EXAM C"
“Civil Engineering PE Breadth Exams: Three Full Exams with Solutions”
Researchgate: ‘Free PE-Civil-Exam Strategies and a Free Morning Exam Sample’ pdf
DEPTH:
"NCEES PE CIVIL: TRANSPORTATION PRACTICE EXAM"
"Path to PE Services: CIVIL PE PRACTICE EXAM CBT DEPTH Transportation"
"Path to PE Services: CIVIL PE PRACTICE EXAM Transportation Depth (Updated 3/15/22)"
"PPI: SIX-MINUTE SOLUTIONS FOR THE CIVIL PE TRANSPORTATION DEPTH EXAM PROBLEMS" - This book was good to help me learn the transportation depth problems, I worked through every problem and how to do each one and it was a really good way to learn how to do the depth portion of the exam as I had no Transportation Engineering experience.
Researchgate: ‘Free PE Civil Transportation- Depth Exam Sample’ pdf
The Pearson Center I was at was kind of small (only about 15-20 computers), and there were other types of examinees there. As far as I knew I was the only PE Examinee. Other people were social workers, lawyers, etc.
They give you 8 hours total. You’re allowed breaks to use the bathroom or access food/water in your locker at any point but your timer doesn't stop. You get one optional planned break for 50 minutes after finishing the first section and you’re able to take as little of that 50 minutes as you want and then go back into the exam (I took 30 minutes). During this break you’re allowed to go to car, access your phone etc. The morning section you use however much time you want. ( I used 4 hrs 10 minutes). Then the afternoon section is whatever time you have left ( I had 3 hrs 50 mins). My exam had 41 questions in the AM and 39 questions in the PM. When sitting and taking the exam, I didn’t know the timer didn’t stop when you are through the first set of questions. That’s why I went over the 4 hr time in AM portion. I used that extra time to review the problems that I have flagged. However, not knowing that the timer didn’t stop after 4 hours or give me a warning that the AM section was almost up, left me with a little less time in the Afternoon. I was a little more conscious and cautious of my time.
At the end of both sections they bring you to a review screen to click on any questions you flagged and they also notify you if there are any questions you didn't answer. AM portion I had maybe 12-14 questions I was unsure of and PM I had maybe 8 I was unsure of. The morning was heavily conceptual and I wasn’t solving a problem until around question 14. There were drag & drop and type of your answer questions that put a little more pressure on getting and knowing the correct answer(s).
I started studying about 5 months before my exam because I was trying to learn a whole new discipline of engineering. Backstory - I was mostly doing structural bridge design at work a few years ago, so I took the P&P PE Civil: Structural exam and ended up not passing. During the pandemic and working remotely, my work switched to helping other offices out with drafting and CAD work and I got away from doing structural design. I got more all-discipline type of work and took a liking toward the highway work that was handed to me. With that said, with the exam turned to computer-based testing and still wanting to pass the PE Exam, I switched to learning all about transportation engineering and pursuing that career path.
Eyes on all pages and You don’t have to know everything, but you have to know where everything is. That was my approach. I made sure I read through all 10 manuals (1 PE Civil Handbook and 9 Transportation references) – I read more in-depth for the more used manuals and skimmed over the other ones, but I made sure I knew what was and approximately where everything was in all the references. That took 4 months. During the last month of studying, I went through practice exams. I alternated between AM practice exams and PM exams so everything would stay fresh.
I bought a lot of practice exams but in my opinion, the best books available for studying and style of questions were most representative were these books all purchased on AMAZON:
*NOTE* While doing practice problems, have all of the required codes in PDF form so you get used to using them and the NCEES reference manual. You can find PDFs of most of them on SCRIBD, Academia.edu, and PDFCoffee.
HCM, AASHTO GREENBOOK, Highway Safety Manual, MUTCD, AASHTO Roadside Design Guide - These are the most important. The rest of the required codes have only a few questions.
BREADTH:
"NCEES PE CIVIL : TRANSPORTATION PRACTICE EXAM"
"Path to PE Services: CIVIL PE PRACTICE EXAM CBT BREADTH (Updated 3/15/22)"
"Civil PE Practice: CIVIL ENGINEERING PE PRACTICE EXAMS A & B"
"Civil PE Practice: CIVIL ENGINEERING PE PRACTICE EXAM C"
“Civil Engineering PE Breadth Exams: Three Full Exams with Solutions”
Researchgate: ‘Free PE-Civil-Exam Strategies and a Free Morning Exam Sample’ pdf
DEPTH:
"NCEES PE CIVIL: TRANSPORTATION PRACTICE EXAM"
"Path to PE Services: CIVIL PE PRACTICE EXAM CBT DEPTH Transportation"
"Path to PE Services: CIVIL PE PRACTICE EXAM Transportation Depth (Updated 3/15/22)"
"PPI: SIX-MINUTE SOLUTIONS FOR THE CIVIL PE TRANSPORTATION DEPTH EXAM PROBLEMS" - This book was good to help me learn the transportation depth problems, I worked through every problem and how to do each one and it was a really good way to learn how to do the depth portion of the exam as I had no Transportation Engineering experience.
Researchgate: ‘Free PE Civil Transportation- Depth Exam Sample’ pdf