PE Civil Geotech 2015

[DummyCivilEng]

Hi,

I'm new here. I'm thinking of registering for the 2016 PE civil exam. I know it is early, but I'm kind of overwhelmed with the amount of studying. Do you foresee that the reference materials, previously listed in this subforum:

1- CERM. (For Morning Section)

2- Principles of Foundation Engineering, Braja Das. (PM Section)

3- NCEES sample questions and solutions.Geotechnical Module.( PM Section)

4- Civil PE Professional Engineer Exam Geotechnical Module. Ruwan Rajapaskse. (PM Section)

will remain useful?

Although I have worked in the civil engineering industry, my work experience has been analysis-heavy (i.e., soil-structure interaction, numerical simulation, really it is just mostly linear elastic analyses) focusing mostly on structural problems. Would this pose significant difficulties? I thought of taking the structural pe exam, but the amount of codes needed for structural seems way too much. Therefore, I thought I would do geotech since the geotech exam appears to focus more on principles and concepts (and design deriving from these) rather than just codes and more codes. FYI, I did take soil mechanics in undergrad. Please advice.

Thanks,

Dummy

 

[NJmike PE]

Those are all sufficient reference materials and will prove to be useful. In addition, I would suggest that you obtain as many reference materials as you can with practice problems. There are older versions from the ncees that you can find on-line from Amazon, etc. which will help. I personally used goswami all-in-one practice problems and found it to be quite helpful.

As for which exam module to take, you should review the exam outlines for each module. They are pdfs posted on their website. This will give you a better feel for what to expect, and also how to prepare for the exam. Whichever exam module you decide on, follow that outline. The topics listed on it will be the topics of the exam questions. The ncees will not deviate from those topics.

Good luck, welcome to the board, and feel free to ask any additional questions.

EDIT:

http://ncees.org/exams/pe-exam/

 

[GusM]

Due Diligence- I failed, twice. But only just, and as we all know, close only counts in hand grenade and nuclear weapons.

I would add

Soils & Foundations Manual NHI Course 132012 FHWA Pub No. NHI-06-088 (Free online).

Design and Construction of Driven Pile Foundations NHI Courses 13221 and 13222 Pub No. FHWA HI 97-013

NHI has many free well written references.

NAVFAC 7.01, .02 and .03, hard to read, graphics not-so-good, but this is the base publication for this field.

Goswami (sp?) All-In-One.

 

[DummyCivilEng]

Thank you for responding.

I apologize for the title of my post, should be 2016 not 2015.

 

[NJmike PE]

I posted the link to the location on the ncees website in my post above which has the various exam specs.

 

[DummyCivilEng]

Thanks for the link.

When it comes to the Structural Section (CERM, codes, etc), how much of it is necesssary for the AM and PM? Does one need to read all the steel, concrete, timber, and masonry design stuff?

Thanks.

 

[NJmike PE]

Thanks for the link.

When it comes to the Structural Section (CERM, codes, etc), how much of it is necesssary for the AM and PM? Does one need to read all the steel, concrete, timber, and masonry design stuff?

Thanks.

read through the exam specs. The NCEES provides a good breakdown of what topics and the percentage of questions to expect. Keep in mind that the AM session is the "breadth" session and covers all Civil fields. The PM "Depth" session is more specific to a field.

 

[Badger]

Hi,

I agree you should read the NCEES link it is a little different then when I sat for the exam in 2010. References to LFRD, ASCE7, weren't in the 2010 version, the new one is more detailed.

I would suggest 6 minute solutions for geotech also. The questions are more complicated but it is good practice.

Also I found an old transportation text by Garber in the Goodwill store for $3 and it was helpful for at least two afternoon questions, and two morning questions, and offered some different ways to solve some morning questions.

The CERM and Das foundations book I used most. I didn't have Goswami's book when I took it, but I have a copy and I like it.

Good luck, you have plenty of time, work a lot questions, the more you do the faster and easier you can solve them, sounds cliché, but it worked for me.

Also practice for the morning it is half the test, if you do well in the morning you will do better in the afternoon.