PE Notes and References

[uofmalum]

Thanks to a lot of reviews on here, I decided to pony up and take the EET course (morning webinar and construction on-demand). It's been a few years since I have taken the PE, but thankfully some of the references have not changed and those that did I was able to get through work. I've known people who have taken boxes upon boxes of books into the exam and people who have taken very little (the last time I took it a guy showed up with only the CERM and one calculator). That said, I was wondering for those who have taken previous prep courses, did you take multiple prep course notes into the exam with you or just the most recent prep course notes? I took Test Masters through work three years ago and while some things have changed, I was wondering if any of that would help in addition to EET's notes. I plan on breaking down the EET notes into individual binders for easier lookup. I figure with all the reference material, binders for each subject and all the miscellaneous stuff (calculators, snacks, etc.), I would be toting two plastic bins on a dolly. Look forward to meeting those taking the webinar starting next Saturday. Appreciate the input and good luck studying.

 

[John QPE]

If you are taking EET, you will most likely only need their binders, and the required construction codes (and I bet whatever you need in those Samir already has summarized in the EET notes). You need the CERM, its one of those books you should just have. FWIW, I only used the CERM on one problem.

I had various notes from other review courses I had acquired but never used them. I used all EET. In short, because that was the class I took, I was familiar with their format, and I knew exactly where everything was in the notes.

I took 4 bankers boxes full of stuff, over 90% of the exam came right from EET notes. I took transpo, so some stuff came out of those required references, as I'm sure construction will be the same.

In short, build your security blanket. Take your entire library if it makes you feel comfortable, but you are most likely not going to venture too far out of the EET binders.

Good luck!

 

[JunZ]

for construction depth, you need to bring all required reference code with you because you will be asked and the answers will be found from those codes directly.

 

[mikeyd917]

Agreed, I took EET's breadth and construction depth with the other two guys posting here. I mostly used the EET reference binders they mailed and built a breadth and depth binder of my own that I put all my solved problems in and cheat sheets.

I also had CERM, steel manual, OSHA manual, and ACI SP4. I don't believe I opened the CERM, but the other three, especially the SP4, never left my desk during the depth.

EET is a great course, use their material and study the locations of stuff in their material. When you take the simulated exam get yourself setup like you're walking into the actual exam that way you can really test your notes.

 

[uofmalum]

Thanks! I have already tabbed the EET books and have all the references. Just need to build a TOC to locate stuff and pass.

 

[nightwing]

Agreed, I took EET's breadth and construction depth with the other two guys posting here. I mostly used the EET reference binders they mailed and built a breadth and depth binder of my own that I put all my solved problems in and cheat sheets.

I also had CERM, steel manual, OSHA manual, and ACI SP4. I don't believe I opened the CERM, but the other three, especially the SP4, never left my desk during the depth.

EET is a great course, use their material and study the locations of stuff in their material. When you take the simulated exam get yourself setup like you're walking into the actual exam that way you can really test your notes.

Do you have a construction background? Would someone without a construction background pass the depth?

 

[John QPE]

Agreed, I took EET's breadth and construction depth with the other two guys posting here. I mostly used the EET reference binders they mailed and built a breadth and depth binder of my own that I put all my solved problems in and cheat sheets.

I also had CERM, steel manual, OSHA manual, and ACI SP4. I don't believe I opened the CERM, but the other three, especially the SP4, never left my desk during the depth.

EET is a great course, use their material and study the locations of stuff in their material. When you take the simulated exam get yourself setup like you're walking into the actual exam that way you can really test your notes.

Do you have a construction background? Would someone without a construction background pass the depth?

It has been done, what is your background? Don't be fooled into thinking construction is the "easy exam."

 

[nightwing]

Agreed, I took EET's breadth and construction depth with the other two guys posting here. I mostly used the EET reference binders they mailed and built a breadth and depth binder of my own that I put all my solved problems in and cheat sheets. I also had CERM, steel manual, OSHA manual, and ACI SP4. I don't believe I opened the CERM, but the other three, especially the SP4, never left my desk during the depth. EET is a great course, use their material and study the locations of stuff in their material. When you take the simulated exam get yourself setup like you're walking into the actual exam that way you can really test your notes.

Do you have a construction background? Would someone without a construction background pass the depth?

It has been done, what is your background? Don't be fooled into thinking construction is the "easy exam."

I specialized in structures in school, but currently work as a project engineer where I management projects. In my current position I do no civil work and have been out of school for four years. I am in California and was planning to take all three exams in April. insm undecided on what depth to take. People have mentioned transportation and construction as easier to learn and prepare for. I was looking for recommendations.

 

[ptatohed]

Agreed, I took EET's breadth and construction depth with the other two guys posting here. I mostly used the EET reference binders they mailed and built a breadth and depth binder of my own that I put all my solved problems in and cheat sheets. I also had CERM, steel manual, OSHA manual, and ACI SP4. I don't believe I opened the CERM, but the other three, especially the SP4, never left my desk during the depth. EET is a great course, use their material and study the locations of stuff in their material. When you take the simulated exam get yourself setup like you're walking into the actual exam that way you can really test your notes.

Do you have a construction background? Would someone without a construction background pass the depth?

It has been done, what is your background? Don't be fooled into thinking construction is the "easy exam."

I specialized in structures in school, but currently work as a project engineer where I management projects. In my current position I do no civil work and have been out of school for four years. I am in California and was planning to take all three exams in April. insm undecided on what depth to take. People have mentioned transportation and construction as easier to learn and prepare for. I was looking for recommendations.

As has been told to you countless times, there is no universal 'easier' exam. Water may be easier for one person and Geo may be easier for someone else. Pick the depth module that YOU feel most comfortable with. No one can answer that for you but you. It is futile to keep asking which module is easier.

You've been asking for someone else to pick your depth module for you for months now... if you had just picked one and started studying already, you'd be half-way there by now!

 

[matt267 PE]

...Water may be easier...

I agree. Water is the easier depth.

 

[The Wizard]

Agreed, I took EET's breadth and construction depth with the other two guys posting here. I mostly used the EET reference binders they mailed and built a breadth and depth binder of my own that I put all my solved problems in and cheat sheets. I also had CERM, steel manual, OSHA manual, and ACI SP4. I don't believe I opened the CERM, but the other three, especially the SP4, never left my desk during the depth. EET is a great course, use their material and study the locations of stuff in their material. When you take the simulated exam get yourself setup like you're walking into the actual exam that way you can really test your notes.

Do you have a construction background? Would someone without a construction background pass the depth?

It has been done, what is your background? Don't be fooled into thinking construction is the "easy exam."

I specialized in structures in school, but currently work as a project engineer where I management projects. In my current position I do no civil work and have been out of school for four years. I am in California and was planning to take all three exams in April. insm undecided on what depth to take. People have mentioned transportation and construction as easier to learn and prepare for. I was looking for recommendations.

Nightwing,

this isn't rocket science. Go with the depth that you know the most. There is no such thing as easier depth section...why you keep insisting on asking the same question over and over and over in various threads in mind boggling...

 

[mikeyd917]

Basically what everyone else said. The easiest depth will be the depth you have the most experience. Construction was easiest for me because I've been in construction management since I graduated college in 2003. I work for contractors so I have very limited structural design experience but a lot of project management, earthworks, survey, temporary design, materials testing, etc. I believe the construction exam was geared towards heavy civil and building construction.

My advice would be to go to NCEES's website, download the exam standards and see which material makes the most sense to you. Then take that one. Good luck.

Also, some personal advice, I tried to get some colleagues to tell me what to put on my application because I struggled figuring what to write. One guy said, "if you can't figure out the application, maybe you're not ready to take the exam." There's resources out there that can help you determine which depth is appropriate if it doesn't stand out, but none of us will be able to tell you which one will be the easiest (or correct) one for you.

 

[JunZ]

Check NCEES Civil PE pass rate, and you will notice Construction has the lowest pass rate.

 

[NYCProjectEngineer PE PMP]

Check NCEES Civil PE pass rate, and you will notice Construction has the lowest pass rate.

Probably because people sign up thinking "how hard can construction be" without realizing it is hard and encompasses all the civil depth sections, albeit to a lesser degree of difficulty.

 

[JunZ]

Check NCEES Civil PE pass rate, and you will notice Construction has the lowest pass rate.

Probably because people sign up thinking "how hard can construction be" without realizing it is hard and encompasses all the civil depth sections, albeit to a lesser degree of difficulty.

That was me, I thought the construction was the easiest one because I was told by many ppl and I didn't research it. Thanks god, I took EET construction review and I passed the test on my first try. Yes, I did spend 3 hours a day to study on my 8 hours for 2 months.

 

[John QPE]

Check NCEES Civil PE pass rate, and you will notice Construction has the lowest pass rate.

I thought this was because all the dummies sign up for construction :banhim:

 

[jmcgurn]

Which is better? Taking the EET on-demand webinar or buying the PPI morning review packet?

 

[John QPE]

Which is better? Taking the EET on-demand webinar or buying the PPI morning review packet?

You're posting this in a thread raving about EET. What do you think?

 

[mikeyd917]

I'll back up John Q there, I think the majority of the people on this tread took the EET class, together actually, and we passed.  we took the actual webinar vs the on-demand.  it's nice being able to ask the guys questions.

 

[Construction_P.E.]

I decided to sign up for EET based on reviews from this site.  I just found out I passed the Construction PE exam.  I felt the AM portion for EET was a great review.  View all of the lectures, understand the problems and tab their binder and you should be good for the AM.  The key is to be able to read a question and navigate to the section in the binder as quick as possible.  The EET PM review for Construction wasn't too good in my opinion.  I often saw questions being asked to the instructor that he could not comprehend quickly.  I have quite a bit of field experience and I can tell he lacked knowledge of things he should know, especially if teaching a depth review.  He seemed much more knowledgeable in transportation topics.   The PM binder I received was mostly example problems.  A lot of the material was repeated from the AM binder.  There were some good examples, but if I had to do it over, I would have skipped the PM review.  The waters and structures guys from EET seemed very good at teaching.  You can tell they are experts in the areas they teach and I would definitely take their PM reviews.  Thank you to EET for the help and to this site for sending me there.

I'd also like to mention that I bought Mark Desantis' study guide from LearnCivilEngineering and felt it was very helpful in my studies.  It helped me get organized and had some good information.  I actually used the material during the exam more than I expected.