PE Water Resources Study Schedule

Frustrated Engineer · Jun 24, 2018

Hello everyone! I am planning on taking the PE Civil Water Resources Depth this fall. I was wondering if anyone has a study schedule that they found or made that you could share with me? I've been looking all over and can't really find much. If I don't end up getting anything then I will attempt to make my own, but I'm not the best in making good study schedules. Any help is very much appreciated! Thank you!

Surf and Snow · Jun 25, 2018

I took, and passed, the PE exam in April (Power, not water resource though). I started studying Jan 1st, so 3.5 months before the exam. Here was my schedule:

3 days a week I stayed late at my office (quiet and alone) after work was done for the day and stayed 3-4 hours each of those nights, reading/studying one night and doing a 1/2 practice exam (4 hour 40 question) for the other 2 nights. And every Saturday I spent 8 hours at the library doing a full practice exam (8 hr 80 question). I did that for 3 months, with occasional schedule changes where needed due to work/life, but I made up any missed day on a different day. So, ~20hs/week for 3 months. I was committed!

The week of the exam I worked Monday, but I took Tues-Fri off to do finally prep and study. I retook the NCEES official practice test Tues, another full test on Weds, Thurs I took a 1/2 exam in the morning and drove to my hotel by the test site, then reviewed my notes, had a good dinner and went to bed. Got up bright and early on Fri, arrived at test center early and nailed it. Then I went home and had a nice dinner with my family and cracked a celebratory beer. All total I logged 250-300 hrs. Maybe it was over kill, but I wanted to be confident I'd only have to go through this once and only once. I feel for those on their 2nd, 3rd, 4th attempts. I figure if I couldn't commit to find the time to study right the first time, how would I be able to find time for another 3 months, or another after that. I figure go hard, and be one-and-done

ymmv

Good luck! You can do it!

civilengrdude · Jun 25, 2018

i spent 4 days prior to the exam cramming for ~9-10 hours. Most of the learning occurred the first 3 days, the fourth day was copying information more clearly and concise in the practice exam book, getting a hotel near the test, eating, and going over the practice exam. i mostly just used the practice exam

Frustrated Engineer · Jul 13, 2018

Thank you both for your comments. This helps a lot! And @civilengrdude, I wish that I could only study for 4 days before, but unfortunately that's not how my mind works. There's evidently a sweet spot in time for studying for a long time and too little time that I have yet to figure out lol. Thanks!

youngmotivatedengineer · Jul 13, 2018

Take a look at the websites for the review courses. If I'm not mistaken, most if not all of them should show their class schedule for the review course they offer. You can use this as a starting point and then modify or mix/match the different schedules. My suggestion would try to focus on 1 category each week or every few days ( depending on the total length of study time). The first day or 2 should be in depth review of the topic. The 2nd half of week should focus on sample problem's involving that category. While the number solution is important, try to focus on the procedure and how you solve the problem. This will help you during the test to understand what the question is asking you instead of just focusing on crunching numbers