seismic/survey prep

[caseycory]

Is anyone familiar with the Irvine Institute of Technology seismic and/or survey courses they offer? They are quite expensive ($375) and I'm not sure they are worth it?

 

[sac_engineer]

Is anyone familiar with the Irvine Institute of Technology seismic and/or survey courses they offer? They are quite expensive ($375) and I'm not sure they are worth it?

The value of a course depends on how little knowledge you have in that course to begin with. If you have zero experience or education in either seismic or surveying, then taking a course would be recommended, especially that you only have about a month before the exam.

Good luck!

 

[dastuff]

The other recommendations you hear all the time are:

• The Seismic Design Review Workbook by Steven Hiner (he even does a course to accompany the workbook but I don't think you have enough time left to take it)
• Coumo's Survey Review Book

You can google either of the books to find more info. I got the Hiner book and found it extremely useful. The Coumo book gave me enough information to answer any of the surveying questions on the test but I realized it was a lot more geometry based than i originally thought.

 

[geypo]

I am from a different state and planning to take the surveying and seismic tests.

Was the Coumo's Survey Review Book more geometry based than what appeared on the test?

OR was the test more geometry based than what Coumo's Survey Review Book covers?

Thank you.

 

[mvanpatten]

I'm out of state and took the Irving Institute webinar for survey. I signed up for the web library that lets you review the previous exam sessions at your own leasure. It was a good way to focus my studying. Still waiting for the results. The key to the surveying exam is problems. Don't spend alot of time studying theory. Know your curves, leveling and stakeout. Do lots of problems. The text book from Irving had alot of problems, as does Cuomo. I got the feeling that most people in the survey exam didn't have time to finish, so you really need to do problems quickly.

For Seismic, I signed up for the Hiner webinar library - Same reason to focus my studying. Much more valuable since the seismic test is about half problems, half theory/code. I had zero seismic experience before and it really helped.

 

[geypo]

Thank you mvanpatten for the input.

I'll probably do the same. Good luck.

 

[cowboy]

I am from a different state and planning to take the surveying and seismic tests. Was the Coumo's Survey Review Book more geometry based than what appeared on the test?

OR was the test more geometry based than what Coumo's Survey Review Book covers?

Thank you.

I have both Coumo's survey book and Reza malhati's survey manual. I liked Reza's. This guy works for caltrans in Sacremento, CA.

 

[MKB]

I am from a different state and planning to take the surveying and seismic tests. Was the Coumo's Survey Review Book more geometry based than what appeared on the test?

OR was the test more geometry based than what Coumo's Survey Review Book covers?

Thank you.

I have both Coumo's survey book and Reza malhati's survey manual. I liked Reza's. This guy works for caltrans in Sacremento, CA.

I took the class with Reza and it was well worth the money. I never had surveying in school and the only experience I had was from my 1 year in construction shooting grades, I was mostly the rod man though. He is a little hard to follow in the lectures because he moves very fast but he has a lot of example problems in the book and they were very very helpful. I did almost every problem in all of the chapters except the last 2 or 3 and taking the test I was not surprised by a single question and left feeling very confident. I only used Reza's book to study so I would recommend it just for the problems alone, it might be helpful to have another book with a good index for the exam since his is a little harder to navigate unless you know it well but I did not use anything other than his book.

 

[lucky101]

I am from a different state and planning to take the surveying and seismic tests. Was the Coumo's Survey Review Book more geometry based than what appeared on the test?

OR was the test more geometry based than what Coumo's Survey Review Book covers?

Thank you.

I have both Coumo's survey book and Reza malhati's survey manual. I liked Reza's. This guy works for caltrans in Sacremento, CA.

I took the class with Reza and it was well worth the money. I never had surveying in school and the only experience I had was from my 1 year in construction shooting grades, I was mostly the rod man though. He is a little hard to follow in the lectures because he moves very fast but he has a lot of example problems in the book and they were very very helpful. I did almost every problem in all of the chapters except the last 2 or 3 and taking the test I was not surprised by a single question and left feeling very confident. I only used Reza's book to study so I would recommend it just for the problems alone, it might be helpful to have another book with a good index for the exam since his is a little harder to navigate unless you know it well but I did not use anything other than his book.

When did you take the test?

 

[MKB]

When did you take the test?

October

 

[JUDE]

CONGRATULATIONS!

When did you take the test?

October

 

[costboy]

I found engineerboards.com to be helpful when I was planning my study, so hopefully this will be of help to someone who has yet to take the exams. I succeeded in passing both the seismic and surveying exams in October 2010. Here is a synopsis of my preparation:

Surveying

I had one quarter-long surveying class in college (which was a long time ago). I also used these books (all from PPI2Pass.com):

(1) Surveying Principles for Civil Engineers, by Paul A. Cuomo

(2) Civil Surveying Sample Exams for the California Special Civil Engineer Examination, by Peter R. Boniface

(3) The plane surveying and horizontal/vertical curves chapters of CERM

Note: I did not purchase or use the “120 Solved Surveying Problems” book

I read completely and worked every problem in Surveying Principles (also true for the CERM chapters), and worked every problem of both the sample exams. I felt prepared before the exam, I thought I did well on the exam, and in fact I passed it. This all seemed pretty straightforward.

Seismic

My primary emphasis in college was structures, but there was very little seismic content, I don’t count myself a structural engineer, I’ve never practiced structural design, and again, college was a long time ago. I used these books (also all from PPI2Pass.com):

(1) Seismic Design of Building Structures, by Kurt M. McMullin and

(2) Seismic Principles Practice Exams for the California Special Civil Engineer Examination, by Majid Baradar and Michael R. Lindeburg

(3) 345 Solved Seismic Design Problems, by Majid Baradar

I read completely and worked every problem in Seismic Design of Building structures, and worked every problem of the sample exams. I also worked every single problem of Chapters 1-4 of 345 Solved Seismic Design Problems, and also read through Chapter 5 (which is advertised by the author as more complicated than would appear on the exam).

I felt prepared for the exam but WHOOPS! – during the exam it became clear that while the offerings from PPI2Pass provided a lot of depth on some areas, they were lacking in others. It was also unsettling that their materials described the test as having differently-weighted questions when in fact it didn’t. I don’t know if that change occurred during the October 2010 exam, but nonetheless it left me feeling that my materials were out of date in addition to not covering all the areas that they needed to.

Fortunately, I did pass, but I was not at all sure that would be the outcome. I guess if it came right down to it, it didn’t feel like I missed HALF of the questions (the cutscore has traditionally been around 50%), but there were enough that I was unsure about or outright guessing on that I felt really bad about my performance. In asking around at the exam, it seems like Hiner’s materials and/or class might have been a better way to go. I can’t really say if that’s true, but that was going to be my plan for the next time around if I hadn’t passed.

 

[costboy]

It probably goes without saying, but for the seismic exam I marked up and tabbed the IBC and ASCE 7-05 as I went through the various materials and example problems.