Self Studiers - What Resources did you use?

[FuturePE]

For those of you that didn't take a class and passed the exam, what books did you purchase to study?

 

[saadyamin]

I used the CERM and accompanied practice problem (CEPP) .  Read all required chapter for the CERM per NCEES topic list. Did spent avg 3hrs for last 2.5 months. 

 

[hjg7715]

I passed a couple cycles ago, but I primarily used PPI2PASS Exam Café (question bank) to do a lot of practice problems. They provide pretty decent explanations on how to solve each problem as well.

 

[deerslayersh]

I did Mechanical Thermal Fluids (so I don't know if this applies to you), but I borrowed a 12th edition MERM from a coworker (supposedly has better practice problems than the 13th edition?) and purchased the practice exam from NCEES. Beyond that, I supplemented with youtube videos. There is an excellent lecturer from UT-SA professor named Randall Manteufel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC56czEa9fgGKCHV-Lz-RZUQ) who posts great material in lecture format. I found it really helpful. I didn't knock the exam out of the park, but I passed pretty soundly.

 

[A Random Guy]

For Mech (TFS): MERM, my university thermodynamics book, Fundamentals of Engineering Thermodynamics (Moran/Shapiro), my university fluids book, Fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics (Munson/Young), NCEES 2001, 2016 practice exams, Kaplan practice exam, six minutes solutions. During the exam I only used MERM and thermo book. In my opinion, six minute solutions and the Kaplan are a waste of time. I spent the most time doing NCEES practice problems. I finished the morning session in 2:45 and afternoon in just over 2:00 with a score of 92.

 

[lanette259]

Work paid for the PPI course but I didn't attend most of the online lectures, it was to slow passed for me to sit through. I will say, however, that their manual (for me it was the Electrical Reference Manual) was AMAZING and I spent more time going through that and noting sections that would be good for reference. I also saw several people (civil's, mech's, etc...) with their reference book in the exam. For electrical, it looks like the John Camera books (this is one of them) are very popular, the NCEES practice exam book, KAPLAN practice exam, and the Camera practice exam book. Additionally, I bought some of the Schaum's outlines because they gave very detailed explanations for some topics that I had forgotten or needed to learn for the test as well as practice problems. Also watched YouTube videos when I just wasn't getting it from reading. Overall though, I only used the EERM, the practice exam booklets, and oddly my FE reference manual during the test. I brought several of my college text books that went over multitudes of problems and explained how, I think I only opened on of them during the test. Used maybe 5 out of the 20 I brought.

I wouldn't take an online course to prep if I did it over, although I thought I would need it since I had been out of college 11 years and the test was pretty much any topic from undergraduate classes. Hindsight is always 20/20 though. Get the PPI manual for your discipline and as many practice exam books you can get your hands on (I found 4-5 questions that were almost exactly from the practice tests), the PPI exam cafe is a great place for practice problems and is not very expensive, YouTube videos, discussion forums, old college books, and you should be fine. I studied harder the the closer I got.

Out of all the advice I could give, best 2 things I did were to take the week off before the exam and study/run problems 8-10 hours a day so it was all fresh and reference the heck out of your primary books (even practice tests), this will help save time in searching through them for the exam. 

 

[tangentline]

Electrical Power PE:

Alexander Graffeo book: go to and great summary book

Electrical Machines (Wilde): Detailed, answers 1-3+ questions but you have to dig through all of the complexity / details

NEC 2014: A must because you need it for about 10% of the test

NCEES practice exam: A must. Ironed out what I needed to study, had similar questions to exam, showed me that non-NCEES practice exams are easier... Yeah I got a 55/80 on this one 2 weeks before the test...

 

[jp11282014]

Civil Structural

CERM for the morning (i feel this helped me tremendously in the morning)

NCEES practice exam (difficulty very similar to actual exam)

6 minute solutions for Structural Depth (problems were tougher than exam but helps with key concepts)

Other than that I just made sure I had all the referenced codes tabbed and was familiar where to find common topics

 

[cal91]

CERM + practice problems. 

Structural PM - all required codes + practice problems.

 

[J_MEC]

I did the Machine Design & Materials depth.

I used the MERM, FE reference handbook, Shigley's Mechanical Engineering Design, the machinery's handbook, and a binder full of worked practice problems, notes, and pages from a few choice sections of college textbooks for areas I felt the MERM was lacking during the exam.

I also brought with me but did not open or remove from my crate the PPI Six Minute Solutions for mechanical systems, the latest (2016?) NCEES practice exam, PPI practice exam, MERM practice problems companion and mechanics of materials by R.C. Hibbeler. I did do all the problems in the six minute solutions, the two practice exams, and most of the MERM practice problems companion in preparation for the exam.

 

[Eljefeutexas]

Architectural. 

Bought P&P of E from ASCE. Bought the Seltzer book from Amazon. Got a bunch of the code books off the internet and printed the relevant pages. Printed a bunch of hand written notes from an engineer that took the test previously.

 

[Vish]

Electrical- Power: I did not study at all. But I took this book with me in the exam for formulas and reference. 

https://www.amazon.com/Electrical-Engineers-Guide-Passing-Power/dp/0988187612

And what I missed the most is NEC codes and all. Take them with you easily 5 to 10 questions from it. 

 

[EhmayWuntee P.E.]

Civil Transportation - In short I had every book on the recommended NCEES list plus a couple more.

Goswami All-in-one - I thought it was a great layout and had decent examples and a couple practice problems to use while studying each chapter that fit the NCEES outline. This was easily my main go-to book and seemed very organized compared to the CERM. It was my only point of study the first 2 months. Without this book I don't know how well I would have done with self-study.

I did buy the CERM as a backup or in-addition-to reference and used it a few times. For the CERM I had a separate printed index that was spiral bound for easy lookup in that thick thing.

My work was able to purchase the AASHTO PE exam bundle that contains a bunch of the recommended books such as green book, Mutcd, HSM, etc.
Some I didn't really use period, but they will stay as references in the office and are office property.

I personally also bought the HCM and then borrowed the Asphalt red book, an older edition of a transportation textbook that seemed to be referenced a lot in the NCEES practice exam, and the FE handbook.

Lastly I got the NCEES practice exam and with like 6 weeks to go decided to pick up 2 Goswami practice exams since I liked the way he did things in the all-in-one.
One was 2 breadth exams and the other was a breadth and transpo depth.

I think that was it and if you need specific titles let me know and I will grab them, but unsure if you were transportation or not.

 

[EngineerWho]

For ME-HVAC, I used the 12th Ed. MERM, NCEES Practice Problems, and a youtube saint Dan Malloy, PE who went over a ton (or 12,000 BTUs) of problems: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ-jikE98T4lrx9ESBY645o-YF8gm6e0s. I also studied a little from the ASHRAE Handbooks.

 

[Lattimer]

Civil construction. 

I used the Lindberg practice problems and ncees practice problems to guide my studying. I had the CERM and all recommended references. I'd work each problem both to test my ability to do it, and to become familiar with the texts....very little tabbing. 

In areas I didn't understand, I'd often turn to youtube to find a lecture or a review. 

There's a civil pe review channel on youtube....I think it's learncivilengineering. I'd watch a bit of that every night before bed in the weeks leading up to the exam. 

 

[Lattimer]

Forgot to mention I also had the FE reference with me. I preferred the layout of vert/horizontal curves there. 

 

[karanjoshi]

Electrical Power 

1) The Electrical Engineer's Guide to Passing the Power PE Exam

2) Camara- nice on few concepts but very cumbersome to find stuff

3) NEC code examples of the web, just googled for NEC code examples and solved through or referred the code to get answers. Helped me familiarize with the NEC as I do not use it at work.

4) NESC code - same thing as NEC

5) Searched for pdfs for special topics, lightning, grounding insulation testing arrester application, got them spiral bound, this was useful on 3 questions. Got these special topics spiral bound.

6) Machines by Wildi,  BL Theraja Machines (book has loads of problems on induction motors, synchronous motors generators, PF correction, 3 phase, P.U, batteries etc.). Made notes based on these books and had them spiral bound. Was very useful

7) Schaum Series books on Power Systems, Machines ( basically looked for Problems, some were good)- did not take these to the exam

8) Protection by Blackburn ( referred for p.u, fault protection and symmetrical components)

9) Power System Analysis by Glover Sharma, preferred over Grainger and Stevenson

10) Exams - Spin up, NCEES and PPI

 

[SC_CivilE]

I took the Civil WRE exam.  Primarily used the CERM and Goswami All in One book as my references.  Tabbed, highlighted, and made several notes in them.  Spent a lot of my time just becoming familiar with the content and organization of each to ensure I could find whatever I needed quickly.

NCEES practice exams - work out as many of these as you can get your hands on.  I also thought the Goswami practice problems were similar in difficulty to the NCEES ones.  More so than the PPI ones.

Engineering Unit Conversions book was very helpful.  I also bought A Dictionary of Civil, Water Resources & Environmental Engineering which I opened a few times, but overall didn't think was very beneficial.

I brought my FE reference manual, which I think is a great quick reference, but wished I had reviewed it more beforehand so I'd have been more familiar with what it contained.

 

[richie5959]

Electrical and Electronics:

Used the PPI review bundle.........concentrated on going through the book 3 times, taking notes on each chapter then organizing them before the test. Biggest thing was going through all of the review problems, examples, and sample tests (PPI and NCEES, 2 come with the package). Towards the end, I took out a few books from my college's library on Communications, Control Systems, and an overall Electronics handbook. 

Ended up passing the first time so it must have been enough...........

 

[MEinMN]

I did the Machine Design & Materials depth.

I used the MERM, FE reference handbook, Shigley's Mechanical Engineering Design, the machinery's handbook, and a binder full of worked practice problems, notes, and pages from a few choice sections of college textbooks for areas I felt the MERM was lacking during the exam.

I also brought with me but did not open or remove from my crate the PPI Six Minute Solutions for mechanical systems, the latest (2016?) NCEES practice exam, PPI practice exam, MERM practice problems companion and mechanics of materials by R.C. Hibbeler. I did do all the problems in the six minute solutions, the two practice exams, and most of the MERM practice problems companion in preparation for the exam.

I also took the MDM exam and agree with basically everything in this post (very good advice)- Very similar to my preparation and test taking references. I pretty much had the exact same reference list with the addition of a Materials Science book. I never thought I would need it but actually got 3 answers directly word for word from it. 

I also bought the PPI 'bundle' and completed ALL of the problems that were offered for the subjects that were on the NCEES exam specs multilple times. I spent 200+ hours and took 2 full 8 hour simulated practice exams. I can't stress enough how important that was. It allowed me to understand my speed. Each practice exam I took I still had a lot of time left at the end to look over problems. THis allowed me to be more comfortable bringing more references in to look through at the end. It is all about knowing yourself, your speed, and your strengths.

Online courses weren't helpful except for keeping you on track with studying. The lectures were too basic and broad - not worth the $$.. I took the MNSPE online course.