SOPE vs EET April 2020

[CUniverse]

Hi everyone!

I have just discovered this website and have been reading some posts. I was really set on taking the schoolofpe course for the April 2020 transportation PE exam, but after reading some posts on here it seems people like the EET course more than schoolofpe. The posts I noticed this on were a tad dated, from 2015. I was wondering if EET is still recommended over SOPE for the Transportation PE exam.

I also wanted to ask if I were to choose the EET course, is it okay to take the on demand version so I can work at my own pace? Or is it more beneficial to take the live session version of the course?

Thanks!

 

[Ranger1316]

I took SOPE for the April 2019 Transportation exam and I would definitely recommend EET. 

That is not to say I regret taking SOPE but the depth portion of their review is lacking compared to what I have seen from EET. The breadth portion is great for both SOPE and EET and I almost exclusively used SOPE notes for the morning session. 

As far as taking on-demand or not, I took both and found it to be very beneficial. Taking the live classes on the weekend really forced me to keep up, even after a long week at work. I watched almost all the on-demand classes before my first live session which allowed the live versions to reinforce my learning instead of being something to simply keep up with. Definitely check if your employer will reimburse the cost of the classes.

I passed the exam so let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[CUniverse]

I took SOPE for the April 2019 Transportation exam and I would definitely recommend EET. 

That is not to say I regret taking SOPE but the depth portion of their review is lacking compared to what I have seen from EET. The breadth portion is great for both SOPE and EET and I almost exclusively used SOPE notes for the morning session. 

As far as taking on-demand or not, I took both and found it to be very beneficial. Taking the live classes on the weekend really forced me to keep up, even after a long week at work. I watched almost all the on-demand classes before my first live session which allowed the live versions to reinforce my learning instead of being something to simply keep up with. Definitely check if your employer will reimburse the cost of the classes.

I passed the exam so let me know if you have any other questions.

Awesome thanks for the quick response! I'm not sure I can really afford to purchase the live and on-demand versions, but I just read on there the live sessions are recorded incase I have to miss a session I can access it later. That feature would be really nice. I think I am leaning towards EET honestly it sounds like a great course. Now you say you mainly used the SOPE notes for the morning session, does the binder and material included in the breadth course for EET provide material that would be equally useful? I really just want to be as prepared as I can, but would also be extremely happy if I could find it all in one course. My work has a library that provides all of the references I will need which is super nice, they also reimburse up to $1000 for courses and exam fees, I don't mind paying for the extra bit to get a good course, it will definitely be worth it.

Another question, do these courses walk you through what you need to know in the references on NCEES list? I am not familiar with them from work I mostly just inspect things currently but I've heard the depth portion of Transportation has a decent amount of questions where you have to look stuff up in the references.

I may have more questions in the future, thank you very much!

 

[Ranger1316]

Awesome thanks for the quick response! I'm not sure I can really afford to purchase the live and on-demand versions, but I just read on there the live sessions are recorded incase I have to miss a session I can access it later. That feature would be really nice. I think I am leaning towards EET honestly it sounds like a great course.

That's a good point and the main advantage of on-demand is getting a jump on the live courses which are only a few months before the exam. You really can't go wrong with SOPE or EET but, like I said, I just think SOPE lags behind EET for the afternoon portion.

Now you say you mainly used the SOPE notes for the morning session, does the binder and material included in the breadth course for EET provide material that would be equally useful? I really just want to be as prepared as I can, but would also be extremely happy if I could find it all in one course.

I would say EET and SOPE are much closer in quality for the morning portion. My main point in saying I mainly used SOPE notes was I didn't use the CERM much at all. It was much easier to have the five subject notes split up into binders I knew like the back of my hand from doing the course. It was really surprising getting the majority of my answers from my class notes.

My work has a library that provides all of the references I will need which is super nice, they also reimburse up to $1000 for courses and exam fees, I don't mind paying for the extra bit to get a good course, it will definitely be worth it.

Another question, do these courses walk you through what you need to know in the references on NCEES list? I am not familiar with them from work I mostly just inspect things currently but I've heard the depth portion of Transportation has a decent amount of questions where you have to look stuff up in the references.

It sounds like you won't have to shell out too much out of pocket It's a pain to bring all the references but it is worth it. I didn't use half of the listed references but you never know what might be included, even from the lesser known references.

SOPE went over the most likely things to be included in the exam from the references. The main thing is to flip through and be familiar with the references. You may not know one by heart but if you know the general section, you have a chance. I've used the MUTCD and Green Book quite a bit so I had a head start but I had to quickly become familiar with the HCM and HSM. Don't kill yourself trying to know every nook and cranny of every reference but just try to have a good idea, especially on the major ones I mentioned above.

 

[CUniverse]

Awesome man thank you! So if you had to pick one over the other you would go EET?

 

[Ranger1316]

No problem man and definitely do EET. Make sure you tab everything you possibly can, even if you don't think you need to. I did more tabbing for the PE exam than I had my entire life lol

 

[CUniverse]

No problem man and definitely do EET. Make sure you tab everything you possibly can, even if you don't think you need to. I did more tabbing for the PE exam than I had my entire life lol

Awesome man I’ll do it! Definitely will be worth it in the end, get this exam out of the way and I’m golden lol, thanks for all of the advice! Do you recommend tabbing the references as well?

 

[CUniverse]

One more question, do I need to wait until the October exam is finished before signing up for the on-demand course? I noticed it said it’s available until the exam but it didn’t state which exam that was 

 

[Ranger1316]

Awesome man I’ll do it! Definitely will be worth it in the end, get this exam out of the way and I’m golden lol, thanks for all of the advice! Do you recommend tabbing the references as well?

It’s no problem at all. It wasn’t too long ago I was going through all the threads I could, trying to find out all I could to prepare for the exam

Definitely tab the references. It’s just as important as tabbing your notes. Try to tab anything reference-wise you use in practice problems and the review course will note common tables, sections, etc you should know.

I know with SOPE you couldn’t start OnDemand until after the Fall exam so I would assume EET is similar.

Another good piece of advice is try not to burn yourself out. Put in the 200+ hours but try to spread out your study schedule so you’re not studying like crazy for three months straight like I did lol.

 

[CUniverse]

It’s no problem at all. It wasn’t too long ago I was going through all the threads I could, trying to find out all I could to prepare for the exam

Definitely tab the references. It’s just as important as tabbing your notes. Try to tab anything reference-wise you use in practice problems and the review course will note common tables, sections, etc you should know.

I know with SOPE you couldn’t start OnDemand until after the Fall exam so I would assume EET is similar.

Another good piece of advice is try not to burn yourself out. Put in the 200+ hours but try to spread out your study schedule so you’re not studying like crazy for three months straight like I did lol.

Awesome man thanks a ton I’m looking forward to studying! 

 

[Sirian]

Seconding the vote for EET. I actually found the recommendation for them on these boards, myself, and passed April 2019 Transportation. If you have a question about whether or not you can access the on-demand sections early for the next exam (i.e., you want to take the April exam), you can always email the EET staff directly about your situation. They may recommend waiting until after October to sign up so there's no confusion.

I used only the EET binders and the NCEES references to pass the PE exam. I didn't bother taking the CERM at all. I did, however, tab my references -- but not in the way you might expect! I only tabbed the separate chapters, the table of contents, and the index.

I also did the test in three-four passes. First pass was just writing down the topics of the questions and where/what notes I expected to use. A few questions I answered on-sight. A few were also easy lookups or questions that only took 3-4 minutes to answer. The second pass was easy lookups and more calculations where I was confident I could solve or answer them in 5-6 minutes. The third pass was more complicated questions that I knew how to solve, but that might take me longer to answer, or just more complex code trivia. The fourth pass was everything left over (usually had 10-15 questions left over on the fourth pass). A few I also starred or went back to look at and review anything that I had found questionable/confusing.

Repeated that process for the PM section.

The EET binders saved me SO MUCH TIME trying to recreate similar resources on my own. I put in approximately 120 hours of studying (not 200+), but YMMV.

I took only the On Demand classes because I needed to be able to study at my own pace and had some working weekends. Good luck!

 

[CUniverse]

Seconding the vote for EET. I actually found the recommendation for them on these boards, myself, and passed April 2019 Transportation. If you have a question about whether or not you can access the on-demand sections early for the next exam (i.e., you want to take the April exam), you can always email the EET staff directly about your situation. They may recommend waiting until after October to sign up so there's no confusion.

I used only the EET binders and the NCEES references to pass the PE exam. I didn't bother taking the CERM at all. I did, however, tab my references -- but not in the way you might expect! I only tabbed the separate chapters, the table of contents, and the index.

I also did the test in three-four passes. First pass was just writing down the topics of the questions and where/what notes I expected to use. A few questions I answered on-sight. A few were also easy lookups or questions that only took 3-4 minutes to answer. The second pass was easy lookups and more calculations where I was confident I could solve or answer them in 5-6 minutes. The third pass was more complicated questions that I knew how to solve, but that might take me longer to answer, or just more complex code trivia. The fourth pass was everything left over (usually had 10-15 questions left over on the fourth pass). A few I also starred or went back to look at and review anything that I had found questionable/confusing.

Repeated that process for the PM section.

The EET binders saved me SO MUCH TIME trying to recreate similar resources on my own. I put in approximately 120 hours of studying (not 200+), but YMMV.

I took only the On Demand classes because I needed to be able to study at my own pace and had some working weekends. Good luck!

Awesome man! Sounds like a great strategy I’ll have to keep it in mind. Congratulations on passing the exam! Did the course help you in learning what you needed to know out of the references or did you learn those in separate study time?

Thanks!

 

[Sirian]

The EET course covers some of the tables in the major codes. However, there's not time to cover all of the potential tables you might be asked to use.

My background in research helped me when it came to obscure code trivia. I narrowed down what I thought the topic of the question was, then used the index in the relevant code to guess which chapter/volume/book/page would have the information I needed.

While I didn't spend more than a few extra hours becoming familiar with the codes, I DID tab the significant tables that EET mentioned and used in the class in the corresponding references.

 

[CUniverse]

The EET course covers some of the tables in the major codes. However, there's not time to cover all of the potential tables you might be asked to use.

My background in research helped me when it came to obscure code trivia. I narrowed down what I thought the topic of the question was, then used the index in the relevant code to guess which chapter/volume/book/page would have the information I needed.

While I didn't spend more than a few extra hours becoming familiar with the codes, I DID tab the significant tables that EET mentioned and used in the class in the corresponding references.

Sounds like a great approach thanks for the advice!

 

[CUniverse]

http://www.eetusa.com/classes/civil-pe/depth/transportation

Could someone take a look at this and let me know what you think?

I was reading the description of the on-demand course and the way they have it worded it almost seems the course is for the breadth and depth portions of the exam.

"On-Demand Webinars for the 8 hour PE Exam are available immediately after you complete the registration.

Over 100 hours of recorded lectures, quizzes, workshops and simulated exam for both breadth and depth sessions.

Recordings will be from the last season. We will provide you updated handout. In addition, current season recordings access will be provided. 

All recordings and problem solving workshop sessions are available until the day of Exam.

An instructor will walk you through the resources after you receive your binder.

Instructors are also available to answer questions via email."

Listed above is the description of the course given on EET's website.

Maybe I am reading it wrong which is totally fine, I was planning on buying a course for the morning and evening portions, but if it's all covered in this course even better!

Thanks!

 

[Pirate Panda]

@CUniverse I've purchased the on-demand class at EET and it only covered depth session.

 

[CUniverse]

@CUniverse I've purchased the on-demand class at EET and it only covered depth session.

Okay I figured that's how it worked, just wanted to make sure. Thank you very much!

 

[eNgINeER93_PE]

I cant speak for the Transportation depth, as I took the structural. BUT, EET's Breadth review was spot on. I came out of the morning session feeling 100% confident about 37 out of the 40 questions, 2 I felt 50/50 on, and the last one was a complete guess. It was a huge relief walking into the afternoon knowing I only needed to get 50% of the afternoon questions correct to score above a 70% for the whole exam.

 

[CUniverse]

I cant speak for the Transportation depth, as I took the structural. BUT, EET's Breadth review was spot on. I came out of the morning session feeling 100% confident about 37 out of the 40 questions, 2 I felt 50/50 on, and the last one was a complete guess. It was a huge relief walking into the afternoon knowing I only needed to get 50% of the afternoon questions correct to score above a 70% for the whole exam.

That is awesome man! I'm definitely going to go for EET, very excited to start studying.

 

[CUniverse]

Would you guys recommend waiting until I receive my references to start watching the videos for the course or can I jump right in? I purchased the course (EET) a couple days ago and I got an email saying my references will ship on the 11th.