Study group for April 2021 exam-16 hour Structural Building

[DoctorWho-PE]

What are your worst topics?

 

[Be-n]

From all 4 materials, I’d say probably steel and I have no clue about bridges.

 

[DoctorWho-PE]

So what you men is thay have not covered those topics YET? They are all covered, but not till later in the class. I really need to hammer in the bridges myself.

 

[Be-n]

Yeah, I mean these topics will be covered later in the class.
I just don’t like the steel manual very much. I think other codes have better organization. And I guess I’m just not doing much of complete steel building designs, about 2 per year. The folks in my coastal area either don’t like steel due highly corrosive environments or, if they still have to use it, most of the time they pick PEMBs... Unfortunately, typically you can’t compete with PEMB. That’s where my lack of being efficient with steel designs comes from.

 

[Struct.Eng.]

I would like to join the SE study group.
I sent you a request to [email protected]
Thanks,

 

[Reed D]

I registered for Vertical SE. I’m taking AEI course and so far so good, knocking out all the homework and doing some PPI book problems as well for each covered topic. I’m following AEI study schedule and the worst (for me) topics are not covered yet. This makes me concerned a bit. The less days are remaining on my countdown board, the later I stay every night . It’s my first try and it is definitely going to be a challenge!

What do you think about the AEI course? Is it worth the money? I am thinking about taking the on-demand one for the vertical exam but not sure how much it helps. What's your thoughts?

 

[Be-n]

What do you think about the AEI course? Is it worth the money? I am thinking about taking the on-demand one for the vertical exam but not sure how much it helps. What's your thoughts?

I think it is definitely increasing the chance of passing and, therefore, worth the money. I am taking live though. I saved money on PE preparation and took not very well known cheap on-demand PE course and was disappointed in it due to lack of feedback and very limited structural topics. I ended up studying a lot on my own with PPI books back then for PE. I passed it.
SE is a different animal and I wanted the right course from day 1 of studying. In AEI live class, you feel like you are in a small classroom of 20-30 students, all PE's I believe, where you personally know your professor. You can ask a question any time and it will get answered during the class, which is more important for me now than I thought it would be. It clears out a lot things right away before I forget about it. The difference in cost of live and on-demand is very small. AEI binders are well prepared. HW and quiz problems are well chosen.
My co-worker is taking PPI SE Class. He liked my binder a lot more than bunch of slides that PPI gives in PDF format. It is impossible to navigate thru PPI slides on Exam because it is just thousand of pages of their PowerPoint Presentations. AEI binder is more like a textbook. Also, I feel like we discuss topics a lot more in details in AEI class than PPI does. For example, we had about 10 hours of class for loads (vertical exam). My co-worker had about 2 hr PPI class for vertical loads. It was a lot shorter and no hands on problem solving during the class, he said. Covering snow loads in details was very important for me because I'm on the south . There are less hours of lectures for both vertical and lateral in PPI class than in AEI just vertical class.
Another reason I chose AEI over PPI is that PPI doesn't offer prep course for vertical exam only.
I've also got PPI books. Sometimes, I like to compare materials and do some PPI HW problems, too, when time allows. I feel that it is great to have a back-up, second reference book. And no matter what class you take, you still need to get familiar with all NCEES references and practice a lot. This is my opinion after 4 weeks of classes. Ask me again sometime early in June when results are posted

 

[Reed D]

I think it is definitely increasing the chance of passing and, therefore, worth the money. I am taking live though. I saved money on PE preparation and took not very well known cheap on-demand PE course and was disappointed in it due to lack of feedback and very limited structural topics. I ended up studying a lot on my own with PPI books back then for PE. I passed it.
SE is a different animal and I wanted the right course from day 1 of studying. In AEI live class, you feel like you are in a small classroom of 20-30 students, all PE's I believe, where you personally know your professor. You can ask a question any time and it will get answered during the class, which is more important for me now than I thought it would be. It clears out a lot things right away before I forget about it. The difference in cost of live and on-demand is very small. AEI binders are well prepared. HW and quiz problems are well chosen.
My co-worker is taking PPI SE Class. He liked my binder a lot more than bunch of slides that PPI gives in PDF format. It is impossible to navigate thru PPI slides on Exam because it is just thousand of pages of their PowerPoint Presentations. AEI binder is more like a textbook. Also, I feel like we discuss topics a lot more in details in AEI class than PPI does. For example, we had about 10 hours of class for loads (vertical exam). My co-worker had about 2 hr PPI class for vertical loads. It was a lot shorter and no hands on problem solving during the class, he said. Covering snow loads in details was very important for me because I'm on the south . There are less hours of lectures for both vertical and lateral in PPI class than in AEI just vertical class.
Another reason I chose AEI over PPI is that PPI doesn't offer prep course for vertical exam only.
I've also got PPI books. Sometimes, I like to compare materials and do some PPI HW problems, too, when time allows. I feel that it is great to have a back-up, second reference book. And no matter what class you take, you still need to get familiar with all NCEES references and practice a lot. This is my opinion after 4 weeks of classes. Ask me again sometime early in June when results are posted

Thanks a lot. I appreciate taking the time to put all this in writing. I think I am sold. I will take the AEI on demand since its too late for the live class for the April exam. Good luck on your exam/s in April. Are you taking both exams on April or just Vertical?

 

[Be-n]

Thanks a lot. I appreciate taking the time to put all this in writing. I think I am sold. I will take the AEI on demand since its too late for the live class for the April exam. Good luck on your exam/s in April. Are you taking both exams on April or just Vertical?

I didn't realize you want to take it this April. Yeah, it is too late for the live class. I'm just taking Vertical. SE is not required in my state and office and I'm doing it out of my pocket. So, there is no rush in taking both, but I definitely want to pass it in the first time.
I skipped one 7 hr Sunday class a couple of weeks ago. Man, it was hard to catch up with the material and finish homework before the next class on Thursday. We already had 4 weeks of classes, which is about 30-35 hours of lectures and probably about 12 hours of working problems. If you do on-demand, you'd need to catch up with all material we've covered so far and then stay on AEI schedule until the exam. It'll be tough. It is is only 73 days left! If you just start studying now, I think it'd better to plan to take it in October instead. But if you've studied on your own for a while and now want to register for the class, then there is still time!

 

[Engineerbabu]

Are there any discord groups for April Vertical SE exam preparation? I have taken the Lateral portion and passed it last Fall. For Vertical I am slow to start and only have about a month to prepare. Any group related to preparation would be really great to begin with

 

[DoctorWho-PE]

THere are a couple people in the Lateral Discord group I'm in that are doing both. But I don't know of any Vertical specific group.