Studying for the Civil Construction afternoon portion

[Construction PE]

I am studying for the Civil PE with the Construcion PM section. I have recently relocated to Germany and do not have access to review courses/classes here so I am doing it all on my own.

1. I studied and finished the Ruwan Rajapakse Construction book pretty easily. Are his questions/problems representative of the afternoon problems on the exam? Or are the exam problems much harder?

2. I am having a really hard time with the other disciplines for the morning section. For example, I never took Transpo and Enviromental classes in school and the classes that I did take (ie. Geotech and Structures) I am still having a really hard time with (feel like I have to relearn them too from ZERO)!

a. Do I need to teach myself the disciplines I did not study in school?

b. Do I even have a chance at passing the exam by doing well in Construction and VERY poorly on the other ones?

Don't know if it's even worth taking the exam because at this rate I feel there is no way I can pass it. Scheduled for the April exam (have 2 months left to re-learn the other disciplines). Any tips/advise would be greatly appreciated! (Graduated from Purdue University 6 years ago- Civil... been working in Construction management on-site on the projects. Very little exposure to any engineering during that time).

Please help!

Frustrated and Discouraged.

 

[maryannette]

I suggest you order Lindeburg Civil Engineering Review Manual (CERM) and practice problems and use them for most of your studying. Also, look into web-based classes. My experience was that the practice problems were generally harder than actual test questions. Several of the members here passed the PE exam many years after college. Don't be discouraged. Just start working on it. We're here for you.

 

[jrf500]

I'm in a similar situation to you (similar education/experience and am taking the Construction module in April). I'm taking the School of PE online review class as a way to help shore up the AM portion of the test. I live in an area where no on-site review classes are available. Might be something you want to consider as well. I haven't taken the School of PE yet, so I'm not pushing you towards that one...I'm just saying you might want to research an online review course.

 

[Construction PE]

I suggest you order Lindeburg Civil Engineering Review Manual (CERM) and practice problems and use them for most of your studying. Also, look into web-based classes. My experience was that the practice problems were generally harder than actual test questions. Several of the members here passed the PE exam many years after college. Don't be discouraged. Just start working on it. We're here for you.

Hi Mary. Thanks for the encouragement. I do have the Lindenburg CERM and have been trying to study off of that, but am getting stuck. It takes me hours to get through a few problems if I can get through them at all.

 

[Construction PE]

I'm in a similar situation to you (similar education/experience and am taking the Construction module in April). I'm taking the School of PE online review class as a way to help shore up the AM portion of the test. I live in an area where no on-site review classes are available. Might be something you want to consider as well. I haven't taken the School of PE yet, so I'm not pushing you towards that one...I'm just saying you might want to research an online review course.

I looked on School of PE website and did not find an online course. Do you have a link?

Thanks!

 

[Walker D]

Hi Mary. Thanks for the encouragement. I do have the Lindenburg CERM and have been trying to study off of that, but am getting stuck. It takes me hours to get through a few problems if I can get through them at all.

Take your time and try not to get frustrated. I would suggest that you :

• print out the NCEES list of topics that can be covered in the morning exam under each of the 5 topics.
• use this list to determine if the material in the CERM which you are studying is morning or afternoon-type problems. If it is an afternoon topic, then skip it.
• Develop a study schedule immediately. You basically have 64 days to study 5 topics (Water Resources, Construction, Geotech, Structural, Transportation). That is basically 13 days per topic. It is more important that you at least cover each of the 5 topics rather than completely understand each of them.

I would suggest that you study the morning type problems extensively. By default, the morning problems are going to be easier than the afternoon problems and you should do your best to "nail" the morning questions. This will take the pressure off for the afternoon. If you get 35 out of 40 in the morning, then you only have to get 20 (give or take) correct in the afternoon.

 

[jrf500]

I'm in a similar situation to you (similar education/experience and am taking the Construction module in April). I'm taking the School of PE online review class as a way to help shore up the AM portion of the test. I live in an area where no on-site review classes are available. Might be something you want to consider as well. I haven't taken the School of PE yet, so I'm not pushing you towards that one...I'm just saying you might want to research an online review course.

I looked on School of PE website and did not find an online course. Do you have a link?

Thanks!

For some weird reason, the School of PE does not have the online course information on their website. But they're having one this spring for sure, I'm signed up and have been ensured they have enough registrants already to hold the course. I had to email them to get info, so email [email protected] . She will email you the packet of information on the online course. I told her if I was them, I'd get that information up on my website! Good luck!

 

[TESTY]

I took the exam 20 years after graduating and did the Construction PM Module. Ironically I worked 20 years in Construction not Engineering design. For several years the Board would not accept my work experience, but did find it helpful with this module. I agree with Mary to use the Lindeberg Text with the companion problem manual. For studying for the Construction, this forum is probably your best source to get an idea for references to study.