Tips for Environmental/Water Treatment Studying

[BPCW]

With 2 1/2 weeks to go, I'm pretty comfortable with Hydraulics/Open Channel/Hydrology but need more work on the Environmental and Water Treatment sections. CERM covers the Hydraulics/OCF/Hydro pretty well but does a very poor job with Env and Water Treatment. I've gone through a practice exam, 6 Mins solutions, and problems from the "other board's" exam cafe and have struggled with the Env/WT problems.

I have Metcalf & Eddy and the Handbook of Environmental Engineering Calculations...and have read through and tabbed both but it doesn't seem to be sticking.

I think I need more general study/problem work but really need work on the chemical addition questions (lime, chlorine, etc.) and also the DO, Wastewater treatment problems. Any advice?

 

[Shree]

With 2 1/2 weeks to go, I'm pretty comfortable with Hydraulics/Open Channel/Hydrology but need more work on the Environmental and Water Treatment sections. CERM covers the Hydraulics/OCF/Hydro pretty well but does a very poor job with Env and Water Treatment. I've gone through a practice exam, 6 Mins solutions, and problems from the "other board's" exam cafe and have struggled with the Env/WT problems.
I have Metcalf & Eddy and the Handbook of Environmental Engineering Calculations...and have read through and tabbed both but it doesn't seem to be sticking.

I think I need more general study/problem work but really need work on the chemical addition questions (lime, chlorine, etc.) and also the DO, Wastewater treatment problems. Any advice?

Test masters environmental study material has lot of solved prolems on DO, DOmix, BOD, BODmix, BODU, CLARIFIERS, TRICKLING FILTERS, SRT, DT, NRCS EQUATION etc. The material also has some good lime soda problems and solutions. I WOULD SUGGEST YOU TO WORK ON THOSE PROBLEMS.

 

[Tido]

With 2 1/2 weeks to go, I'm pretty comfortable with Hydraulics/Open Channel/Hydrology but need more work on the Environmental and Water Treatment sections. CERM covers the Hydraulics/OCF/Hydro pretty well but does a very poor job with Env and Water Treatment. I've gone through a practice exam, 6 Mins solutions, and problems from the "other board's" exam cafe and have struggled with the Env/WT problems.
I have Metcalf & Eddy and the Handbook of Environmental Engineering Calculations...and have read through and tabbed both but it doesn't seem to be sticking.

I think I need more general study/problem work but really need work on the chemical addition questions (lime, chlorine, etc.) and also the DO, Wastewater treatment problems. Any advice?

I hope I am not going to make you under-prepared but the ENV quesntions on this new style of WR/ENV are pretty simple. Probably very simple than you can imagine so don't freak out on that. While trying to figure some "compex" concept that might come don't lose sight on simple topics that Shree just mention, you will be fine. Keep your cool, that is very important. Make sure that you understand in-and-out all the NCEES sample exam. I did the old NCEES exam ENV depth and I found that to be even tougher than the actual exam. The way I felt is when they combined the two difficuly level is not that high be,acuse there is limited space to cover the topics.

The references you have are OK. I had also the handbook. I opened that book for just one question. Half of the time I didn't open anything and the other half is all in the CERM. Tabing all the pages in the CERM that have some tables, and having a unit conversion note that I got from here were very useful.

Good luck

 

[IlPadrino]

Test masters environmental study material has lot of solved prolems on DO, DOmix, BOD, BODmix, BODU, CLARIFIERS, TRICKLING FILTERS, SRT, DT, NRCS EQUATION etc. The material also has some good lime soda problems and solutions. I WOULD SUGGEST YOU TO WORK ON THOSE PROBLEMS.

Testmasters is copyrighted...

 

[klk]

Again, without trying to make you unprepared, I second what Tido said, espcially regarding the NCEES sample exam. My background is is water/wastewater (and I took the envr exam, not civil), but I found that many questions related to water and wastewater appeared to be mass balance questions. They tell you what comes in, how much is removed in each process and you have to figure out what is going out, or some variation of this concept. Maybe a little chemistry is involved, but they would involve reactions you will find in the references you mention or they will give you the reaction to use.

I found the questions in the NCEES study manual to be on par with the level of difficulty for the questions on the exam. I thought the "other board" questions were more difficult. A few days before I took the exam, I started to go through one of the "other board" sample exams and freaked out at the difficulty of the wastewater questions. I stopped doing that sample exam because I figured if I didn't know it now, and it was on the exam, I could learn it for next time if I didn't pass. Luckily the real exam was easier. You probably won't need to make any assumptions during the test - they should give you all of the information you need to solve the problem (and often will give you too much info so be careful of that). Read the question carefully and figure out what they are asking. Draw a mass balance diagram showing the inputs, outputs and reactions. Not knowing what is in the CERM, if you have a copy of the FE reference book, that has some basic equations (including water treatment chemical reactions) that might come in handy. If you have any specific questions, please post them and we'll try to provide answers. Good luck!

 

[hrun]

I hope I am not going to make you under-prepared but the ENV quesntions on this new style of WR/ENV are pretty simple. Probably very simple than you can imagine so don't freak out on that. While trying to figure some "compex" concept that might come don't lose sight on simple topics that Shree just mention, you will be fine. Keep your cool, that is very important. Make sure that you understand in-and-out all the NCEES sample exam. I did the old NCEES exam ENV depth and I found that to be even tougher than the actual exam. The way I felt is when they combined the two difficuly level is not that high be,acuse there is limited space to cover the topics.
The references you have are OK. I had also the handbook. I opened that book for just one question. Half of the time I didn't open anything and the other half is all in the CERM. Tabing all the pages in the CERM that have some tables, and having a unit conversion note that I got from here were very useful.

Good luck

Yes, Make sure you do all the ncees sample test questions from the new one that came out this year.

If you can also get your hands on the old one, that would be good too.

 

[BPCW]

Thanks for all of the advice!

 

[squishles10]

I disagree. I don't have an environmental background and I thought the ncees questions were skewed differently than, at least, my particular exam. There were TONS of DO questions and several BOD questions. I was struggling with the DO questions up til the end. I think Metcalf is a little much, but if you go over the old Env 6 minutes particularly in those areas, you should be better prepared than I was. There were also MANY mass balance questions, but I don't think so many that you can depend just on that and the NCEES exams alone.

 

[Guest]

Based on what others have said, I would consider the following:

1. In terms of DO questions, make sure you understand the Streeter-Phelps equation (DO Oxygen Sag Curve) and understand how to manipulate based on either units of time or distance (v = dt relationship);

2. In terms of BOD5 and BODu, I think CERM puts you in the right direction - I agree with Squishles that M&E is probably more involved than you need;

3. In terms of water/wastewater treament, I would echo others statements about sizing of modular units (mixing chamber, clarifier, rapid sand filter, etc.) are based on unit conversions from continuity equation(s);

4. In terms of the chemitry of water/wastewater treatment, you probably DO want to take a look if you aren't comfortable. Mostly work to become acquainted with how to perform calculations - moles, equivalents, mass, etc. so you can easily perform those calculations. You do NOT want to be trying to figure out those calc's during the exam.

Best of luck with the exam!

JR