Transportation Discipline - References

[youngmotivatedengineer]

What are people's thoughts on the Transportation Depth Reference Manual by Voigt? Is it worth having it?...
I am struggling to  afford some of the references and work is not offering to pay up even if they are requiring me to take the tests....yes yes I know, I shoudl just fork up the money and get all of them...sorry mortgage takes precedence...

Due to copyright laws, it would be hard to find an all-in-one book that goes deeply into each category. Have you tried asking co-workers if they have a copy that you can borrow?

 

[ALBin517]

Perhaps my smartest move was keeping a master index of every practice question I did, alphabetic by keyword. 

Say there was a question about warrants... I could turn to my master index and it would tell me the textbook and sheet number for every warrants problem I did. 

(Many questions were in the index two or three times, under different keywords).

Easier than saying, "Where the h3ll did I see that question?"  With all the references for transportation, you don't have time to search.

 

[ALBin517]

And whenever I used an equation, I would label the units for each variable.  So if I flipped to an equation, everything was clearly labeled.  L in stations, h in feet, A in acres, etc.

Also, I had noted if I had used (or nearly used) an equation incorrectly before.  Quick, short notes like, "DO NOT USE FOR..." or "BE SURE THAT..."

Again, one of the challenges of the Transportation depth is the high number of references and finding everything quickly ... then not having to reread and relearn.  Not only does it take longer but if you're like me, there's only so much reading and thinking you can do in 8 hours.  Working problems twice and scanning through text to relearn how to use an equation is extra, unnecessary effort.  The test is long enough without making more work for yourself.