Transportation

[alejandro787]

Hi everyone ,

I have taken the PE exam 2 times and Im deciding to take the afternoon part on Transportation> I don't work in the Transportation field , could I pass the exam anyway ? If so , what reference should a Study ? What review course is best for Transportation Depth takers ? Thanks.

 

[roadwreck]

what depth section did you take the first two times? What field do you work in? Why do you feel transportation would be a better option for your next exam?

For me personally, I would stick with whatever field I felt I was most familiar with and most closely reflected the type of work I do.

I took the transportation exam. The most valuable resource was the CERM. I also had an the accompanying sample problem book which I used to study with.

My other resources included the AASHTO "Green Book", the Highway Capacity Manual, the AASHTO Roadside Design Guide & The MUTCD. I didn't take a review course, I just worked a lot of practice problems.

 

[alejandro787]

I work on Construction , but not in the same depth as the afternoon section on the exam> My first two attempts where in Water/Environ. but the environmental questions killed me. I just think the Transportation material is more visible. I have' studied a little the HCM for a bachelor course>

 

[roadwreck]

would it not be easier to study for the construction depth as it would be to do the transportation depth? Seeing as you already work in the field it would probably be more practical to study that area related to your experience then to try and learn a totally unrelated field.

 

[alejandro787]

don't have sufficient review on construction topics. Didn't take any construction course on my bachelor.

 

[sac_engineer]

I was in the same boat of taking the depth exam that is different than my field. I chose Transportation because there were more topics that were easier to understand and prepare than in Water/Enviro. It is commonly known that many engineers, regardless of background, were taking the Water depth exam before it was combined with Enviro because it was the easiest of all of the depth exams. Even structural engineers shy away from the Structural depth because of its difficulty, especially if they weren't considering taking the SE II and SE III exams later on.

I thought the transpo depth exam was fair if you properly studied for it and had the right study/reference materials. I recommend the book "All-in-One Civil Engineering PE Breadth and Depth" by Goswami.

Also, when preparing for the Survey exam in CA, there's also some overlap with transportation geometry calculations so you can cover the same problems for both exams.

Good luck!

 

[Dexman1349]

The PE is not as strongly based on your degree and schooling as you might think.

The Construction depth (which is what I took), is very intuitive if you work in construction. It requires a very basic understanding of all the other depths (temporary structures, roadway layouts, erosion control, subgrade prep, etc), but for the most part is management/estimating based. For the construction portion, I found the CERM to be very thorough for the information you need to take the afternoon depth. Please realize that a large portion of the construction stuff is NOT in the "construction" section of the CERM 11th edition.

I used the 10th edition to take the exam, and only needed the MUTCD, a crane/rigging handbook, and the OSHA standards. Of course, alot of my experience was with a General Highway Contractor that did alot of it's own structural construction (bridge, retaining walls, falsework, etc). I was required to get state certified for erosion control as well as traffic control, and I had a significant amount of experience in scheduling and managing my own labor crews. I had originally considered taking the Transportation section because I had experience BUILDING roadways, but there is a huge difference between designing highways and building them.

 

[TranspoVA]

I agree...I have known a few people that took and subsequently (what a cool word by the way) failed because they went in under the premise that transportation was the "easiest"...That philosophy will lead to one of those frameable failure letters...I use the green book every day and still failed the first time I took it...better stick with what you know not what you think you can teach yourself in the shortest amount of time.

 

[alejandro787]

Thanks for all of your comments.

 

[cement]

I work in construction and took transpo. It was "easy" for me since I have most of an MS in transportation engineering and did about a million practice problems.