What books helped me pass the Civil PE - Structural Depth

cacivil-struc · Jan 29, 2017

Hi All,

I purchased several books to study for the Civil PE exam (Structural Depth) and wanted to give some info on which ones helped me pass the Nov 2016 exam on the first try.

Practice Problems:

1) "Civil Engineering PE Practice Exams: Breadth and Depth" by Goswami. Problems are ever so slightly more difficult than what I saw on the exam. But it served as great preparation. Some of the solutions referenced out of date concrete and steel codes but I was still able to solve the problems using the current codes.

2) "Practice Exams for the Civil PE Examination: Two practice exams (and solutions) geared towards the breadth portion of the Civil PE Exam" by Goswami. Problems were about the difficulty level I saw on the exam. Great practice for the AM portion of the exam.

3) "Six-Minute Solutions for Civil PE Exam Structural Problems, 6th Ed" by Subasic. Some of these problems were much harder than what I saw on the structural depth portion of the exam. I worked through some but not all of them.

4) PE Civil Engineering Structural Practice exam by NCEES. 1 full exam. Great practice problems. Difficulty level was the easiest of all the aforementioned books but representative of the difficulty level of questions I saw on the exam.

5) “Practice Problems for the Civil Engineering PE Exam: A Companion to the Civil Engineering Reference Manual” by Lindeburg. To me this book had way too many practice problems on topics that were not covered on the exam. I sold the book and focused on the previously mentioned books with questions designed to simulate what you’d see on the exam.

Review Books:

1) “Civil Breadth Reference Manual” by Mansour. This provided a good overview for the AM portion of the exam but I found myself using the Goswami's All-in-One guide more in my studies and during the exam.

2) Civil Engineering All-In-One PE Exam Guide: Breadth and Depth, Third Edition by Goswami. Excellent prep for both the AM and PM sections. I probably could have gotten by with just this one review book. It’s succinct and only covers topics you will see on the exam so you can just read through the chapters to prepare for the exam. I was able to follow 1-2 examples in the book during the exam to solve problems that I was unfamiliar with.

3) Civil Engineering Reference Manual for the PE Exam by Lindeburg. Has way more information than you will need to pass the exam. But the index is comprehensive. I answered 2-3 unfamiliar questions on the exam just by looking things up in the index and following example problems.

4) I also used steel, concrete, and wood textbooks that I kept from college to fill in the blanks where the review books were occasionally broad.

Codes:

Here is a list of the codes that I purchased for the exam. I probably could have gotten by without purchasing 1) and 2).

2012 International Building Code (International Code Council Series). Minimal use during studies and during the exam
OSHA Construction Regulations Book (January 2015 Edition). Did not use in my studies or during the exam.
Building Code Requirements and Specification for Masonry Structures. Steel Construction Manual. Definitely needed it to study and pass the structural PM.
Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures, 3rd Printing (Standard ASCE/SEI 7-10)
ACI 318-11: Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete and Commentary (318-11)
2012 Wood Design Package - including the National Design Specification® for Wood Construction (NDS®) & NDS Supplement: Design Values for Wood Construction.

DFrank03 · Jan 29, 2017

Appreciate the input. I've been compiling my resources and helpful lists like this are a great benefit.

I have also heard that the "6 minute solutions" and "Practice problems from the CERM" are a little more difficult and less helpful.

For the codes, did you find that you did not need "PCI Design Handbook: Precast and Prestressed Concrete" ?

cacivil-struc · Jan 29, 2017

Glad I could help.

I decided not to purchase the PCI Design Handbook because I figured I’d only see 1-2 precast questions on the exam. That turned out to be the case. In “PE Civil Engineering Structural Practice exam” by NCEES and "Civil Engineering PE Practice Exams: Breadth and Depth" by Goswami, all the information needed to solve the precast problems was provided in the problem statements.

skc005 · Mar 7, 2017

I've been going through the Six Minute Problems for structural and just wrapped up the breadth portion. From my impression of what the breadth and depth sections should be like, those 20 breadth problems seemed much more code-involved and more like what would be represented of depth problems on the actual exam. Thoughts?

PowerStroke79_PE · Mar 7, 2017

I am not aware there is a breadth portion for the "Six Minute Solutions for Civil PE Exam: Structural Depth Problems" Sixth Edition. I have finished this book recently and going to begin again for a second time starting on the weekend, but as far as I'm concerned it only has depth problems. For Breadth I studied EET/Dr. Toms and the companion for CERM. The first 20 problems in "Six Minute.... " book are analysis. Which I believe can be harder than the rest of the book simply because there is hardly a reference for it. You need to go back to structural analysis text book and CERM structural analysis section. I have read that the Six Minute Solutions is considerably harder, for the most part, than problems in the exam. Andy from http://structuralengineerhq.com/ recommends doing this book twice to fully be prepared for the PE exam. Here is a good article from him, http://engineeringcareercoach.com/2014/07/22/pe-exam-prep-guide-can-pass-pe-exam-without-study-everything/ , I am actually putting together a cheat sheet based on the NCEES practice exam and the Six Minute Solutions. My biggest struggle in the past has been finding the information I need.

skc005 · Mar 7, 2017

Hemi79 said:
I am not aware there is a breadth portion for the "Six Minute Solutions for Civil PE Exam: Structural Depth Problems" Sixth Edition. I have finished this book recently and going to begin again for a second time starting on the weekend, but as far as I'm concerned it only has depth problems. For Breadth I studied EET/Dr. Toms and the companion for CERM. The first 20 problems in "Six Minute.... " book are analysis. Which I believe can be harder than the rest of the book simply because there is hardly a reference for it. You need to go back to structural analysis text book and CERM structural analysis section. I have read that the Six Minute Solutions is considerably harder, for the most part, than problems in the exam. Andy from http://structuralengineerhq.com/ recommends doing this book twice to fully be prepared for the PE exam. Here is a good article from him, http://engineeringcareercoach.com/2014/07/22/pe-exam-prep-guide-can-pass-pe-exam-without-study-everything/ , I am actually putting together a cheat sheet based on the NCEES practice exam and the Six Minute Solutions. My biggest struggle in the past has been finding the information I need.

Hmmm, I'm working through the 5th edition of the Six Minute Solutions book so perhaps that's why there's a discrepancy. This edition has 20 questions under what they call a "breadth" section, but quite a few of them refer you to a specific code, which I thought wouldn't be in the breadth. Any how, yeah I've heard that these questions are considerably harder and aren't indicative of the actual exam questions, but I agree that these questions are better for preparing you for the content of the exam rather than replicating an exam style question. They should really drop the "six minute" part from the title.