where to start

[ketanco]

Hello,

I applied for CIvil PE Exam and now starting to study. Where do I start?

I will take the construction portion.

1-When do I select construction? During exam?

2-What is the difference of civil and construction emphasis as far as the ability to stamp drawings? Design drawings?

3-Which study and test materials do you suggest?

4-Is there anything state specific that I need to do? I will enter in CT in October.

5-What else do you suggest?

 

[desantmf]

ketanco,

Awesome questions, and I am glad you asked. I am sure other people have the same ones. A lot of people on here now are getting ready to take the PE Civil Exam next weekend. So they will know all the current details about applying, getting accepted, registering for the test etc.

Let me try to answer and if I get anything wrong hopefully the other people can correct me.

Q1-When do I select construction? During exam? A1 - You select construction after you get approved by your state board to take the exam. They will give you an authorization code to register for the exam on the NCEES website (NCEES administers the PE Exam). When you are registering with NCEES that is when you select Construction.

Q2 – What is the difference of civil and construction emphasis as far as the ability to stamp drawings? Design drawings? A2- In General there is no difference however; each state has their own rules. So, I would do a quick check with them. This is a big part of being a Professional Engineer though. You can only design and stamp drawing which in you know you have the experience and are professionally capable of doing so. Meaning no matter what discipline you take the PE in, if you never designed it before or you don’t know the subject you shouldn’t be stamping off on it. But that also goes the other way too, no matter what you took your PE for; if you know what you are doing you could stamp off on it (you are held professionally liable though).

Q3. Which study and test material do you suggest? A3 - This information is all over the place. I have a website specific to the Construction Engineering Exam. Where I give you a list of all the design standards, reference books, practice problems, example practice exams, and even what supplies you need (binders, tabs, etc).

Q4-Is there anything state specific that I need to do? I will enter in CT in October. A4 - You should check your states website; they may have minor specific rules, like when you have to fill out an ethics portion, etc. The biggest thing is making sure you have your application correctly submitted. Keep following up with them to make sure that is all correct, so you can get accepted. The rest is very clearly explained on the NCEES website.

Q5- What else do you suggest? A5– There is a lot of stuff to think about. Check out my website and review the 10 Key to Passing the PE Exam. I think it will help.

Well I hope that helps...As you study- stay on this board and ask all your questions when they come up.

Mark

www.learncivilengineering.com

 

[ketanco]

Hi Mark, thank you so much for your answers. They sure help me.

For Q3:

I checked your website here:

http://www.learncivilengineering.com/exam-material/

-As far as design standards, you are showing 9 standards as must have,

-As far as Reference Materials, you list 5 of them.

So correct me if I am wrong, but no matter what I buy 14 books at an absolute minimum, + Practice problem books + sample exams. Am I right?

 

[desantmf]

Yes, The 9 design standards + the CERM are the must haves, the other material are highly recommended.

Mark

 

[ketanco]

Also, are we able to, or should we bring all of these books with us to the exam room (probably with a wheelbarrow)? or they provide formulas so we dont need to bring design standards? what should we take with us?

 

[bradlelf]

You bring your own books and reference materials. Make sure that you comply with your states and NCEES rules regarding the reference materials and calculators.

I have seen people bring in dolly's of books, tubs full of reference texts and then you have people like me who brought in 5 books & passed.

It is completely up to you the amount of text you bring; however remember you only have 6+/- minutes per problem so the likelihood of you being able to go through a large volume of books is very low.

Learn CERM and a few other books in and out. Tab sections for easy reference.

 

[desantmf]

I agree that you will need only a few(7-9) key books which you will use for the majority of the problems(CERM, and design standards). There is no doubt you can't scan through every book for every problem, there is just not enough time for that. With that said, I am still a believer in bringing in everything, even practice problems(if your state allows, most do). You use the extra book at the end of the test, to help with those last few hard ones or the double check problems that you weren't sure on. So how much you use your "extra books" really depends on how much time you have at the end to solve those problems. I had about an hour to do about five hard problems and then double check my work(both morning/afternoon). So I found it very useful to have extra books when looking to solve those last few.

 

[Jayman_PE]

I brought in two tubs of books on dolly. In total I would say I brought approximately 40 books and used 90% of them on the Spring 2012 Civil Construction exam. I also used all of them to study with so I knew where to find information at the drop of a hat.

 

[solomonb]

The secret here is not the number of books, but knowing what is in the books that you are carting in. If you take 40 books in and don't know where the specific information is that you need, then you have wasted both time and money. It is better to take 8 books and know them insides and out and know, through tabbing where everything is. If 3 books have basically the same material, I would take only 1 which is the most comprehensive and complete. If you really need to take 2, then do so, but you should identify the 8 books that really have all of the data/information that you need and take those.

The more books you take, the greater probability of failing, because you are screwing around searching in different books for a particular question or answer or concept. It is better to really KNOW the insides of XX books (I used 8 as my example, however, there is no magic number to 8) the Nen take a whole boat load of books. Besides, this drill is stressful enough without having to manage and worry about taking 2/3 of your library with you.

Research, on the NCEES web site the test specification and what is being covered on your test. Take those books that address those subjects-- there is no reason to take a whole library-- just know well what you take.