Which PM exam to take

[Popeye]

I am torn between taking the general other PM exam and the Civil. I have been out of school a while. I do not work in the engineering field, but am trying to find employment at a Civil firm. I am hoping by having the FE i will look more desirable

I plan on taking a refresher course, but I wanted to see if anyone had any thoughts or experience they would like to share.

Thank you in advance!

 

[Popeye]

anyone have an opinion?

 

[John QPE]

How familiar are you with the topics?

I have 10+ years experience in civil (site design), but found the afternoon challenging (31/60), as it covers more than what I do at work.

I'm sticking with civil this time around, but toyed around with taking the general. Ultimately, it came down to wanting to work an easier civil problem, than a more difficult version of the AM test.

 

[Popeye]

Thanks for replying! I don't feel comfortable either way! I was hoping someone would reply with something compelling, that would push me one way or the other.

For some reason my wife is pushing General PM.

 

[hjg7715]

This is one of the most frequent asked questions and there is no RIGHT answer. It really just depends on your comprehension or familiarity of the the exam topics. Going into the exam, I was encouraged to take civil, general, and environmental by 4-5 different people all with civil background and who all passed the exam but I stuck with my gut and chose civil. I chose civil primarily because I had a good educational foundation in hydrology/hydraulics and soils; in addition, I had several years of professional experience in both these areas and some experience in transportation prior to taking the test. So it made more sense for me to go with the Civil Afternoon exam. However, I've heard compiling arguments for each.

If you don't have an affinity towards any of the exam topics or you don't consider any of the topics covered in the Civil Afternoon exam to be your strong suit, then I would probably recommend that you take the General Afternoon because it is basically an extension of the morning exam with more involved problems. By going with the General Afternoon, it's 2-3 less topics (water resources, soils, & transportation) that you have to refresh yourself with if it's been several years since you were last in school. However, if you're like me there were some topics covered in the morning exam (i.e. Electricity/Magnetism, Chemistry) that I hadn't seen in 5-10 years and had NO exposure to since taking the courses so I was trying to avoid additional problems in these topics like the plague.

Best advice is to first determine or evaluate what exam topics you feel most comfortable with or have the best understanding of and make a determination based on that. If you have a good comprehension and knowledge with at least 2 out of 3 of the topics Hydrology/Hydraulics, Soil Mechanics, or Transportation, then I would probably go with the Civil Afternoon exam.

 

[wvgirl14]

Hig7715 is right there is no right answer. Personally I was advised to take General and after 3 times of failing I went to Civil and passed. I just could not get over the Thermodynamics, Electrical, Chemistry hump in the afternoon. My degree is a BSET in architectural and I only lack 4 classes to having a BSET in civil. I was also out of school 7 years. If you go with civil TAMU has some free videos that can help you with the topics in the afternoon. Good Luck!

 

[ikesdsu]

I agree with the general concensus here. I would think you should probably go some section of Civil. Even though you haven't done any engineering since graduation, there is a better chance you will remember Civil topics instead of topics like thermo, electrical, chem.

 

[Popeye]

Thank you for your responses, I appreciate it!

 

[GA PE]

I am not civil, but I would recommend a specialty topic based upon what I have discussed with my Civil PE friends (construction is what they typically suggest). I suggest preparation by using a review course such as James Kamm, School of PE, etc.

 

[bristol]

I'm taking General Afternoon, I finished school more than ten years ago (Civil). All my experience is on water resources and data analysis.

I could pick Civil Afternoon if the NCEES people provided clear cut divisions between the morning and afternoon coverage and intensity of the subjects. For example, both sessions cover Electricty with pretty much the same topics (e.g. circuits), so there is no way to tell "oh, this is an advanced topic that will be asked only in the General Afternoon session, since I'm taking Civil in the afternnon I can safely skip it". Same with Thermo, Eng Economic, Statistics, etc.

Therefore, and since I have to study anyway Electricity and Thermo, I'm taking the General Afternoon. That way I don't have overload my study schedule with Civil specific subjects.

Just my two cents