Civil P.E. First Time - Help Needed

Hello All,

I am taking the exam for the first time in April 2020. I have a lot of experience, primary in construction. I have two degrees: B.S. in Civil and Masters in Petroleum. 

I am curious as to everyone's study schedule. How far out in advance did you start? What structure did you use? How much time on General for Breadth sections?

I am also curious as to which breath to take: Construction or Environmental? My experience is in construction but I heard it is pretty difficult and due to the number of people that take this discipline the pass rates are lower. 

Does anyone have an opinion on a review class such as PPI2Pass, TestMasters, Excel, School of PE, etc. 

Your help is greatly appreciated. 

Greg Witte

Welcome @witte!  I took the Environmental PE (so no breadth section), so I can't speak to all your questions. But with my successful attempt, I started ~6 months prior to the exam and logged how much time I studied each night.  By the time I took the exam, I'd logged 200 hours of study. This number differs for everyone, and there's no *set* number of hours needed to pass the exam. I'd say give yourself ample time to study, especially with a full-time job, and find a goal that you will feel comfortable walking into the exam with.  

I can't speak for the construction exam, but I'd say it's much better to study for an exam that you have a lot of experience in.  Do you have any experience in environmental?  If you don't have experience in environmental, then I don't recommend taking that depth.  IMO it's better to select a depth that you have experience with.  You will also be more engaged in studying for that exam, and will have a better chance of answering the qualitative questions correctly. 

I took EET for my passing attempt and recommend them very highly.

Best of luck!

I took the Civil: Geotechnical in October, so you might need to take my advice with a grain of salt. I'd do two things, before you decide definitively:

1. Look at the exam specifications on the NCEES website. Particularly for the construction depth, look at the list of codes (there are several of them). If you're familiar with them, or feel like you could get familiar with them, I'd say that'd be the way to go. Otherwise, you may want to consider other options.
   
2. I'd probably get a copy of the NCEES Civil: Construction practice exam and see how you feel about those problems. The actual exam will probably be more challenging than the practice exam, but it gives you a good feel for the types of questions that will be asked.
   

The construction depth is tricky to gauge, because there are a ton of different elements of construction, and they can, obviously, only cover a fraction of them in the exam. However, if you're familiar with the types of questions and the codes they pull from, I've heard it's manageable.

PS - Geotechnical is light on codes, but if you take an exam that's heavier on codes, I've heard that you shouldn't cheap out: having all the applicable codes can make the difference between passing and failing.

@Will.I.Am@txjennah PE

Thanks for your help. I am concerned that, even though I have a lot of experience in Construction I am not sure how "practical" it will be. I saw a lot of people talking about spending a lot of time looking up codes. It also covers the logic behind scheduling which is difficult. I can schedule construction projects but cannot work through logical sequences. 

I have done a small amount of environmental work. Do you think I could learn the depth section enough to pass? 

My specialization is Geotechnical within Civil Engineering. Any idea how difficult that is respectively?

What books do you recommend? I would think this forum would have a section for people reselling their material?

Did either of you take a class (online or in person)

Thanks for your help.

@witte, one important thing to know is that, as of 2008, there is no longer a Civil: Environmental exam. The construction depth replaced the environmental depth and the environmental exam is separate from the civil exam. 

https://ncees.org/engineering/pe/civil/

https://ncees.org/engineering/pe/environmental/

The yard sale forum is the place to be to get used materials:

http://engineerboards.com/forum/11-yard-sale/

I, personally, did not take a prep course, but there's a lot of information available on these boards. From what I've gathered, School of PE is pretty much unmatched for the civil breadth, and EET is solid for the depth sections, but someone who actually took a course could offer more commentary.

The Civil: Geotechnical exam isn't terrible. There is a strong focus on theory and how the theory is put into practice. In the last few administrations, there has been 50% or more conceptual questions on the depth section, which are difficult if you don't have a strong background in geotechnical theory.

If you'd like to know more about the geotech exam, let me know. I'll probably know if I passed within the next couple weeks, then I can actually offer PE prep advice.

witte said:

@Will.I.Am@txjennah PE

Thanks for your help. I am concerned that, even though I have a lot of experience in Construction I am not sure how "practical" it will be. I saw a lot of people talking about spending a lot of time looking up codes. It also covers the logic behind scheduling which is difficult. I can schedule construction projects but cannot work through logical sequences. 

I have done a small amount of environmental work. Do you think I could learn the depth section enough to pass? 

My specialization is Geotechnical within Civil Engineering. Any idea how difficult that is respectively?

What books do you recommend? I would think this forum would have a section for people reselling their material?

Did either of you take a class (online or in person)

Thanks for your help.

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There’s a water resources/ environmental depth you can take. EET has a great review; though I took the pure Env exam, I used their depth class to prep. 

You say your specialization is geotechnical - was this in college, or do you work within this field now?

Here’s my 2 cents, hopefully it is helpful 

I took the exam (Construction) for the first time in October and passed. I would very much recommend choosing that depth, especially if that’s your background. The test is very manageable and passable.  I’m not quite sure what to make of the lower pass rates, but I didn’t find it overly difficult. 

I did take a prep course, EET, and would absolutely recommend them.  Frankly, I think anyone planning to take the Construction portion should 100% go with EET and this is why:

I graduated and passed the EIT/FE in 1999.  For the past 20yrs I’ve worked in construction but primarily in administration with very little technical work.  However, in the past couple years, I’ve started to get more involved technically and decided it was time to finally get my P.E.  Once I decided to start the process, the next decision was deciding on the best prep method. Self-study or a course.  

Considering I hadn’t cracked a text book in 20 yrs, hadn’t thought about Open Channel Flow, Free Body Diagrams or Effective Stress in an eternity and work 50-60 hrs/week with two young children. I needed to be efficient and re-learn most of my engineering education in a very short time period.   So, I decided on a course and I decided on EET.  I had a co-worker that used them and recommended them, so I signed up for their Breadth recordings and live Depth course.  

Their course started July 20 and their final practice exam was a week or so before the test.  I did not follow their course to a tee. I didn’t start studying in earnest until August and lost most of September to life.  However, I did use their webinar recordings and caught a live teaching whenever I could.  

EET’s material consists of two 3”, 3-ring binders.  One for the Breadth and one for the Depth. Those two binders were the only materials I took into the exam.  I planned on taking the SP(4) Formwork book but forgot it.  As an aside,  there were 3 formwork questions that required the use of that book (F&%k!!!).  

Anyway, their course and their materials got me up to speed quickly and thru the exam.  Their materials were accurate and reflective of what I saw on the exam.  I can’t say enough about their program and definitively recommend them.  

In my experience and opinion, EET is all you need to pass the Construction portion.

I passed PE exam (Water Resources and Environmental) with first try. My background is more environmental-related. I did took some structural courses when I did my Bachelors but I have zero background in Geotechnical, site development and construction. I had to take a breadth course to make sure I could survive in morning session.

I took EET depth and ASCE review courses. Although the ASCE courses included both morning session and afternoon session, I only studied the breadth provided by ASCE and relied on EET for the depth. 

To be honest, I was quite disappointed at ASCE courses. I don't think it worth the money overall. The essential courses (breadth) were provided as 12 sessions which were offered by various instructors. Mohsen was very good and logical on his parts, except him the rest was such a pain, especially the Geo part. The instructor went over materials very fast and did not explain things well (in my opinion). It could be due to my lack of knowledge in this area though. The exercise problems were 50% similar to the real exam in my perspective. In short, I would not recommend ASCE review course unless you learned all the related courses at school and you only want to have someone help you refresh the concepts.

I had heard from many people about how good the EET course was for PE exam preparation, so I took depth course review at EET. EET indicated their course covered 80% of the exam. Based on my experience, I think it covered 70% at most. However, I still highly recommend EET depth (Water resources and Environmental) because the instructor, Nazrul, is one of the best instructors I've ever had. It's easy to feel panic, anxious, even a bit lonely while studying for PE, at least for me it's true. Taking the EET course helped me stay calm, make progress weekly, and even make some friends eventually. It feels much better when knowing someones are fighting alongside with you. Besides, even though I have passed the exam, I still use EET material as reference when I start working on some new projects (I just graduated recently).

As for Civil Water Resources and Environmental PE exam, I recommend taking at least these materials with you on the exam date:

CERM (it's more helpful than I thought)

Wastewater Engineering: Treatment and Resource Recovery (very helpful for the depth session)

NCEES practice exam

EET depth review binder (or your notes for depth review)

The construction exam is as brutal as they say it is.  Trust me, I took it 4 times before finally passing.  The thing is, if construction is what you know best then you're probably best sticking with that when choosing the exam you'll take.  

As far as courses go, I was not a huge fan of PPI2Pass.  I took it on my 2nd attempt and I felt that it did nothing for me other than refresh my memory a little.  I did the "free retake" course on my 3rd attempt and it was worthless (honest opinion).  On my 4th attempt I took the Ultimate Civil PE Review Course by Civil Engineering Academy and I give this course an A+++++.  I think a lot of my success on the 4th attempt can be credited to this course.  The course isn't bogged down with just watching slideshows and taking notes.  Isaac hits the notes from a high level and then dives right into working problems.  This course includes 2 breadth practice exams, 1 depth practice exam for every depth option, and tons of practice problems.

As far as studying goes, for this 4th attempt I found that the best study routine for me was to go out on the front porch at 8pm every night, leaving the cell phone in the house, and go through the course or work practice problems for at least 2 straight hours.  No distractions, just the sounds of crickets and occasional rain.  Obviously you don't have to go to your front porch, but just the general idea of shutting yourself away from everything for a couple hours to knock out some studying every night is what I thought worked best.

PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.  I worked 500+ practice problems.  This ensures that you've seen just about every type of problem they could possibly put on the exam.  Don't get bogged down with reading the CERM or making note sheets.  Just crank out problems.  Buy as many practice exams and practice problem books as you can find too.  It's expensive, but well worth it.  Mo money, mo problems.

Good luck!

Michael Scott said:

The construction exam is as brutal as they say it is.  Trust me, I took it 4 times before finally passing.  The thing is, if construction is what you know best then you're probably best sticking with that when choosing the exam you'll take.  

As far as courses go, I was not a huge fan of PPI2Pass.  I took it on my 2nd attempt and I felt that it did nothing for me other than refresh my memory a little.  I did the "free retake" course on my 3rd attempt and it was worthless (honest opinion).  On my 4th attempt I took the Ultimate Civil PE Review Course by Civil Engineering Academy and I give this course an A+++++.  I think a lot of my success on the 4th attempt can be credited to this course.  The course isn't bogged down with just watching slideshows and taking notes.  Isaac hits the notes from a high level and then dives right into working problems.  This course includes 2 breadth practice exams, 1 depth practice exam for every depth option, and tons of practice problems.

As far as studying goes, for this 4th attempt I found that the best study routine for me was to go out on the front porch at 8pm every night, leaving the cell phone in the house, and go through the course or work practice problems for at least 2 straight hours.  No distractions, just the sounds of crickets and occasional rain.  Obviously you don't have to go to your front porch, but just the general idea of shutting yourself away from everything for a couple hours to knock out some studying every night is what I thought worked best.

PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.  I worked 500+ practice problems.  This ensures that you've seen just about every type of problem they could possibly put on the exam.  Don't get bogged down with reading the CERM or making note sheets.  Just crank out problems.  Buy as many practice exams and practice problem books as you can find too.  It's expensive, but well worth it.  Mo money, mo problems.

Good luck!

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I have nothing constructive to add, other than I love your username/profile pic, hahahaha.