PE Exam Preparation
PE Exam Preparation
(OP)
There seems to be a great deal of PE Exam preparation material avaialble now days. ASCE, PPI, Kaplan, NCEES, and others all publish exam preparation material. Some of it is very expensive, i.e. the ASCE CD-ROM materials.
From any of the recent PE exam takers in the forum, where there any specific review materials that you felt were particularily helpful for the exam? Kaplan seems to put together a fairly comprehensive package at a good price, but would anyone reccomend using the Kaplan materials?
How much time would some of the recent test-takers reccomend putting into study prior to taking the PE examination?
Thanks for your input!
From any of the recent PE exam takers in the forum, where there any specific review materials that you felt were particularily helpful for the exam? Kaplan seems to put together a fairly comprehensive package at a good price, but would anyone reccomend using the Kaplan materials?
How much time would some of the recent test-takers reccomend putting into study prior to taking the PE examination?
Thanks for your input!





RE: PE Exam Preparation
Here is the search form from the library in my area. It has the Lindeburg PE exam book listed and it is available for free rental:
http://swa
You can also buy and sell used books on bookfinder.com if you want to go that route.
RE: PE Exam Preparation
www.abebooks.com is a good source for used books also.
Every person is in their own situation with respect to preparing for this test, but I tend to discourage people from buying a "study package"
I would recommend the Lindeburg Engineering Reference Manual for the discipline you're considering taking, the "Six Minute Solutions" for the discipline you're interested in taking, the NCEES practice exam book, that was plenty for me. Lindeburg also has a book of practice problems but you might be able to get that from the library if you think it'll help.
RE: PE Exam Preparation
The NCEES practice problems books are typical of the test format and good for reference as well.
Study time is a personal issue and depends on what you do at work and how wide a range of stuff you work on. I work in a small office and see a wide range of design work.
I spent very little time, compared to others I spoke to, working problems before the exam. Mostly I tabbed my referneces and prepared some notes. All in all maybe 25 hours. I had quite a bit of stuff just from day to day work.
Select your depth module and prepare for that module.
RE: PE Exam Preparation
Never, but never question engineer's judgement
RE: PE Exam Preparation
I've heard the structural afternoon test is pretty intense, so I guess I'm a little intimidated by that.
RE: PE Exam Preparation
RE: PE Exam Preparation
I purchased the "six minute solutions" and didn't use that at all.
RE: PE Exam Preparation
Part of what freaked me out about the NCEES practice test, at least the edition I had, was that later questions relied on earlier answer. I was terrified that it would be like that on the real test, and that getting one answer wrong would take down three others.
If you're not doing structural in the PM, I still recommend the ppi2pass CD-ROMs, though they're pricey--and even if you are doing structural in the PM, they're great review for the morning section. (Fortunately for me, my employer bought mine for me.)
Hg
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RE: PE Exam Preparation
RE: PE Exam Preparation
RE: PE Exam Preparation
Hg
Eng-Tips policies: FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies
RE: PE Exam Preparation
As the other people said, the CERM is worth its weight in gold, but only for the morning session. The morning questions are easy. The CERM has a great index, and briefly covers almost everything, so you can look up many answers especially in areas you know very little about. I used my text books from college to do the afternoon part. The go much more in depth and are written by experts in one specific area. The afternoon Q's are much harder, so Lindberg wasn't as helpful during the test.
I would highly recommend the for the test CERM, and one or two practice problem books. I used the ones from ppi, one was "practice problems" and the other was "practice exam". I only worked the ones from my area of expertise, geotech. As I worked the problems, I marked where I found the answers in my two fav. geotech text books. After I worked all the problems in my area I stopped studying. I didn't bother studying for more than a couple hours the other areas. During the test the CERM got me 6 or 7 correct in the "other" areas.
RE: PE Exam Preparation
http://ppi2pass.com/ppi/PPIShop_ct_CIVIL&idx=7
good luck!