I don't know about the 5th, but I took the test (Bridges PM) last fall with a borrowed 6th edition code. I went through all of the change logs from the 7th edition and applicable interims and marked up the 6th edition to match (had digital access to a 7th).
The percentage of changes that would have affected any plausible test question was minimal. Especially if you're taking Buildings for the afternoon, I'd be happy going in with a 5th or 6th edition as long as you had the following pages/updates from the 7th:
[ul]
[li]Phi factors for each material[/li]
[li]Load combinations and Load Factors[/li]
[li]Approximate Live Load Distribution Factors[/li]
[li]Deck equivalent strip widths[/li]
[li]Some prestressed concrete design info[/li]
[li]Maybe some of the seismic design procedure?[/li]
[/ul]
(Sorry, I don't have access to that 6th edition any more, so I can't check which sections actually had material changes. If you decide to replicate my effort, my advice would be to stick to chapters 3-6 rather than updating each and every change like I did.)
The NCEES practice exam questions and solutions are borrowed from old exams (or have a striking resemblance), so they may not be a good indicator of the current code version.
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The name is a long story -- just call me Lo.
