SE Review Class by..... Kaplan?

[mpuchtel]

Hello All,

I'm preparing to take the SE exam in April 2013, and I'm trying to decide on a review course to take. I live in IL, and most people I know take the SEAOI course so I'm getting their reviews. However, there seems to be a new option by Kaplan which I'm trying to investigate. In fact, I'm actually intruiged by a course that is taught by a for-profit company with a financial incentive for me to pass, rather than a course taught by a trade organization, which I've heard can be more academic and theoretical than desired.

So my question is, does anyone know anything about this Kaplan course? How long has it been around? What are the pass rates of its students? Any direct feedback from people who have taken it?

Thanks, Max

 

[MJB315]

Hey Max,

I'm not familiar with either option for the SE (I just recently took and passed the SE exam), but I'm not sure if I share your sentiment. Kaplan may have financial incentive for you to sign up, but do you get refunded if you don't pass? Again, I haven't taken the course- but I wouldn't assume that "for-profit" equates to a better experience.

The SE exam is tedious (they may be very detailed orientated in one section, and then allow a generalizations elsewhere), so a detailed review is what you should be looking for. I would think SEAOI would put together a quality program, and I'd suggest looking into that one first.

But at the end, there's no real secret to the SE. Just: (1) Read the codes, line for line, and know them well; and (2) Practice those problems, review, and repeat.



"We shape our buildings, thereafter they shape us." -WSC

 

[JedClampett]

I'm from Illinois, a long time ago, and it seems that the people who did the best on the test were the ones who did designs every day. While that might seem obvious, at the time, we had a lot of people who were had been pushed into management roles who were "encouraged" to take the test. They were out of the day to day grind of looking at a problem, deciding what was important and using the analytical tools to come to an answer. I'm not sure any review course is going to teach this. It might help you with codes you're not familiar with or supply sample problems to do.
I'd agree with MJB315. Do a lot of problems. Don't overthink. You can get buried really quickly if you overanalyze during the test.

 

[structuralsteelhead]

Max,....I have to agree with MJB, with regards to preparation. I haven't sat for the SE in over two years,....sitting twice for it before without proper prepartation, thinking merely being in the structural design field for almost twenty years would get me through - close, but no cigar. The breadth of the exam is just too great not to put in many hours of self study and review. Working on average 55-60 hours a week, helping manage a company, and helping run a family of five left little, frankly no time for study. So, the second time I took the exam, I thought I'd take a review course not to be mentioned here in CA and at least spent those hours reveiwing, but again with only an additional few outside of that preparing on my own. Both times I came close enough to appeal the exam, coming in exactly one point below passing after sitting for the second appeal. Heartbreaking, but a learning experience. What was learned,....1) Put in long, independent study hours without exception working as many problems as you can,...make a binder of neatly worked problems you have completed on your own to reference first during the exam.

You have to make a pact with yourself, family and employer to put in the time. 2)If your current employ specializes in one type of engineering, any review course could not hurt and at least get you to look at some problems before the exam. You'll have updated reference problems to work, potentially highlighted changes in code that may be targeted in the exam, and a current pool of contacts who are also sitting for the exam who may provide some additional support. But taking a review course will not replace many, many independet study hours. You'll need to be selfish with your time, including time with friends, family, and beware group study if it does not benefit 'your' productivity and enlightenment.

I looked into the Kaplan Course myself just last week thinking I may take a review course again due to the test format change, and the fact that lately, I've being doing more management than engineering. Their Feb/Mar online course will allow you ask questions during the lectures, as opposed to buying the current Jul/Aug program that just ended, upon which you will only be privy to questions/answers already asked/received by others. It looks like a pretty good to me,...and you'll save on gas, and time. Hopefully they'll get right into problem solving due to the short nature/time line on the course. You'll get review manuals which are very helpful, although in my experience, most review manuals are littered with mistakes and erratas can be lengthy which can be frustrating to say the least. You'd have to do your own research on former Kaplan review manuals with respect to puplished errata.

Per MJB, read the codes, and there are plenty to read, building and material, changing every few years,....gotta love our craft. If you don't understand any section,...you can ask your co-workers/colleagues, online study buddies (potentially me being one of them). So, I too hope the Kaplan course doesn't spend too much/any time on theory, getting right to the problems that use the perscriptive language of the code. I've sent an email to a manager for Kaplan with some additional question that I have about the course, one specific to erratas/printings. I want to know whether or not it would benefit purchasing the program early to receive the review manuals prior to the course. I would plan on spending many hours studying before the review course, so you know your weak areas and can have many questions ready to go,...make the instructors earn their keep!

To wrap up, Max,.... I can only imagine your SEA's course would be a great resource as well, publishing reivew manuals, offering practice problems, and providing a pool of students with whom to collaborate. I would contact both organizations, ask a lot of questions, and pick the program most suited to compliment your test preparation methods. I think I'll follow my own advice this time around as well. I will keep you posted if I hear more regarding the Kaplan course. Apologies for the long winded post. Bill

 

[mpuchtel]

Thanks for the input, everyone. I agree with all the advice, although perhaps it wasn't clear in my original post that I'm looking to compliment my independent study with a review course - that is obvious. What I'm interested in here in this forum is how to choose between the review course options.

I've left two voicemails for the guy at Kaplan. If/when he gets back to me I'll post the info here.

 

[Archie264]

I'm going through this process as well and have been going through the "Structural Engineering Sample Questions & Solutions" as published by NCEEES. Can anyone recommend another similar resource for more practice problems & solutions?

 

[kylesito]

I have actually taken the Kaplan course you are talking about. I took it with a group of folks together last summer in preparation for the Fall SE exam. I passed the vertical in the fall and passed the lateral this past spring. I can honestly say that both were a direct result of 1) taking this course, 2) studying the Structural book package they give you when taking this course (or at least used to).

I highly recommend the course not only for its content but for the quality of its instructors as well. If Tim Mays is still teaching some of the modules, then they could charge anything they wanted to and it would still be worth it. There were others in there too that were awesome but Tim did the marjority of the general sections which I felt was a great strategy to getting everyone on the same page with the basics before launching into more of the material specific modules. I have read some reviews criticizing some of the professors and I would agree there were 1-2 sessions I should have probably gone and got a cup of coffee during but by-in-large, it was a great use of 28 hours of my studying time and resulted DIRECTLY in my ability to pass the exam. Also, having the ability to go back and watch the modules again, really helped when I was re-studying for the lateral part this past spring.

I think what made it really beneficial to me personally was my background coming into the test. I am relatively young and have only been doing structural design for 4-5 years. Beyond that I was involved in construction and even did some land development for a while. But even when I got into structural design, I wasn't doing anything really big. Most of my projects were what I would call 'light structural' for industrial/military clients whose philosophy was usually "make it big and then make it bigger". Not great experience to have for an exam like this. So I really was not an expert in digging into codes or material standards. That was what was really great for me. It gave me a great starting point to understand the topics. It did not give me everything I needed to know and I still had to put a huge amount of time into studying on my own. But I really benefited from having some of the things explained out to me....I never could have self-taught myself something like lateral force resisting systems on my own just reading from a book!

If nothing else speaks to the validity of the course, when I sat for both exams, I ended up using the notes, handouts, and refernce books I got with this course as my main go-to references. Again, I had to go back after the course and add a few notes of my own clarifying certain things and really had to spend a lot of time with their reference book and material codes but the foundation (no pun inteded) it gave me was outstanding!

If you can't tell, for me, it was a critical part of my studying and preparing for the course. I found the company to be great to deal with, there references and notes to be very helpful, and their instructors to be knowledgable about the topics and about the test itself (I swear, a couple of them knew what was on the test because the examples they gave were spot on!)

It's a tough exam. No doubt about it. But having gotten through it, I realize I am a better engineer now because of challenging myself to do it and it was well worth it. I commend you for doing the same. It's all about putting the right amount of time into preparing for it and don't be discouraged if you have to take it again! Good luck!



PE, SE
Eastern United States

"If a builder builds a house for someone, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built falls in and kills its owner, then that builder shall be put to death!"
~Code of Hammurabi

 

[kylesito]

Archie...part of the Kaplan books I referred to in my novel-post above was a question and answer book done by Kaplan. It encompasses questions directly from past PE Exams.

I found them to be very difficult and I am glad I did not take the PE under the old system after looking at them! However, after spending enough time with them, I really found them to be good practice and ended up book marking quite a few for examples to follow during the test.

I would suggest getting this book and using it as a guide over the NCEES practice exam. Someone told me once that the NCEES questions are either ones everyone got right, or had multiple approaches to the right answer....meaning they were all too easy for the test. They are a good basis for how questions get asked on the test and a worthy part of studying but I found them to be much easier than the actual exam.





PE, SE
Eastern United States

"If a builder builds a house for someone, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built falls in and kills its owner, then that builder shall be put to death!"
~Code of Hammurabi