Six-Week NCEES PE Exam Study Guide

You Need a Plan
Six weeks until the PE exam. Have you organized your study plan? If not, here is one I put together for future examinees, already registered, six weeks out from their PE date (next exam date: April 17, 2015).

Note: NCEES changed the reference books for the 2015 exams. The correct books are listed on the bottom of the page on this article for Structural Engineering Exam Practice Problems. 

The first thing you want to do is take a full PE practice exam. You need to know where you stand. Even if you have not yet prepared a detailed plan of study, you have most likely been studying various topics and double checking your reference books.

Whatever you have done up to now, from nothing to a military-style study campaign, you need to assess your strengths and weaknesses. First, let's be sure you know which topics are covered on the PE exam.

PE exam morning session topics: 

Each of five topics receives equal emphasis:

Geotechnical
Construction
Transportation
Structural
Water Resources and Environmental

Afternoon Session Modules:

40 Questions in 4 hours. You will choose one module for the afternoon session. The module options match the morning session topics: Geotechnical, PE Civil Construction, Transportation, Structural, and Water Resources and Environmental.

Most important study topic: The module you select will become 60% of your exam. The afternoon section is 50% (obviously) and the morning portion of this topic accounts for another 10% (.20 x .50 = .10). Your study schedule and PE practice exams will need to emphasis the topic of your afternoon exam.

Resource:

Best sample PE exam books

Week 1
Study 6 days and take 1 day off. If you don't schedule relaxation, you will steal it wherever you can. Trust me, when you know you have down time later, it is easier to focus during scheduled study sessions.
This first week, take a full 8-hour practice exam.

If you start on a Saturday or Sunday, take the full 8 hour exam in 9 hours. Start at 8 a.m., take a 1-hour lunch from noon to 1, and work the 4 hour afternoon Depth Exam from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Analyze Results of Your PE Practice Exam:
Tabulate your results topically. Generate a score for each of the 5 topics. Rank them 1 to 5, with #1 being your strongest subject and #5 being your weakest topic.

For the first week of study, emphasize #1 and #5. Forget the other topics for now.

Here is why: First, your brain needs to get back up to pace in intensity. Your brain actually requires increased blood flow to operate at increased levels. The PE exam tempo requires an increased level. You must slowly work your brain back up to the high performance levels required in college. Second, these two subjects have the greatest potential to produce a strong score on exam day.

Your strongest subject area score on the first practice exam may not remain strongest on future practice tests and self-quizzes. The reason is that each subject has a wide variety of subtopics. I took 6 full practice exams, at 2-week intervals, with moderate study in between. My score on each topic varied up and down test to test (but trended upward overall). The subtopics randomly presented in each PE practice exam will vary. And, your resultant score will also vary. This variance should be greater in subjects with the greatest number of subtopics- Structural has the most material (subtopics) and self-tests will produce results similar to statistical sampling. Variation of results will diminish as you progress along your study schedule.

However, if you score high in Environmental and low in Structural (common), it is because your mind likes the topic of environmental, or you work in environmental. For some reason, you and environmental just get along. Build your strength in this topic to ensure you continue to produce strong results in all practice exams- and on the day of your PE exam.

In your weakest area, there is the greatest room for improvement. You will rapidly improve in this subject. It is likely your low score is due to two factors, both easily corrected with a little time:

1. You need to become familiar with variables.
2. You need to become familiar with the reference materials (to find the necessary equations).

Study 4 hours each day, in the following format: 

Study the topics of the day for one hour. Next, take a 66-minute (maximum) self quiz. This is 7 problems. Take 4 questions from your strong area (#1), and 3 from your weak area (#5).

For the remainder of the time, review the solutions for the questions you chose. To create these practice quizzes, divide up a sample exam book. For example, using 80 morning questions:

• Quiz #1: Numbers 1, 12, 23, 34, 45, 56, and 67
• Quiz #2: Numbers 2, 13, 24, 35, 46, 57, and 68
• etc.

That will create eleven 7-question quizzes. 


How many questions for a self-quiz? 
Create quizzes using 7 questions. This way, 5 correct gives you 71.4%, which you should expect to be a passing score.

Week 2
In a 3-month duration of study, I recommend taking a practice exam every other weekend. However, with a shorter timeline, you will benefit from taking more practice exams. As you experienced during the first week's quizzes, learning is more effective under the intensity of taking a test.

So, test yourself. You will find you performed much better on this second exam. Likely this is primarily attributed to having become accustomed to intense focus from taking quizzes, and more so due to familiarization with your reference books.

Between my first practice exam (40%) and my second exam (58%), I saw my greatest improvement. I attribute this to the two reasons mentioned above.

This week, you also want to spend some time reviewing and familiarizing yourself with required reference books, and especially with the CERM.

Tab your index pages. I listed the best index tabs for this purpose at the other end of the preceding link-test. Or, you can pick some up at the local office supply. I bought some excellent tabs in Office Depot. Your local office supply should have the same. Be sure to find tabs with a clear sticky base. This way, once attached, they will not cover any text. I found several options like this, which have good widths and assorted colors, or with wider tabs. The multiple colors will help you locate your favorite sections quickly. I used a red tab to mark the structural section of the CERM, for example.

Also in Week 2, start a Quick Reference Folder. This is a binder you will create to hold all the most referenced tables, charts, and solutions you find valuable.

This week, study the #2 and #4 subjects from your Week1 practice PE exam. However, on the fourth day, study last week's topics. This forces you to recall the data, and to recall the location of formulas and tables in the reference material.

Strengthen Recall- a Key to Exam Success

No matter which exam you are taking, from grade school to college to professional life, during an exam, you must recall. Recollection is a specific ability of the mind. The more you recall something, the easier and faster it becomes. This is another reason taking practice quizzes and practice exams is a very effective study method.

Week 3

This week, take a break from the 8-hour exam. Instead of using a new exam to determine the two focus topics for this week, combine the results of the previous two tests, and make a judgment call about which topic to add to #3 from Week 1. #3 is the one topic you have not yet focused on.

Week 4

Practice test time! Hurray!

Make this week's quizzes comprehensive. By this time, you should receive a score of 70% or better. Most of these points will come in the Morning Breadth Exam. In my first practice exams, I scored double on the morning exams as I did on the afternoon portions. As I began to score higher, this ratio dropped. Don't worry where you earn the points. Just focus on the total.

In my own practice exams, I steadily improved, with less increase in later weeks. I always scored more in the morning section. I took the structural afternoon exam. I passed both NCEES exams on the first try using this system.

Week 5

Take another comprehensive exam. This may seem like a lot of practice exams. However, this is where the lion's share of your improvement will come. Psychological studies have proven that people forget lecture material like their minds are leaky buckets. But, put something on an exam, and they might remember it for years. The added stress increases recall. Effectively, testing yourself on practice exams and on quizzes is like amplifying your time investment.

Assessing the effectiveness of time invested into each topic, plan your study time accordingly. Do not stress your brain by studying more than 4 hours per day. Be sure to get to sleep on time (not later than 11 p.m.) to allow your body to refresh and restore and regenerate. People who work with their minds require more sleep than people who perform physical labor.

Force your Mind to Recall Previous Learning
Mix up your quizzes, but continue to emphasize topics each day,  no more than two per day. Review all the questions you miss on your quizzes. Because your mind was heightened when you looked at it the first time, there is a good anchor in your memory onto which you can attach the correct solution.

For questions you almost solved, or which you understand very well, but missed, write out the solution and add it to a section of your Quick Reference Folder. I solved three questions on my Structural Depth module using solutions in my quick reference binder.

Week 6

This Friday is PE exam day. The brain operates like a muscle. You have trained it up. Now, like professional athletes, you want to taper it down.

Tuesday
Take a practice exam on Tuesday. If you can't get the day off (comp time, maybe?), at least take a 4-hour morning or afternoon practice exam.

Wednesday
Study for 2 hours. Review problems from previous tests, especially the previous day's practice exam. Collect all your books into one place. Double check your exam day checklist for the PE.

Thursday
Take a 1-hour practice quiz. Review your results. Relax. Get to bed on time.

Friday
Wake feeling refreshed. Stretch out. On the drive to your exam site, drink a half cup of coffee without sugar. Find a place before your exam to exercise for 5 minutes before entering the exam room. The coffee and exercise will increase your blood circulation. These two techniques have been shown to improve test results by 5%.

Don't forget: calculator, exam documents, photo ID. 

Before you begin your exam, give thanks to God for preparing you. Ask for calm, focus, wisdom, and understanding.

Concluding Notes: 

Many suggest a minimum of 300 hours study. I believe this can be decreased using the intensity of self-administered practice exams and quizzes. If you have just six weeks to study, this is my suggestion. If you are planning when to begin, I recommend 12 weeks. The longer time frame permits the brain to develop its capacity to meet the challenge.

For more great tips like this one, I recommend Pass the PE like a Pro. It is an e-book, available for instant download from Amazon.com.







Best wishes for a successful career! Peace.

Best Book for Seismic PE Exam

If someone is going to fail a portion of the California PE Exam, the state-specific Seismic Principles exam is the second most likely to be that portion. (Slightly more people fail the California Civil Surveying exam.) The primary reason is that most engineers do not need to perform seismic force calculations. The second reason is people fail to study properly.

Most materials for the NCEES Principles and Practice exam focus on the morning and afternoon portions of the exam. All 50 states and the U.S. territories take those two portions, and must complete the ethics and professional code take-home exam. State specific exams are not addressed in most of the exam preparation books and courses.

And, most engineers do not own the reference books they will need. This is one reason passing rates for the California Civil Seismic are much lower than national passing rates for the PE exam. Overall rates are about 64% each year. Passing rates for the California seismic exam, on the other hand are lower. Only 47% pass. Keep in mind that people still fail to pass the Civil Surveying exam an additional 1% fewer than the rate for the seismic exam.

If you want to pass, you need review materials specific to those exams. There are not too many options.


Should you buy the ATC-20 to study for the seismic portion? Most people say no. But, read my post. This link will also take you to a list of all the required books for the Seismic Exam.

Other resources for the Seismic PE Exam:





1. Best Seismic Review Book for the PE Exam has several options.  One of the best seismic sample problems books is Seismic Principles Practice Exams for the California Special Seismic Exam. Pass rates for the civil engineering exams are just 64% in the U.S., and slightly lower in California. Even lower: pass rates for the seismic exam. Only 47% pass. People don't prepare adequately. Be sure to get your books early. And, use them well.


PE Exam Review Materials are an Investment
Study materials for the PE exam are tax deductible, so keep your receipts. The books you purchase today are not only to advance your professional credentials. They will line your reference book shelves for years to come.

2. 345 Solved Seismic Design Problems (5th Edition) by Majid Baradar, PE. This book is a little underrated. Overall, it has an average Amazon user review rating of 3.6/5.0 stars. However, this includes at least three editions. Some of the older (and lower) ratings refer to the third edition. The current, 5th, edition has an average 4.0 rating. When it comes to the review of Professional Engineering products, the ratings are typically about a 3, plus or minus 0.2 stars. So, with an average 4.0 rating, the 5th edition looks like a quality edition.

3. For other seismic review books and media, as well as other PE exam review materials, visit: PE Exam Study Materials

4. Practice Exams for the California Seismic Principles Civil P.E. Examination: This is a relatively new book. But, it already has three 5-star reviews. This book is 180 pages. It includes two 55-question practice seismic exams. Cost: $70.

5. Should you buy the ATC-20 to study for the seismic portion? Most people say no. But, read my post. This link will also take you to a list of all the required books for the Seismic Exam.

6. ASCE7-10: The basic equations and process to calculate seismic forces are in this code book from the American Society of Civil Engineers.

PE Exam Tips

How to Pass the PE Exam: Exam Tips for Winners

If you want to pass the PE on the first try, take these tips from a master of taking tests. I have taken a lot of schooling over the years, in the military and at 10 different colleges and universities- on both coasts and overseas. Here are some excellent PE exam tips to facilitate your passing the NCEES exam as well as the California state specific surveying and seismic exams.

1. Give yourself plenty of time to study.
2. Sacrifice an unnecessary routine event, like television or movies.
3. Make a REGULAR, dedicated schedule. Keep it over all else.
4. Take practice exams regularly during your engineering review program.
5. Analyze your PE practice test results.
6. Using practice test results: study your strengths first, weaknesses second.
7. Purchase the Civil Engineering Reference Manual as soon as possible. Know it better than your calculator.

Above are the main aspects of preparing for the NCEES and state specific exams to receive a professional engineering license. Below are more detailed explanations of the above exam tips to give you an edge above those less-blessed EITs who did not  find this blog.

Professional Engineer Exam Tips Expanded

1. Time: Give yourself as much time as you can. Six months is not unreasonable. Start with a full practice exam. The brain breaks things down into chunks. As you learn information, the mental platform holds 5 to 9 items which it can compare and process. (This is called the magic number in psychology, 7±2). Items repeated in groups or frequently paired together become one item, called a chunk. Chunking is not a rapid process. You need to give the brain time to form new neural networks.

2. Sacrifice: Prior to implementing your review course, each day before today was filled with some activities: work, sleep, eating, and optional activities. Some of these optional activities must make way to provide the time you need to take practice exams, to work problems, and to familiarize yourself with reference books.

3. Regularity: The mind-body system responds well to routine. It likes it. Capitalize on this. I recommend taking a full 8-hour practice exam every other Saturday (and Sunday, if you live in California and will take the seismic and surveying exams). If you have Fridays free, take your practice exams on Friday. You want to duplicate the actual conditions of test day as closely as possible.
Find a test area similar to the situation of the test room (well-lit, open space, folding table) conditions where you will take your exam. Arrive at the time you need to be seated in the exam room. (For example, in some states you must be seated at 7:40 when the instructions begin to be read. NCEES policy does not allow examinees to enter after this time.) Begin the exam exactly at the time scheduled in your state. Give yourself a 1-hour break between each 4-hour practice test. Take a practice PE exam as in conditions as close to the real exam as possible.
Between taking practice tests, set a regular study time. An hour and a half after a reasonable dinner is a good time. For example, if you eat your evening meal at 6:30, study from 8 to 9 Monday through Thursday. Give yourself Friday off. On non-practice-exam Saturdays, sit at your desk by 8 and study for at least 4 hours. If ennui sets in, study anyway. It is better to put in 20 minutes of a scheduled hour than to skip the hour entirely. The 20 minute investment keeps your study habit alive. And, the first part of a review period and the last part of a review session are the most valuable in terms of remaining in memory. So, 20 of 60 minutes is closer to a 50% kept goal than it is 33%. 

4. PE Practice Exams: Take these regularly. I studied for three months. I took a practice exam every other Saturday. If you live in California, you may also want to take a seismic practice exam and a surveying practice exam the following day. Practice exams familiarize you with not just the material, but also with time management, reference materials, and the process of moving your reference books, exam, and other materials around in your test area. (I had half of a folding table, it was 5 or 6 feet long by 2'6", I think). Regardless of how well you studied or did not study in the interim between exams, be sure to take the exams according to schedule. I was surprised to find I did much better on my third practice test than on the previous two- despite a weak study performance the preceding two weeks. Chunking, reference book familiarization, and time management had all improved, which affected my score. Also, an 8-hour exam requires some mental training, some mental conditioning.

5. Develop Strength: Analyze your results by type of problem. What percent did you correctly answer in Chemistry? In Environmental? Geotechnical? (and etcetera...)

6. Strengths and Weaknesses: The test you completed included questions from all main areas of the PE exam. However, it could not possibly cover every area of every subject. However, the subjects in which you scored best represent the areas in which you are most likely to score points on your exam date. So: practice heavily in the one or two subjects in which you scored highest. Also: look at your two lowest subject matter scores. Read material in these subjects (the CERM is good for this) and work practice problems. You will need to buy a few different PE sample exams. Study these three or four subjects for the next two weeks, until the next scheduled NCEES practice exam on your schedule.

7. Buy the Civil Engineering Reference Manual as soon as you can. Mark the index with tabs that don't fall out if you shake the book. Use this book for your practice exams. Familiarize yourself with it. I learned to open the index, write down the page numbers indexed to my topic, and then check each in turn until I found the solution process needed.

8. Purchase two approved calculators, not one. Choose different models, practice with both, and choose the one you prefer as your primary. NCEES permits just one on the desk. But, a reserve calculator is encouraged. An exact duplicate has the advantage of not requiring any new learning. However, a carefully selected back-up engineering calculator will compliment the functionality of your primary calculator.

9. Get a good guide book to walk you through the non-studying part of preparation for the PE exam. You need to know where to source the best prices for books, how to get discounts, how to lay out an effective study plan, how to force your brain to work and learn, what to bring to the exam, and much more. For that, there is really just one quality book: Pass the PE like a Pro. 

(Sometimes $1.98 or less.)

If you have not yet purchased your code books and review books, I have another advantage for you: I painstakingly reviewed the available options on Amazon, and put them together on one site. They are categorized by type of exam: Mechanical, Civil, etc. For the Civil, I compiled separate pages for each of the five afternoon subject areas.

I included only current versions. From these, I also booted out material with poor reviews. See all these pages at: PE Exam Study Materials. I have placed the best materials at the top of each page.


Please share this blog post via Twitter and Facebook, and give it a Google +1. Thank you!

Update: Here is an article from the American Psychological Association. It explains how studying in shorter sessions, spread out over a longer time period, with more time between sessions, creates stronger long term memories than does studying the same total of hours packed into a shorter time frame. For example, 2 hours a night 3 times weekly for 14 weeks will produce better results than 2 hours per night 6 times weekly for 7 weeks. Both programs total 84 hours. But, according to the article, the 14-week plan will produce up to 26.5% improvement. This is a very good article. It recognizes some of the more important techniques I used to derive the study plans presented in Pass the PE like a Pro. Read Study Smart.

California Professional Engineer Exam Dates 2015

As usual, the California Board of Professional Engineers scheduled two exams for 2015. As expected, these exams are in April and October. Filing dates for these exams are shown below.

Notice that last year they shortened the refile time allotment by 2 weeks over previous years.

April 2015 NCEES PE Exam Date
    Final Filing Date: New Applicants - varies by state, but usually around November, 2014 (already too late to file for this exam date) November 3rd in California.
                              Refile Applicants - varies by state, but around January, 2015. Jan. 9th in California.
    Exam Date: April 17, 2015, Friday (all states)

October 2015 NCEES Exam Date
    Final Filing Date: New Applicants - varies by state, but around May, 2015. This is May 1st in California.
                              Refile Applicants - varies by state, but approx. July, 2015 and July 6th in California.
    Exam Date: October 30, 2015, Friday (all states)


How to Pass the NCEES Professional Engineer Exam:
The NCEES exams are administered on Fridays, both exams in 2015 (as usual.) The California state specific seismic and surveying exams have always been administered the following day, a Saturday. This year, however, the bpels site has not yet declared dates for the state specific exams.

Many years ago, I learned the secret to passing any exam: practice as close to the actual test as possible. For this reason, the core component of your study should consist of taking practice exams. Analyze your results. Work on your best areas to form an anchor of knowledge for test day, and also work on the areas in which you performed weakest. This is absolutely the best way to prepare.

When I passed my exam, it was by taking a practice exam every other Saturday, a full 8-hour exam modeled after the NCEES exam. This works best using sample exams from more than one author or publisher. The best practice exam books are here:

Best PE Practice Exams

Suggested Reading:
300 Hour PE Exam Study Plan
Six Week PE Exam Study Plan

How to become a Civil Engineer

How to Become a Professional Engineer (PE)

The path to become a civil engineer is easy to explain. Walking that path to the end is a more challenging event.

The first part of the most common path involves making a decision in high school to pursue a science tract. Most engineering college freshmen completed physics, calculus, and chemistry courses in high school. Undergrads matriculating from larger high school campuses may also have prepared with courses in statics, advanced physics, or electronics.

Those courses are not mandatory from high school. If your heart is set on engineering, you can CLEP out of some college entrance prerequisites, and take others at a community college. 

Once in college, the engineering major must pack a little more than 5 years worth of semester units into four years. This is theoretical. Reality is that about a quarter of those who graduate finish in under 6 years. Four years is possible. However, some semesters will be 18 unit and 21 unit semesters. The underwater basket weaving major may have eight 15-unit semesters, but the future engineer must work hard.

Fundamentals of Engineering Exam

The first exam in the path to professional licensure is the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam. The exam formerly known as the EIT, or Engineer-in-Training, sounded more like a journeyman. The current nomenclature looks more impressive in a signature block:

John Knowitall, FE

Or, maybe:

Mary Knowsmore, FE

The National Council of Engineering Examiners Society (NCEES) administers the FE exam. Each state's engineering hopefuls sit for the same exam. There is no difference between states.

Requirements to Sit for the FE:

States vary in requirements to register and take the FE exam. Some states require only payment (e.g. New Hampshire). Other states require three completed years of engineering study at an ABET accredited college or university program. Students from those schools often have excellent prep programs to take and pass the FE exam at the end of their junior year of college engineering. Note: If you only have 2 years of community college, those years do not qualify. No community college in any state is ABET accredited. Once an engineering student enrolls at a 4-year ABET institution, and completes the junior year, those credits qualify.

Format of the FE Exam:

There are two sessions. The morning session lasts four hours. You must answer 120 questions at a pace of 2 minutes per question.

The afternoon exam gives options. You may choose a concentration of your preference. Typically, this should match your major concentration, or the work you perform professionally. The available concentrations for the FE afternoon session are: Chemical, Civil, Electrical, Environmental, Industrial, Mechanical. You can download the prep books here: FE afternoon

The afternoon session lasts the same time, four hours. There are fewer questions. You must answer 60 questions at a pace of 4 minutes per question. Obviously, the questions are more difficult on average than morning session questions.

Materials for the FE exam:

FE exam study book from PPI.

The FE exam is a closed book test. You will receive a reference manual on exam day. You can download a copy or purchase a copy with which to practice. However, there is a cornucopia of options to prepare for the FE exam. The largest offering of FE study materials comes from ppi2pass: FE exam study materials. You can get a discount by using this link and entering ppi2pass promo code PASS1114. You'll be amazed at the options. Check it out.

You will also need an NCEES approved engineering calculator. 

For the Fundamentals of Engineering exam, examinees are not permitted to bring books into the examination center. They are issued a clean copy of the FE reference manual. So, why not buy an e-book?

Professional Engineer Exam

Only those who first pass the FE exam and subsequently meet other criteria may sit for the NCEES Professional Engineer (PE) exam. Requirements vary by state. Typically, a number of years of experience working with licensed engineers, three letters of recommendation, and proof of any education claimed as qualifying years must be provided.

Reviewing, studying, and preparing for the PE exam can be rigorous. The book, Pass the PE like a Pro can help ease the burden. It has a lot of useful links, tips, schedules, and tips. It is a great place to start. 

There is a "take-home" exam on ethics. This is completed and sent in with the application.

On exam day, examinees take two sessions, following the same format as the FE exam. The morning session is four hours. So is the afternoon session.

The Morning session has 40 questions (=6 minutes per question). The afternoon session has 40 questions. This is also 6 minutes per question. But, afternoon sessions on the NCEES exam are correspondingly more difficult. As with the FE exam, the morning session is a breadth exam covering all the major specialties within engineering. The afternoon exam is a concentration selected beforehand by the examinee.

How to be an Engineer

Once you pass the NCEES exam, and receive a license from your state board, you can begin calling yourself an engineer. It is illegal in the United States for non-engineers to call themselves engineers or to even use the word "engineer" or "engineering" in advertising, marketing, or official documents. To do so requires having an engineer on staff. In California, an engineering business must be owned at least 50% by an engineer.

Professional Development:

Many states require professional development units. Engineers must stay current. PDU classes ensure new learning continues throughout a career. These are also called Continuing Education Units, or CEUs. If your state requires them or not, engineering is a professional field. Each engineer must stay current on civil codes, safety procedures, and design process changes.

Remember, when people say, "scientist", they almost always mean an engineer!

What is Better than Online PE Exam Review Courses?

PE examinees: If you seriously plan to pass the NCEES exam, you need to beat the competition. There is no set passing score for the professional engineering exam. This is because you compete against other working FEs for placement above the cut score. The cut score is the yet-undetermined qualifying score. If you can score 70 on the scaled score, you pass (a rule of thumb.) To be sure, if you can regularly score a literal 70% on practice exams, you will earn your state license. You need to outperform the 30 to 40 percent of examinees who will not pass.

How will you beat all those other engineers studying diligently? Simple: get the best materials and take many practice exams. I passed both NCEES exams on the first effort. (Please don't ask about the California seismic exam!)

Online review courses have some advantage: they cover most or all of the material; they provide a framework for you to follow; they (often, not always) include a PE to answer any questions.

Is there a better way? Well, a classroom environment is superior. Online, you are often at your own pace. Always, you are alone (unless a friend joins you at your home.)

When cost is isolated as a consideration, there is a better method than online review courses. Take a series of practice PE exams. There are several good offerings on Amazon: PE Exam Study Materials

Study Plan for the Professional Engineer Exam: This links to a 6-week study plan for the PE. Most sources recommend 3 months and 300 hours. However, if you are starting late, this is a great plan, and I believe you can pass with it.

ATC 20 - To Buy or Not to Buy?

Is ATC 20 Worth the Investment?

ATC 20 is titled “Procedures for Postearthquake Safety Evaluation of Buildings”. The Applied Technology Council produced this 152-page book in 1989. It is an analysis of safety evaluation procedures following an earthquake. It details methods of evaluation, ratings of evaluated buildings, and provides excellent sketches and photos of earthquake damage.

Will you need this during the exam? After my seismic test, a young lady next to me said she had been told at her firm (a traffic engineering agency) that she needed only “the Hiner book”. She felt she had done well. However, she seemed a teeny-bit surprised when I told her I had answered three questions using the ATC books.

There are three ATC 20 books: ATC 20, ATC 20-1, and ATC 20-2. ATC 20-1 is a small pamphlet, a “Field Manual”. Just 4.25” x 7.25”, it is hand held and designed to be used to quickly translate visible damage during rapid assessment into ratings of “SAFE”, “Potentially UNSAFE”, or “UNSAFE”.

In today’s world of tilting earth, shifting magnetic fields, plate tectonic weapons like HAARP, and massive earthquakes like Sichuan, Haiti, Chili, Indonesia, and Japan, we engineers need to be ready to provide emergency services. Safe buildings can reopen for business. Safe homes can provide shelter. In addition to engineers, city inspectors are permitted to perform inspections. However, the engineering profession should step up and meet the responsibility as best as possible. You will need this book on your shelf.

Unlike the young examinee next to me, it is appropriate to seek advice beyond the people in your office. Go directly to the exam website and write down titles of the required references and books. Use the link below. Find the exam you will take, download the exam criteria (a pdf), and scroll down for the list of required texts:

NCEES PE Exam Data Sheets

There are 55 questions on the California State Specific Seismic Exam (2.5 hours = less than 3 minutes per question). If you can answer 3 questions using the ATC 20 books, that is 3/50, or 6% of the available questions. (Note: 5 questions do not count toward your score. Those are new questions under trial, being calibrated for future exams.) Passing is set by a cut score. This means it is a competition. You need to perform better than the majority of the others testing with you. Typically, (according to various unofficial sources) 70% is expected to be a passing score. 3/(.7x50) = 8.6%. Basically, you are given an 8.6% advantage over your fellow examinees if you will:

1. Buy the ATC 20 series.
2. Review all three publications when they arrive.
3. Bring them with you to the exam.

That is a significant benefit. The questions I answered could have been reasoned with basic engineering knowledge to eliminate (maybe) one option in just one of those three. You need these books, and you need to be familiar with their contents.

I did not read every page. I spent about two hours reviewing all the material, reading the main passages, and writing a few summary notes in white space (Use ink for this, not pencil). During the exam, I was able to recognize I needed the ATC books, and knew what I needed. I flipped through until I found the sections I needed to answer the questions (easy with so many sketches and photos).

I took the April, 2010 seismic exam without these. I never knew I needed the books (I did not have them.) I took the April, 2011 exam with them, and I am sure I answered those three questions correctly.

Buy ATC 20!

See costs of all the Seismic Principles exam reference books and where to get the best buy. 

Free Transportation AM Review Seminar

Great News if you are looking to take a PE review seminar. Professional Engineering Services, Inc. permits free participation in the first part of their review course. From the advert they mailed out:

"You're invited to attend the first day of our Civil PE (Transportation AM) seminar for FREE. This $225 value includes: An 8-hour review seminar, Transportation AM book, and one, 2-hour DVD. Just email us at freeclass@passpe.com
If you're not able to attend the live FREE Transportation AM review seminar, you're invited to participate in the live, FREE Webinars (Orange County or Hayward Locations; or Both). For more information, simply email freewebinar@passpe.com"

Notice emails for each opportunity differ. For the live PE review class, email to freeclass@passpe.com. For the free webinar, send email to freewebinar@passpe.com.

This looks like an excellent opportunity. If you are preparing for an exam after the April 8 & 9 exams, visit Mansour's website www.passpe.com. The free class/webinar offer exists on the homepage as well.

More Resources:

Free Traffic Engineering Review

Transportation PE Review Book List: See the current, and top-rated prep books for the PE Exam Transportation afternoon exam.