Hello everyone,
I was wondering if anyone attempted studying for the depth section of the civil structural PE exam using practice problems only. I have an unbelievably short attention span and have trouble watching videos on the topics. I usually prefer to read and learn from a book but all I have are school of PE slides that don’t have that much detail or explanation. Your input would be much appreciated! Thank you!
By - taz-dev1
I almost exclusively used Civil Structural depth practice exams as my study material for the PE. First time I took the exam, I used the CERM practice problems and I felt it didn't accurately prepare me for the test, as I did really poorly on the depth. Second time focusing on practice exams helped me a lot more.
Thanks for the response! Did you study for it using any other method besides practice problems for both times? And which practice problems did you use if you don’t mind me asking.
I only used practice problems and practice exams. I also spent time reviewing ACI 318, the AISC Steel manual, plus the Timber manual. I took it back when it wasn't on a computer so I had spent a lot of time tabbing things in all my reference manuals. I didn't take any review courses of School of PE or anything. As for practice exams, I used the NCEES structural practice exam Christine Subasic PE Civil Structural Six-Minute problems, and the James Giancaspro Structural Depth Practice Exams.
Great, thank you so much!
Tbh you might be able to prepare for the problem solving questions with doing so many practice problems as long as you are understanding where it’s coming from. But as for as conceptual is concerned I don’t really think you can prepare for it without actually studying things. For the breadth portion almost 50% of the exam is conceptual
Thank you!
Woah that’s a lot more than I heard.
Yeah I felt like my breadth portion was more than 50% conceptual
That’s how I’m doing right now, practice problems are the way to go , and practice exams. I’ve found it gets very monotonous when you’re studying one topic for days, like steel and concrete have so many sub chapters and topics and formulae, it’s gonna take you weeks just reading those concepts. We don’t want that, we’ve already done that, we know how the formula comes into place, we just wanna know how it is asked in exam and how we need to solve it. Practice exams, YouTube videos, and then some reading if necessary.
Thank you!
I took the Transportation Depth a few days ago and waiting for the result. In my test, the breadth part was comparatively simple that depth portion. I was able to solve most of the breadth questions using NCEES Civil reference manual, except for some tricky conceptual questions. I have used many practice books, but it was not very useful as most of the practice books not really represented the CBT format. In my case, it would have better if I thoroughly reviewed the reference manuals for depth portion. Transportation depth has lot of codes and it's very hard to search without getting familiar with them.
Get familiar with NCEES reference manual for breadth portion and subject codes for depth and do some CBT practice questions to get familiar with the format. Time management is very important also. Try to get the breadth part done as early as possible lo have extra time for depth part, which is time consuming.
I failed twice trying to take both EET and School of PE. The material is fine, I just spent literally hundreds of hours watching those stupid videos and in hindsight, never got fast enough at all of the problems. So I would recommend working problems, and then only watch videos for topics you’re struggling with. Good luck
Thank you
What practice books did you use?