This section of the site is to give detailed study processes on how people passed. Hopefully it will help those studying for the test so that they can learn from others. If you'd like to submit how you studied for (and subsequently passed) the PE, please send us an email and we'll put it up on the site.
Success Stories
Exam Type: Civil with an emphasis in Structural
State: CA (which included the specialty seismic and surveying courses)
Times to Pass: Just one thank goodness.
Study Time: All told, around 250 hrs would be my best guess
My studying process:
- I took a review course to reteach me what I had forgotten (and i wasn't very far out of school; how much could I have forgotten you may ask, well a lot). Some teachers weren't so awesome, some I really enjoyed. All in all i didn't do any geotech or transportation problems b/c they taught the subject so well I figured I'd have a good shot for those sections.
- I read most of the CERM and highlighted important stuff (well at least what I thought would be important). And also tabbed the main sections that I felt would be useful. That is mainly how I studied for the morning portion of the exam. I didn't go through and do all the problems for every section. But don't think that this will be a weekend activity. That book is huge.
- I bought two problem book sets (Lindeburg's 600 problems, and the structural 6 min. solutions). I only did the problems for my emphasis (structural). I heard that the first half of the test was much easier than the second so I studied mainly on my emphasis.
- I spent most of my days after work driving straight to the library and doing problems for 2 hours or so, and also spending 6 hours or so every weekend that I had free.
- I had a fantastic GF who helped me with meals and what not (trust me after working for 12 hours and studying for 2 the last thing you want to do is cook for yourself). I did have to buy her a really nice present when I finished it all but it was totally worth it.
- Total time wise I spent about 10 weeks studying for the national test (i'd say close to 200 hours) then about 24 hours studying for each of the other tests (surveying and seismic). I used the Hiner book for seismic, and Cuomo for surveying (nothing aside from those two books). Oh, actually I read Hiner next to the AISC and IBC so I could cross reference which helped.
Hopefully this can help the others!
My recommendations:
- Study the general portion enough to be able to flip through the book and find things quickly (which is a great help with CERM's index). But a majority of studying should be done on your emphasis. The afternoon section in my mind was much more difficult than the general morning section.
- Regarding your emphasis, problems problems problems, do as many as you can get your hands on. I guarantee there will be quite a few that leave you scratching your head. And from this you learn how to work the equations.
- Don't be afraid to not study a section that would not be worth the cost in time it would take you to learn. For the afternoon structural section I decided against buying the AASHTO manual for bridge design. My reasons were: I had never used it, and the cost in time it would have taken me to look over it.
- Check you state board rules, but if you can, bring in food and water. 8 hours of testing is exhausting and you'll need a pick-me-up
- Bring a sweater to the test (you won't want to be shivering if they have the a/c blasting.
- I brought a little hand-held dictionary. There were two times where they used a word that I had to look up.
~admingineer July 14, 2009