Customer Reviews

Civil Engineering Reference Manual for the PE Exam, 10th Edition

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Everyone who takes the P.E. exam has this book at their side during the test, but be warned that it's full of typos. Be sure to check the errata sheet so you can correct the errors. Also, the binding is very poor quality for the price. After two months of light use my appendices are falling out.

overall its a good source for the PE exam. however, it goes into much detail about some not so important topics, and the other hand misses some subjects such as timber design and truck loading in the structures section.

Do take this book to the civil PE exam. It had the info for all the Qs save one on the Oct '07 exam.

Do not study everything in this book. Use the list of topics available on the NCEES website to organize your study efforts. If you use this book to create your study plan for the exam, you'll won't have had time to study all the topics on the exam by the time it rolls around.

Do not let the practice problems scare you. They are more difficult than the exam Qs. The exam Qs are doable in 6 minutes if you are knowledgeable about the topic. Do find practice problems that are similar to the exam's and practice those to get ready for the exam.

Great book, maybe not for the best price. While studying for the PE, noticed that it is missing a chunk of pages (about 17). It is a large book so I didn't scan through to make sure all the pages were there and I didn't notice until a few months later that they were missing so I can't return it now. Hope I don't need those during the test and that I don't find any more pages missing. I am pretty dissapointed and will definetally be more weary in the future, especially when I spend $162 for a "brand new" book!

This CERM is a great resource to have for studying and is very useful for the morning(breadth) session of the PE. I don't think I used it at all for the afternoon session as the industry resources are needed for the afternoon (depth) session. It's a must have.

This was an excellent exam reference for me during the general portion of the Oct 2007 PE exam, for which I did not have any time to study. All the information that I needed (for which I didn't already have another reference) was easily referenced via the very useful index, and the information provided was succinct and well organized. I went in prepared to fail the first day, but now I think I may actually pass, thanks in no small part to this book.

Edit - I actually passed. :)

This is a complete reference manual for the PE exam. It was basically the only book that I used during the exam. Most of the other examinees had this book too. Definitely familiarize yourself with this book and tab pages for fast reference. Don't waste your time with other books. Also, I recommend Lindeburg's "practice problems" book, to compliment this book. BUY THIS BOOK!

This is the only book you need for the morning session. I took the Civil PE exam 4 years ago, and I have since lent the same book to two colleagues who passed without much studying. I am not trying to discourage studying here, but just want to stress how useful this book is. It is very well organized and if you don't know something in the exam, just look it up in the index and voila, that's exactly what the question was asking.

Frankly I don't have much use of the book after passing the exam but I still keep it as a reference. The geotechnical section was very well written and I still look things up from time to time. The background and support section on math comes in handy as well.

The PE exam was recently updated to include a Construction Section. This edition does not cover this material. Future editions will. Kaplan's review book has the construction section already.

This is a must have book for the test. Most questions can be solved with it. Use the Index it's great. Only weak point is seismic. For the California State survey and seismic you will need other books