Customer Reviews

Seismic Principles Practice Exams for the California Special Civil Engineer Examination, 2nd ed.

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I admit that learning seismic principles and UBC codes were the most difficult task in my civil engineering field. However, by studying this book in conjuction with Lindeburg and Baradar's Seismic Design of Building Structures, and using the other Baradar's book "345 Solved Seismic Design Problems", I prepared myself for the CA Special Seismic Exam very well. Although I had no seismic background, these books assisted me to become a professional civil engineer by passing the seismic portion of the P.E. exam on the first try. I highly recommend this book as a must have book as a study aid.

I was using this book to prep for the October 2009 Seismic Exam in California, and the example problems are filled with errors. It is maddening trying to evaluate yourself when you're finding mistakes in half the problems. For how much they charge for these guides, I'd have expected them to at least work through the problems and perhaps proof read the answers.

This book, and the accompanying "345 Solved Seismic Design Problems" and "Seismic Principles Practice Exams" were very insufficient to prepare me for the April 2007 CA seismic Exam. I took the PE exam several years ago, and did quite well, therefore I feel that these books were very inadequate.

They are very poorly written, I spent most of my time trying to figure out what the author was talking about because few complex concepts were defined. Additionally in the example computations, he often did not reference which equations and code sections he was using, and did not explain his assumptions. Therefore, it was very difficult to understand the solutions, and almost impossible to apply the concepts to another questions. Allowable stress increases and strength reduction factors were glossed over in the text, but used in some example problems, but not others, with no explanation of why they were used sometimes and not in other cases. The book had few informative figures, and no figures that showed basic principals.

These three books were fairly expensive, but were riddled with errors, and did not explain the material in enough detail to answer the application-based exam questions. For instance, why would you choose one type of allowable building structure over another?

The actual exam focused mostly on computational questions that were much more difficult than the practice problems or practice exams. I felt like I was prepared going into the exam having done all the practice problems, and scoring well on the practice exams. When I saw the exam questions, I could not believe how much more complex they were than practice problems.

Don't buy these books, buy the Hiner Book at [...]even if you can't take the class. It is much cheaper, and from what I have heard, very complete and clear.

I purchased this book to help me pass the Seismic Principles secion of the PE Exam. After taking the exam a couple days ago I must say that this book was very helpful in preparing me for the exam. This was the third time I took the Seismic Principles exam and this book helped me solve the many problems I had no clue how to solve on the previous two Seismic exams I took. If I had this book the first or second time I took the exam I probably would have passed. I am crossing my fingers that 13 weeks from now I get the good news that I passed the Seismic Principles section. My thanks go out to the people who wrote the helpful reviews and Mr. Majid Baradar.

There was little help available from this book on the seismic exam, held on April 21, 2007.Most of the questions were outside the scope of this book, or even the other Lindberg's books on seismic course. The book is ok, but if I didn't pass the seismic exam, I certainly would buy some other book, as I can't rely on this book alone.

I found this book to be very helpful and useful in preparing for your California Special Seismic Examination.
Though the problems are not exactly identical to the board problems, following the chapter sequence by solving each problems will enable you to be more familiarize with the important sections and equations of ASCE 7-05 and IBC 2006.

This is A MUST TO HAVE BOOK! Thank you, Mr. Baradar.

-Jose E. Mendoza

Excellent book. The basic seismic principles are presented so well and so easy by multiple questions format. I found solutions very comprehensive. It provides the key UBC codes. It prepares you well for the tough California seismic exam. I was amazed to see majority of the exam candidates had this book and other Baradar's book, 345 Solved Seismic Design Problems, going to the actual exam.

Out of all study guides, 345 Solved Seismic Design Problems and this book are the best. I passed the exam on first try. Special thanks go to Majid Baradar.

After learning the seismic design fundamentals, I had a chance to test myself by going over the two introduced exams of this book and I admit that these structured exams clearly indentified which areas I should stress more.

It well prepared me for the seismic exam. My five star rating here shows my appreciation of these seismic books by the same author.

It's obvious from the number of stars previous reviewers have given as to whether or not the person passed the exam.

I used this book as part of my preparation, worked all the problems, and feel it's a good resource to help prepare for the exam.
I also had a grad. course is seismic engineering and took an exam review course, so all the prep you can do for the test helps.

Great practice exams! Used in conjuction with Seismic Design of Building Structures: A Professionals Introduction to Earthquake Forces and Design Details by Michael R. Lindeburg should help even those without seismic background (such as myself) to pass the PE.