Isaac Oakeson: Hey, what's up everybody? Isaac here with Civil Engineering Academy. I'm jumping on with another podcast episode and another deep dive. This is a series of deep dives that we are going into the PE depth exams. And so today, we are going to be talking about structural engineering. Now, don't confuse this with the SE exam, which is a whole separate exam. This is the PE exam for structural depth section. So, not to confuse those.

Isaac Oakeson: If you wanna check out other series that we've done, check out previous podcast episodes or other YouTube videos that we've done. We've done one on construction and we've done one on geotech, and now we're are touching upon structural for the depth exam.

Isaac Oakeson: So, this one is a good one. It's got a lot of standards to it. A lot of people shy away from the structural arena just simply because maybe of the difficulty of the exam. But still, if that's the area that you're going into, this is the one that you're gonna want to dive into. And also, in general, all PE exams are difficult with what they give you, but the structural engineering one definitely, you know, has a little more in-depth standards that you're gonna want to know and things of that nature.

Isaac Oakeson: But today we're gonna talk about that and go deep into the structural specifications and preparing for this exam, including the resources and the pass rates. We're going to cover all of that in today's episode. So thanks for being here, it's gonna be a good one, and it's gonna be coming up right after this. See in a minute.

Isaac Oakeson: All right. First thing we're going to want to check out is everything about the exam itself, right? So if you're unfamiliar with this exam, I want to start this as if you don't know anything and you're just looking up what the structural depth exam is and if you want to take this exam. So, usually, with each of these I've dived into this. And so, if you're just starting this from brand new, that's what the point is. If you're familiar with the exam itself, you can skip forward a little bit, but you get the idea.

Isaac Oakeson: So, obviously this is a CBT exam. This is a closed-book exam now, except for your reference handbook that you can get for free off the NCEES website and the codes and standards that are available to you in the exam. And those codes and standards, you will have to beg, borrow, or steal, and not promoting stealing, but you're gonna have to get them in some way to help you get practice under your belt on these questions.

Isaac Oakeson: So, it's a year-round exam. Again, you can take it once per quarter and take it year-round. So it's at a Pearson Vue Testing Center. Get familiarized with that. Go to the NCEES website, get registered for any exam. The exam itself is $375. That's payable to the NCEES. And if you have to kick that down the can, or that can down the road a little bit, and change up your dates on when you want to do the exam, you want to be aware that it's gonna cost you an additional fee to reschedule, which can be up to $50 every time you reschedule. So, you know, I think it's important to commit to a date, stick to it, and get after it. Because if you keep moving it, this test is going to be more and more expensive than it already is.

Isaac Oakeson: So the exam, again, is 80 questions, which is the same as it's always been. Your total appointment time is nine hours. They give you that because you have to sign a non-disclosure agreement for two minutes, a tutorial that they give you for eight minutes. The exam itself is still eight hours, and then you have a scheduled break there in the middle, like a lunch break, for 50 minutes. Sometimes they split those questions up in the morning. Maybe you have 41 questions and 39 in the afternoon, give or take a problem or two. But, relatively, it's 40 questions in the morning and then 40 in the afternoon.

Isaac Oakeson: With this being CBT, I could definitely see a potential where they could mix morning questions, put them in the afternoon, or vice versa. But right now, the majority of people taking the exam, they are seeing that they definitely get morning questions in the morning and afternoon questions in the afternoon. But there's no telling what they can do in the future as it is computer-based, right? It gives them the freedom to do those things. So just be aware of that.

Isaac Oakeson: So, yeah. After you've done all that, you've registered, you've paid your fees, all that good stuff, if you have any questions about any of that exam stuff, go check out the NCEES website. They also talk about alternative item type problems you should be familiar with in the testing center that you're going to be going to. You want to check out as well. So having said that, let's get into the specifications because that's what we want to dive into next.

Isaac Oakeson: All right, let's dive into the specifications for this. So the first eight, what I'm gonna say, "sections" here are all the same among all tests, doesn't matter which depth exam you take. And this is what we're calling still "AM type problems," because this tests you on a breadth of problems in these eight categories. So I'm gonna just go through the spec here and we can talk about it, but this is for the structural CBT exam.

Isaac Oakeson: The spec currently is effective as of January 1st, 2022. These have not changed since April of 2015, which is nice. But they do change, you know, every once in a while. So, the only thing I would say to that is, if you're worried about these changes, the engineering concepts rarely change. They might mix or combine sections like they took transportation and they cut that down almost in half. They've merged some sections of the past. But in general, they're all the same sections kind of rearranged. So just keep that in mind.

Isaac Oakeson: Again, it's computer-based, it's closed-book with electronic references. You have the NCEES PE Civil Reference Handbook. It's included along with the design standards that we're gonna talk about. We've already talked about that it's nine hours. The exam uses both SI units and the US unit. I think they just state that, but in general, they follow industry practice. So, most of the time you're just going to see US units on things, but they do list that they can ask questions that have SI units in them. So just be aware of that.

Isaac Oakeson: And again, the exam's developed with questions that require a variety of approaches and methodologies, included design, analysis, and applications. So, they're gonna ask a lot of theory questions to you. Generally, you'll see about, I bet, 20 theory questions in total. They can also ask you Alternative Item Types, although most people are just seeing multiple-choice still, maybe one or two of the other types, which can be fill in the blank, drag and drop, point and click. Go check out the NCEES website. Their YouTube channel has a really good video on that, so check that out as well.

Isaac Oakeson: And the other catchall is that they say the examples specified in knowledge areas are not exclusive or exhaustive. Meaning that they can ask you anything outside of this that they want to, if they want to. So not exclusive and it's not exhaustive. So, you know, those are not comforting words to people as they're studying for this exam. But the truth is that they really do stick basically to the specifications. So don't be too taken off by that. But they do cover themselves there.

Isaac Oakeson: All right. Let's dive into those first eight sections, so the AM portion. Again, you've got Project Planning, which deals with quantity, takeoff methods, cost estimating, project schedules, and activity identification and sequencing. So anything to do with project planning. There's four to six questions dealing with that. So good to study that.

Isaac Oakeson: Means and Methods is section two. Now, what are means and methods? Those are construction loads, those are construction methods, as well as temporary structures and facilities. There's three to five questions dealing with those.

Isaac Oakeson: Soil mechanics is your third section, with five to eight questions. So it's a bigger section. And that deals with lateral earth pressure, soil consolidation, effective and total stresses, bearing capacities, foundation settlements, as well as slope stability. And you'll notice that soil mechanics, or at least soil as a subject, get sprinkled in with a lot of other sections too, but it's actually a bigger section than you think.

Isaac Oakeson: Section four is structural mechanics, at five to eight questions. Again, another of the heavy hitters. And that's dead and live loads, trusses, bending moments, sheer diagrams, axle loads, combined stresses, deflections, beams, columns, slabs, as well as footings and retaining walls. So keep those in mind.

Isaac Oakeson: Section five is Hydraulics and Hydrology, six to nine questions. This is one that used to be two separate old categories and they've combined those into one. So, hydraulics and hydrology, and that's a monster section at 6 to 9 questions. So you'll want to pay attention to those. That's open channel flow. That's stormwater collection and drainage. That's storm characteristics. That's runoff analysis. Detention and retention ponds. Pressure conduits, which is basically, Hazen-Williams or Darcy-Weisbach equations dealing with major and minor losses, as well as the energy equation and the continuity equation. So that is a large topic.

Isaac Oakeson: Number six is geometrics, which is transportation. There's three to five questions there now. Over time, that one, for whatever reason, has been reduced. And that basically covers circular curve elements, vertical curve elements, and traffic volume. So, circular curves are horizontal curves, and then you got vertical and traffic volume. Pretty straightforward.

Isaac Oakeson: Number sevens materials, five to eight questions. Again, another bigger section. And now we're still dealing with soils, right? Soil classification and boring log interpretation, soil properties, concrete, structural steel, material test methods and spec conformance, as well as compaction. All topics that you're gonna need to study there.

Isaac Oakeson: Site Development is section eight, which rounds off the morning questions. That's four to six questions for Site development and you've got excavation and embankment, which is cut and fill. You have construction site layout and control, which is basically surveying. You have temporary and permanent soil erosion and sediment control, as well as impact of construction on adjacent facilities, which normally deals with noise, or, you know, could be --You know, noise is mainly the one I see there. I guess it could be vibration dealing with things like you're building something really close to another facility. So impact of construction on adjacent facilities. And then lastly is safety, which is construction, roadside, or work zones. And those have typically been OSHA type questions. That's four to six questions for that one.

Isaac Oakeson: So that rounds off the first eight sections, which is your morning portion of the exam. You'll have about 40 questions, again, in there. And then you dive into your depth section. And within this, you are going to be diving into your specific area. So for this one, we're talking about structures. So let's dive into what we've got dealing with in these.

Isaac Oakeson: Now this one's broken up a little bit differently in that they have main categories and then subcategories. So the first one is section nine, and it's called Analysis of Structures. And they say within that there are 13 to 20 questions. And that's broken up into these categories. So you have, part A, which is Loads and Load Applications, which is four to six questions. And you have Forces and Load Effects, nine to 14 questions in those.

Isaac Oakeson: So going back to loads and load applications, there you're dealing with dead loads again, live loads, construction loads, wind loads, seismic, moving, rain, snow, ice impact loads, earth pressure and surcharge loads, load paths, load combinations, tributary areas. So anything to do with loading is gonna be found under Loads and Load Applications. So you can see that's a lot. That's also already covered in the breath portion. So you're adding onto your studies to make sure you're getting it done in your depth section of choice too.

Isaac Oakeson: Part B of that is Force and Load Effects, like I said. Nine to 14 questions. Here you've got diagrams like shear and moment. You have axial tension and compression. You have shear, flexure, deflection, and special topics that could be torsion, buckling, fatigue, progressive collapses, thermal deformation, as well as bearing. So special topics could be any one of those.

Isaac Oakeson: After you get done with that, section 10 deals with Design and Details of Structures. You'll have a total of 16 to 24 questions here. Part A of this is Materials and Material properties, four to six questions. So that's concrete, steel, timber, and masonry. And our standards and specs will cover a lot of this material, but those are the main materials you're dealing with.

Isaac Oakeson: Part B, 12 to 18 questions, is Component design and detailing. So this is horizontal members, vertical members, systems, connections, foundations. All dealing with component design and detailing. Getting into the weeds under details.

Isaac Oakeson: Section 11 is Codes and Construction, and there are six to 10 questions there. And I think that rounds off all the topics you're dealing with. So part A of this is Codes, Standards, and Guidance documents, four to six questions. So you have the International Building Code, the IBS. The ACI, the American Concrete Institution. You have Precast/Pre-stressed Concrete Institute or PCI. You have Steel Construction Manual, which is the AISC Manual. You have the National Design Spec for Wood Construction, which is the NDS.

Isaac Oakeson: And you have LRFD Bridge Design Specifications, which is AASHTO. Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures, which is ASCE 7. You have American Welding Society, which is the AWS, as well as OSHA's General Industry 1910 document. So, those are all the codes that they're gonna throw at you. Four to six questions for any one of those.

Isaac Oakeson: Lastly is part B of this, which is Temporary Structures and Other Topics, two to four questions. You have special inspections, submittals, formwork, falsework and scaffolding, shoring, reshoring, concrete maturity and early strength evaluation, bracing, anchorage, OSHA regulations again, and safety management. OSHA always creeping up there.

Isaac Oakeson: So that runs out all the specifications and there's good stuff there. But you're gonna wanna know all of those topics and make sure -- You know, a pro tip here is that you would build a study schedule based on the specifications that they're giving you and making sure you're hitting all of these topics within the timeframe that you're giving yourself to study. So just keep that in mind. Let the spec be your guide, and that's really how you should build out a study schedule. So next up we're gonna cover the specifications.

Isaac Oakeson: All right, let's go ahead and dive into the specifications now. So these are also effective with the January 22 exam. These were revised as of September 24th, 2021, and they do list what those revisions are in red on the spec. So pay attention to that. A lot of people always say, "Well, aren't they using the latest greatest, you know, spec for the exam?" And they don't. So keep that in mind. They always use previous additions in order to get through these exams.

Isaac Oakeson: So again, in addition to the handbook that you have, you'll have the codes and standards. These will be provided to you in electronic PDF forms with links for easy navigation, Ctrl+F to go search, although I have heard that sometimes they don't have Ctrl+F working on all PDF documents. But they do have links, you know, for maybe the table of contents that can get you where you need to go. So keep that in mind.

Isaac Oakeson: You will have access to these at the very beginning of the exam. So it doesn't matter where you're at in the exam, you'll have access to all of that. And it lists that for you. The entire exam, they will be available to you. Although, keep this in mind, the design standards are not needed for the breadth portion of the exam. So you're not gonna be thrown weird questions for those AM type questions that come out of the standards.

Isaac Oakeson: Okay. Solutions to the exam questions that reference the standard of practice are scored based on this list on the spec and the revision year shown. Solutions based on any other standards, they do not receive credit. So you want to use the standards that they say they're gonna use. Otherwise, if you're doing something with a newer edition of the code, you could be off. And then they just say the NCEES doesn't sell any standards or printed copies, so you gotta go get them yourself.

Isaac Oakeson: Now, the structural depth section does have quite a few. So let's cover what those are. You're gonna need the AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specifications, 7th edition, 2014, with 2015 and 2016 Interim Revisions. So keep that in mind. You need the IBC, The International Building Code, the 2015 edition. You need ACI 318, the Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete and Commentary, 2014. You'll need the AISC Manual, the Steel Construction Manual, the 14th edition, which was 2011. I imagine that will get updated soon.

Isaac Oakeson: The ASCE 7, Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures, 3rd printing, 2010. So make sure you get that version. The AWC NDS. They use the 2015 Wood Design Package. So, 2015. Make sure you note that.

Isaac Oakeson: And then we need CFR TITLE 29, part 1910 and part 1926, which is our lovely OSHA stuff. Part 1910 is the U.S. Department of Labor, and they list all these other subparts. Subpart I, subpart D, subpart F, which deals with personal fall protection, walking-working services, as well as powered platforms and manlifts. So keep that in mind. And part 1926 is Safety and Health Regulations for Construction. You will need these subparts, which is subpart E, L, M, Q, and R, which deal with personal protective and life-saving equipment, scaffolding specs, fall protection, concrete and masonry construction, as well as steel erection.

Isaac Oakeson: We're getting to the last bit here. PCI is the PCI Design Handbook: Precast and Prestressed Concrete, 7th edition, 2010. And you need the TMS 402/602, which is Building Code Requirements and Specification for Masonry Structures, 2013 and its companion commentaries.

Isaac Oakeson: So that was a lot. They also have some notes here that examines will use only the allowable stress design method for wood design only. So keep that in mind. Everything else is LRFD. And then formally also called ACI 530, examines will use only the ASD method, except strength design sections 9.3.5 may be used for walls without plain lows. I imagine they'll be pretty specific on that that came up on the exam.

Isaac Oakeson: So that was a deep dive into the specifications that you're gonna be dealing with with your exam. Again, let's count these up. It's not the most anymore. It used to be the most, but 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. So they have 10 specs that are required now for the structural depth exam. That is not the winner for the most specs. I think it's transportation or others.

Isaac Oakeson: So anyway, there's your deep dive into the specifications. Next up, let's talk about pass rates and then we'll get into resources for you to ace this exam.

Isaac Oakeson: All right. Next up, let's talk about pass rates. So if you go to the NCEES website, you can go check these out fairly easily, but they have PE exam pass rates. They are converting, again, all exams to CBT, which the PE already is. It was accelerated due to COVID to become CBT. So here we are. It says some PE exams are administered year-round via computer-based testing. For these exams, pass rates are shown for the January to June or July to December population. They are updated in July and January, respectively. So for the results that are shown currently, they are showing June's last update of 2022.

Isaac Oakeson: So if we go down to structural, we can see that it has the third most test takers at 1233. So 1,233 first-time takers. They had a 54% pass rate, which is not the least amount. Geotech and construction, definitely win on that. So, 54% of first-time takers will pass, that's according to the latest as of June of 2022. This used to be a lot higher when it was paper-based, by the way. 54% for first-time takers.

Isaac Oakeson: If you're a repeat taker, that volume dropped drastically to only 50 people and the pass rate dropped to 26%, which is tied for the lowest pass rate for a repeat taker. The other one being geotech. So, third most people are taking this as the third highest pass rate. And for repeat takers, it does have the most repeat takers and it tied with the lowest pass rate, 26%.

Isaac Oakeson: So, you know, look at these pass rates with a grain of salt. People are gonna put their best foot forward on the first time, and I highly recommend that. And so you want to do all you can to pass this the first time. But if you're a repeat taker like I am, you know, don't put your head in the sand and complain about it. You know, figure out where you messed up or what you know you need to work on and then work for it. And eventually you will learn the process of the standardized exam. You will understand the look and the feel of it. So do not be discouraged by the pass rates. It does not give you a good indication of whether you're a good or bad engineer at all. But you know, it's a hoop you need to jump through to get this qualification done and to test you on it.

Isaac Oakeson: So anyway, 54% for first-time takers, 26% for repeat takers. And that is your pass rates for the structural depth exam. Next, let's dive into resources and make sure you understand you can get things I recommend so you can really ace this exam.

Isaac Oakeson: All right. Let's dive into resources real quick. So the first place I wanna point you to is obviously our own. No bias there, right? civilengineeringacademy.com. If you go to Resources and you go to Depth Resources, we've got a structural book section here and you can go check this out. But we list, you know, pretty much everything that's out there for you.

Isaac Oakeson: You can get a nice Civil Engineering Reference Manual from the PPI, which I think is still helpful in studying. They also have some other bundles at PPI and I'll show you those. But other books that I really like, Dr. Goswami has good books. And there's others. Solved problems, Six-Minute Solutions. They have their own reference manual. There's some good structural steel books out there. And then obviously you're gonna want the standards. You know, if you need additional help, a good textbook might help you. A design steel book is good for you.

Isaac Oakeson: And again, I'm listing a lot of standards here, but you're gonna need a lot of those for thsi depth exam. So Masonry, ASCE 7, snow load stuff, OSHA, PCI handbook. So, a lot of the handbooks that you need. A good textbook doesn't hurt as well. So you can go check that out at civilengineeringacademy.com. We also do have our courses, if interested in those, for breath or depth exam, you can check those out and those will help you out as well.

Isaac Oakeson: If you go straight up to Amazon, you go do a search for structural depth exam, you can go find a ton of books because you're gonna need practice problems. And there's just a lot of material here as well that you can go check out, including our own. So we have our own exams you can get as well. I forgot to mention that. We also have a straight CBT exam that we've developed as well, a simulator. So you can go check that out and test you on a morning and afternoon exam so you can get some practice in there, which is really nice.

Isaac Oakeson: So again, Amazon's a good friend to find out all the material that's out there for your structural engineering exam. I'll show you quickly PPI, if you want anything from there, check out our link, civilengineeringacademy.com/ppi and you can go check out their resources. For the structural exam, they do have a structural depth reference manual, which I think can be very handy if you're studying for that. And then again, they have like six-minute problems and things of that nature. Solved problems that can help you. They also have a library of problems that you can dive into as well at PPI. So you can check that out.

Isaac Oakeson: Another great resources that was just released is from School of PE. They did this for all the depth exams, but you can check this out. But for the structural, they have a volume one and two guidebook out that follows the spec, and volume ones AM questions, volume two is the PM questions. If you add that to your cart, that's $330 for those two books, and you can see all about them by clicking on that. So they go over everything that's basically in the specifications that you're gonna want for your depth exam. And those are brand new, so you can go check those out civilengineeringacademy.com/sope and that'll take you there.

Isaac Oakeson: So, with all of that, you know, whether it's a course or just books, or you wanna do it on your own, all of that should be able to get you over the hump of passing this thing. So check out those resources if you would like to. And yeah, that should wrap up all the resources I think you're gonna need for this outside of, you know, obviously the handbook and the specs that you're gonna want to get and become very familiar with.

Isaac Oakeson: Get a calculator that it's approved as well. Get lots of practice problems because that's the key to passing this: getting problems and exams under your belt to ace this thing. So definitely check those out. All right, hopefully that helped you out.

Isaac Oakeson: All right, I hope you enjoyed that content that we went over as we dived into the structural depth exam, as we covered resources, the pass rates, and everything else you wanna know about this exam. Maybe more than you wanted to know. But it is a great exam if you're going into this field of structural engineering and definitely one you're gonna want to check out.

Isaac Oakeson: So hopefully you enjoyed that. Definitely give us a try for our resources at civilengineeringacademy.com. We have practice exams, we've got CBT exam simulators for the FE and the PE exam, and we also have courses that you're gonna wanna check out as well. You can find it all at civilengineeringacademy.com. And thanks for being here. We'll see you in the next one. Bye!