Isaac Oakeson: All right! Let's dive into it. Today, on the Civil Engineering Academy Podcast, we are going to be doing a deep dive in the transportation depth exam. Now, if you've been paying attention to the last few episodes of our podcast, we have been doing deep dives on all of these specs, and right now we are just hitting transportation. So if you're not taking transportation, then maybe you want to skip over this one. But if you are, then definitely give this one a listen.

Isaac Oakeson: Typically, transportation depth exam is one of the more popular exams that are taken. And so we want to go over everything with you. So, with that introduction, if you're taking the transportation depth exam, this is gonna be one that you're gonna wanna listen to. And it's gonna be coming up right after this.

Isaac Oakeson: All right! So let's just start diving into some of the details. I want to talk about the exam experience itself at the beginning, so that you can wrap your head around that as you're preparing for this exam. But the exam itself is nine hours. You have a 50-minute break. You have to sign a non-disclosure agreement. There's a tutorial. All of that takes a little bit of time, but you end up with eight hours taking this exam.

Isaac Oakeson: It's broken up into AM and PM questions still. So you'll still have AM type questions that don't require standards. They're a little more breath-related in terms of their difficulty and the categories that they follow. And in fact, the first eight sections in the spec are all the same among all the specifications. And then we'll dive into your specifics for your own depth exam for transportation. So, yes. Be prepared to be there for, you know, eight hours sitting there for an exam. You'll have your break in the middle. Definitely take that. You need to recharge. But it's a lengthy exam.

Isaac Oakeson: It's a closed-book exam, except for the reference handbook that they give you, which you can get a free copy of. If you head to the NCEES website, if you create an account with them, you'll go in there and you can get handbooks. And the latest handbook will be there for you to use at your disposal. Definitely recommend using that for all of your practice problems moving forward.

Isaac Oakeson: There is another resource from PPI, the Civil Engineering Reference Manual. I still think that is a valuable tool if you're trying to learn the concepts, because the handbook is simply just charts, graphs, figures, and equations. So, you know, I still think the tool from PPI is still a valid tool. The Civil Engineering Reference Manual. You can check that out at civilengineeringacademy.com/ppi.

Isaac Oakeson: Anyway. So you have your handbook. You'll also have access to your standards. Now, transportation requires quite a few standards, and those will be at your disposal as well. And they will be on your left-hand side of your screen. And so you'll have that the entire exam. It's not gonna be just given to you for -- You know, the codes and standards are not just gonna be given to you for the depth portion only. You're gonna have access to those the entire time. They're all searchable, so use CTRL+F a lot and you'll be able to search through things very quickly. Usually less is more when you're trying to search for things as you can pull up a lot of material quicker.

Isaac Oakeson: So anyway, those are just real quick tips. Make sure you understand all the little stuff as you go into this exam. Know where your testing center is. I would also recommend not kicking the exam down the road after you've registered, because every time you re-register, it's gonna cost money to reschedule the exam. And the exam's already $375 to register this year. I'm assuming it's gonna be the same for quite some time, but as of this recording, it's $375. And you'll be, again, paying money if you have to reschedule that exam. So you don't want to do that. Commit to the date you're gonna take it. The exam's offered year-round now. You can take it once in each quarter, and you should be set. So set a goal to take that, and then I think we got it all covered.

Isaac Oakeson: Let's go ahead and dive into the specifications first. We'll also talk about pass rates for this particular exam, give some of my thoughts and opinions on that. We'll also talk about where to get resources, and then we'll wrap this thing up. So hopefully that gives you a quick overview of the exam itself as you're preparing for this and as you're wrapping your head around it. And we'll get started with the specification review coming up.

Isaac Oakeson: All right. We have dived into the spec. You can go grab this at ncees.org. Go check out once you log in, or I think you can just do a quick search and you can find the specs for this. But this is for the transportation depth section. This is effective as of January 1st, 2022. Has not changed since April of 2015 when these were originally published. And they do change these, you know, every so many years. People hate that. I don't like that either, but it is what it is. They look at industry trends and they kind of tweak these over time.

Isaac Oakeson: But the truth is that the concepts are generally the same. They generally just shuffle them around. All the problems and the concepts are really all the same. Again, the exam's a computer-based exam. It's closed-book; you can't bring in any books with you. You know, it's not like it used to be. So you can bring in your calculator, they give you something to write on, and that's pretty much it. So, they give you a little locker to put it in your snacks and stuff.

Isaac Oakeson: You'll have your handbook. You'll also have access to the codes and standards. The examinees, as listed here, again, I said nine hours. You have 80 questions. You really have eight hours to take the exam. The nine-hour total includes a tutorial, an optional scheduled break, and you gotta work all questions. The exam uses both the SI units and the US units. Although, you know, depending on your industry, typically I've only seen US units being asked, but they do throw that in there. So you need to be aware of that.

Isaac Oakeson: The exam is developed with questions that will require a variety of approaches and methodologies, including design, analysis and application. What that basically means is that we can throw at you, you know, any type of question. So you're gonna see a lot of theory questions on the exam. Most people see roughly, you know, 10 questions. So, 10 to 15 questions on the exam. It's quite a bit. So just remember that.

Isaac Oakeson: And then the examples, it says here, this is a coverall. The examples specified in knowledge areas are not exclusive or exhaustive. This basically means we can ask you whatever we wan; doesn't have to stick to this. But they obviously generally do. But it's kind of a coverall for them that they can really ask whatever they want. So just keep that in mind.

Isaac Oakeson: So yeah, they got this coverall there. Not a comforting feeling that they can't ask you whatever they want, but you know, if history is anything, they definitely don't. They haven't veered off of what they've gotten here. There's plenty of topics that they can go to. But again, not areas are all exclusive or exhaustive listed here.

Isaac Oakeson: All right. Let's dive into the specs. So the first thing we gotta cover -- Again, 1 through 8 is the AM type questions. And those are the same among all specs. So the first one is Project Planning. It's four to six questions. You've got quantity take-off methods, cost estimating, project schedules, activity identification and sequencing. So that's all project management type stuff that you're gonna want to know. And it's a fairly larger area.

Isaac Oakeson: Next, No 2, is Means and Methods. Three to five questions. You have to know construction loads, construction methods, and temporary structures and facilities.

Isaac Oakeson: No 3, Soil mechanics. Bigger section at five to eight questions asked. You gotta know lateral earth pressure, soil consolidation, effective and total stresses, bearing capacity, foundation settlement, and slope stability. So again, that's one of the heavier topics: soil mechanics. And you'll see soil mechanics thrown in other areas as they shift the spec a little bit, but that's what they have under soil mechanics.

Isaac Oakeson: No 4 is Structural Mechanics. And again, five to eight questions there. Another bigger section. You've got dead and live loads, trusses, bending moments, shear diagrams, axle loads, combined stresses, deflections, beams, columns, slabs, footings, and retaining walls. So, footings and retaining walls could also be thrown under soil mechanics, but that's where they put them, structural mechanics. So a bigger section there.

Isaac Oakeson: Now, section five is Hydraulics and Hydrology. Over the years, these used to be separate categories; now they're combined. And this is the biggest section at six to nine questions now. So you have open channel flow. You have stormwater collection and drainage. You have storm characteristics. You have runoff analysis. You have detention and retention ponds. You have pressure conduits. And you also have the energy equation, or continuity equation. This is a good section. Again, used to be two separate. But once they combined, it's now the biggest section you gotta know. It's six to nine questions.

Isaac Oakeson: Section six is Geometrics, which is transportation. And this is three to five questions. This used to be a lot bigger back in the day. And now it's only three elements here. You've got basic circular curve elements, you have basic vertical curve elements, and you have traffic volume. Circular curve elements, or horizontal curves is another name for that. So three to five questions there. But obviously, transportation's your depth section. So we're gonna have to know a lot more related to transportation.

Isaac Oakeson: Section seven is Materials, and that deals with soil classification and boring log interpretation, soil properties, concrete, structural steel, material test methods and specs, and compaction. And that is a large section, at five to eight questions.

Isaac Oakeson: No 8 eight is Site Development. And again, this will round off the AM questions. So site development, four to six questions that you're dealing with excavation and embankments, which are cut and fills. You have construction site layout and control. You have temporary and permanent soil erosion and sediment control. You also have impact of construction on adjacent facilities, which can be noise, or vibration, or anything to deal with stuff you're doing on a work site. You also have safety. So, OSHA stuff. Four to six questions there.

Isaac Oakeson: So that is the AM section that you'll be tested on. Those, again, do not require standards, okay? You really should only need to use your handbook for that.

Isaac Oakeson: Now we dive into your depth stuff, and these are gonna be harder questions. People are always surprised at how hard they are, but it looks like the biggest section for transportation comes off right at the beginning. That is section nine for traffic engineering, which is capacity analysis and transportation planning. You have 10 to 15 questions that fall under that.

Isaac Oakeson: So, this falls under these categories. So you have uninterrupted flow, which deals with level of service and capacity. You have street segment interrupted flow. Again, level of service, running time, and travel speed. You have intersection capacity. You have traffic analysis. You have trip generation and traffic impact studies. You have accident analysis, non-motorized facilities, traffic forecast, and highway safety analysis. So a lot of topics fall under there, and you've got 10 to 15 questions falling under Traffic Engineering.

Isaac Oakeson: Section 10 is Horizontal Design. So they do call it that there, and there's three to five questions here. So basic curve elements, site distance considerations, superelevation, special horizontal curves. I think it's funny; superelevation used to be part of the AM section, but now it's specifically called out in the PM section. So three to five questions for horizontal design.

Isaac Oakeson: Section 11 is Vertical Design, three to five questions there. So vertical curve geometry, stopping site and passing site distance, as well as vertical clearances.

Isaac Oakeson: Section 12 is intersection geometry. And for this we're dealing with intersection site distance, interchanges, as well as at-grade intersection layout, including roundabouts. So we're getting spread out over here. There's three to five questions there.

Isaac Oakeson: And then section 13 is Roadside and Cross-Section Design, at three to five questions. You have forgiving roadside concepts, which are clear zones, slopes, roadside obstacles. You also have barrier designs, cross-section elements, as well as the ADA, the Americans with Disabilities Act, design considerations falling under section 13.

Isaac Oakeson: Section 14, three to five questions for Signal Design. So signal timing, as well as signal warrants. Section 15 is Traffic Control Design. So signs and pavement markings and temporary traffic control. And section 16 is Geotech and Pavement, at four to six questions asked. So you have sampling and testing, soil stabilization techniques, settlement and compaction, excavation, embankment, and mass balance. That's kind of a big section. You have design traffic analysis and pavement design procedures. You have pavement evaluation and maintenance measures. And that rounds up Geotech and pavement at four to six questions.

Isaac Oakeson: Section 17 is Drainage. So hydrology as well as hydraulics including culvert and stormwater collection design. So you can see that, you know, between section 16 and 17, you're also gonna cover some of that in the AM portion. But now, you know, we're gonna go a little deeper. And for section 17, for Drainage, you got two to four questions involved there.

Isaac Oakeson: And lastly, number 18 is Alternative Analysis. So economic analysis. This is more engineering economics, present worth, lifecycle costs. You have one to three questions there.

Isaac Oakeson: So that rounds out all 18 topics that are gonna be covered on the transportation exam. And you definitely wanna spend a lot of your time in the depth portion because it does translate into the AM stuff as well. Like I said, some of these topics are crossovers into that area.

Isaac Oakeson: Now, the transportation depth exam does have quite a few standards and codes that you're gonna wanna know. If we're diving down a little further into the spec, they reference the handbook what that looks like, and the testing center. If you go to the NCEES YouTube channel, you can study up on that. Let's just go through a couple of these things.

Isaac Oakeson: Let's see. I've already mentioned this, but the handbook and the design standards are available the entire exam, although design standards are not needed for the breath portion. So just remember that. Solutions to the exam questions that reference the standard of practice are scored based on this list and the revision year shown. Solutions based on any other standards will not receive credit. So if you're using something that's dated 2022 or 20 next year, the exam has the standards that they have, and you need to use the year that they have. Because that's gonna give you the correct answer, okay? So you need to get the right standards.

Isaac Oakeson: The NCEES doesn't design standards; they don't sell them. So they note that. But you can get access to the handbook. So beg, borrow, steal. Just kidding; don't steal. But you gotta get these standards somehow. Oftentimes coworkers have them. Oftentimes you can search for these. Oftentimes they are free. So make sure you can grab these.

Isaac Oakeson: Well, the first one listed is the AASHTO GDHS-7, A Policy on Geometric Design of Highways and Streets, 7th edition, 2018, including the 2019 errata. So something to note. The AASHTO GDPS-4-M, which is Guide for Design of Pavement Structures, 4th edition, 1993 with 1998 supplement. You have the AASHTO GPF-1, which is the Guide for the Planning, Design, and Operation of Pedestrian Facilities, 1st edition, 2004.

Isaac Oakeson: You have the AASHTO HSM-1, which is the Highway Safety Manual, 1st edition, 2010, with 2014 Supplement, including September, 2010, February, 2012, and March, 2016 errata. So make sure you get those. The, AASHTO MEPDG-2, the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide: A Manual of Practice, 2nd edition, August 2015. Could we name that something different? Wow!

Isaac Oakeson: And then we've got the AASHTO RSDG-4, Roadside Design Guide, 4th edition, 2011, including the errata in 2012 and 2015. And then the FHWA HIF-12-026, the Hydraulic Design of Highway Culverts, the 3rd edition, 2012. You got the HCM, the Highway Capacity Manual (Volumes 1–4), 6th edition, 2016. And lastly, the MUTCD, the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways, 2009, including revisions 1 and 2, dated 2012.

Isaac Oakeson: How many standards is that? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. So nine standards listed. Other exams definitely have more than that, but still a good amount of material there that you're gonna have to dive through when you do practice problems, practice exams. You're gonna wanna have these at your disposal as well.

Isaac Oakeson: So that, my friends, is a quick rundown of the specifications, as well as the codes and standards that you need. My recommendation is, now that you know the specs, start building a schedule around those specifications that you need to hit, and start preparing how you're gonna schedule your study time around this. And these are all the topics that you're gonna wanna know. And so that's the way to do it. So yeah, let's dive into pass rates next. And I think maybe we'll be surprised by that, maybe not. But let's check that out next.

Isaac Oakeson: All right. Again, we're sharing our screen. Let's talk about pass rates. So, the NCEES has converted, or in the process of converting, all these exams to CBT. They've already done all the civil, but they want to note here that some of the 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. And so, if you go down here and look at transportation, you can see that it's offered year-round and that it indeed was last updated in June of 2022.

Isaac Oakeson: So let's take a look at the numbers for transportation. For transportation we had 1,462 people take that exam. It is the highest for first-time test-takers. So the most people that took the PE exam was in transportation. And 65% of people passed, which is a pretty good number. It's the highest pass rate among all of the civil PE exams.

Isaac Oakeson: As a repeat taker, it says only 33 for repeat takers. And 55% of those passed, which again is the second highest among repeat takers. Now, in the past, these pass rates used to be higher. I would say it used to be 65-70%, and repeat takers was probably a little better. Maybe not. Maybe it was the same. But if you look at any of the other exams, you'd probably get heartbroken knowing that others are 26% as repeat takers.

Isaac Oakeson: So, you know, pretty good rates here. It's got the highest for first-time test takers and the second highest for repeat takers. But the truth of it is that all of these exams are difficult. Don't get your head down if you have failed this. Just know that you gotta, you gotta put in the effort to do it, whether it's your first time or your fifth time. Let's make sure we're getting new problems, new exams, and identifying where our weakest points are so that we can improve. Don't get off the bus, okay? If you're failing the exam. Let's get back on it and get after it.

Isaac Oakeson: So, uh, anyway, interesting pass rates. And I did an interview with, at the time, the NCEES Exams Director, and we had a great interview talking about repeat pass rates and such. If you wanna check that out, go check out our podcast at civilengineeringacademy.com/podcast. Or you can find it on any pod catcher out there and go give it a listen. You can go check that out.

Isaac Oakeson: So anyway, those are the pass rates for this. I think you've got a really good chance of getting this one done the first time. And even as repeat taker, it's one of the highest. So good thing to know. Next we're gonna dive into resources for this exam, where to go to get them, and highlight some ones I think are important to know.

Isaac Oakeson: All right. So let's talk about resources. The first thing I'm gonna point you to is obviously our own. And maybe that's a little biased, but you know what? I don't really care. Just kidding. All right. So, if you go to civilengineeringacademy.com, the reason why I point you here is that we try to list any resource that's gonna be good for you. So, I'm not gonna just point you to our stuff. We're gonna point you to everything else that's out there.

Isaac Oakeson: So, if you go to resources on our website and go to depth resources, you can go to transportation books. And it will tell you what we recommend that's out here. So a lot of PPI materials. Still good. They got a good bundle for stuff. They got six-minute solutions. You obviously need the NCEES practice exam, which gets updated frequently. This may be an old cover, but the point is that it's good to take an exam from the test creator. Even though you'll never see those problems, at least gives you a feel for the exam.

Isaac Oakeson: There's some good material from PPI. They've got a good reference manual you may wanna check out, and I'll show you that. But if you go to PPI website, use our link at civilinjuryacademy.com/ppi and save some money. But, yeah. Check that out.

Isaac Oakeson: Other manuals I thought were good were this transportation manual. Obviously need the HCM and other design standards. It's always helpful to have a good textbook. So we've recommended a few of those on here that you can check out. And then handbooks for asphalt engineering, highway handbooks, things that other people have referenced that are good. Pavement engineering, principles of pavement engineering, payment design, design of pavement structures, as well as the traffic engineering handbook.

Isaac Oakeson: Obviously you're gonna want all the standards that we just listed, but these links will take you probably to Amazon where you can grab those books. But you know, we recommend stuff there that you can check out.

Isaac Oakeson: Obviously we have our own exams as well. So you can check those out. We have an exam specifically built for the transportation depth exam. We also have breath material. And we also launched a civil PE exam simulator. So if you want to take a real-life exam that looks very close to the real deal, all on a computer with your codes and standards and handbook on the left, problems on the right, the ability to flag problems and all that jazz, we just released that. Check that out, the Ultimate PE CBT Exam Simulator. So anyway, go check that out.

Isaac Oakeson: Oh, and the courses. If you need a course, we definitely have those to help you. You can check those out here under review courses, or you can go to civilpereviewcourse.com and check those out. We do have depth material. We also have breath material as well. So check that out.

Isaac Oakeson: The next one is simply Amazon. You've probably done this before, but just do a search for "transportation depth exam." You're gonna bring up a ton of exams that are out there and highly recommend any of them, you know? You need problems under your belt, so let's get them. Our own exams are on there too and you can check that out. I think one person's bought it so, anyway.

Isaac Oakeson: But, yeah. Check out the others. There's a lot of good material here. The point is that you gotta get problems under your belt, so definitely get them. PPI's materials also on Amazon, but I usually recommend going to their website, and you can use our link for that civilengineeringacademy.com/ppi. But they have a good Six-Minute Solutions, depth practice exams. I highly recommend getting those. And they even have a reference manual that can help you.

Isaac Oakeson: But your head should really be wrapped in the handbook, but that's gonna help as well. And then just in general, just good practice exams throughout the whole thing. So check that out. That's Amazon. You know what to do there. Go check it out.

Isaac Oakeson: The other one is School of PE, which I thought was really good. They just barely released these, by the way. But if you go to products under new PE civil exam review guides, you'll be taken to all the review guides. And they actually have a volume 1 and volume 2 for the transportation exam. If you add to cart and it takes you there. It's $330 for these books. But you basically get everything you need in these volumes, right? They cover everything that's in the spec.

Isaac Oakeson: So if you click on, after you put it in your cart, you go click on it and what they're giving you is everything that's in the spec. So the volume one covers everything that's in the AM portion, the first eight topics, and the PM for volume two covers everything in the rest of the topics for your your PM exam. So I think that's extremely valuable. It's probably the one-two punch that you need. If you want that, go check that out through our link as well: civilengineeringacademy.com/sope, and you can go get access to that as well.

Isaac Oakeson: So those are the resources I recommend. Definitely go check those out. Plenty of material out there for you. If you have a resource that you would recommend, maybe you took the exam before, shoot me an email and let me know about it. We would love to get those posted on our website to help others in the future. Shoot me an email, [email protected].

Isaac Oakeson: All right. That's gonna do it for resources. We talked about pass rates and we went through the entire spec. So, that should cover on my end with the screen share. Let's go ahead and wrap this thing up and close it out.

Isaac Oakeson: All right. So I hope that helped you if you're diving into the transportation depth exam. It's a really good exam to go take. You have fairly high pass rates compared to others. There's a huge volume of more people that take that exam. In addition, if you're a repeat taker, it's also a good one to do as well. So, it's always been a popular exam to take, the transportation depth exam. So it's definitely a good one to consider, especially if you're in that world. And you'll be set to go.

Isaac Oakeson: So hopefully, you know, we've identified the spec. You're comfortable with that. You can build a schedule around that, a study schedule. We've identified resources for you that you can go tackle and grab as you need them. And, yeah. So you should be set and ready to go.

Isaac Oakeson: Anyway, if you have any questions, feel free to email me, [email protected]. And if you need additional resources, definitely check out our website, civilengineeringacademy.com as well. We do have exams there for you. We also created just recently a computer-based exam that you can actually go take right now to test you. And we've built it to look just like the real deal. You'll have exams and specs on the left, your questions on the right, you can flag problems, you have the tools, couple Alternative Item Type questions. It's all the good stuff and it's all there for you. You can find that at civilengineeringacademy.com as well.

Isaac Oakeson: So, yeah. It's all there for you. Definitely continue to check out our YouTube channel. If you haven't subscribed, please do so. We continue to put out some amazing content to help you ace your exams and good stuff there too. So thanks for being here, and we'll see you in the next one. Bye!