(00:00): The PE handbook is the only reference that you are going to have with you on exam day for your PE exam, but is it the only thing that you should be using to study from? And you know what? My hot take is? No. Now don't get me wrong, you should be using the handbook all the time in your preparation for your own exam and definitely getting used to it, but it's just a big compilation of equations, tables and graphs that are thrown in there and it doesn't actually teach you anything. So as you know, the PE exam is pretty conceptual, has a lot of theory questions in there too, but just manipulating equations and plugging numbers into them is probably not going to cut it for you. You're going to need additional material to help you learn the concepts that you need to learn and a lot more material to help you practice them.

(00:43): In this video, I'm going to be sharing 14 books. So you're going to cover specifically the water resources PE exam. That's going to cover three main areas of a great exam prep. First one is going to be theory questions. You're going to want to definitely hammer those. Second one is going to be practice problems. We need a ton of those. And the third are actually practice exams, putting the pressure on to help us out. Hey there, I'm Isaac Esson. I'm with Civil Engineering Academy, and if you are taking the water resources PE exam, believe me, you're going to want to watch this video until the very end so you get to know what materials that you should definitely be getting. So see you in a minute.

(01:29): Alright, let's [00:01:30] start with the first aspect of any good or really good exam prep. And that's learning the theory that you're going to want to check out and brush up on because it's probably been a few years since you've been studying. So chances are you need a great refresher on this stuff. There's probably a few topics that you haven't seen since. Well, college days. So here are a few books that we recommend that our students have used to pass as well. Now the first one is this Bad Boy Boom, the Civil PE reference manual, used to be called the C. Now I know you can't take this thing in with you into the exam. You used to be able to right back in the day and now with the latest changes to the specifications that just happened in April of 2024, you may think you don't need this particular book at all, but I'm here to tell you it's still a great resource for your exam prep.

(02:16): You're going to learn great concepts in here for the exam. I mean no joke. Look how thick that sucker is. This thing's like five inches thick. So you want to get the latest edition. This one's probably a little bit older. This is the 16th edition that I have here, but definitely check that out. So since there is no breath exam anymore, you don't have to read that whole book. Like I said, it's like five inches thick, but you can focus on the water resource chapters only. Go find those and research all you can on those. If you don't understand a particular topic, there you go, dive into it and start learning it. It does a really good job of still teaching and illustrating concepts that you need to know for your exam. Alright, number two is the water Resources depth reference manual. This is a good in-depth reference manual specifically for water resources.

(03:00): Yes, it was created for the water resources depth section of the older PE exam, but now the depth section is almost the entire exam, right? They just moved all those breadth topics that maybe applied to you, shoved them into the depth stuff and kept the same number of problems. So it makes sense to still grab that one because it's going to help you. Anyway, covers all three main areas that you're going to be tested on this exam from basic water resources to wastewater and environmental, which those last two are always a struggle for most test takers that are taking this. But it helps you because it's going to cover it. It also comes with the example problems within the chapters and then standalone practice problems at the end of each chapter. So it's going to get you more exposure to all that stuff. So it's going to get you covered on both fronts.

(03:43): Definitely check that one out. Okay, the third one is the Civil PE exam, water Resources and Environmental Depth Practice Exam and Study Guide. That's a mouthful. All of these titles start getting mouthfuls, but it's a good one. This one is both a study guide and a practice problems book. So you get the best of both worlds and it starts with a quick explainer of every topic in the old breadth exam and the water resources depth exam as well. And so after that, it then follows with 80 breadth type questions and 40 depth type questions that are all good, right? You can use the explanations for the water resources depth section to brush up on the theory and then practice the problems as you need to do the ones obviously that are related to water resources among the 80 breadth questions. And then do all of the depth [00:04:30] questions that they give to you.

(04:31): Alright, number four on the list is the civil engineering PE all in one exam guide. That is this guy. It's by Dr. Swamy. This is another decently sized book, right? Look at that thing. So a couple inches thick, but this is a good one. It's an oldie but a goodie, and they continually update it. So it does cover a lot of stuff that may be created for the old exam, but still, like I said, good material even though it covers Brett and Deb material. So everything was in there though, which is awesome, including water resource topics that are still in the latest specification. We just need to zoom in on what we need to know. So again, another great resource to study from, especially the concepts that you need to study. So check that out. You need to do some tailoring focus on the water resource chapters only, but that's fine.

(05:13): And the great thing about that book is that it comes with practice problems and solutions within it. So you even get more practice under your belt that helps cement the concepts that you're going to be learning through reading it. Alright, next step is the second area of any good exam preparation, and that is practicing problems. So that's still the key to pass and something I harp on all the time and everywhere, including our PE review courses if you're a part of those. But the more material that you can get your hands on to give you extra practice, the better you need to get exposure to a ton of problems. So we've compiled a list of some of those. They're going to help you out. So let's dive into that. Alright, number one on our list is this guy, and this may be an older edition, but it's the PE Civil Practice Problems book.

(05:55): This thing is thick, check that out. But it goes right along with the civil engineering reference manual that we talked about earlier. Everything aligns with the chapters that are in the civil Engineering reference manual. So it's very easily if you get stuck on something, you go find the chapter and off you go. So while a ER explains all the theory about a topic in a given chapter, that book will help you actually practice problems. Put this thing to test. So use it for extra practice problems. It aligns with the civil engineering reference manual, which is nice, but again, you're going to have to do some tailoring there to focus on water resources problems only, which you're probably going to have to do that all the time. So just get used to it. Alright, number two on our list is this guy, and this is actually the six minute solutions for the Civil PE, water resources and environmental depth exam as it specifically states in the title.

(06:41): Boom. There it is. And this is the addition I have. You probably have a newer edition out there, make sure you get the newest one. Not very sick, it's just practice problems, but they are specifically related to your depth exam. They provide about a hundred problems, which is specific for water resources, which is nice. So they're not going to leave you hanging on having to filter out anything. So definitely go through that six minute solutions for water resources. It's a good one. Alright, number three in our list is the Water Resources Practice Problem book. Now this book is a nice package of 111 water resource practice problems and solutions that you're going to check out. It's good for those that have already finished reviewing all the theory up to this point and just want to keep brushing up on problems by practicing topics on a variety of things.

(07:25): So one downside to it though is that it doesn't have a ton of problems on water treatment and wastewater, but it does cover other topics that you're going to find, like hydrology and open channel flow, which are very common on the exam. So just something to think about. Alright, number four on our list is associated with this book right here. It's called the All-in-One Civil Engineering PE Practice Problems Breadth and Depth. So that was the reference manual. They have an associated book for the practice problems. It's another book by Dr. Gus Swami. This one has a total of 280 questions that are broken down into seven groups, each one with 40 questions in it. So two groups are breadth questions. So you're going to have two exams that are breadth questions, and then the other five are depth questions, one for each specific PE exam.

(08:10): So you're going to have to chop out what you need to and study specifically what you want, but you can use it as a great repository of practice problems. You're obviously going to focus on the water resource problems within the groups that you have, so those two breadth exams. And then go find your water resource depth exam. But it's a great book and very much like the real exam, so I definitely recommend getting that one as well. Alright, number five. To wrap up our recommended resources for practice problems, we have what we created at Civil Engineering Academy called a hundred Bonus Water Resources Theory Questions. This is our very own book that's packed with a hundred of the best theory type questions that the N-C-E-E-S can throw at you with detailed explanations at the end of the book. So theory makes up a huge part of the exam.

(08:53): Many people that go take the exam are always surprised by how much theory, there's a lot more that you're going to expect on there than you think. So we definitely need to brush you up on that. And there are actually very few materials out there that will help you practicing those type of problems because it's expected that as you solve conceptual problems, you're just going to be able to figure these things out and you use engineering judgment. So we give you a hundred of the best ones that we've created based on our experience, and we want to make sure you're ready when the time comes to be prepared for theory questions to get thrown at you to help you think about those things. So check that out. A hundred bonus theory questions for [00:09:30] the Water Resources PE exam, we'll make sure we link that as well.

(09:33): Alright, the final aspect of any good exam prep that you cannot skip is taking practice exams. I'm always surprised how many people miss this step in their exam prep that you absolutely cannot miss that step when you're preparing for your exam. It's going to help you get used to the whole exam experience by simulating the real deal and putting pressure on you well before the real exam. Now I want to dive into the best practice exams that you can get. So let's go do that. Alright, number one on our list if you're hunting for practice exams is going to be obviously the official N-C-E-E-S water resources and environmental practice exam. Now, I have some additions here. They're a little older, but in different varieties. This one's construction, but you get the idea. You can get these as PDFs, I believe now they're offering them as an exam experience, so similar to a computer-based exam, but you can also just download or buy the book copies and check those out.

(10:27): They're not very thick, they don't give you a ton of problems, but they're going to give you exposure to what this thing looks like in real life. I also have a really old NCES practice exam that came with quite a bit more. And if you can get older additions of exams, that is awesome too because it's just going to get you exposure to more problems. But those exams are definitely a must. That is a must period. I dunno how else to say that. Go grab that. Why are these things a must? Well, these are practice exams obviously that come directly from the horse's mouth. We wanted an exam that comes from the test takers themselves, so you're not going to be guessing what that exam's going to look like. Now, of course, as you go through these practice problems or these practice exams, you're not going to get these same questions on your official exam, but it's a nice source to get a feel for how these questions are phrased, what the questions look like and what the N-C-E-E-S is really thinking as they're giving you questions to try to solve and figure out.

(11:24): Alright, number two on our list is the water Resources and Environmental Debt practice exam. This is a book again by PPI. They have a lot of great resources and they have two practice exams each with 40 questions in there. Yes, it was created for the older water resources exam back in the day, but since the exam is really depth only, this is still good practice and will test you on your knowledge of water resource topics. It's going to come with step-by-step solutions again for each question, plus comments from the authors explaining shortcuts to save time where you can to help you solve problems. Number three on our list is the practice exam for the civil PE exam, breath plus water resources depth. Another mouthful. This again is a book by Dr. Gus Swami. This one comes with 40 breath questions, plus 40 water resource depth questions.

(12:11): Obviously the breadth questions you're going to need to tailor and the depth questions are all there and all good that you can use as standalone problems, but I highly recommend with all of these, obviously taking them timed, you want to take 'em and put the pressure on yourself to do it the right way. Alright, the last two resources on my list are our varying own practice exams that we've developed at Civil Engineering Academy. So number four, we're going to have this guy, which is the Ultimate Water Resources PE exam. This is an excellent practice exam for yourself. We've put together this sucker based on the new April, 2024 specifications for the water resources exam. It's going to come with 80 questions based on topics that are relatable to the latest edition of the specifications. And each one of the questions comes with step-by-step solutions at the end of the exam with references of the sections you need to brush up on in the PE handbook so we don't leave you hanging there in addition to the code and standards that are going to be thrown at you on the exam as well.

(13:08): So we want to make sure you're covered in knowing where to solve and get the information to solve these problems. Go check that out. You can find [email protected]. Alright, and finally, number five. I can't hold up a book for this, but that is our very own CBT exam simulator and you're going to love this one. So most practice exams out there are kind of like this. They're paper-based [00:13:30] exams that you're going to have to grab and they'll melt at you or download. But the PE is obviously a computer-based exam. So we actually worked our butts off and tried to develop a full blown CBT exam simulator for you to simulate the real deal. Just like the real CBT experience, you're going to have all the questions given to you on the right. You're going to have your codes and standards on the left that you can look up both multiple choice and a IT type problems.

(13:56): You can control S as a search function to look for things in the handbook as well as the codes and standards that we have there. We do actually throw in something a little different, and that is that you can take a break. So we know that you have a real life and sometimes you can't dedicate a full eight hours to taking an exam. So we do allow you to pause it because we know you have a real life. Everything else though in the exam is going to look like the real deal. You're going to really like that. So to sum it all up, this is hands down the closest experience that you'll get to the real deal. You definitely want to check that out. It's one of the resources inside [00:14:30] of our PE review course that our students love the most, and they usually take this in their final weeks of their exam prep leading up to when they actually take their exam so they can get fully prepared for what's coming their way.

(14:41): So again, check those [email protected]. Now, before I wrap this whole video up, there are three disclaimers that I want to make sure that are crystal clear in this video. And disclaimer number one is that most of the resources, which I have mentioned, have not been updated to meet the new specifications and they have not gotten rid of that breadth section of the exam. So why should you use them? Well, the new specifications still have some of the old topics that the N-C-E-E-S just rearranged and put into a different spot. If you actually look at the specifications for the water resources exam, you'll see that there is a brand new topic called project site work that came from a combination of breadth topics like site development and means and methods. So the CERN, for example, is still a great resource to have. You can find what you need for the water resources topics, but also these other topics from the breadth that got moved around and it's still all in one book.

(15:37): So still a great resource. Alright, disclaimer number two on this is most of the books for the Practice Problems and practice exams that I mentioned do not reference the handbook and the solutions. And many people want those, right? And that's because they've been written for the old PE exam when it was still open book. However, when working out these practice problems and taking these practice exams, you need to use the PE handbook all of the time. You will always want to try solving problems using the handbook first. It's your go-to source for information. So if you're solving a problem and you get the question wrong, look for the equations used in the solutions and find their sections in the handbook and then try to solve the same problem. Again, using the information from the handbook because those equations might use different variables or look slightly different and you just want to get used to the look and fill of the handbook.

(16:29): So my point in all of this is that you need to get as much practice as possible. It doesn't matter where those problems come from, but you need to be using the PE handbook to work out those problems. And lastly, my third disclaimer, and I kind of hit on this earlier, is that most of the practice materials and problems that I've mentioned, especially those from PPI and maybe even some from Dr. Gus Swami, they're a bit more difficult than the actual real exam questions. But honestly, I think that's a really good thing because you want to practice with the difficult questions first. Even the lengthiest ones, you want to get the hardest ones under your belt because when you go take the real exam, they're going to be much easier on you. What's that old saying? Train hard, win easy. Alright, so that's it for this video guys.

(17:13): You need to get all your materials lined up at the very beginning of your studies and really, why wouldn't you do this? You've already paid for the exam fee, which is quite expensive. You've already booked your exam date, so get your resources ready so you do not have to repeat this exam. Now, if you don't want to hand all this stuff yourself or you don't know what the heck you're getting into and you want everything covered for you, maybe a review course is going to be what you're looking for because a review course can be a huge game changer to your studies. It takes all the guesswork out of your study plans and it organizes everything into one spot so you don't have to guess on what you need covered anymore that way. The only thing you really need to worry about is studying. And if you need a course for the water resources and environmental exam, you're going to want to check out the ultimate Civil PE review course that we've developed specifically for the water resources and environmental exam.

(18:05): It's got some great stuff. This is our brand new course that we just recently launched, and it covers everything that you need to get this thing done. We completely revamped it to meet the new specifications that came out in April of 2024. Just go to civil pe review course.com or click on the link below. We'll go ahead and link that down there. If you're in hunt for a review course that's going to hold you by the hand and get this thing done, then you're going to want to go check that out. And with that, we're going to go ahead and wrap this one up. Don't forget to hit a like and a subscribe, and don't forget to hit that bell notification so you can get exam prep tips just like this one. I'm Isaac Kuson with Civil Engineering Academy. I'm here to help you on your journey to crush your professional civil engineering exams. Can't wait until you do it. Good luck with your own studies. We'll see you in the next one. You can do this and we'll see you later. Bye.