Chris Hahnel, PE

New PE, Ohio | Project Manager | Cincinnati, Ohio

Schedule time to study. I set small achievable markers + due dates such as finishing chapters or certain topics in order to stay on track. If you don’t schedule time and plan your home + work schedules around it, it will continue to be pushed off.

I recommend starting with topics you haven’t used since school. Highlight information that is very specific and may need to be quickly found, and absolutely add tabs to your books if there aren’t already. Make sure you review practice tests + recommended reference material. I knew of some of my colleagues who were also studying – we would often run questions by each other, share practice material and sometimes keep each other accountable on studying.

Don’t forget to celebrate after you’re alerted that you passed – I recommend happy hour!

Matt Kozma, PE

New PE,  Ohio | Project Manager | Cincinnati, Ohio

Practice, practice, practice!

A conventional belief is that the exam is unique from year to year and that you can’t possibly practice for the eventuality that a question will be on your exam, but this is quite untrue. Start studying the material by (and mainly focus your time on) solving sample exam type questions over + over until you can quickly answer most of them without looking up the equation in your reference books. Don’t delay solving problems to read through the all the reference books or attend a training course. In the contrary, squeeze in a six minute question or two first thing in the morning before work, during your lunch break or after diner. You’ll never be prepared for all the questions on the exam; however, you’ll have more time to answer the questions you didn’t anticipate if you practiced answering the easy ones quickly. In fact, you can even bring the solutions you’ve practiced with you and reference them during the exam.

Don’t wait until the last few weeks to run through the NCEES practice exam. You can use the questions in this practice exam to narrow down the chapters you should read through in the PPI reference manual or additional sample exam type questions you wish to practice. The reference manual covers the material for more than one exam. You don’t need to memorize the entire book, just familiarize yourself with + tab the relevant chapters that apply to your specific exam.

Phil Niekamp, PE

New PE, Ohio | Project Manager | Cincinnati, Ohio

I recommend creating a study plan by setting time aside on a regular basis to study; I needed a few days a week for about three or so months for the PE. The preparation that helped the most was doing as many practice problems as I could find. By doing the practice problems you will, along the way, find which sections need tabbed and which books or resources will be the most useful. Definitely celebrate after passing – do something that you haven’t done in awhile like a nice meal out as you probably haven’t done much while studying.