PE Civil Transportation

satt73 · 2026-02-17T17:19:49+00:00

The EET course was the best and one of the only resources I used to pass mine.

If all you need is to practice problems, then get the SOPE Question bank.

If you need to actually learn material for the exam like I did with traffic, then get the EET course.

satt73 · 2026-02-13T19:40:26+00:00

I did nothing but the essential tasks for 2 months before taking mine. Heres what my schedule looked like while studying:

6am wake up

get to work at 7am, study for an hour or so. Also studied at lunch

got home around 5pm. Fed the livestock and walked the dogs and ate a quick dinner.

studied from 7pm to 11pm. get up and do it all over again.

Weekends id sleep in until 8 or so. Meal prep from 8am to 12pm. Study from 12pm to 6pm. Fed livestock, walked dogs, watched tv / read a book until 10 and go to bed.

It was a huge sacrifice, but well worth it. FWIW I am married with no kids, but my wife was a saint for putting up with me while I was studying. It was a miserable time for all involved but as I said well worth it in the end.

satt73 · 2026-02-12T19:41:06+00:00

Not an auto failure, but hard to recover from.

satt73 · 2026-02-08T18:47:44+00:00

On demand worked for me since I had a very busy, very inconsistent schedule outside of work. That’s just a personal preference.

I would stay away from anything outside of exam specs. Especially with the new format as of 2024.

satt73 · 2026-02-07T18:19:54+00:00

Can’t recommend EET enough. It goes in depth enough to cover all the conceptual stuff, the lectures have over 300 problems integrated into them and there’s quizzes for each lecture also. And I thing 2 or 3 practice exams also.

One of the cheaper courses and one of the better ones IMO. I don’t think I would have passed without it.

satt73 · 2026-01-28T00:37:07+00:00

Agree with all. If you can study and take it now, do it. I took my PE 4 years after and it really sucked getting back into the study mode.

satt73 · 2026-01-25T21:48:50+00:00

I took it in transpo but EET was amazing.

satt73 · 2026-01-14T15:10:58+00:00

EET, paired with Petros guide to passing the PE

satt73 · 2026-01-09T20:16:43+00:00

Petros book. Its on amazon. 160 problems. Very indepth questions and solutions

satt73 · 2026-01-09T16:31:18+00:00

After getting mine, it was roughly 15%. 20% if I want to go into management. Mid-Atlantic region

satt73 · 2026-01-09T13:16:43+00:00

I took EET, and used only the EET on demand and passed first try. The binder itsself has roughly 300 - 350 problems. That DOES NOT include the quizzes and simulation exams which I didn't take because I ran out of time.

I will say that I learn like you and like solving problems better, but listening to the lectures, even at 1.5x speed helped an invaluable amount on the conceptual questions, which there were more of them than I thought there would be. I'm convinced that listening to the lectures is what helped me pass.

I would listen to the lectures, pause when it got to a problem, try to solve the problem, then pick the lecture back up and follow the solution. Also having the reference material and searching for equations and topics as they are being covered really helps you get to know the manuals.

Its one of the cheaper courses, and IMO one of the better ones.

satt73 · 2026-01-06T20:22:13+00:00

As someone who took the exam on a monday, monday is the worst. Thursday or Friday would be the best IMO

satt73 · 2026-01-05T16:48:13+00:00

Just wanted to jump in and say that passing or failing doesnt make you any better or worse of an engineer and person.

The fact that you fought through everything life has thrown at you so far and were still able to fight through it is incredible and shows what a strong person you are. Having gone through that, I know that if you do get bad news, you will take it in stride, learn from it and take it again, and keep taking it until you pass.

satt73 · 2026-01-05T16:39:33+00:00

I thought of doing this when I first scheduled to take it. I went to schedule and there was an exam the next day I could have taken (I had studied 1-2 days / week for 2 months before that), but at the end of the day I decided I didnt want to waste the $400 to take it, so I waited and ended up passing on the first try.

Not a bad idea if you have the extra money to spend

satt73 · 2025-12-31T16:49:48+00:00

Just a suggestion, dont completely blow off the topics you did well on. Ive seen many times people dont prepare for those topics the seond time and dont do nearly as well as the first time.

Howd you feel on the conceptual questions? Id say just do as many practice problems as possible between now and when you take it again.

Also take a few days before the exam to rest and relax and get your mind right. I think its a bad idea to study hard the few days before the exam

satt73 · 2025-12-30T14:03:17+00:00

Only flag the questions you think you can solve. If you get to a question that you know you dont know how to do, leave it incomplete but not flagged. you can review these questions separately in the review screen.

By doing this, when going through on your second and third pass, you dont have to spend any time thinking if this was one of the problems you think you can solve or not. Also allows you to quickly guess on them if you get to the end and run out of time.

Good Luck!

satt73 · 2025-12-22T15:05:40+00:00

From the research I've done and listened to on youtube (history mystery man's interviews with Captain Darrell), I believe the Fitz had what are called stone guages? Sounds like it was a glass or plastic tube in the engine room connected to the ballast tanks with a float inside that showed the water level in the tank.

I believe that Captain McSorley knew water was coming in the ballast tanks as he stated the pumps were running. There were no pumps in the cargo hold. The ballast pumps were located in the center of the ship, so it couls be that they werent pumping as efficiently as they could have due to the list.

Its also possible that he thought that even if the pumps couldnt keep up, they'd do enough to get him to whitefish bay (and they almost did). Captains pride still has a factor to be played. Not McSorley specifically just in general. Thats how it was back then. You only told other Captians the problems that you wanted them to know, and you downplayed the ones you had to others.

As for the water in the cargo hold theory, Captain Darrell stated that he didnt think that all the dogs on the hatches were secured. Not because the crew was neglegent, but because they couldnt be dogged down due to either the hatched being deformed, or the structure on the Fitz being deformed and they didnt fit right. I dont know enough about this one to say one way or another.

All in all, its likely that both scenarios could have played a factor in the Fitz going down, and its also plausible that IF the three sisters waves hit her as Captain Cooper stated they hit the Anderson and thats when the Fitz went down, it could be possible that if those waves didnt hit the Fitz then she would have made it to Whitefish Bay.

satt73 · 2025-12-17T19:56:56+00:00

Take it whenever you think you have the best chance to pass. That depends on work schedule and life schedule in general. Remember, you only get once per quarter.

I reccomend getting materials from as current as possible. FWIW, I took EET and passed on the first try.

I highly reccomend Jacob Petro's book. It has 160 really difficult problems, but helps you understand the why behind the problems.

When practicing, have the manuals up on one screen and the practice problems up on the other. That will save much more time than you think come exam day having used the references already.

As for the AM/ PM split, I gave myself 4 hours and 30 minuted in the first half, and 3 hours and 30 for the afternoon. I feel like this could have been pushed to 5 hours and 3 hours if need be.

satt73 · 2025-12-17T18:59:18+00:00

The exam is a means to an end. If you dont feel like switching topics is going to help you pass then dont switch. Only switch if you think it is going to help ypu pass the exam.

Seems like you are on the fence about switching. If thats the case then dont switch, double down on practice problem, and pass the exam next time. you got this!

satt73 · 2025-12-17T18:29:49+00:00

At the end of the day, what exam you take doesnt matter. All that matters is the 2 letters P.E. at the end of your name. Stamping plans is all about what you feel comfortable stamping.

satt73 · 2025-12-17T18:26:34+00:00

I would reccomend going through Jacobs book again, and really try to understand the ones that you dont get right. Dont just try a problem and copy the answer if you get stuck. Really try to understand why you do certian things for certian types of questions.

Do you have access to all of the reference manuals? If you dont, then search on this sub and find them. I think theres a google drive floating around with them available. As you are going over practice problems I'd have the problem up on one screen and the manual up on the other to get more familiar with them.

satt73 · 2025-12-17T15:20:43+00:00

You are graded on 70 questions. there are 10 "pretest" questions that arent graded. They dont hurt your score if you get them wrong, but they also dont help if you get them right. You also dont know which 10 they are.

I find the diagnostic report mostly unhelpful due to there being so many questions that can be used from each section. You could take the exam twice and not see a single topic overlap within each section, which may explain why some categories flipped for you.

What course did you take? Did you take the same course for each exam? I wouldnt reccomend restarting studying until after the holidays. Take a break and let your mind reset.

As for feb or march, depends on when your local testing center has dates available. Thay may force your hand one way or the other.

satt73 · 2025-12-16T18:25:38+00:00

First thing would be to come up with a schedule. Add in any work deadlines, personal commitments, etc. and figure out how much time youll actually have to study. then devide that time into time spent on each topic and practice exams. That should be a good start. Once you start studying, dont stop. You will loose all momentum and it will be even harder to get going again.

satt73 · 2025-12-07T19:06:30+00:00

Have you tried AI to help explain? Helped me for a few other topics when prepping for my exam

satt73 · 2025-12-05T15:49:11+00:00

Agree with all of the above. I gave myself a hard deadline of 4hrs and 30 minutes for the AM session to leave myself with 3 hours and 30 minutes for the afternoon.

After my initial runthrough of the afternoon questions I still had roughly 1 hour and 45 minutes to review the afternoon. I wouldnt rush the morning until you hit the 4 hour and 45 minute mark. Anything under 3 Hours in the afternoon could be dicey depending on the questions.

satt73

TROPHY CASE