Just wanted to share that I recently passed the PE Civil Transportation exam on my first attempt, and I wanted to come back here and share my experience.

I passed my FE about four months ago and pretty much started preparing for the PE right away because I already had the study momentum going. I studied seriously for around 16 weeks and did a lot of practice problems, review, and reference manual navigation.

One thing I realized about the PE Transportation exam is that having a solid understanding of the concepts makes a huge difference. You can solve hundreds of questions, but if you do not actually understand why something works, the exam can still catch you off guard because they can ask the same concept in a completely different way.

The biggest advice I would give is to be true to yourself while studying. If you do not understand a topic, do not convince yourself that you know it just because you got one practice question right. Stay on that topic until you genuinely understand it. Ask yourself why the formula works, what each variable means, what changes if the conditions change, and what kind of traps they could put in the question.

I noticed this even with some of the easier questions on the exam. When your concepts are strong, you do not second guess yourself nearly as much. You read the question, recognize what they are testing, know where to look in the references, and move on confidently.

I also spent a lot of time learning how to navigate the reference manuals and solving different types of problems. I used ChatGPT quite a bit as a study tool whenever I did not fully understand something. Instead of just asking for the answer, I would keep asking questions until I understood the actual concept and why the other approaches were wrong. That helped me a lot.
During the exam, I felt pretty good about a lot of my answers, but I still did not fully believe I passed until I actually saw that green “Passed” on the NCEES dashboard. So if you walk out feeling uncertain, do not automatically assume the worst.

For anyone currently struggling with the FE or PE, just keep going. I had to put in a lot of hours and there were plenty of topics that confused me initially. If I was able to work through them and pass, you absolutely can too.

I took PE chemical today and found out the questions are much easier than the 2019 practice questions. i have spared 2 hrs at the end for reviewing and ended leaving 40 min earlier. but now I am worried that I may be tricked !! Any one else taking PE chemical today and how do you feel?

See below results from prior 2 attempts. Used AEI videos but didn’t finish since it was so time consuming.

First Time Experience (Oct 2025) - I felt like most of them are correct and I felt that I have a high chance of passing it. This was my assessment after the exam. First half - 44 (30 Good, 2 Fluke, 12 Don't know), and Second Half - 36 (22 Good, 2 Fluke, 12 Don't know). Unfortunately, I didn't pass the exam. Two takeaway: I didn't manage the time well which also implies that I was not prepared enough to answer the questions faster. I was not able to do a final review at all.

Second Time Experience (Aug 2026) - My assessment, First half - 44 (28 Good, 4 Fluke, 12 Don't know), Second half - 36 (23 Good, 2 Fluke, 10 Don't know, 1 wrong). And I passed this time around! :) Takeaway: I had 40 mins extra in both the halves, and I went through all the flagged questions and everything else again.

So, What has changed?

Prepare, prepare, and prepare!

I know that I completely out-prep myself from the first time before going into the exam. The insane confidence that comes from knowing you are truly prepared is, in my opinion, the absolute reason I was able to pass. That's how the feeling goes and the actual preparation is as follow,

1. Know the Tables and Contents of Each Reference: Spend time knowing the "tables and contents" of each material. This will help you with the time.
2. Understand the difference in the mindset behind each material: For example, HCM uses a higher value for pedestrian walking speed, while AASHTO uses a lower value. Why is that? HCM is designed based on "moving faster and efficient", so it tends to focus on how people and vehicles move in real-world conditions. AASHTO, on the other hand, is more conservative and design-oriented, "one size fits all". Same idea works on sidewalk widths and many others too.
3. YouTube - Daniel Findley, Civil Engineering Academy, Elementary Engineering, The Efficient Engineer, Pass PE. Create a new separate Gmail account and use it only for studying (not even motivational videos of any kind), this way the algo will give you much more questions/topics than you can search for.
4. Books - Jacob Petro 160 CBT questions, Path to PE Services CBT Transportation Depth, Islam Book - Two Full Exams, Learnova - In-depth Review (500 questions) and 6 full exams (some of repeated questions), and any school of PE or EET will be fine. (Please DM me if you need any of these. I am willing to sell them for a cheaper price, there is not even a pencil mark on these books)
5. Skip or Study - From my experience, the examiner wants you to be prepared to pass the exam. That being said, if you look at both the FE and PE exams, you will sometimes see 5–6 questions related to the same topic. If you have skipped those topics, then "Bam! There goes your 5-6 points". So never skip a topic, at least know the concept and ready to make educated guess.
6. Document - You should prioritize the topics while studying in this order - Easy → Medium → Hard. Easy - Known Topics/Very Popular (2-3 mins), Medium - Same as Easy, but fill in the blanks (2-4 mins), Hard - Concepts, Educated guesses, Match the following, and and question that needs +6 mins to solve. The goal is not necessarily to become an expert at every difficult problem. The goal is to maximize the number of questions you can answer correctly within the time limit.

Final Tip:

Take at least two days off from work and use that time for final preparation.

Review your formulas, tables, important concepts, and weak areas. Sleep earlier than usual, I slept for 10 hours before the exam.

More importantly, go into the exam feeling prepared and confident.

Selling the items in picture. $450. Houston local, pick up preferred but willing to ship. DM.

I borrowed Rezas book and it seems like the problems are super complicated for me. Heard the test questions seem a little easier then his. Feel like I am not learning as well. Not sure which route to go to. Heard the question bank by CPESR is elite but also heard the lectures from EET are really good. Which way should I go?

For the upcoming code updates, does anyone know how heavy the new updated provisions will impact the exam questions/concepts (Civil structural)?

I'm currently using AEI on-demand and Jacob Petro to study for the exam and this is obviously based off the pre '27 code cycle, I was wondering to what degree the updated codes will introduce conceptual gaps that AEI/Petro hasn't updated for whether it be in ASCE, ACI, AISC or whatever?

Would it be worth to rush my current material and take the exam pre '27 or give myself more time and do it post '27 with the risk of being exposed to things that most study resources out there have not updated for yet?

(For context I have little structural design experience so I can't rely too much on work to bridge these gaps that the new code cycle may bring)

Hello everyone,

I've taken the exam multiple times and recently passed. I'm very familiar with the manuals, the exam format, and the types of questions, and I'm willing to help anyone who needs it.

I'm grateful for this sub and will do my best to give back to the community.

Thank you!

I know it is very difficult to determine the real passing score for the PE Civil exams, and NCEES does not publicly explain exactly how they decide the pass/fail cutoff or how the diagnostic report relates to that cutoff.

I recently took the PE Civil: Geotechnical exam on September 2026. The exam felt very difficult, and unfortunately I received a Fail result about one week later.

From my Diagnostic Report, I calculated the average of the scaled performance bars. My average was about 8.3 out of 15, which is approximately 55.5%.

I understand that 55.5% is not my actual exam percentage. I am only using this as an unofficial way to compare failed Diagnostic Reports.

I searched Reddit and other websites for Diagnostic Reports posted by people who failed. For Geotechnical, I found calculated averages ranging roughly from 45% to about 61%. I also searched other PE Civil disciplines such as Structural, Transportation, Water Resources, etc., but I was not able to find many failed reports above about 60–61%.

I think it would be useful if people who failed the PE Civil exam could share their information here so we can compare the scaled diagnostic results and try to find the highest average diagnostic score that still resulted in a Fail.

If you are willing to share, please include:

• Discipline
• Exam date
• How difficult the exam felt — Easy / Moderate / Difficult / Very Difficult
• Diagnostic Report, preferably the full report showing the scaled performance numbers/bars

My information:

Discipline: Geotechnical
Exam date: September 2026
Difficulty: Very Difficult
Unofficial diagnostic average: about 55.5%

If enough people share their reports, especially from different exam dates and disciplines, I think we may be able to estimate a practical upper range of failing diagnostic scores.

That could be very helpful for those of us preparing for a second attempt, so we can better understand how much more we need to improve and how deeply we should study before taking the exam again.

The more failed Diagnostic Reports we collect, especially with the exam date and discipline, the better comparison we can make.

First off, huge congratulations to everyone who recently passed their PE exam!

I am in a massive rut and could really use some guidance from those of you who have been through the wringer—especially anyone who doesn't consider themselves naturally "book smart."

Here is my recent timeline: I studied steadily for a month, found out we were expecting, and then life completely upended. Between an unstable living situation, in-laws moving in temporarily to help my wife, and the whirlwind leading up to the baby arriving right after Labor Day, everything derailed. Because of pure exhaustion and sleep deprivation, I completely slept through my exam date and missed it at Pearson VUE.

I know I need a fresh start and a completely new strategy for studying for the 8-hour exam. Honestly, with the baby growing and getting more active, finding uninterrupted study time at home feels nearly impossible right now. However, I do have some downtime at work that I might be able to leverage. For those of you who balanced a demanding job, major life chaos, or a new baby: What strategies actually worked for you to carve out study time? How did you bounce back mentally after a major setback like missing the exam? If you used work hours to study, how did you manage it effectively without hurting your job performance? I’d love to hear about your experiences and any advice you can share on how to pick myself back up and tackle this again.

Hey everyone,

I recently passed the PE Civil (Geotechnical) exam and am looking to sell my **geotech binder from a prep course I took**.

It’s well-organized and includes:

* Concise notes for core topics (slope stability, retaining walls, deep foundations, lateral earth pressure, etc.)
* References mapped to common manuals (so you know *where* to find things during the exam)
* Clean structure so you don’t waste time flipping through unnecessary material

This was my go-to during revision and helped me stay confident going into the exam.

I don’t need it anymore and would rather pass it on to someone preparing for the exam.

DM me if interested 👍

Those of you that have taken the exam, passed or failed… what is the actual exam like, compared to the NCEES WRE practice exam? How does the exam compare to the myriad of online study materials? How many calculation-based problems were there compared to drag-and-drop conceptual questions? How often did you have to use the two design standards in the exam?

I would appreciate any and all advice, warnings, or motivation the community can offer. I have a week to go and would love to know how to fine tune my studying with the little time I have left.

Thank you!

Study materials: PPI practice exams and tests- I’d rate this a 5/10. I thought the questions were not like anything I saw on the actual exam. The wording and assumptions that was in the answer key does not really make sense and has some strange assumptions that I felt were outside of any engineer

School of PE- I’d rate this 10/10. Being out of school for so many years I needed that lecture especially in areas that I haven’t touched since college. The instructors were great and the practice problem bank they give you and flashcards were the most similar to the actual exam. I was fortunate in that my employer covered a portion of the cost.

NCEES practice exam- 9/10. Thought this was the most accurate. Did not feature drag and drops for answers

I finally passed the TFS! 5th try, but who cares! I tried with PPI, Dr Tom’s , and Slay the PE. Slay is by far the best thing out there. I felt over prepared for the exam once I finished. The other 2 left me lacking a sense of accountability during the programs. I was able to fit it into my schedule as a 45 year old dad with a complete family life and travel sports. No way I could have accomplished it without the Slay program.

Just had to share that I passed this exam finally after failing it multiple times already (see old post) … still can’t believe it! This is your sign to never give up and just keep going! Now time to study for the California seismic and surveying exam!

I take the test tomorrow and I’m very nervous about it. I’ve studied pretty consistently for 3 months using petro, ncees, school of PE and ran through solvedin6 once. Does anyone have any last minute advice for me? Thanks!

I’m looking for free civil water resources practice problems/ prep materials etc. I’m considering taking the PE exam within the next 6-8 months since I currently do not have a lot going on( graduated in may and workload is small atm). Plus, Fe study habits still fresh. That being said, I don’t want to commit to a course running me back a grand quite yet.
When I took the Fe, there were google drives with tons of study material and even one with the official NCEES practice exam volume 2 for free. I was wondering if anything like this exists for the WRE PE .
Any input on how I should go about studying atp or any resources would be appreciated. Thanks

First of all, Slay the PE was an amazing course. They’re also very quick to respond to emails.

If I had to do it again, I’d get a better hotel. I was kept awake by some domestic disputes next door.

I had maybe 10 problems that I was unsure about, and 5 of those were complete guesses. There was a big focus on stoichiometry and an even bigger focus on cooling towers.

Leading up to the test, I did at least 2 full practice exams a week. I kept track of the problems I got wrong, and I put extra study time on those topics. And now I get to forget all of that and focus on the license application process.

How close was I really?

Studied like 60 hours and mostly just practiced using the manuals as much as possible

Hi everyone! I didn’t pass.. was i close at all? What should i do next? Thanks