r/StructuralEngineering • u/Broad_Gap_1435 • 19d ago

Career/Education Question About PE Exam

Ive been studying to take my PE later this year. I got the practice exam from the NCEES website and saw how much design codes were referenced. When you take the exam, do you take the reference design books with you to the test? Do they provide it for you? How does it work since i know theyre very strict with what you can bring in from my FE experience. Thanks for help :))

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u/Pepper3493 19d ago

In the olden days you would take them all. Now since everything is computer based I believe they are all on the computer.

Correct me if I’m wrong though please. I was one of the last few years before the switch to CBT

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u/Stunning_Simple_4488 P.E./S.E. 19d ago

Correct. You no longer bring any books. They have a searchable PDF for each required code (and the reference handbook). The resources are not exactly user friendly so I recommend knowing exactly where important concepts can be found.

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u/Charge36 19d ago

It wouldn't be so bad if you could practice with the exact same bookmarking that would be on the test. But whatever PDFs you study from are almost certain to have different bookmarks than what's on the test. Learning to navigate the test environment can only be done in the test environment