Kaplan offers an online-only PE review course at $549 for 6 months of access. You can also buy their own review books, practice problems, and practice exam for an extra $165. I'm not quite sure how this course fares, but it seems reasonable for the price.
If you need to take a different engineering PE exam, try a different prep company. The Bottom Line: If you’re taking the CA specific PE exams, signing up for the EET PE Review is a no brainer. The low cost coupled with excellent instruction will give you an edge on exam day.
Engineering Education and Training offers a variety of professional and comprehensive review classes to pass the PE exam. They have a high success rate (80-85%) and great feedback from students and test-takers. If you do not pass after your first review session, you can repeat the class for free in the following season.
Smart Pros runs a site called www.pereviewcourse.com that offers an online only PE exam prep course that covers the 5 major categories of the PE exam. The price is definitely more reasonable at $995. It's entirely online and they give you access to charts, graphs, etc. that correspond to the lectures.
Best PE Exam Prep Courses ComparisonPE EXAM REVIEW COURSESPRICEFrom $990$550-$650 per course (breadth/ depth)DISCOUNTPRACTICE QUESTIONS1,000+ practice questionsNumber of practice questions varies by course typeFULL LENGTH PRACTICE EXAMS3Includes realistic simulated breadth and depth exams9 more rows
All School of PE review courses are protected under all applicable federal copyright laws. Your registration is not be shared and cannot be transferred to another individual.
We recommend that you study for approximately 100-120 hours. A solid study plan that worked for several of our engineers is to spend approximately one half day each Sunday studying for the three months leading up to the exam, and then study every day for a few hours the week before the exam.
Construction Depth Exam I think this is the most popular PE depth exam that civil engineers take - or want to take, (but is it the easiest PE exam?). It's popular because many civil engineers work in a variety of different fields but don't specialize in one particular area.
According to the National Society of Professional Engineers' 2010 Engineering Income & Salary Survey, the median salary of engineers in all professions without a PE license was $94,000, whereas the median salary of engineers with a PE license was $99,000 -- a difference of about 5 percent.
While both School of PE and PPI2Pass have similar options, School of PE has a larger volume of material. Whether you need video lectures, practice questions, or full exam sims, you'll get more from them than you would from PPI2Pass.
The PE exam is not a "tricky" exam. Students manage to fail even when questions are straightforward. The NCEES organization doesn't sit in a room and think of ways to trick you. You will find, however, that they do list answers to questions with very common mistakes made.
"Wear layers of clothing for the exam--our room was at first way too hot and then way too cold!
By beginning the studying process now rather than later (in March or April), you'll be thanking yourself when you aren't forced to cram hundreds of hours of studying into the two weeks before the PE exam. A great way to study for the exam is to take an exam review course.
The FE exam is actually harder than the Professional Engineer (PE) exam, simply because it is much more broad. It's best to take it as close to graduation as you can, with all that schooling still fresh in your mind.
The structural depth examA: The structural depth exam IS most likely the hardest exam to take. This exam requires a huge amount of subject matter that you require to know, as well as a huge amount of additional standards that you have to become familiar with.
Percentage of Engineers with a PE License According to the National Society of Professional Engineers, an estimated 20% of engineers in the U.S. have their Professional Engineer license. The percentage is higher for structural, geotechnical and other sub-disciplines of Civil Engineering.
It includes 96 hours of video lectures, hundreds of practice problems including practice exams, and printable notes that you can take into the PE exam. Roughly 9 out of 10 engineers who take the School of PE course pass the PE exam on their first try. And if you don’t pass, they let you retake the course again for free!
$1,790 is the cost of the live online option. It’s $1,490 for the first 15 who purchase before a certain date. For this option, the classes meet virtually at specified times, but you get the same instruction as if you were doing the onsite option. Here are the benefits of this version:
While it’s not guaranteed, your chances are significantly higher that you’ll pass with School of PE. On School of PE’s website you can see national average PE exam pass rates compared to the pass rates for those who take a School of PE review course by going to your specific PE exam and selecting “Pass Rates” on the left panel.
PPI literally has something for everyone. They stand out for their comprehensive resources for every single PE exam — including a recent update that prepares students for the new Computer-Based Testing (CBT) format. You’ll be hard pressed to find another company with so many options that can be mixed and matched to fit the needs of any learner.
EET boasts a pass rate of 80-85% for students who attend all classes, do the homework, and complete the simulation exams.
TestMasters PE Review comes highly recommended by those who’ve passed the PE exam. Former students in various states report that the Live Classroom, Live Online, and On-Demand courses are extremely well-taught. Complex topics are explained in a straightforward way by highly qualified instructors and; practice problems are geared towards tackling those on the test quickly and accurately.
When you pay for a Capstone course, you’ll never have to pay for it again. This is because they put no time limits on any of their study materials and no monthly subscription fees. Take all the time you need to understand the difficult PE exam concepts without feeling the pressure on your wallet.
This course is built around the PPI Learning Hub, which is a learning tool that creates a guided study course based on your performance. It adjusts as you work through each lesson to account for what learning styles work best and what subjects you need additional help to understand.
Learning Hub: Much like School of PE, this course comes with an adaptive learning hub. This platform guides you through the course and ensures that you’re prepared for the PE test. It does so by gauging your initial abilities, creating a study plan, and helping you practice until you’ve mastered the engineering discipline of your choice.
A: Typically, someone needs to pass the FE exam and gain 4 years of work experience. However, 14 states allow you to take the test before completing the work experience.
A: According to the NCEES, the PE Fire Protection test has the highest pass rate at 88%. That means you can reasonably assume it’s the easiest test to pass, although you should still study with an online review course!
A: No. As long as your exam results are verified as part of the application process, they will not expire.
To create more opportunities and grow your engineering career, a Professional Engineer (PE) license is the answer. This means you’ll need to study and review to pass the Principles and Practice of Engineering exam, otherwise known as the PE exam.
Another fantastic resource for students preparing to take the PE exam comes from Capstone. This company offers a wide range of study materials geared specifically toward future engineers, so you can rest assured this topic fits securely in their wheelhouse.
They work to combine the fundamentals of the subject matter and problem-solving techniques to fully equip people for exams.
The Ultimate Civil PE Review comes with 10 modules that cover 8 topics found on the civil PE breadth exam. It’s a very focused course that is continuously updated to meet specifications. In addition to the Introduction and Conclusion module, their review course will cover:
PPI2Pass provides some of the most extensive review programs available for engineering. A partner of Kaplan, the company was founded by Michael Lindeburg who authored the original review course for the Civil PE. All materials are consistently updated to current exam specs.
However, if you don’t succeed the first time, TestMasters allows you to retake the course again for free. TestMasters comes with a variety of course materials, including 72 hours of instruction that are focused on helping you pass. But the unfortunate truth is that TestMasters doesn’t offer courses for every PE exam.
Keep in mind that unlike the other review courses on this list, TestMasters does not come with any practice exams. So if this is a resource you need to pass, you may want to choose another review site. Still, the excellent reference notes and enticing guarantee make this an option well worth your consideration.
Here are some key benefits: 1) Their PE exam prep course is 84 hours (56 hours for breadth review and 28 hours for depth). 2) In addition to Onsite and Live Online options they offer Ondemand ($1190), which provides access to notes and recordings as soon as you register. Access is immediate.
They meet two times a week for a couple of hours which totals about 50 hours over 13 weeks. The course covers the 5 major categories found on the PE exam, and the instructors assign homework and use all of their own PPI reference material in the lectures. The entire course covers your breadth exam questions in detail.
Testmasters. Testmasters is very similar to School of PE. In fact, I'd go so far as to say they are pretty much the same . They provide their own material with the course and then encourage everyone to get the Civil Engineering Reference Manual from ppi2pass as well.
You can buy all of their reference books, which are great, and they introduced both live and online study courses. A good PE review course can cost quite a bit of money, but you will find it worth it as it sets you up on a structured path that leads to success.
The entire course covers your breadth exam questions in detail. It will help with your depth section, too, but with the limited time to cover all material it's probably not as deep as you hope, but still worth it. They offer courses that are discipline-specific so if you need more for your depth they have it.
Since this is a lengthy, detailed review, we’ve added helpful jump-to links above for your convenience.
Just so we’re all on the same page in terms of context for this review, I took the FE Civil On Demand course from School of PE. That being said, while I only took the FE Civil course, my analysis and thoughts on the program as a whole nonetheless apply to other FE disciplines, as well as the PE courses.
The School of PE prep course is delivered in one of two ways: you can take it as an on demand package, or with live online classes. And although that might sound like vastly different experiences, the truth is that the course is the same either way.
In addition to the video lectures, live classes (if you go that route), notes, and practice problems, you also get some nice extras with School of PE.
The length of your access to the School of PE materials is directly tied to your package. The On Demand package is available in 4-, 6- and 12-month increments, as well as monthly pay-as-you-go. The Live Online package is directly tied to the length of your course.
Yes, School of PE does have a mobile app, and it’s actually quite good. I didn’t personally use it too much, as I prefer working on my 24” screen at home. But I could definitely see it being heavily used by people if you’re trying to squeeze in studying on a lunch break or during a commute.
There are two features with School of PE that offer protection: the risk-free enrollment and the free repeat policy. For the risk-free enrollment, essentially, if you’re waiting for approval to come through from the state board and it doesn’t, or you come to find out you didn’t pass a prerequisite exam, they’ll refund your money in full .