Civil Engineering Practice Examination #1 Paperback – June 11, 2012

Way too difficult questions, not realistic, not helpful. The format of the questions isn't even close to the actual PE exam. Get the PE prepared practice tests instead.

Yes the price is great (I think normally $20 and, at the time I write this, on sale for $15) and it's okay for additional problems (you can never work too many problems in your PE exam prep) but I have a few gripes. The first is the problems are not formatted like the actual exam. The problems are formatted in a 'Given'/'Find' format with no actual question. This is not the format of the exam. Therefore, it's not a perfect simulation of the exam but can still be used for practice (it should be titled "AM/Breadth" though). Although minor, why doesn't the title include 'for the Civil PE Exam'? There are some good questions but a lot of them have an "EIT" level feel and, conversely, some of these "AM" questions are "PM" level. It might seem nice at first that every single engineering variable is defined in the problem statement, but remember - you won't have this luxury on the actual exam. I'd recommend getting this book if you are trying to acquire as many practice problems as you can, because of the great price, but keep in mind some if the things mentioned above.