Before taking the SE exam, I thought that the Vertical Forces component of the SE exam was going to be the easier portion of the two. I wasn’t planning to devote a lot of time to study for it but that all changed after I spoke with a few of my friends who recently took the SE exam. They all told me that to their surprise they thought the vertical portion of the test was harder and that I need to take the vertical portion more seriously. After I took the SE exam, I was very glad that I heeded their warnings and prepared for it the right way. In this post I will explain how I prepared for the vertical portion of the SE exam and hopefully save you a lot of studying time!
Before I tell you how I prepared for and successfully passed the Vertical Forces component of the test, let’s delve into why so many people think the vertical portion is much harder than the lateral portion. It’s not really because the concepts of the vertical portion are more difficult (quite the opposite, actually). It’s harder for a lot of people because of the breadth of the vertical portion. The lateral portion is very focused: you just need to know seismic and wind design. These topics and concepts are harder, but it’s easier to study for them because you know exactly what you need to study and what to expect on the exam. On the other hand, for the vertical portion, the exam writers can literally ask you anything about structural engineering except for wind and seismic design.
So how do you study for an exam where they can ask you anything? The best way to study is to learn and understand the fundamental concepts of structural engineering. From there, you can apply these fundamental concepts to whatever they throw at you on the exam.
Okay, but there are so much to learn in structural engineering, how can you study everything in a few months? The key is to find study materials that are focused on fundamental concepts that are likely to appear on the actual exam. My main source of studying for the SE exam was the PE Structural Reference Manual by PPI. I had previously used PPI references to pass both the FE and PE exam on just one try so I figured I would give PPI a shot for the SE exam also. What I did was I went through and study this reference manual from cover to cover (took me a couple of months!). I spent a couple of hours each day after work going over the PE Structural Reference Manual in the order that each chapter was written. This reference was written such that the concepts build on top of each other so the most effective way of studying is to start at the front of the chapter and work your way to the back instead of jumping around. Here’s the studying method I used:
- Read through each concept section and highlights important points so you can see them on the actual exam
- Worked through the example at the end of each concept section before looking at the solution. This will let you know if I really understood the concept
- Checked the solution with what you came up with and see if you were correct or if you need to study this part again
- Worked through the example problems at the end of each chapter without looking at the solution, then check whether you got the problem right with the provided the solution
I truly believe that my studying method and the PE Structural Reference Manual helped me pass the Vertical component of the SE exam by focusing me on the important materials that are likely to appear on the test. This method also saved me a lot of time in studying and on the actual exam because the vast majority of the information I need to know is in one reference.
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The PE Structural Reference Manual was very helpful for the Vertical exam, but it was definitely NOT enough to get me through the Lateral exam. Click here to find out what study materials I used to pass the Lateral exam.