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Table of Contents
Introduction…………………………………………….1
How to use this Practice Exam and Guide Book….…...2
Understanding your PE Exam….………………………3
The 9 Construction Depth Design Standards…………..4
Construction Depth Exam Breakdown ………………..5
Exam Answer Sheet …………………………………...7
Questions: Construction Depth…………..…………..8-48
Answer Key…………………………………………….49
Detailed Solutions: Construction Depth ……………50-90
Assessment Guide………………………………...…91-92
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Introduction
The Construction Depth Practice Exam and Assessment Guide includes
the top 40 questions that will be on the Construction depth portion of the
PE Exam. This practice exam also includes an assessment section for you
to quickly evaluate your strengths and weaknesses in the different topics
and subtopics. All the questions and solutions are clearly labeled as to
what topics they are concentrated on. This allows you to clearly
understand what subject matter you are having trouble with or already
fully comprehend, this allows you to studying smarter by focusing your
efforts on the areas that you really need to.
It is important to note that this practice exam only assesses your ability
with quantitative type questions. The actual exam is made up of 70% (+/-
10%) quantitative questions and 30% (+/- 10%) qualitative “word
problems” type questions. The word problems are too extensive to
anticipate given that any problem in any topic could be asked about any
minor detail. These problems you really can’t study for, you prepare for
those just by understanding your design standards and understanding the
concepts behind and tabbing the quantitative problems.
Several of the qualitative questions and solutions are longer than on the
actual exam, since I incorporated more than one key concept into many of
the questions. The difficulty level will be about the same as you will
encounter on test day. So don’t worry about solving these problems in
6 minutes, just try to understand the concepts.
If you follow the Learn Civil Engineering (LCE) advice and go through
all the topics while doing multiple practice problems you will be ready for
the real PE exam and become a Licensed Professional Engineer.
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You should at least take one practice exam before taking the real PE Exam. Many students do not use
This practice exam and assessment guide should be use as a final practice
exam or before you start studying. You should at least take one full practice
exam before sitting for the real PE Exam. Many students do not use practice
exams well. For example, many students will look at the solutions and think to
themselves, “I understand”, or “I could do that, let me look at the solution to
confirm”. These students make the mistake of not using the practice exams to
actually practice for the exam. Do not make that mistake!
Please use this Practice Exam and Assessment Guide the following way:
• Do not look at the practice exam questions before you take the practice
exam.
• Take the practice exam in a quiet environment. As close to the actual
test day conditions as possible, a library would be ideal. Also practice
your practice you test taking strategy (ex. 3 passes, easy-medium-hard)
• Have a special study-only notepad or sheet of paper. During the exam
when you encounter a topic that you don’t understand, write a quick note
on the study-only notepad. Use this notepad later to prepare additional
studying.
• Take a break immediately after completing the practice exam. Resist
the urge to start working through the solutions as soon as you finish the
practice exam.
• After taking a break, compare your answers to the solutions and fill out
the assessment guide.
• Resume studying by consulting your study-only notepad and the
assessment guide .
The basic idea is to practice both the material and the self-management that
will help you do your best on the real exam. Your study-only notepad is the
exception. The study-only notepad allows you to have the experience of “If
only I had understood that before the exam” before you actually take the exam.
How to use this practice exam
and guide book
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A big piece of passing the PE Exam is to fully understanding the test you are
going to be taking. A lot of students take this for granted and really lose time
studying the wrong material. If you make sure you are studying the correct
material for the exam you start to understand there is not that much material to
learn.
The following pages have the full breakdown of the construction depth exam and
the required nine design standards you need for the test.
Below is the breakdown of the full PE Exam. Where do you think you should
spend most of your time studying? There has been some big changes to the PE
Exam in 2015. Construction Engineering topics became a very large piece of the
exam, especially if you are taking Construction engineering depth.
• Construction Engineering (52/80) = 65.00%
• Structural Engineering (8/80) = 10.0%
• Transportation Engineering (3/80) = 3.75%
• Geotechncial Engineering (9/80) = 11.25%
• Water Resources and Env Engineering (8/80) = 10.0%
A few key things to understand;
1. Usually 56/57 out of 80 correct answers are required to pass the
civil engineering, construction depth PE Exam.
2. Focus your studying on your depth section. 65% of the exam is in
your depth section. If you ace your depth section you will pass the
exam.
3. Make sure to bring all the 9 design standards into the exam. Also I
recommend you bring in all your practice problem books, some of
the questions you will find to be very similar.
Understanding Your PE Exam
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These standards have been specified by NCEES effective April 2015 to use for
the morning portion and the afternoon depth. Make sure before you purchase
the following books, review the NCEES website to see if the standard have
been updated at www.ncees.org/exams/pe-exam/ or at
http://www.learncivilengineering.com/study-material/
1. ASCE 37-02 Design Loads on Structures During Construction, 2002,
American Society of Civil Engineers
2. ACI SP-4 Formwork for Concrete, 7th ed., 2005, American Concrete
Institute
3. ACI 318 Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete,
2011, American Concrete Institute
4. ACI 347 Guide to Formwork for Concrete, 2004, American
Concrete Institute, (in ACI SP-4, 7th edition appendix). DO NOT BUY in the
#2 book
5. AISC Steel Construction Manual, 14th ed.,2011, American Institute
of Steel Construction
6. NDS National Design Specification for Wood Construction, 2012,
American Forest & Paper Association/American Wood Council
7. OSHA Occupational Safety and Health Standards for the
Construction Industry, 29 CFR Part 1926 (US federal version), US Department
of Labor : AVAILABLE FOR FREE ON WEB
8. MUTCD-Part 6 Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices—Part 6
Temporary Traffic Control, 2009, US Federal Highway Administration
AVAILABLE FOR FREE ON WEB
9. CMWB Standard Practice for Bracing Masonry Walls During
Construction, 2012, Council for Masonry Wall Bracing, MCAA
9 Construction depth
Design Standards
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Earthwork Construction and Layout
A. Excavation and embankment
B. Borrow pit volumes
C. Site layout and control
D. Earthwork mass diagrams
E. Site and Subsurface investigations
Estimating Quantities and Costs
A. Quantity take-off methods
B. Cost estimating
C. Cost analysis for resource selection
D. Work measurement and productivity
Construction Operations and Methods
A. Lifting and rigging
B. Crane stability
C. Dewatering and pumping
D. Equipment operations
E. Deep foundation installation
Scheduling
A. Construction sequencing
B. Activity time analysis
C. CPM network analysis
D. Resource scheduling and leveling
E. Time-cost trade-off
Construction DEPTH
exam breakdown
Material Quality Control and
Production
A. Material properties and testing
B. Weld and bolt installation
C. Quality control process
(QA/QC)
D. Concrete proportioning and
placement
E. Concrete maturity and early
strength evalution
Temporary Structures
A. Construction loads, codes, standards
B. Formwork
C. Falsework and scaffolding
D. Shoring and reshoring
E. Bracing and anchorage stability
F. Temporary support of excavation
Health and Safety
A. OSHA regulations
B. Safety management and statistics
C. Work Zone and public safety
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START OF CONSTRUCTION DEPTH
PRACTICE EXAM
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EXAM answer sheet
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
A B C D
A B C D
A B C D
A B C D
A B C D
A B C D
A B C D
A B C D
A B C D
A B C D
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
A B C D
A B C D
A B C D
A B C D
A B C D
A B C D
A B C D
A B C D
A B C D
A B C D
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
A B C D
A B C D
A B C D
A B C D
A B C D
A B C D
A B C D
A B C D
A B C D
A B C D
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
A B C D
A B C D
A B C D
A B C D
A B C D
A B C D
A B C D
A B C D
A B C D
A B C D
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Earthwork construction and layout
Borrow Pit volumes
Question #2: After surveying a borrow pit, the surveyor produced the borrow pit grid
below. If the 0.0 elevation is the allowable cut elevation and the swell factor for the soil in
the borrow pit is 12%. What is the total loose cut volume (LCY) available to haul?
Answer #2
a. 261 LCY
b. 232 LCY
c. 201 LCY
d. 343 LCY
AB
C D E
GF
2.4
2.8
3.2
3.5
3.3
3.1
2.1
2.4
2.8
1.8
1.6
1.3
20 feet
20 feet
20 feet
20 feet
20 feet
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Question #28: You are told as the project engineer by the designer of
record to remove the formwork on a structure when the concrete reaches the
compressive strength of 4000 psi. Using the Concrete Maturity Method and
given the charts below what day would be acceptable to remove the
formwork? Assume the temperature where hydration ceases is 10 degrees
Celsius.
Answer # 28
a. Day 7
b. Day 10
c. Day 14
d. Day 28
Material Quality control and production
Concrete maturity and early strength eval
35
y = 1114.3ln(x) - 5701.5
R² = 0.9782
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000
CO
MP
RE
SS
IVE
ST
RE
NG
TH
(P
SI)
MATURITY INDEX, TTF (OC-HR)
Strength-Maturity Relationship
Time period (hr) Average Temperature (oC)
0 -
24 35
48 39
72 42
96 40
120 38
144 37
168 36
192 35
216 36
240 36
264 37
288 36
312 36
336 36
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Question #29: The following data is from the 28 day tests performed on concrete
samples. According to the specifications, the compressive strength is required to be
4000 psi and modulus of rupture should be 600 psi. Do these samples pass the tests?
Answer # 29
a. Yes Acceptable
b. No – Rejected
c. Unknown
d. Do the test one more time
Material quality control and production
Material properties and testing
Diameter of cylinder = 6in
Length of cylinder = 12in
Test 1: lbs at failure = 120,200lbs
Test 2: lbs at failure = 122,775lbs
Length of beam = 21in
Length of span = 18”
Width of beam = 6 in
Depth of beam = 6 in
Test 1: lbs at failure = 7614 lbs
Test 2: lbs at failure = 8015 lbs
Fracture plane
Flexure strength Test Compressive Strength Test
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50’ tall and
24” thick
concrete wall
face
Question #30: Your contractor has finished placing a 50 foot tall wall which is 24”
thick. You are the project engineer who is responsible for accepting the work. You go
out to inspect and measure in a couple spots and notice that the wall is measuring not
exactly 24” thick. One spot on the wall is only 23 ¾ inches thick. Also you notice that it
is .5 inch off plumb. You look in the specification and there is not clear acceptance
criteria except the note that all work is in compliance with ACI 347. What do you do?
Answer # 30
a. Have the contractor knock down the wall and replace
b. Accept wall; this is within acceptable limits
c. Pretend you didn’t measure and ask QC rep for decision
d. Have contractor develop a work plan to fix the discrepancy
Material Quality control and production
Quality control process (QA/QC)
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Earthwork construction and layout
Excavation and Embankment
Stations Cut Vol (ft3) Cut Vol (yd3) Fill Vol (ft3) Fill Vol (yd3)
0+00-1+00 25000 926 0 0
1+00-1+50 20000 741 0 0
1+50-2+00 22500 833 750 28
2+00-3+00 22500 833 6500 241
3+00-4+00 2500 93 20000 741
4+00-5+00 0 0 40000 1481
5+00-6+00 0 0 25000 926
Station Cut Area (ft2) Fill Area (ft2)
0+00 200 0
1+00 300 0
1+50 500 0
2+00 400 30
3+00 50 100
4+00 0 300
5+00 0 500
6+00 0 0
Stations Cut Vol (ft3) Cut Vol (yd3) Fill Vol (ft3) Fill Vol (yd3) Sum Cut/Fill (yd3) Cumulative
0+00-1+00 25000 926 0 0 926 926
1+00-1+50 20000 741 0 0 741 1667
1+50-2+00 22500 833 750 28 806 2472
2+00-3+00 22500 833 6500 241 593 3065
3+00-4+00 2500 93 20000 741 -648 2417
4+00-5+00 0 0 40000 1481 -1481 935
5+00-6+00 0 0 25000 926 -926 9
Answer #40: d = 9 BCY Cut
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This Assessment Guide is intended to provide a quick assessment of
your understanding in each area. In the real exam, if you fail,
NCEES will send you a breakdown on how you did. That
assessment is similar to what is provided in this guide.
After you take this Practice Exam use the answer key to figure out
which problems you answered right and wrong. Then go to the
assessment guide and using the answer key fill out the guide.
Filling in the blank space with how many you answered correct.
Once the page is all fill out
65% or lower : Poor Understanding: You need additional
studying and work many more practice problems
65%- 80%: Moderate Understanding: You may need additional
studying and should do a few more practice problems in this area.
80- 100% : High Understanding: You understand this area – only
do more practice if time available.
How to use the Assessment Guide
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Construction Depth
Assessment GUIDE
Earthwork Construction and Layout
Question #1, #2, #8, #17, #38, #40
Estimating Quantities and Costs
Question #6, #7, #18, #19, #20, #36
Construction Operations and Methods
Question #9, #15, #16, #21, #22, #32, #33
Scheduling
Question #3, #4, #23, #26, #35
Material Quality Control and Production
Question #12, #24, #27, #28, #29, #30
Temporary Structures
Question #5, #10, #11, #13, #31, #37, #39
Health and Safety
Question #14, #25, #34
OVERALL
____ / 6 = ____%
____ / 6 = ____%
____ / 7 = ____%
____ / 5 = ____%
____ / 6 = ____%
____ / 7 = ____%
____ / 3 = ____%
____ / 40 = ____%
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**Congratulations if scored 32 or greater**