Does Your Major Lock You Into One PE Exam? ??

Here’s one BIG reason why you may not have your license right now…??

You’re choosing the wrong exam to take. ?

Your first instinct is to pick your exam based on your degree or area of specialization, but what if I told you this is not the best parameter to use? ??

I’d like you to meet Brett Van Hazel . ??

Brett is a past student of The Ultimate Civil PE Construction Review Course who graduated with a Mechanical Engineering degree…but got his PE by passing the Civil PE instead. ??

Crazy — or crazy-brilliant? ??

Here’s why he made this big pivot, and why you may want to do the same if you’re stuck with your current PE exam choice or Civil PE discipline. ??

Why He Took the Civil PE If He’s Not a Civil Engineer? ??

I know this is the question that came up immediately so let me answer this for you right away. ??

After graduating with his Mechanical Engineering degree and passing the Mechanical FE Exam, the natural next step would be to take the Mechanical PE Exam, right??

“My plan was always to take the Mechanical PE exam. I felt like I had a strong knowledge base and I could pull it off,” he said. “I did take the exam, but I didn't do well enough to pass,” he continued.

Now, why didn’t he pass? ??

Because he chose the wrong PE Exam. ?

In his own words…

“Partially, it was a result of me not practicing in that field. My job has always been project management, and the vast majority of my day-to-day work has always been in civil type construction.”

After this failed attempt, he stepped back and looked at the bigger picture. He thought about what he was doing at work on a daily basis, and figured out it had nothing to do with Mechanical. ??

This is what I harp on all the time, and it’s the first aspect I think you should consider when choosing which PE exam to take — including which of the five civil PE exams to take. ??

Choose the exam that aligns with what you do for work every day. ?? ??

If you graduated with a Transportation specialization but the work you do is more related to managing the construction of Transportation projects, for example, then you’ll be much better off taking the Construction PE Exam — not the Transportation PE. ??

No matter what the pass rates tell you, believe me…

If you work more on the Construction side of things, applying Construction methods and making sure the projects comply with the Construction codes and standards…

…you’ll have a BIG advantage taking the Construction PE Exam. (More on this in the last section. ??)

How to Prep for a Different Exam Without the Background ??

Now, the question is, how do you prepare for an exam you know very little about from an education perspective? ??

Yes…it’s definitely not easy, but you can fill in the gaps with (1) the right resources and (2) the right study strategy, as Brett did. ??

1?? The Right Study Resources

To help him learn all the Civil Engineering concepts not covered in a Mechanical Engineering program, he knew couldn’t do it on his own.

“I started looking at different forums and sites that had recommendations,” he said. “I looked through six or seven different programs, compared the feedback across the board, and kind of circled back to Civil Engineering Academy,” he continued.

That’s when he found The Ultimate Civil PE Construction Review Course.

This is a big thing for me, and here’s why. ??

When I was taking a big, expensive review course for my own second attempt at the PE, every time I’d try to reach out to instructors with questions, it was like hitting a wall.

It would take days to have my questions answered. ??

That’s why I made it my goal to give a much more personal experience to our students. I know how frustrating it is, and I don’t want you to go through that. ??

2?? The Right Study Strategy

Now, how do you go about filling in all the knowledge gaps you have about the new exam or discipline? ??

Even though the Mechanical Engineering curriculum does have some overlap with the Civil Engineering curriculum, there are things that are completely new.

“I felt like all the Mechanics of Materials and Statics? weren't too much of an issue because, even when I studied Mechanical Engineering in school, we actually touched base on a lot of that,” he said.

“But,” he continued, “When I started diving into Water Resources and Transportation, that was definitely new to me. So I had to go in and really learn that.”

To do learn these topics, Brett broke his total six-month exam prep into three blocks:

Months 1-4: He went through all the course material to build the foundational knowledge he didn’t have for the Civil PE Exam.

Month 5: He reviewed everything in the course again, but now hammering more on the topics he was weak at.

Month 6: He focused on doing practice problems and taking timed practice exams — as many as he possibly could given his busy schedule.

Now, guess what? ??

His approach paid off. He passed the Civil PE Construction exam with The Ultimate Civil PE Construction Review Course! ? ??

A Big Aspect of the Construction PE You Need to Prepare for ??

Remember I mentioned that, if you work more on the Construction side of things, making sure the projects comply with the Construction codes and standards…

…then you’ll have a BIG advantage taking the Construction PE Exam? ??

Here’s why — and what caught Brett off guard during his exam. ?? ??

The sheer number of “look-in-the-code” type questions! ??

“I was actually surprised at the amount of questions they asked from the various reference manuals”, he said. “I mean, they asked a ton of questions from OSHA,” he continued.

This is also something I harp on here all the time, and that’s because it’s true!

You get a LOT of these types of questions on any of the five civil PE exams…and this is where most civil engineers go wrong. ??

They think they can just use the search function without knowing the handbook like the back of their hand. Believe it, Brett tried it and it almost cost him his passing score! ??

“When I was going through my prep, I didn't really skim through the different manuals to get familiarized with it. I just assumed, ‘Hey, once I get a question, I'll go to CTRL+F and I'll try to search words to isolate the answer,’” he said.?

The problem with this assumption? ??

“When you get into that manual and you search, you're gonna find like a thousand hits on a single word,” he said. “So I had to get really creative in how I search for certain items because you have a certain amount of time to look at these questions,” he continued.

The lesson you should take away from this? ??

According to Brett, attack the questions that are just look-up questions and get creative with how you search for things when using CTRL+F.

I’d just add one thing to that… ??

Get familiar with the codes as much as possible. The more you know where different things are located, the faster you can use the search function to find them and move on. ??

Will You Be the Next to Lift This Weight off Your Shoulders? ??

While most people think his pivot was “crazy,” I personally think it was “crazy-brilliant.”

He got to a point where his career was stuck because he didn’t have the license.

He’d been putting it off for 15 years because he was able to get away with jobs that didn’t require it…until he couldn’t.

In his own words… ??

His advice? Don't put it off. The longer you wait the harder it gets.

If you’re ready to pull the trigger on passing your exam, then now is the perfect time! ??

Remember that our 2025 New Year Sale is live, where you can use the code NEWYEARSALE to get 20% OFF any of our review courses — including The Ultimate Civil PE Construction Review Course that Brett used to pass.

So, go check it out before it expires this Sunday, February 2nd. ??

And if you're in the game for passing your professional civil engineering exams, whether that's the Civil PE, the Civil FE, or the CFM, then don't forget to follow Civil Engineering Academy for more tips, tools, and resources we share here to help you crush those! ? ??