NCEES Updates PE Civil Exam Specification

Up to April 2024, the PE Civil exam will still be formatted to assess candidates on all five areas of civil engineering in the ‘breadth’ section followed by the ‘depth’ section. The ‘depth’ section is focused on a single area of practice (discipline).

The revised exam format (Effective April 2024) will capture content only relevant to that respective discipline that is unique to that exam. No longer will candidates share global topics (breadth) which was generally the first 40 questions or so, but may still be assessed in topics that are deemed relevant to their respective discipline.

For example, the ‘Transportation’ discipline exam may include ‘Water Resources’ topics but will not include ‘Structural’-related questions. In another example, the ‘Construction’ exam will have questions related to ‘Structural Mechanics’ and ‘Hydraulics and Hydrology’ in addition to all the legacy ‘Construction’ topics.

Although there are topics that have not changed through the update, the number of anticipated questions per subject have increased. The exam will still be a total of 80 questions administered over 8-hours, with 10 questions that will go towards ‘pretest’ category (non-credit based). i.e., your score will be based on your performance of 70 questions. These questions are unmarked are used by the examiners for test calibration purposes.

Design Standards for many of the exams have changed in some fashion. Please refer to the April 2024 Exam Specifications here.

NCEES has released new versions of both the Reference Handbook (Version 2.0) and the Practice Exams (October 2023) to reflect the new specifications. They are available for download/purchase through your MyNCEES account. Note Version 1.2 of the Reference Handbook will be relevant for preparation and exam use up to April 2024.

If candidates plan to take the exam in April 2024, please note School of PE will be releasing updated courses in January 2024 to reflect the new specifications.

There are certainly new opportunities and challenges with the new exam format. In any event, School of PE is here to support you for all your preparation needs. If you are ready to take the PE exam in its current form, you can sign up today for our Ondemand courses or our special bootcamp starting February 10, 2024. Click here for more information on classes and how to register.

In general, you’ll want to plan for 2-4 months of preparation/study time for the exam. (i.e., If you are registered to take the exam in March, you will start your preparation cycle sometime in November). The amount of time to allot is a function of your years of professional experience, academic standing/years since graduation, and ultimately, the amount of qualitative study time per day.

In either exam format, your exam discipline should be selected on the basis of professional functions/role, academic experience, and most importantly your affinity for that subject. Your exposure to all the exam topics may be unlikely and should not be the final qualifier for selection. If you have questions or would like some advice regarding which discipline to select or which exam to take, please email us at info@schoolofpe.com.

Whether you plan to take the current PE Civil exam or the updated version, we have the tools to set you up for success. Click here to learn more about how School of PE’s top-rated exam prep, flexible delivery methods, and one-on-one tutoring can help you confidently prepare for and pass this career-changing exam.