As announced in October 2023 by NCEES, the Civil PE Exam specifications will be changing effective April 1st, 2024. This major change is that all 5 Civil PE Exams (Construction, Geotechnical, Structural, Transportation, and Water Resources and Environmental) will no longer have the common knowledge questions that were shared across all exams and were the majority of the questions you would see before your elective break. The best way to see how each exam has changed is to go line by line with the legacy and new specifications.

Let’s take the Civil Transportation PE Exam as an example to see the changes. For simplicity, I have only included the subtopics and the expected number of questions expected of each.

Legacy Specifications

1. Project Planning 4–6 

2. Means and Methods 3–5 

3. Soil Mechanics 5–8

4. Structural Mechanics 5–8

5. Hydraulics and Hydrology 6–9

6. Geometrics 3–5

7. Materials 5–8

8. Site Development 4–6

9. Traffic Engineering (Capacity Analysis and Transportation Planning) 10–15

10. Horizontal Design 3–5

11. Vertical Design 3–5

12. Intersection Geometry 3–5

13. Roadside and Cross-Section Design 3–5

14. Signal Design 3–5

15. Traffic Control Design 3–5

16. Geotechnical and Pavement 4–6

17. Drainage 2–4

18. Alternatives Analysis 1–3

New Specification (with the anticipated question range in parenthesis)

1. Project Management (6–9)
   1. Subtopics were under the 1. Project Planning and 18. Alternative Analysis in the previous specification.
2. Traffic Engineering – Capacity Analysis, Transportation Planning, and Safety Analysis (10–15)
   1. Traffic Monitoring was added to Subtopic G.
3. Roadside and Cross-Section Design (7–11)
   1. Number of questions has been increased from only 3-5 prior.
   2. Retaining walls have been added to Subtopic C.
   3. Subtopic D has been updated to Nonmotorized design considerations rather than just ADA design considerations. From my understanding, this means it will include more questions regarding shared-use paths including traffic calming features.
4. Horizontal Design (8–12)
   1. Number of questions has been increased from only 3-5 prior.
   2. Now includes information from 6. Geometrics in the previous specification.
   3. Subtopic A was clarified further to include centerline stationing.
5. Vertical Design (8–12)
   1. Number of questions has been increased from only 3-5 prior.
   2. Now includes information from 6. Geometrics in the previous specification.
6. Intersection Geometry (7–11)
   1. Number of questions has been increased from only 3-5 prior.
7. Traffic Signals (5–8)
   1. Number of questions has been increased from only 3-5 prior.
   2. Name has changed from Signal Design as Traffic Signal Design is now a new Subtopic of its own. 
8. Traffic Control Design (5–8)
   1. Number of questions has been increased from only 3-5 prior.
   2. The word “Permanent” was added to Subtopic A – Permanent signs and pavement markings.
9. Geotechnical and Pavement (6–9)
   1. Number of questions has been increased from only 4-6 prior.
   2. Now includes information from 7. Materials in the previous specification include soil classification, soil properties, and compaction.
   3. Now includes information from 8.Site Development in the previous specification including excavation and embankment.
   4. Pavement evaluation and maintenance measures have been removed.
10. Drainage (8–12)
    1. Number of questions has been increased from only 2-4 prior.
    2. Now includes information from 5. Hydraulics and Hydrology in the previous specification including open-channel flow and runoff analysis.

As you can see the topics didn’t necessarily change, the existing standards are just packaging the topics differently and dropping a few of the general civil topics for each of the depths.

PE Civil Transportation: Design Standard Updates:

• The Guide for the Planning, Design, and Operation of Pedestrian Facilities from AAHTO has been updated to the 2^nd edition which was published in 2021.
• The Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide: A Manual of Practice has been updated to the 3^rd edition which was published in August 2022.

https://store.transportation.org/Item/CollectionDetail?ID=255 – This collection provides a discount of 40% off the price of ordering each of these titles needed for the Civil Transportation PE Exam individually. You can purchase either the Paperback or PDF Download option.

While the number of design standards you will have access to did not change for Civil Transportation, some have been added or removed for other Civil Depths. Some topics may have been added for various depth-based, but not too many. For example, Structures now can anticipate more focused questions of snow and wind loads.

What hasn’t changed:

The exam format has not changed – the exams will still consist of 80 questions and the appointment duration will still be 9 hours total no matter what Civil PE Exam you are taking. 10 of the 80 questions will be pre-test questions still, though you will not be able to differentiate them from the 70 questions that do count towards your score, so the scoring is also not anticipated to change. You will still need to submit that first half before your break and will not be able to go back to those submitted answers when you return from your break.

I also don’t anticipate the difficulty to change, just a focus shift to a more concentrated exam on select topics. I would still recommend at least 3 – 4 months of consistent preparation for any of the Civil PE exams. I also highly recommend that you buy the most recent NCEES Practice Exam from their website as they are the body that creates the questions.

I personally like this because I can focus on developing a deeper level of expertise in my particular area, rather than having to relearn several topics that I hadn’t worked on since college. For example, Soil Mechanics that was originally a common knowledge topic was something I hadn’t studied since my junior year of college and it was a bit difficult for me to pick back up.

What questions do you still have about this change? Is there another depth other than Transportation that you want to go line by line through in a future post? Feel free to reach out to me at DaniTheEngineer.Blog@gmail.com with any other questions or suggestions.