PE Review: The Civil Engineering PE Review: why does the exam matter more to Civil Engineers than to other types of Engineer?

Most engineers design and build little things: engines, artificial hips, sensors, and microchips are small. Civil Engineers design and build big and dangerous things. Civil Engineers construct infrastructure that everybody uses: Highways, docks, bridges, hydroelectric plants, sewage treatment facilities. They are all big. And Civil Engineering projects are usually one-of-a-kind.

We get one chance to get it right, and if it’s not right, the consequences are bad. The project fails to serve the public for its required lifespan wasting everyone’s money. Worse, structures can fail dramatically bringing injury and death. So when an Engineer designs a new iPod, it doesn’t carry the societal weight of a dam, or a railroad.

Civil Engineers, therefore, are most constrained by the public welfare. That welfare addresses the public purse, and public safety. This is why for Civil Engineers, the Civil PE Exam has more impact, more widely on their professional development than other branches of engineering. Civil Engineers, more than any other branch of engineering, have to certify and stamp their work.

So, if you’re preparing for that important Civil Engineering Professional Exam, make sure you prepare in the way Civil Engineers do: carefully and comprehensively. Because, for Civil Engineers, size matters!