In 2014 the Illinois Chapter of SEI, based in the Chicago area, began discussing hosting a study group or review course for the Structural Engineering (SE) Licensure Exam. Unlike most states, Illinois requires an SE license to seal any structural design plans or calculations. The idea for the study group came from our members.

A small group with a focused participant-led format was chosen over a more formal review course or classroom format since another organization (Structural Engineer Association of Illinois - SEAOI )already had an established perennial event of this type. In fact, many of our members had taken the SEAOI course and expressed desire for something more focused on working on problems instead of instruction.

Over the past 5 years there have been some variations in how we have hosted the course. However, we have found the following tips have made the groups successful in our experience: 

• The person hosting the group should be a volunteer who is invested in taking the SE exam in the near term just like the participants. The task of hosting the study group, organizing venue, problem sets, food, etc. is more work than it seems and requires a commitment to both SEI/ASCE and to the SE Exam. 
• Do no commit to hosting a group for every exam period (April & October, Vertical & Lateral). Only host if you have a committed volunteer as described above. There were seasons when we hosted both a Vertical & Lateral group, just one of the two or no groups.
• Weekdays during the evenings and Saturday mornings seemed to be the best times.
• Serve food and charge a registration fee that will cover this. Note that dinner time sessions might be more costly than mornings. 
• Divide and conquer. Breaking up the material into about 10 sessions (4 hours each) for each day (Vertical & Lateral) with a "practice exam" session at the end worked well. 
• In general, the specifics of how to work through the problems during the sessions should be approached with the understanding that every group and individual studies differently. Some groups preferred to have the problems ahead of time and start working them out before the session while others preferred to come in cold and work them out together. The host should work diligently to figure this out in the first few sessions in order to maximize the benefit. Time management during the sessions is important as well and falls under the responsibility of the host to keep it in line. 
• Sharing of exam preparation materials (practice exams, study guides, etc.) is one of the benefits that participants have found. Consider budgeting the purchasing of new or updated materials into the cost of the course in order to provide better practice problems to share. 
• Since there a number of design codes that all test takers are required to bring, most often at the expense of the individual, we found that partnering with PCI to "sponsor" the course and provide a small number of PCI code books for free was a great draw for participants. 
• Using an online storage/sharing service such as Google Docs or Dropbox that all group members can access is ideal and works very well for sharing of materials. 
• Some groups invited a local expert structural engineer to visit during one of the sessions to answer a prepared list of questions that the group had come up with. 
• We found that these groups offered a great avenue for networking and getting to know other structural engineering professionals and SE/ASCE members in the area. If your chapter is planning on organizing something like this, it should be noted that there are other benefits beyond test preparation that your chapter will receive. 

By: Thomas Janicke, P.E., S.E., M.ASCE
SEI Illinois Chapter Chair

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