PE Civil Transportation prep compared: the courses, the practice exams, and where CastorPrep fits

Last updated: October 2026. Prices and products change, so verify with each provider before you buy. CastorPrep is an independent study aid, and isn't affiliated with or endorsed by NCEES or any provider named here.

TL;DR.

• Buy the NCEES practice exam whatever else you do. It's $59.95 and it's the benchmark.
• Pick your main resource. That's a course (EET, School of PE, PPI or Civil Engineering Academy) if you want to be taught, or books and practice exams (PPI, Petro) if you're self-studying.
• Add a practice bank for the reps that material runs out of. That's where CastorPrep fits: it works alongside any of them.
• Match the material to your appointment date. Two of the nine design standards NCEES supplies, the Highway Capacity Manual and the MUTCD, move to new editions with the April 2027 exam.

What to check before you buy

1. Which editions it's built on. The Transportation specification (10 areas, 80 questions) took effect in April 2024, and it isn't changing. The supplied design standards are. Through March 2027 the exam gives you the HCM 6th edition and the 2009 MUTCD. From April 2027 it's the HCM 7th edition and the MUTCD 11th edition. Answers are scored against the listed editions. Several providers now say "updated for 2027", and a few of those courses finish before April. Check which window the material targets against your own appointment. The full change, edition by edition.
2. Whether it's still organized around breadth and depth. Transportation has been a single 80-question exam since April 2024. Material sold as "breadth and transportation depth", or as 40-question depth exams, was written for the old format. The problems can still be good, but the mix won't match what you'll sit.
3. Whether it makes you look things up. Transportation runs through nine supplied standards, opened one chapter at a time, and passers describe many questions as look-ups more than long calculations. Material that hands you every value in the problem statement trains the arithmetic and skips the skill. Practice that sends you into the Green Book, HCM, MUTCD and Roadside Design Guide trains both.
4. How many problems you'll get before you've seen them all. Transportation candidates describe running out of problems late in their prep, and working the same sets until the scores measure memory. See the familiarity trap.
5. What happens when you're stuck. A worked solution shows the right path. It doesn't show where yours went wrong. An instructor or a tutor does.
6. Whether it covers what isn't traffic. Geotechnical and pavement, drainage and project management carry 20 to 30 of the 80 questions, and they're where traffic specialists have the least day-job cover.

The benchmark: NCEES

NCEES PE Civil Transportation practice exam. 80 questions with solutions, $59.95, written by the organization that writes the real exam.

• It's on the April 2024 specification.
• It's a PDF, not an online simulator.
• Take it once, timed and cold, as a reading of where you are, well before your test date. Each repeat of the same 80 measures memory more than readiness. More on using it well.

The courses, and how CastorPrep pairs with each

A course teaches the material. CastorPrep is where you practice it on fresh problems and get unstuck between classes. Pick the course that suits how you learn, and use CastorPrep alongside it.

EET (Engineering Education and Training). A Transportation course built around a printed binder.

• What you get: a binder of about 900 solved exercises and practice problems, ten timed CBT quizzes, and CBT simulation exams (the product page lists three 4-hour exams of 40 problems each).
• Price: $950, $1,050 or $1,150 on demand for 16, 20 or 24 weeks; $1,050 to $1,250 for the live webinar.
• April 2027: the live webinar running October 2026 to February 2027 is described as based on the April 2027 specification. The on-demand course is described against the 2024 specification. If you sit before April 2027, ask which editions the version you buy teaches.
• With CastorPrep: passers describe EET's quizzes as more calculation-heavy than the exam, which ran more conceptual and look-up. CastorPrep adds look-up practice across the supplied standards, and the tutor covers the evenings when you're stuck and class is days away.

School of PE. A lecture course with its own question bank (an exam simulator and a quiz generator).

• Course price: OnDemand from $1,349 for 4 months (sale; $1,599 regular) up to $2,799 for 18 months, or $499/month. Live + OnDemand is $2,199 for the October–December 2026 run, and $1,699 with early registration for January–March 2027.
• Question bank price: on its own, $139 for 1 month or $399 for 4 months. A Transportation workbook (80 problems) is $49 as an eBook.
• April 2027: School of PE says its 2027 live classes are taught to the April 2027 specification, including the January–March run.
• If you don't pass: a free repeat of the same course, once, on courses of 4 months or longer, with attendance conditions.
• With CastorPrep: a second, different pool of problems means you're not re-working one set, and every problem comes with the tutor.

PPI (Kaplan). The longest-established name in PE prep.

• Courses: Live Online at $2,595 (September–December 2026) or $2,095 (January–April 2027); OnDemand at $1,095 for 3 months, $1,795 for 6, or $595/month. The live course comes with a pass-or-retake-OnDemand-free guarantee.
• Learning Hub (question bank of 400+ problems, two full practice exams, diagnostics and the review manual online): $695 for 3 months or $895 for 6.
• Books: Transportation Practice Problems ($150, 200+ problems) is updated to the HCM 2022 and MUTCD 2023 editions for the April 2027 exam, and PPI offers a free content map to candidates sitting earlier. Transportation Practice Exams ($150) is two 80-question exams. The Review Manual is $275.
• April 2027: the courses and Learning Hub are described as current "through March 31, 2027".
• With CastorPrep: PPI's manual and exams are the reference shelf. CastorPrep is the daily practice, with help on every problem.

Civil Engineering Academy. A Transportation review course, an 80-question Transportation practice exam, and a CBT simulator that covers all the Civil exams.

• Price: the course is $797 for 3 months, $1,097 for 6 or $1,397 for a year; the practice exam PDF is $49.95; the simulator is $99.96.
• What's in the course: ten lecture modules, nearly 200 video practice problems, a practice exam, the simulator, and 100 theory questions for reference familiarity.
• Refunds: a 15-day money-back guarantee on the course.
• With CastorPrep: their simulator rehearses the format, and CastorPrep supplies the problems in between.

Books and practice exams for self-study

Petro Publications (Dr. Jacob Petro, PE). The self-studier's hard-practice source.

• The Essential Guide to Passing the Transportation Civil PE Exam is $94.50 for 160 questions.
• Online practice exams are $69.40 each for a month's access, with 160- and 240-question bundles.
• A Transportation passer described the book as harder than the real exam: useful for over-preparing, less useful for judging your pace.
• With CastorPrep: NCEES plus Petro gives you a benchmark and a stretch. CastorPrep gives you the day-to-day reps and the tutor between them.

PPI's books (above) are the other self-study shelf: the practice problems for the April 2027 editions, the two practice exams, and the review manual.

CastorPrep

A practice bank for the Transportation exam, with a tutor on every problem.

• The tutor is grounded in that problem's worked solution. It coaches before you answer, one nudge at a time, without handing you the answer. After you answer, it shows you the step where yours diverged, and points you to the supplied standard and chapter when the method lives outside the Handbook.
• Handbook references: problems cite the PE Civil Reference Handbook section where one applies. Where the method lives in a supplied standard instead, ask the tutor which one and which chapter.
• The standards window: problems that rely on the HCM or MUTCD are set on the 7th and 11th editions and labeled for the April 2027 window. If your appointment is before April 2027, check those problems' methods and values against the edition you'll be given.
• Item types: multiple choice plus the alternative item types (fill-in, multi-select, drag-and-drop, point-and-click), with the plans, profiles and exhibits the problems depend on.
• Price: the practice bank, every worked solution and a diagnostic are free with an account, and the tutor is free on 10 problems a month. Pro is $29/month, cancel anytime, and adds a full-length Transportation mock exam and the unlimited tutor.

How it fits with the rest of your prep:

• Built to sit alongside a course. CastorPrep is the practice and the tutor. Lectures and a live instructor come from your course, and any of the ones above pair with it.
• A full-length rehearsal, timed at exam pace. Pro includes a full-length Transportation mock exam: 80 questions, timed at exam pace, with a report on where the points went. Pair it with the NCEES practice exam and the full-length exams from your course or the books above, so each sitting is one you haven't seen.

Side by side

* Checked on each provider's site, October 12, 2026. Prices change and sales rotate, so verify before you buy.

Putting it together

• Everyone: the NCEES practice exam, once, timed, well before test day.
• Taking a course: follow it, and add CastorPrep for fresh reps, look-up practice and help between sessions. EET, School of PE, PPI and Civil Engineering Academy all pair the same way.
• Self-studying: NCEES plus Petro or PPI's books for realistic and hard exams, and CastorPrep for the daily practice and the tutor.
• Sitting before April 2027: confirm the editions every resource teaches, ours included, against the HCM 6th edition and the 2009 MUTCD you'll be given.
• Not sure yet: try ten free Transportation questions, no account needed. Or start practicing free: the bank and the diagnostic are free with an account, so you can judge CastorPrep on real Transportation problems before you pay anything.

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CastorPrep is not affiliated with or endorsed by NCEES, EET, School of PE, PPI/Kaplan, Civil Engineering Academy, Petro Publications, or any other provider named here. Product details and prices were checked on each provider's site on October 12, 2026 and may change.