Just took the PE exam yesterday, and all I brought was this book and Lindeburg's reference manual. I used these two books exclusively to study, and found that they were sufficient to prepare me for what was on the test. I attribute this to the quality of the books and not to any pre-existing knowledge, because I was not a civil engineer in college, nor have I taken a PE review course.

By far the best review and in-test reference book for the PE. Didn't have to use any other book really for the civil PE national exam. Passed the first time. It even came a little bit in handy for the California survey exam, and to a little lesser extent the seismic. But overall a great reference book for the 8-hour. I still use it every so often at work to this day.