This chapter covers CPM scheduling, earned value analysis, project delivery methods, and construction safety.
As a civil engineer, CPM scheduling is how you plan and track construction projects. You identify activities, durations, and dependencies, then compute early/late start and finish times. The forward pass finds the earliest each activity can start; the backward pass finds the latest without delaying the project. Activities with zero total float form the critical path — any delay on the critical path delays the entire project.
As a civil engineer managing a project, earned value analysis lets you track cost and schedule performance simultaneously. BCWS is what you planned to spend, BCWP is the budgeted value of work completed, and ACWP is what you actually spent. Cost and schedule variances tell you if you are over/under budget and ahead/behind schedule. Performance indices (CPI, SPI) and forecasting formulas (ETC, EAC) predict total cost at completion.
As a civil engineer, you work within different project delivery systems — design-bid-build, design-build, and CM-at-risk — each allocating risk and responsibility differently. You also must understand OSHA construction safety requirements: excavation protection at 5 ft, fall protection at 6 ft, and PE-designed systems for excavations deeper than 20 ft. These topics appear as scenario-based questions on the FE.
Q1In a CPM network using Activity-on-Node (AON) notation, what do the arrows between boxes represent?
Dependency relationships between activities
In AON notation, the boxes (nodes) represent activities. The arrows between boxes show logical dependencies — which activity must come before another. This is the opposite of Activity-on-Arrow (AOA), where the arrows represent the activities themselves. Resource assignments and durations are shown inside the nodes, not on the arrows.
Q2Activity B has a Start-to-Start (SS) relationship with Activity A. Activity A starts on day 4. Activity B has a duration of 6 days. Which statement is correct?
B can start no earlier than day 4 (when A starts)
Start-to-Start means B cannot start until A starts. Since A starts on day 4, B can start no earlier than day 4. SS does not mean they finish together (that would be Finish-to-Finish). It does not mean B waits for A to finish (that would be Finish-to-Start). And SS has nothing to do with matching durations — B can be longer or shorter than A.
2 of 1,126 problems across all 15 chapters — the full bank, lessons, mastery tracking, and timed exam simulation live inside the app.
NCEES includes roughly 4–6 Construction Eng. questions on the computer-based FE Civil exam, which has 110 questions total over about six hours.
The FE Civil exam tests Construction Eng. across: CPM Scheduling, Earned Value Management, Project Delivery & Safety.
Construction Eng. is very learnable for the FE. It rewards recognizing a handful of standard problem types and applying the right FE Reference Handbook formula — not deep theory. Practicing past-style problems is the fastest way to master it.
FE for Raccoons has free Construction Eng. lessons and practice problems with step-by-step explanations — part of a 1,126-problem bank covering all 15 FE Civil topics, free at fe4raccoons.com.
Bite-sized lessons, one-problem-at-a-time practice with instant feedback, and progress that adds up every day you study — built for the FE Civil exam.
Start practicing Construction Eng.