8-Week NEC Civil License Exam Study Plan
Assumes ~2–3 focused hours per day. The exam is 100 MCQs in 120 minutes with no negative marking — so the plan builds speed and breadth, not just depth.
Ground rules for all 8 weeks
- Daily: 1 topic block (concept + formulas) → 20–30 MCQs on that topic → log every mistake in a notebook with the correct concept.
- Weekly: one 100-question timed mock (2 hours, no pauses) every Sunday from week 3 onward.
- No negative marking means you attempt all 100 — practise educated guessing; never leave blanks in mocks.
- Target pace: ~70 seconds per question. If a question takes >2 minutes in a mock, mark and move on.
Week 1 — Basic Civil Engineering (Ch. 1)
- Days 1–2: Engineering materials + NS/IS tests (cement tests, brick classes, bulking of sand)
- Days 3–4: Building technology + geometric properties (CG, moment of inertia, radius of gyration)
- Days 5–6: Surveying & levelling + estimating/costing/valuation
- Day 7: Chapter-1 MCQ set (60–100 Qs) + mistake review
Week 2 — Soil Mechanics & Foundations (Ch. 2)
- Days 1–2: Phase relationships, classification, Atterberg limits (do the numerics by hand)
- Days 3–4: Effective stress, seepage, shear strength, earth pressure
- Days 5–6: Bearing capacity (Terzaghi), consolidation vs compaction, foundation types
- Day 7: Chapter-2 MCQ set + mistake review
Week 3 — Hydraulics & Water Resources (Ch. 3) + first mock
- Days 1–2: Fluid properties, hydrostatics, manometers, buoyancy
- Days 3–4: Continuity, Bernoulli, pipe flow losses, HGL/TEL
- Days 5–6: Open channel flow, hydraulic jump, hydrology basics
- Day 7: Mock 1 (full 100 Qs, timed) + review
Week 4 — Structural Mechanics (Ch. 4)
- Days 1–2: SF/BM/AF diagrams — sketch 20+ by hand
- Days 3–4: Stress–strain, principal stresses, torsion, deflection
- Days 5–6: Indeterminate methods — slope deflection, moment distribution, stiffness (focus on concepts, not long calculations)
- Day 7: Mock 2 + review
Week 5 — Design of Structures (Ch. 5)
- Days 1–2: Loads, concrete technology, mix design basics
- Days 3–4: RCC — limit state concepts, beams, slabs, columns, footings; memorize key IS 456 numbers (covers, % steel, grades)
- Days 5–6: Steel connections/members + timber/masonry + NBC mandatory rules of thumb
- Day 7: Mock 3 + review
Week 6 — Water Supply, Sanitation & Irrigation (Ch. 6–7)
- Days 1–2: Water demand, treatment train order, disinfection
- Days 3–4: Sewers, BOD/COD, treatment units, EIA/IEE/BES
- Days 5–6: Duty–delta, canal theories (Kennedy/Lacey), Khosla/Bligh, river training
- Day 7: Mock 4 + review
Week 7 — Hydropower & Transportation (Ch. 8–9)
- Days 1–2: Turbine types & selection, specific speed, dams, surge tanks, water hammer
- Days 3–4: Geometric design (super-elevation, SSD, gradients), highway materials
- Days 5–6: Pavements, traffic studies, construction & maintenance
- Day 7: Mock 5 + review
Week 8 — Project Planning (Ch. 10) + final revision
- Days 1–2: CPM/PERT numerics, NPV/IRR, tendering, NEC Act & NEA
- Days 3–4: Re-attack your mistake notebook — weakest 3 chapters only
- Day 5: Mock 6 (treat as the real thing: same time of day, no phone)
- Day 6: Light review of formula sheet + high-yield one-liners only
- Day 7: Rest. Skim your mistake notebook once in the evening. Sleep well.
The one-page formula sheet (build during the plan)
Maintain a single sheet with: phase-relation triangle, K₀ = 1 − sin φ, critical hydraulic gradient, Bernoulli + continuity, Darcy–Weisbach, duty–delta, curve elements (T = R·tan(Δ/2)), SSD components, PERT te, NPV rule, Euler loads for 4 end conditions, IS 456 key numbers (1.5/1.15, M20, 4% steel, covers 20/25/40). Revise only this sheet in week 8.
Prepared for eve-construction.com. Always verify against the latest official NEC notice before your exam date.