I'm a PE with about 9 years of experience in municipal government and I've been thinking about sitting the CME exam this fall. I've found surprisingly little information about the actual format online — most of what I can find is outdated or vague about question count and time limits. Does anyone know if it's still a 100-question exam or if APWA changed the format?
My main concern is the breadth of content. The study guide covers public works administration, finance, engineering design, operations, and maintenance — that's a wide spread for a single exam. I've got strong field experience but my finance and budgeting knowledge is probably my weakest area. I was planning on about 8 weeks of study at 1.5 hours a day, but I honestly don't know if that's enough.
I've heard from one colleague who passed on his second attempt that he severely underestimated the finance questions the first time. Apparently around 20–25% of the exam leans on budgeting, procurement, and cost analysis. Is that consistent with what others have experienced?
Also wondering about the pass rate. APWA doesn't publish it prominently, but I've seen informal estimates in the 60–70% range. Does that match what people are seeing in practice?
My weak spot was infrastructure asset management — I thought I knew it from field work but the exam tests it at a policy and planning level. Reviewing the APWA Body of Knowledge document before finalizing your study plan is worth the time.
8 weeks at 1.5 hours a day is reasonable — I did 10 weeks at a similar pace and felt well-prepared. Make sure you're using the official APWA reference materials, not just generic study guides, because the terminology can be very APWA-specific.
The 60–70% pass rate sounds about right from what I've heard through APWA chapter meetings. It rewards people with broad experience rather than deep specialization in one area, so your 9 years across municipal work is an asset.
It's still 100 questions with a 3-hour window as of my sitting last year. The finance section is definitely not something you can wing — I spent about 30% of my study time specifically there and I think that's what got me over the line on the first attempt.
I can speak to this from personal experience — I failed my first attempt back in 2023 and it stung. The exam is 150 questions and you've got four hours, which sounds like plenty until you hit the infrastructure finance questions and realize you've been staring at one problem for eight minutes. My pass rate intel from our state chapter puts it somewhere around 65-70% on first attempt, though I've heard it varies by cycle. What killed me the first time wasn't the technical content, it was the municipal law and ethics sections I'd basically skimmed.
Second time around I flipped my prep strategy completely. I spent way more time on practice questions specifically tied to urban systems — honestly stumbling across free cme urban infrastructure design development questions online helped me figure out exactly where my gaps were. If you've got nine years in municipal you're probably solid on the practical stuff, but don't sleep on the ICMA code and the financial management modules. That's where a lot of experienced PEs trip up because it doesn't map cleanly to day-to-day work.
Just wanted to jump in with a quick update since I've been lurking this thread. I sat a full practice run last weekend and scored a 74%, which honestly surprised me -- I wasn't expecting to be that close already with about three weeks left before my scheduled date. The exam format felt pretty manageable once I got used to the pacing.
I'm planning to sit the real thing in mid-September so I've got a bit more time to shore up the financial management sections, which are where I'm still dropping points. If you're at 9 years in municipal government you probably already have solid instincts on a lot of the core competencies -- that experience really does translate.