With regard to the assumption of the effective consolidated stress method, the method was compared with the effective stress path method which is more rigorous in theory, and the calculated deviations of the effective consolidated stress method were analyzed.The Mohr stress circle of indoor isobaric and K0 consolidated undrained triaxial compression tests were considered.It is found that the result calculated by the effective consolidated stress method is accurate for the soil under isobaric consolidated state, while for the soil under K0 consolidated state, the deviations are related to the pore pressure parameter Af when soil mass is destroyed.If the values of Af are different, the calculation might be larger or smaller.For overconsolidated soft clay in practical engineering, the deviation is less than 15%.