Failed the FE 7 times now - Need Help!

Hello everyone! Greetings from Southern California! I graduated in 2012 with a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Georgia. I have been working as an engineer now for close to 4 years. I failed the FE when I graduated college because I didn't try very hard to study and pass it (really bad decision). I also waited about 2.5 years after that to start trying to take it again (also a bad decision). I have since taken the test 6 more times (total of 7 times) and I studied a lot for all of them and I just found out I failed it AGAIN! And for the past exam I took a review class beforehand. I've never been a good test taker throughout my entire academic career. Standardized tests have always been the worst for me. I'm getting very discouraged and lost, wondering if there is any tactic for me to use to finally pass this awful P.O.S. test once and for all. I know that there are certain people out there who think that if you can't pass it the first couple of times, then maybe you shouldn't be an engineer..blah blah blah, I will say this, I do well at my job and I don't believe I need a passed FE to prove that, even though NCEES thinks differently unfortunately. I don't use 80% of the material on the exam anyways for what I do for a living. 
I would love to hear from some of you on what you did to get yourself past this giant speed bump of a test! Especially if you were in the same boat as me! 

Hello,

First, I would like to say you are the best person to know why did you fail because you know what is your strengths and weaknesses and you have diagnosis reports from your past test. I graduated in 1993 and passed in 2013. I failed one time before I passed. I am sure you are doing what yo best can. First time I did test to know really what is all about FE test. I did not study seriously and I knew I won't pass. When I got diagnosis report, I went through it and found I am very strong in couple of subjects (90-100%). next time I did not wait and register for next test. I focused on those courses/subjects where I was very weak or my performances were low. As you said, I did not believe on what other said, for example, it is hard to pass if there is a long gap between graduation and test. So have faith on yourself, be organized and focused and think If I can pass with 20 years study gap why you cannot pass? Hope it helps.

Have you looked at your study tactics? I didn't have an issue passing the FE exam, but am on my third try for the PE exam. This third time around, I took a hard look at how I was studying, and put myself through two separate mock exams (8 hours in one day, two weeks and one week before my actual exam). When I was studying, I focused on not looking at the answers as I was doing practice problems. When I went through my solutions, I would label where in my reference materials I got the equations used, and would comment specifically where I had dumb mistakes. I would look at the problems I got wrong and try to diagnose why I got it wrong, or why I didn't understand the problem.

Additionally, which reference course did you take? Did you feel it helped you?

I hope this helps!

If you can, take a review class. A good review class will/should help you focus on the topics that are needed to pass.

Hello, you are not alone. I passed my FE electrical in 6th times within years, and before I passed it that I had the same feeling as you and though I was not a suitable engineer to stay in the industry. 

I would say practice many questions as you can and over and over, like PPI quiz bank, NCESS practice question, review course question( i took School of PE so i did over and over), and get familiar of concept. that how I did to pass it. hope this can help. Good luck ! 

Being very comfortable with the concepts, topics, and equations is important.

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Download the FE Reference Manual that NCEES provides during the exam. Know this reference manual like the back of your hand. Work on example problems only using the reference manual...read it before you go to bed... print it out and put it under your pillow so you soak it in through your skin at night. In my recollection, there were not any problems (or, there were only very few) that used concepts that were not available in that reference book, and (I think) it's is a searchable reference now that it's a computerized exam (e.g. I think you can Ctrl-F search on the exam). Spend extra time on the topics you are least comfortable with.

None of the problems on the FE are too involved just simply due to time constraints. The exam really comes down to knowing what equation you need to use for a particular problem, where to find the equation in the reference manual, and then how to use the equation correctly (e.g., what does each variable mean). If you are comfortable using every equation in the Civil section of the manual, then you should be good to go. Don't look at an equation and say "Yeah, I know how to use that"... prove it to yourself by doing a few problems, and making sure you did them right.

pigking8190 said:

I would say practice many questions as you can and over and over, like PPI quiz bank, NCESS practice question...

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The PPI Quiz Bank is great! It allows you to select the subjects you want to be quizzed on and you can choose how many questions from each subject you want to see. I also used the PPI flashcards to make the fundamentals stick in my mind. The NCEES Practice FE Exam is the same exam each time you buy it. I had mistakenly assumed that buying another CBT Practice Exam would generate a whole new set of questions, so when I placed my second order, I ordered four more practice tests.

So if you order it, I would save it for last and only buy one copy of it. It's setup exactly like the CBT  you'll take on exam day, which helps with getting comfortable with the layout.

Hang in there, Frustrated Engineer - you can do it!

Here's the strategy I used for my FE exam: I made an Excel spreadsheet for this.

I shot for a minimum score of 55% as a "passing" result. It's improbable that anyone would score a 100%, so I broke my exam specifications into three categories - A, B, and C categories.

"A" Category: These were the subjects I considered my strongest subjects. I would accept no less than a 75% pass rate on these subjects. I spent the most time studying this material and making sure that I knew these subjects inside and out. I ultimately included 9 subjects in this category. Using the exam specifications, I took the worst-case scenario and assumed that I would be asked the fewest number of questions in the range given in the specifications. This resulted in my seeing approximately 50 questions, which equates to 45.5% of the exam. If I accept no less than 75% pass rate, then I would get 34.1% of my "A" Category questions correct.

"B" Category: These are subjects that I was somewhat comfortable with. I would accept no less than a 60% pass rate on these subjects. I spent a lot of time (not as much as Category A) on these subjects, but not to a point that I knew it inside and out...just enough to ensure that I could get the minimum 60% pass rate. I wound up including 5 subjects in this category. I also assumed the worst-case scenario and assumed I would, again, see the fewest number of questions in the range given in the specifications. This resulted in 31 questions, which equates to 28.2% of total questions. If I accept no less than 60% pass rate, then I would get 16.9% of my Category "B" questions correct.

"C" Category: These are my weakest subjects. If I didn't retain it from college, I doubt very seriously that I'm going to cram that information into my head leading up to this exam. I completely ignored these subjects, knowing that a pure guess on these subjects would net a 25% chance of guessing correctly. There is an art to guessing - you can eliminate some wrong answers, which will greatly improve your odds. I included 4 subjects in this category and, again, assumed the worst-case and assumed that they would ask me the most questions from these subjects. This resulted in 30 questions, which equates to 27.3% of the total questions. If I purely guessed, and accepted a 25% probability of getting the right answer, that means I'd get 6.8% of these questions correct.

Adding them up: 34.1% + 16.9% + 6.8% = 57.8% = SUCCESS!

Note that this is an iterative process. I had to begrudgingly move some of my Category B subjects to Category A, and had to move some Category C to Category B to get the pass rate greater than 55%. But at least I knew what subjects I had to study (and to what extent) to pass.

Exam Day Experience:

The morning session went great! I was on fire - I finished about 30 minutes early and went to lunch. I was feeling so good that I got my phone from my locker and took it outside and called my wife and told her how great it was going. After we hung up, I said to myself, "I want to get this over with - I'm going back in."

I was given an hour for lunch, but I only took 15 minutes.

The afternoon session SUCKED. The very first questions out of the gate were on my Category C subjects that I didn't even look over or review and I was purely guessing at them and at one point thought that I was going to fail, but then I remembered that this was to be expected and forced myself to calm down and try to eliminate wrong answers and make the best guesses I could. When that passed, I started to see subjects again that I was familiar with and then more Category C subjects...it swung back and forth. By the time I finished, I was not sure if I passed or not. I did wind up passing, but I remember waiting for the results and feeling like I had a 50/50 shot at passing.

I failed PE exam 8 times and finally passed. Just Dont give up

Thank you all for your helpful information! I would like to let everyone know that I took the exam on July 8th and FINALLY passed! It is such a relief to finally have this weight off of me! I have already registered for the 8 hour PE exam for this October. Thanks again to all of you!

Frustrated Engineer said:

Thank you all for your helpful information! I would like to let everyone know that I took the exam on July 8th and FINALLY passed! It is such a relief to finally have this weight off of me! I have already registered for the 8 hour PE exam for this October. Thanks again to all of you!

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Congratulations! I know that feeling!!! Now off to PE!

Hello can you share what you did different to pass this exam I am on the same boat and I am sooo frustrated and just want to pass!!! Please any advice....

Santa said:

Hello can you share what you did different to pass this exam I am on the same boat and I am sooo frustrated and just want to pass!!! Please any advice....

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@Santa, what I have found helpful taking all exams is prioritizing problems. going through and answering the ones you know right away, then going through and answering the ones with quick solutions, then going through and answering the ones with longer but understandable solutions, then going back through and answering the ones you need to look up more information to understand. Also, since the FE is computer based, I have heard people say you can ctrl+F find keywords to help you get to where you need to be faster. 

Hope this helps. Don't give up. You can do it!! 

I'm sure this has already been said somewhere in this post, but I'll give my 2 cents.

1. Know what you're good at and know what you're bad at. For me, I knew that I was VERY good at Math, Stats, Economics, Transportation, Statics, and Mechanics of Materials. I knew that I was BAD at Water Resources and Environmental, and I hadn't taken Structural Concrete or Structural Steel. I was mediocre at the other subjects. I studied the stuff that I was good at like CRAZY. I wanted to be in the 95% range on those. I also studied my mediocre subjects pretty heavily as well, as I wanted to be in the 50%-60% range. I briefly studied my bad subjects. I knew that, at worst, I had a 25% chance of getting an answer by just guessing.

2. Don't stall on difficult questions. I'm a very slow test taker. I'm normally the last to always finish my exam. My approach was to answer any question within my GOOD subjects as mentioned above. If I got to a question that I knew I wasn't good at that subject or I didn't know how to initially solve it, I skipped it. On my second round through, I went back through and tried to work the remaining problems. Again, if I got stuck for 1-2 minutes without knowing anything, I moved along. On my last round, I simply guessed on each question and moved on. On guessing, I typically guessed the same letter each time, thus maximizing my chances of getting at least 25% right by not switching letters.

3. Know the reference manual. Download it and study the pertinent parts. In my experience and from what I've heard, any problem that you come across WILL NOT use an equation/formula not found in the reference manual for it's solution. If the question contains calculations, you can find a relevant equation in your reference manual.

That's all that I have right now.

Keep your head up! It'll all work out!

Hi there. I didn't want to open a new topic but I hope so someone will reply me here. Let me first write couple introduction sentences about me. I have finished Civil Engineering outside the  about 2.5years ago. Soon after graduation, I have moved here. I have sent my degree to NCEES for evaluation and they requested from me to take couple classes so that I can be qualified for the test. Couple days ago I have finished with classes, sent degree again to NCEES and they had confirmed that I have enough credits to take the test.

So, now I'm starting/started to prepare for the exam but I'm a little bit confused. I have purchased Lindeburg Review and Practice books as well as NCEES handbook and NCEES Practice exam. Almost everyone is saying it has been using Lindeburg books and passed the exam but content in Lindeburg review and NCEES is a little bit different. Let me give you couple examples: Math sections in NCEES handbook has: A) Analytic geometry; B) Calculus; C) Roots of equations; D) Vector analysis but Lindeburg has: A) Units; B) Analytic Geometry and Trigonometry; C) Algebra and Linear Algebra; D) Calculus; E) Differential Equations and Transforms. And that how is in almost all areas, there are some differences. So my question is, should I just find watch matches in Lindeburg review with NCEES instructions and ignore other areas (like Differential equations and transforms) or should I study everything? I hope so you have understood me and you know what am I asking.

Thank you.

You should study based on the test specifications.  Lindeburg is useful guide for helping you study the various areas on the test. The NCEES reference guide is the only reference material you will have to use on the test that is provided at the test site. As a result, you should use it during your studying / problem solving and know how it's laid out and where to find the different topics. 

I found that the best time I spent was working practice problems. If the problem required using statistics, algebra, geometry, etc and I needed to refer to that subject, I spent time on it. Working problems is the best way to get ready for the exam. Good luck. Work hard!

Frustrated Engineer said:

Thank you all for your helpful information! I would like to let everyone know that I took the exam on July 8th and FINALLY passed! It is such a relief to finally have this weight off of me! I have already registered for the 8 hour PE exam for this October. Thanks again to all of you!

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Can you please let us know what you did in preparation for the 8th time and if you did anything different?

Sorry everyone, I don't tend to log in to this website very often so I haven't noticed the messages. I will try to be more responsive in the future. Honestly, by the 8th try, I had become VERY familiar with the FE Handbook, which I think is the main reason why I finally passed this exam. I didn't do anything differently although I did mainly focus on my problem areas, but I usually tried to do that all of the other times I studied. I also tried to spend more time than I had before doing nothing but practice exams. I did SO many practice exams. @Santa and @FloridaCivilEngineer, my advice would be to just keep doing practice exams, as many as you can get your hands on and know the handbook like the back of your hand. Hang in there! I never thought it would happen for me, but it did, so I'm living proof that the day will come as long as you stick with it and don't give up! Now I am having similar problems with the PE  I just took it for the fourth time last Friday. Here's to not having to do it 8 times lol!

"Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance."

-Samuel Johnson 

FloridaCivilEngineer said:

Can you please let us know what you did in preparation for the 8th time and if you did anything different?

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I will avoid doing any advertising for the YouTube 'FE preparation' videos I recently put up (for free), but I think my story can help others frustrated with that 'sprint' test known as the FE exam.

First, let me say that I graduated with my Engineering technology degree (mostly electronics and computer engineering) back in 1986 - well before many of you were born.  I followed that up immediately with earning my Masters in Computer Science just three years later, then I worked as a programmer, a leader of software development teams, then as an information security consultant, until I have finally settled-in as a computer security compliance officer.  I was then fortunate enough to be selected by my employer to attend a fully-paid MBA program (2013), during which I earned my MBA (in 2015).

Now in what will likely be my last full-time role now, I found that I needed to get my PE license to help ensure my promotability.  So, even though I had not attended any engineering courses in over 25-years, I started working on passing the FE exam.  It was on and off at first, but then I fully focused in late 2016, which eventually lead to my passing the FE exam in December of 2017 (first attempt), and the PE exam in April of 2018 (also first attempt) less than 4-months later.  BTW, my one year anniversary of passing that final test is just two days from now.

I attribute my success at passing both those of those tests so late in my career (and no formal related education in so many years), to being laser focused on getting it done.  It was NOT easy passing that FE exam.  In fact, if you had asked me to place a bet that day after the test, it would have been that I failed.  As it turns out,  however, everything I read (and watched YT videos on) was true - if you can reach that 60% correct threshold, you can pass it.  I actually found the PE easier to pass, although I will leave that story for another day.

The key things I suggest you keep in mind during every study/practice session are:

1. It is a sprint to answer 110 questions - which means you can only average 2.909 minutes to answer each question - keep that in mind at all times.  Make sure you add a time-stress component to every sample test, and block of questions you work on during your studies.  Keep you smart phone handy with the stop-watch app ready to click, and use it at every opportunity.  For example, if you are about to answer a block of 10 sample questions, stop working on them at 29 minutes.  Then total up your correctly answered score.  If you got at least 6 correct, then move on to the next batch. 
   
2. Only use a PDF reader on your computer when using the FE handbook during your studies.  You will not have a hard copy available to you during the FE test (however, if you are fortunate enough to get a paper-based PE exam {most gone within the next 2-years}, then have a hard-copy of the the FE manual with you for that test).  Unfortunately, it is difficult to get a copy of that specific extremely 'primative' PDF viewer being used by Pearson VUE (though I understand it is available from TOGAF in a free-trial version).  I mention that because it is VERY difficult to use the supplied reader during the test.  It forces full-pages to the screen and does not scroll well, and if you search for something it open up a table-of-contents of links to all the matches, which forces you to click on many poorly matched instances.  I could go on complaining about that POS, but I've digressed enough already.
   
3. Finally, the most important thing, is that you understand which type of questions you have a chance of answering, and which you do not.  I found that the A-B-C technique (mentioned earlier in this thread) was a great starting point, however I needed to refine it to include sub-categories within in each topic.  Doing so, allowed me to identify that I had no !@#$%^& chance at answering any Laplace Transform problems, so I chose to try the first one I encountered, and when that took me more than 3 minutes and I still could not figure it out, I skip the remaining 10 to 12 that I encountered during the test.  That saved me over 30 minutes that I was able to better use on problems I had a chance at answering.  A friend of mine said it best - it's like a WWII combat situation, where the Division commander has to choose to sacrifice a Battalion in order to save a significantly larger number of lives within the entire Division.
   

There is more I can suggest, but I will leave that for a future post.

Good luck to all of you still on that stormy road.

David Rivera

(YT Channel: PE4Doers)