Any advice is greatly appreciated

Professional Engineer & PE Exam Forum

Help Support Professional Engineer & PE Exam Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
H

Hope_iL_Pass

Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2012
Messages
9
Reaction score
1
Hi everyone. At this moment I am very much frustrated, very depressed, and very down like anyone who failed as i got my result from October 2012 FE/EIT exam. Any advice everyone as i will base my next exam discipline on what could be the outcome of everyones point of view or opinion. Here is my sort of a little background info. I graduated long time ago like a decade already. My specific discpline is in electrical engineering. However for the last two exams i selected "Other discpline specific" as i was thinking that i only need to study 1 specific discipline for the entire day of exam. The result of my 2nd test was way much better than the first, but it is still not enough to pass. I am thinking of getting an advice to you guys of what will be your opinion on what test will i be taking next april 2013. I am considering Electrical Discipline this time but wondering if it is a good decision. Can anyone still remember any sort of a guide questions about the october Electrical specific (what topics they put much pressure on) so that i could weigh it in. How much is the percentage of Calculation vs Objective type like (theories) if you could still remember? what were the reference you used for the afternoon exam (electrical)?Thank you so much guys. My greatest gratitude towards you all. You all are of great help. Please give me your opinions and encouragements to all who failed.

"I will never give up. i know i can nail this exam".

To all the October 2012 EIT passers: Congratulations. Continue moving forward. Good luck for your PE. May God Bless Us All.

 
I took the EIT back in April after being out of school for 11 years. Passed it on that first try. Currently wearing out the F5 key while awaiting PE results.

Anyway, biggest thing I can think of is to find a good source of practice problems and work as many as you can. Lindeberg is good in the sense that if you can do his practice problems you'll be way over prepared. Take a prep class if you haven't already and/or find someone that'll help you study that passed their first time.

 
Take a prep course. See if you can find a "live" class and attend and do the problems. I was out of school 30 years when I had to go through it-- I took the prep course and then spent EVERY AFTERNOON for 2 months working problems! I had the time and boss to allow me to do so-- however, I passed the first time.

Don't kill yourself over this-- yes, you can do this. The prep class is a good thing-- especially if you have been out of school for more than a few years. (few >3). Pay the money, work the problems diligently and get it done. There is no reason to do this several times-- take it, get it over with and be done with it.

Good luck!

 
Hi there..i am too recently took the FE/EIT exam in Oct,12 and I have been graduated from BSEE like over a decade!..When I first started review all the topic, I am so lost and frustrated but working on the samples exams and practice questions helps a lot...pay a lot attention to Maths, Economic, Chemistry, and Thermo. They carry a lot points. Also, don't forget about the Statistics/Probability. I took general though.

Get real familiar with the formula book...i found a lot answer by flipping to index and finding the formula...Index page is your friend. If I can't solve a question within 1min, I skip and come back later...or guess later.

I know..right? I skip the first question of the test lol

Also, get to know your calculator..them matrix function helps!

 
I was in a similar situation. I graduated in 98, electrical, like you. I took the EIT in Oct 2012 for the first time and passed.

Since I was out of school for such a long time, I started studying early (around March). I started with weekends, then daily from July. In August I took a prep class. I found it useful because I learned a lot of tricks to pass the exam and how to work the problems in under 2 minutes. I took off the week before the exam for a final review. I also did 2 practice exams during that week. I did them just like the real exam: 4h in the am, 1h break and another 4h pm. Both times I got results in the 70's %, so I was confident that i would pass when I went to the exam. (I knew that last Apr the passing score was around 56-57%, so my target was to be above 60%).

I would recommend sticking with the Other Disciplines, since you already studied it. BTW, I took Other Disciplines too. Especially for Other Disciplines PM it is very important to know the NCEES reference book. For many PM problems you can find the answer in the NCEES book. You just need to know that is there and where to find it. For example I remember during the exam a problem with a beam and they asked us to calculate the force at a specific point. You could spend probably 5 min to calculate it, or if you knew where to find it you could just look up the correct answer in one of the tables. Then there are others where you all you need to do is to plug the numbers in a formula from the book. If you remember we had a problem about a dam weir. I had no idea how to do that problem, but I looked it up in the index and found a formula for it. It took about 30 seconds to solve.

Another thing that really helped me was to know how to use the calculator. I used a Casio fx115 ES Plus. You can solve many math (matrices, definite integrals, statistics, etc.) problems in under 1 minute, if you know how to use it. We did a tutorial for the calculator during the prep class and that was extremely useful.

Good luck!

 
First of all, Congratulations. Time for celebration now. Different success stories, different lessons i learnt. i just want to say thank you everyone. your responses not only gave me an idea but also strength to move on. i will do every advice there is from all of you. regarding class, do you have any recommended prep class that helped you a lot last october 2012 exam?Thank you and God Bless us All.

 
Where in IL are you? Are you close to any of the universities? I know tsome usually offer FE prep classes, or at least they did.

Become VERY familiar with the reference manual. Practicing problems...lots of them. Like others said, don't ignore the math or chem they are huge points.

 
Hi! I know your frustration! I took the general exam durining my senior year of school right in the middle of senior design, classes, hw, no sleep and whatever. I winged the exam and failed (kinda disappointing but really what did I expect?) So I got my a$$ in gear, registered as soon as they opened the October exam registration, invested in the NCEES formula book that's given on test day and example questions you can buy through NCEES and the PPI FE review manual (both electronic and hard copy). I kinda took a break between may-june and then in July I started studying for the October exam. I created a study schedule and worked my way thru the review manual.

There is roughtly 60 chapters I believe broken down into 10 or so subject areas. Typically each subject had 5-6 chapters and the first 2 Chapters were basic and just a review for me, aka I breezed through them. What took longer were the more in depth chapters. If I got hung up on a chapter (if it took me more than one day to get through) then I moved on to the next subject. This was to keep me on schedule, but to also keep my brain jogging the different subjects. I aimed to study one chapter a day either during lunch at work and afterwork. I used the weekends to catchup because believe me, it gets very discouraging reviewing that much. It worked that during my lunch I would read the chapter's text and then after work, work out the practice problems. It took me July just to figure out my study schedule and what worked. Aug and Sept were just trying to get thru using that method and then in October it was crunch time and each day I had to force down those skipped chapters. One thing I didn't mention was, I only used the NCEES formula book to work on practice problems. If a solution used a formula that I didn't use, I hunted it down in the formula book. Mastering the formula book by practicing problems is key! Don't memorize the formual book layout, work with the book and practice using only the formula book!

I didn't get time to do a practice exam, nor did I have time to work out the problem in the NCEES example problem book, which made me really neverous because I had no idea really what my level was going into the test, but I passed!

In comparison, when I took the test the 2nd time, I was a beast, I don't wanna say I over prepared, but I was prepared! I flew through the sections that I had horrible scores on the first time (thermo and electrical) because I studied the heck out of them. I could tell even physically that I had worked harder than the first time because I had the worst throbbing headache the following 2 days. :beat:

I promise if you create a realistic study schedule and stick to it, it will pay off and you will pass. Anyone is capable, if I can do it, you can too!

Hope this helps :D

 
Hope_iL_Pass said:
Hi everyone. At this moment I am very much frustrated, very depressed, and very down like anyone who failed as i got my result from October 2012 FE/EIT exam. Any advice everyone as i will base my next exam discipline on what could be the outcome of everyones point of view or opinion. Here is my sort of a little background info. I graduated long time ago like a decade already. My specific discpline is in electrical engineering. However for the last two exams i selected "Other discpline specific" as i was thinking that i only need to study 1 specific discipline for the entire day of exam. The result of my 2nd test was way much better than the first, but it is still not enough to pass. I am thinking of getting an advice to you guys of what will be your opinion on what test will i be taking next april 2013. I am considering Electrical Discipline this time but wondering if it is a good decision. Can anyone still remember any sort of a guide questions about the october Electrical specific (what topics they put much pressure on) so that i could weigh it in. How much is the percentage of Calculation vs Objective type like (theories) if you could still remember? what were the reference you used for the afternoon exam (electrical)?Thank you so much guys. My greatest gratitude towards you all. You all are of great help. Please give me your opinions and encouragements to all who failed.

"I will never give up. i know i can nail this exam".

To all the October 2012 EIT passers: Congratulations. Continue moving forward. Good luck for your PE. May God Bless Us All.
Click to expand...
Hello Hope_iL_Pass,

I hope everything's okay with you. Do you mind sharing your diagnostic reports to us. Both of 'em if you please. This will serve as a guide for those who are planning to take the exam by April 2013 just like myself. That would be much appreciated. Thank you so much and best of luck to us.

 
I took the school of PE online for my specialty afternoon session.. I worked the problems for school of PE 3 to 4 times and the specialty depth area as well. I worked from my strongest areas first on the test and weakest last. Do not get hung up on a problem if you do not get the problem then move on. I struggled with the EIT/FE several times as well. I purchased the NCEES FE manual and used it as much as possible while working problems so that I knew where all key items were. The above helped me to pass after several attempts after being out of school for 20 years.

 
Hope_iL_Pass said:
Hi everyone. At this moment I am very much frustrated, very depressed, and very down like anyone who failed as i got my result from October 2012 FE/EIT exam. Any advice everyone as i will base my next exam discipline on what could be the outcome of everyones point of view or opinion. Here is my sort of a little background info. I graduated long time ago like a decade already. My specific discpline is in electrical engineering. However for the last two exams i selected "Other discpline specific" as i was thinking that i only need to study 1 specific discipline for the entire day of exam. The result of my 2nd test was way much better than the first, but it is still not enough to pass. I am thinking of getting an advice to you guys of what will be your opinion on what test will i be taking next april 2013. I am considering Electrical Discipline this time but wondering if it is a good decision. Can anyone still remember any sort of a guide questions about the october Electrical specific (what topics they put much pressure on) so that i could weigh it in. How much is the percentage of Calculation vs Objective type like (theories) if you could still remember? what were the reference you used for the afternoon exam (electrical)?Thank you so much guys. My greatest gratitude towards you all. You all are of great help. Please give me your opinions and encouragements to all who failed.

"I will never give up. i know i can nail this exam".

To all the October 2012 EIT passers: Congratulations. Continue moving forward. Good luck for your PE. May God Bless Us All.
Click to expand...
Hi Hope_iL_Pass,

How are you? Could you please share your total score you got for AM and PM to us. 1st and 2nd time if you may. Thank you and good luck.

 
I took the electrical discpline this october 2012 exam and passed. I have been out of school for two years. I seriously could not have passed without "Testmasters" It is well worth the investment. I studied about 100 hours outside of class and I passed with a 74 in texas. I studied the FERM book for about a month before taking testmasters and found out that there were a lot of subjects that i had missed or that FERM did not have, that was on the FE but was covered by testmasters. The course cost me $990 but I now have EIT after my name it was all worth it. This is what I did..studied the FERM for a month an hour a day, took the testmasters course (did all the homework), studied the testmasters material for 100 hours and passed. It sounds like a lot and I didn't have a life for four months but it was all worth it. Take the electrical discipline because each exams are graded differently. The other discipline part has too many things us EE don't take. At first I was worried that I was going to fail because testmasters only teaches for the other discipline but when I saw how hard the morning questions were for the civil and mechancial portion Im glad I did

 
Hello and I think there has been some very good information shared already, but I will chime in with what helped me. I recently took the FE this October and thankful I was able to pass it on my first attempt. I'm a senior CET student that decided to go back to school after being out for many years and will be graduating this May. However, it's been 12+ years since I've taken courses in Chemistry, Calculus, Structured Programming, and Circuits/Electricity so like you I was at a disadvantage going into the exam.

However, the first step was to identify the subjects I had defeciencies in and I was actually able to find free lectures and study materials in those subject areas. If you haven't taken courses in any of the subject areas in several years, it may be a good idea to take a FE prep course that covers all subjeects. I spent maybe 8-10 hours total for this over a period of 2 weeks.

Another important step is to do as many practice problems as your time will allow. I devoted an average of 5 hours a week between August and October on practice problems, this is really what the majority of my preparation for the exam went into. I found PPI2PASS cafe to be very good and would recommend it. It has several useful tools that can also help you determine what areas you need to spend more time in and allows you to take practice test that simulates the actual test.

The final important strategy that I think is often overlooked and could be the difference between passing and failing the exam for some people is familiarizing yourself with the the FE manual and using shortcuts to solve a lot of the problems with your calculator especially for the math related problems. Even if you aren't knowledgable of the concepts, if you know how to find them in the manual and understand how the content is layed out in the manual, you can still use the equations and definitions to get a lot of the problems correct. Also, I learn how to solve several of the math problems I had no idea how to work (i.e. matrices) by learning how to input them into my calculator. In addition, I used the FE supplied manual doing the practice problems which really helped me with familiarizing where items are found...but the table of contents and index was also helpful.

Bottomline, don't be discouraged, develop a plan to improve your defencies and use whatever texting taking strategies you find useful and knock it out the park.

 
hello everyone,

i have same situation had BSEE degree from india and now 10 years after trying to give eit which i failed last year already took review course but was not helful because i was working so not able to attend all class need real help what to read? whrere to read?

 
I was in a similar situation. I took the exam 4 years after graduation. and I passed!!!

The first thing I did was open the NCEES handbook, read the two pages about conic sections and panic!! my toughs were: did I waste all those years in college? Why can't I remember how to solve ____ or _____? Next, and after reading tons of reviews of all the books available, I bought the FE Review manual (not the current edition) and, because I like to track my progress in any new venture, set a study schedule.

The book helped because it has tons of problems. The more problems you solve the faster you will get at solving them and time is crucial during the exam. Know the core concepts, know the percentages on the test for each subject and prioritize accordingly.

I could not take a class review because I live in the middle of nowhere and my schedule wouldn't allow it. So I supplemented the review of the book with other tools like the Onile Texas classes (which are offered for free).

Make sure your family knows what the exam is and how much time you need for it. I had to talk to my husband because he kept giving me errands to run for him. To have his support was very important.

For me, It was helpful to take my specific discipline. I had several questions unanswered in the morning because it took me a long time to solve some problems (like statics problems. I'm not fast enough). However, thermodynamics, hydraulics and fluid mechanics are my "forte" and I knew the environmental exam had more of those questions than the general exam.

Bottom line: solve problems, solve problems, solve problems! And if you have time, keep solving problems!

I hope this helps!

Good luck!!

 
Here is again I don't know what happen with the font size :blush:

I was in a similar situation. I took the exam 4 years after graduation. and I passed!!! :multiplespotting:

The first thing I did was open the NCEES handbook, read the two pages about conic sections and panic!! my toughs were: did I waste all those years in college? Why can't I remember how to solve ____ or _____? Next, and after reading tons of reviews of all the books available, I bought the FE Review manual (not the current edition) and, because I like to track my progress in any new venture, set a study schedule.

The book helped because it has tons of problems. The more problems you solve the faster you will get at solving them and time is crucial during the exam. Know the core concepts, know the percentages on the test for each subject and prioritize accordingly.

I could not take a class review because I live in the middle of nowhere and my schedule wouldn't allow it. So I supplemented the review of the book with other tools like the Onile Texas classes (which are offered for free).

Make sure your family knows what the exam is and how much time you need for it. I had to talk to my husband because he kept giving me errands to run for him. To have his support was very important.

For me, It was helpful to take my specific discipline. I had several questions unanswered in the morning because it took me a long time to solve some problems (like statics problems. I'm not fast enough). However, thermodynamics, hydraulics and fluid mechanics are my "forte" and I knew the environmental exam had more of those questions than the general exam.

Bottom line: solve problems, solve problems, solve problems! And if you have time, keep solving problems!

I hope this helps!

Good luck!!

 
Dr. James Kamm has a good CD Rom review course that you may want to try. These sale at PPI, also check the EB and PPI yard sale.

 

Similar threads

X
Passed the FE Exam on 10th Attempt!
Replies
8
Views
4K
xvdavis
X
E
New Member New York (FE Exam-EIT vs Masters in Electrical Engineering)
Replies
0
Views
134
EENGR87
E
C
New Member - Looking for materials
Replies
2
Views
920
engie123
E
B
For Sale FREE PE Power Books and References DMV
Replies
0
Views
310
bouncerhvj
B
N
For Sale Selling all books for FE (Electrical) and PE (Control Systems)
Replies
1
Views
566
bryantpn
B
N.S. Nandagopal, P E

Latest posts

Back
Top