Failed FE Civil... any recommendations?

Hello everyone,

Just a quick introduction, I am a Structural Engineer from Canada (originally from Europe). I have 6 years of experience in structural engineering only (never done any civils). 

I moved to Canada 2 years ago from Europe, I have my education from Poland (BSc) and England (MSc) and I used to work in several European countries before I came here. I had my foreign education assessed by Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA) and they said that I need to pass FE Civil exam in order to get my ticket in Canada. OK, I thought and I booked my exam in exam centres in Canada... 

It didn't really bother me as I thought I was good at what I was doing (at least that is what other engineers say). I regularly solve complex structural engineering problems and back in the UK I was in special engineering projects team, solving irregular structural analysis and design issues. I was offered to join a partnership in Canada (and I did) and my partners encouraged me to get a ticket. 

 I didn't really know much about the FE exam, I thought it would be pure structural analysis and design (that is how it looks like in the UK, iStructE chartered engineers must pass structural exam). Then I realized that the entire exam was more complex, many questions covering different aspects of engineering but less complicated. I panicked, things like math, hydraulics and fluid mechanics I had like 8 years ago and they didn't really bothered me since then. I realized I have had not enough time to pass, overall I spent about 30h on the exam. Furthermore, I always thought that differential equations were not covered within the scope of FE Civil exam (it's not mentioned there, even though it's a scope of calculus, but at other disciplines differential equations were distinguished from calculus). I was wrong, I had 3 questions on differential equations ) 

On the exam day I found the entire on-screen FE Reference book completely disappointing (I went through it before the exam and I purchased a hard copy so I knew what was there). Scrolling was f* up, every time I tried to scroll it would bounce back, zoom-in and zoom-out didn't work (e.g. if I tried to zoom-on on the equation on pg let's say 5 it would zoom-in but on page 4 or 6)... Lots of time wasting just trying to navigate through the FE reference book. I spent 3h on the first part and 2h on the second part, and obviously I run out of time on the second part so I had to quickly guess around 15-20 questions. 

Now, I have my results (I knew and I wouldn't pass right away) and I know I need to prepare much more than my first attempt. Stop being an arrogant and prepare like for every other exam. I have my lesson.

Below is my diagnostics and you can see that my performance was really poor. Surveying was on of the parts that I had to guess due to lack of time, I didn't get any preparation on environmental engineering (environmental engineering is separated from civils degree in Europe) etc. 

I am thinking about taking on-demand courses at school of PE or at Testmasters, I do not have any in-class prep courses since I am in Canada and this test is mostly US...

Any thoughts, good people? 

any thoughts on ppi2? I watched SOPE, TESTMASTERS AND PPI2 and ppi2 seems the best for what I need (I would like to focus more on exam questions and they offer about 1000 FE-like questions). I feel like during my prep with Lindberg's FE review manual I did more complex questions, and the questions on the exam were much more simple so I am looking for smth like that. 

Hi, I been taking on demand videos on PPI and I like the packet they offer with quizzes and other things. I have lost the test several times in the pass very close to your results. I am taking it in few weeks and I will let you. However, I have a spreadsheet that helps me see my percentages on the areas. Here is yours


 


Online - Domestos WC


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


Questions


Scale


Score


 


 


 


1


Mathematics


8


15


6.5


 43.3%


 


3.47


2


Probability and Statistics


5


15


7.1


 47.3%


 


2.37


3


Computational Tools 


4


15


7.2


 48.0%


 


1.92


4


Ethics and Professional Practice


4


15


15


 100.0%


 


4.00


5


Engineering Economics


5


15


9.7


 64.7%


 


3.23


6


Statics


7


15


9


 60.0%


 


4.20


7


Dynamics


5


15


9.9


 66.0%


 


3.30


8


Mechanical of materials


8


15


15


 100.0%


 


8.00


9


Materials


5


15


7.5


 50.0%


 


2.50


10


Fluid Mechanics


5


15


6.1


 40.7%


 


2.03


11


Hydraulics & Hydrologic Systems


8


15


4.3


 28.7%


 


2.29


12


Structural Analysis


6


15


10.4


 69.3%


 


4.16


13


Structural Design


7


15


11


 73.3%


 


5.13


14


Geotechnical Engineering


9


15


8.1


 54.0%


 


4.86


15


Transportation Engineering


9


15


8.7


 58.0%


 


5.22


16


Environmental Engineering


6


15


5.6


 37.3%


 


2.24


17


Construction


5


15


9


 60.0%


 


3.00


18


Surveying


4


15


0


 0.0%


 


0.00


 


 


110


 


  


56%


 


61.93

View attachment Book1a.xlsx

I took the exam again on Tuesday week ago. I got my results today and I finally passed.

Just a few friendly advices to those who were at similar situation as me. 

1. Don't be a cocky idiot thinking you know everything and don't need to study too much. That's what caused me to fail at the first time.

2. Take a review course with one of many online reviews of your choice. I took PPI on demand course and I found it very helpful. It helped me to organize my knowledge. I watched all of the classes online and then printed them again to go through them again. 

3. Review every single topic. After my first failure I felt like the second part of the exam was my strong side so I didn't prepare that much for it and that was a mistake. I put a lot of pressure on the first part and during my second try I was able to answer to pretty much every single question because I was very well prepared for it. The second part was where I felt like I failed because I didn't prepare to much, I thought I was good at it, but I was not. I thought I wouldn't pass because of my poor performance on the second session. If I had spent a week extra on the second part of the exam preparation I wouldn't have to be worried about my results.

4. Make yourself familiar with the FE reference handbook. Not just "familiar". You need to know where every single equations that you frequently use is located and know how to use the equation. There's not that many of them if you start to highlight the most frequently used ones. Seriously. I did that and then I realized I probably could have written them down and memorized them. There are always those questions that are not that popular but you can still find them using keywords from the questions in the search option. I spent about a week just going through the reference book all over and over again.

5. Don't give up. It doesn't matter how many tries it takes, eventually you'll pass.

Problems problems problems -- do as many as you possibly can.  Here's some more: https://www.sqrpgz.com/c/credentialing-FE

Good luck!