Chemical or Environmental PE Exam?

I have taken the Chemical PE exam twice now and failed both times. I am gearing up for my third time in October. However, I feel that since I have been working as an environmental engineer for the past 5 years I might take the environmental PE instead. Does anyone have any advice on taking the exam for a different discipline?

Wyatt72 said:

I have taken the Chemical PE exam twice now and failed both times. I am gearing up for my third time in October. However, I feel that since I have been working as an environmental engineer for the past 5 years I might take the environmental PE instead. Does anyone have any advice on taking the exam for a different discipline?

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Something to think about is your states rules. some states are disciplince specific in what you can or can't use the stamp for. In Illinois for example, you are able to practice in areas you feel you are competent, regardless of the test you took. (civil is an exception as there is an additional test for that one)

Do you plan to get licensed in other states through comodity...be sure to look at those state rules to.

I have a chem e background but worked in the environmental world but I took the chemical test bc there was a lot more to the environmental test that I never learned in school or at work.

snickerd3 said:

...Do you plan to get licensed in other states through comodity...

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I would think a business degree might be required for this. Just giving you sh*t, snick. I agree with what snick said...depends on the state. I took the environmental PE, but my state (Colorado) allows me to stamp geotechnical investigations that I write. If getting the environmental PE will not limit you (CA and Hawaii don't recognize it), I would advize you to take the exam that most resembles your work experience.

FLBuff PE said:

I would think a business degree might be required for this. Just giving you sh*t, snick. I agree with what snick said...depends on the state. I took the environmental PE, but my state (Colorado) allows me to stamp geotechnical investigations that I write. If getting the environmental PE will not limit you (CA and Hawaii don't recognize it), I would advize you to take the exam that most resembles your work experience.

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FLBuff PE said:

I would think a business degree might be required for this. Just giving you sh*t, snick. I agree with what snick said...depends on the state. I took the environmental PE, but my state (Colorado) allows me to stamp geotechnical investigations that I write. If getting the environmental PE will not limit you (CA and Hawaii don't recognize it), I would advize you to take the exam that most resembles your work experience.

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Believe me I have been thinking about getting a buisness degree and being done with engineering. I am really tired of stuyding for these lame exams. However, since I live in Florida I can have a PE in anything and sign and seal any documents as long as they are within my expertise. Also Florida has a wonderful law that states if you fail the PE exam 3 times you will be required to complete 12 credit hours of college classes before you are allowed to take the exam again. I love pressure.

I took the environmental test and thought it wasn't too bad (I have an EnvE degree). Although I had "learned" most of the material in school, I had forgotten everything I learned in college and had to relearn everything again anyway. The ChemE test sounds difficult. I would take a look at the exam specs for the EnvE exam and see how much of it would be new compared to the ChemE test.

I think any chemical engineer could pass the EnvE test if they studied enough. The only limitation might be that your reference library might not be complete (haz & solid waste, Env Laws, etc). If you have some EnvE coworkers, you might peruse their libraries to see if they have references that might be useful. The Environmental subforum has some pretty good lists of references that people used on the exam.

I took the chemical test but have been working in the environmental field. I thought that after looking at the material on each of the tests that the material was more narrow and focused in the chemical test. You know going in that they are going to have fluids, thermo, kinetics, unit ops, and heat transfer. I thought this was going to be much much easier to focus my studying on a limited range of topics.