# FE exam experience - 10 years out of school



## Def

I enjoyed reading some of the approaches and techniques for the FE exam when I recently took it, so I thought I'd share my experience in the hopes that it might help someone else. It's a little long, but I wish I had read more of these positive experiences of people out of school for a while when I was preparing for my exam.

I graduated with a BSME 10 years ago, and my senior capstone class interfered with me being able to take the FE exam (EIT exam back then actually) my final semester. I thought no big deal, I'll just take it in the next year... then I found myself getting my first job in Aerospace (military fighter jets specifically), and NO ONE had a PE. Everybody I talked to said it was unimportant. As tends to happen, life came along and I quickly forgot about becoming an EIT and getting a PE.

Fast forward about 7 years, and I switch things up and move over to the oil and gas industry. While most don't have a PE, it does seem to carry some weight, and seems to be becoming more common. I always liked the idea of engineering being regulated to some degree, kind of like an external QA check, so I went forward with things. I was a little nervous due to the horror stories I'd read of people far out of school, but I had never completely left the technical side of engineering (although my direct exposure to it did wane a bit as I got into more project/managerial roles). Ultimately I decided to go against most the recommendations I read of going with the General FE exam, and went with Mechanical. Looking back on it, I think it was definitely the right move. So I'd advise anybody that actually gets exposed to technical engineering related to your degree, but out of school for a while, to take the exam based on your discipline.

So I did about 15 hours of studying, then took the NCEES FE practice exam to gauge my preparedness and scored in the mid 60's (percent). I was a little rusty in some areas, but I figured I'd do ok and could go ahead and schedule the exam for the next week. Went to book it, and saw I had a little over a month(!!!) before I could get into a testing location. Well, I booked the time and had no excuses not to get plenty of studying in, so I hit the FE Reference manual by Lindeburg for topics I was rusty on, and also worked some practice problems from here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1493706136/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1 . Ultimately, the "How to Pass on your First Try" book was ok, but some of the questions were a little too easy compared to the actual exam questions. The FERM had questions much harder as most people report. Ultimately the FE Sample exam from NCEES was the best review material for me, so I went over it a few times to see where I needed to brush up, and to see the areas I needed to work on. As usual, always use the FE Reference Handbook when studying! But overall, I'd get the same reference materials, as they weren't super expensive, and it was useful to have this minimum amount of material to work through. I would recommend skimming the FE Reference Manual from Lindeburg on sections you know though - the problem difficulty is not representative of the test.

I probably hit about 90-110 total hours of studying by the time the exam came around, mostly on the weekends, and was feeling pretty confident. I never took the paper based exam, but IMO, the computer based testing was a positive thing except that the computers were so slow it was torture scrolling through the sections with psychrometric/moody diagrams. 

The AM session I wanted to finish up in no more than 2 hours to give myself extra time for the PM/2nd section. This was actually a challenge for me, but I did get to the end with only 4 unanswered/flagged questions after about 1 hr 50 mins. I narrowed things down then made educated guesses on those then took a lunch break. Came back with plenty of time to start on the PM/2nd section, and was immediately much more comfortable as the subject material shifted more into the ME side of things rather than general coursework. I ended up only being slightly unsure of 1 question on the PM section, and ended up completing it in about 1 hr 30 mins. I carefully checked over everything for 20 mins, but didn't see anything that I would change, so I completed the test quite a bit before the time limit.

Thankfully results come out pretty quickly, so I didn't have to wait long, but I passed on my first try. If I had to guess, I'd say I was somewhere in the upper 80's to lower 90's percent complete. The extra studying really made a difference on being able to quickly visualize the steps and the solution as soon as I saw the problem, but ultimately I felt I was over prepared and probably could have "passed" with just 10-20 hours of refreshing, because everything really is in your FE Reference Handbook! So to everybody else that's been out of school for a while and thinking of tackling the FE exam, don't fret, it's entirely doable with a little studying! 

I had considered trying to get a waiver for the exam, as that's possible in TX, but ultimately I felt I shouldn't be afraid of an exam that just tests fundamentals, and it will make getting a PE in other states a much easier process in the future.

Now onto the PE exam. I've applied to the board to take the exam, and am waiting for their decision. I'm not sure if I could have done both exams at nearly the same time, but I felt like that would have been too much with a job, wife, and kid at home. I was fretting over the FE exam enough as it was! 

I'm not sure if it'll help, but studying for the FE exam was a good refresher in a few topics this far out of school, so I do think I gained more than just passing a test. So if you're on the fence, I'd say go for it!


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## JHW 3d

Nice write up. I was about 10 years out of school when I took the EIT/FE exam, as well. Back then it was the paper exam. I know nothing about the "new" CBT and policies but did I read right that you can "bank" excess morning time for the afternoon session? Wow that sure changes things up.

I used a different strategy and took the general engineering EIT exam. IIRC you could choose at the exam site after reading through the exams (if you wanted!). I knew ahead of time I was going General, but after I'd finished my afternoon session just for kicks I went through the mechanical and ended up concluding that it wouldn't have been so bad (I was pretty weak in the TFS area, at the time).

I think I studied for about a month with the last week being pretty intense. Like you I felt that the EIT studying was a great refresher and boosted my confidence quite a bit, especially in the areas of my learning that maybe had been weak or unused since college.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane, and good luck in April!


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## Hammer Head PE

Took the Mechanical FE 7 years out of school (CBT exam).  Studied probably 24 hours using online $50 practice exam.  Took the exam, passed.  Thought that same strategy would work for the PE.  Not so much. Had to get after it on the studying for 2nd attempt on PE and passed.  IMHO, FE exam doesn't hold a light to the PE.


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## Def

You can "bank" time from the morning to the afternoon session now, which is exactly why I only gave myself about 35% of the total time to complete the morning session. That was pretty difficult, but I pulled it off and felt any additional time wouldn't help me much on the morning session. In comparison, I breezed through the afternoon session in about 25-30% the total exam time. So at least that meant I got home a bit earlier!

The afternoon session felt like it was more ME specific subject material, and had less general info, but I believe the CBT strategy is that you can be tested on anything in the morning or afternoon session. So with things more ME specific, it felt comparatively much easier to me. If I could go back in time about 10 years, fresh out of school, I probably would have felt both parts were equally as difficult.

I agree the PE exam does seem a bit more daunting than the FE exam, mostly because it has a wide breadth and can be extremely detailed on any topic within that scope. I've already started studying, but feel I'm to the point where I should just dive in with sample questions from here on out after reading through Shigley as a refresher.


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