# ME FE test: DS or general for afternoon



## texas_sooner (Sep 1, 2009)

First post. For ME's that have taken the FE test, did you take the discipline specific or did you take the general exam in the afternoon? How did it go? Trying to take the FE Apr 2010.


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## MechGuy (Sep 3, 2009)

texas_sooner said:


> First post. For ME's that have taken the FE test, did you take the discipline specific or did you take the general exam in the afternoon? How did it go? Trying to take the FE Apr 2010.



I took the general exam in the afternoon, and it wasn't much harder than the morning exam.


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## Katiebug (Sep 3, 2009)

MechGuy said:


> I took the general exam in the afternoon, and it wasn't much harder than the morning exam.


Ditto. I worked up to the end on the AM section, but finished the PM with nearly an hour to spare (including checking my answers over). I didn't consider the difficulty on the PM to be substantially harder than the AM.


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## LargoOH (Sep 5, 2009)

I took the general in the afternoon and passed first time.

This was after being out of school since 97. Why are you thinking general would be easier for you?


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## HITMANVQ35 (Sep 6, 2009)

I was worried cause I kept hearing the PM was so much harder than the AM

What advice can you give for studying? I'm taking the Oct exam (general)


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## chaocl (Sep 11, 2009)

HITMANVQ35 said:


> I was worried cause I kept hearing the PM was so much harder than the AMWhat advice can you give for studying? I'm taking the Oct exam (general)


You should take your college major DS because at least you can look for the answer in the reference book but if you take the general afternoon that you have no idea which topics you should go in the reference book because you never heard that before.


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## texas_sooner (Sep 17, 2009)

I've been out of school 10 yrs.

So my plan is to use the EIT Ref Manual. I'll work all the problems front to back, take a break, then go back and do all the problems again.

Since I'll cover all the engineering topics working the problems, I think the general exam for the PM would be best. But, I may change my mind as I go through the book.

What do ya'll think?


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## sundevil98 (Oct 6, 2009)

That's what I'm doing...

Just about finished with the first time through, going to go back and review the "tricky stuff" then take a couple sample exams.

The way I see it, you probably can't go wrong going either way. To me, the whole exam seems to be mechanically biased (thermo, materials, mechanics, dynamics, statics, etc.). I realize those are all general engineering topics, but us mechanical guys/gals use them way more than electrical guys/gals do (as an example). I'd hate to be an EE taking the FE exam, especially if you've been out of school a while (I've been out 11 years now).

I'm sticking with the general exam in the afternoon however. I figure there are some "free" questions that should help me get a few more points. I have my MBA as well, so I think I will benefit from stuff like the time value of money problems. I breezed through the computer/spreadsheet stuff in the review manual - so I'm hoping those will bring more "free" points as well.


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## ananag (Dec 28, 2009)

I took the DS. It was a lot harder then the practice exams I took in the Lindeburg book. I had around 20 minutes left after the exam was over so I looked at the general test, and it seemed VERY easy. I should have taken then general test instead. I still passed, but I could have been out of the exam two hours earlier and enjoyed my Saturday.


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## AKENGR (Dec 29, 2009)

I took the general which was nice because I blew through the six math questions in four minutes. I finished with about 45 minutes left and rechecked a lot of problems. I did look at the mechanical and it didn't look too bad, but I think the general was probably a lot easier.


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