# Just passed the exam on the 3rd time!



## ruskyline (Nov 5, 2014)

I can not express how happy I am. I have no freaking idea how I passed! I thought I did worse than other times!! Oh man I woke up 7:00AM Pacific Time to check my score, the entire week I knew I failed, but some how some way I freaking passed this muthafuca!!!

Alright, I wanna to tell everyone do not give up. I was thinking if i don't pass this time, I really don't want to study all those crap that I learned all the way from community college.. But it's worthed! Now I'm just 1 more step away from having the PE in my initials!!

Ok these are the books and materials that I purchased:

FE Review Manual 2nd ed.
- This book really helped me out in the morning session. I would definitely recommend this book and I'd give it 7/10. The problems in this book was for sure harder than the actual exam. Well worth the price. For the ethics part, make sure to read the FE reference manual that is given by the NCEES

http://www.amazon.com/Review-Manual-Preparation-Fundamentals-Engineering/dp/1591263336

Civil Discipline-Specific Review for the FE/EIT Exam
http://www.amazon.com/Civil-Discipline-Specific-Review-EIT-Exam/dp/1591261775/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1415201663&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=civil+discipline-specific+review+for+the+fe+eit+exam

- I got this book for a whooping price of $75 while a go. I remember when I got it in the mail, I felt cheated because it's only a hair thin and costs $75. I saw a few problems that were in this book on the actual exam. 

*FE Civil Online Practice Exam 1*
This is a must buy!!! Only $50+tax, but I saw many very similar problems in this practice exam on the actual exam.

*FE Reference Handbook, 9.2 edition*
get the latest reference if you can. It's a bit easier to get used to when you sit for the test

FE Civil Quiz Bank
http://ppi2pass.com/fe-civil-quiz-bank-feceqb.html

Last but not least, I felt the $50 price tag for a 7 day usage was well worth it. I was very unsure about my structural design, environmental, geotechnical, transportation and Hydrology/Hydraulics skills. I mean I took the classes, did my hw and I know the stuff, but I wasn't that confident. This quiz gave me a HUGE boost of self-esteem for the exam.

My strategy was to only take questions from one section at a time, give my best shot and compare my answers with their answers. I must say there were a few errors in those problems, but they weren't many.

My strategy for the actual exam:

. I've read a few posts on this site that people said they usually get 80%-85% on each exam or they finished the exam 40 mins earlier. I'm not one of those.

If I recall correctly, I got 51 problems for the first part and 59 for the second part. My goal was to finish the first part in less than 2 hours.... I finished the first part in about 110 mins, a little more than 2 min per problem. The second part I knew I could afford to spend a little more time on each problem than I did on the first part which was a good thing.

There are some give away problems in here.. Some are just plain dum.. You don't need to be an engineer to answer them. sometimes it's good to take a step back and just look at the whole problem as a whole..


----------



## matt267 PE (Nov 5, 2014)

congrats!!!


----------



## snarea (Nov 5, 2014)

Congrats Ruskyline!. that is awesome news. Also makes me feel more confident to hear that you passed on your third time. I will be taking the exam for my third time too in January. Ive been studying off those same books you mentioned and I also purchased the FE Civil online practice exam. How did you do on the Civil practice exam, is it also timed like the actual exam/? Also did you find the second part of the actual exam at about the same difficulty lieve as those in the practice books? Did you have neough time to complete every problem?


----------



## ruskyline (Nov 5, 2014)

snarea said:


> Congrats Ruskyline!. that is awesome news. Also makes me feel more confident to hear that you passed on your third time. I will be taking the exam for my third time too in January. Ive been studying off those same books you mentioned and I also purchased the FE Civil online practice exam. How did you do on the Civil practice exam, is it also timed like the actual exam/? Also did you find the second part of the actual exam at about the same difficulty lieve as those in the practice books? Did you have neough time to complete every problem?


to be honest, I was consistently getting 50% or less, that's why I KNEW I had no chance to pass.. I wouldn't be surprise if I was at the bottom 1% who passed lol.. but who cares really?

In the past 2 times that I failed, I knew I BOMBED the second part. This time I was way more prepared thanks to the PPI $50 practice exam. Yes it is timed and I'd say the practice exam from PPI was actually MORE difficult than the actual test.


----------



## ruskyline (Nov 5, 2014)

snarea said:


> Congrats Ruskyline!. that is awesome news. Also makes me feel more confident to hear that you passed on your third time. I will be taking the exam for my third time too in January. Ive been studying off those same books you mentioned and I also purchased the FE Civil online practice exam. How did you do on the Civil practice exam, is it also timed like the actual exam/? Also did you find the second part of the actual exam at about the same difficulty lieve as those in the practice books? Did you have neough time to complete every problem?


Yes I finished all the problems + reviewed all the problems at the end.


----------



## smilestar (Nov 5, 2014)

congrats


----------



## ruskyline (Nov 5, 2014)

Thanks everyone!! I'd be more than happy to help out any of my fellow engineers who some help with passing this freaking exam


----------



## nady (Nov 5, 2014)

Congrats.I know the feeling of passing the exam..

Take a couple of weeks off and then on to the PE.


----------



## John QPE (Nov 6, 2014)

Congratulations


----------



## ruskyline (Nov 7, 2014)

Thanks John Q, btw what a coincident, our house address starts with 317..


----------



## WesternAuto17 (Nov 10, 2014)

Congratulations. Now, get ready to start over for the PE. Its a long story, but I took the PE about 4 months after the FE. Still waiting on results, but I found the format, from a time perspective, to be a lot less stressful. There is a big difference between 3 and 6 minutes.


----------



## snarea (Jan 14, 2015)

I guess the third time is a charm!!!


----------

