# Any last minute advice??



## Jbone27 PE (Feb 17, 2016)

1


----------



## John QPE (Feb 17, 2016)

Ask yourself ....

"What do I have? What do I need?"

Then find the right equation.


----------



## Jbone27 PE (Feb 17, 2016)

1


----------



## Audi Driver P.E. (Feb 17, 2016)

If the answer is derived easily and matches a booklet answer, check your work.


----------



## Jbone27 PE (Feb 26, 2016)

1


----------



## FEDream (Feb 26, 2016)

Sorry to hear that Jerimy. I am also Civil Engineer and i failed, my score was 60%, after reading few topics i think we are close, it seems if we can get 5+ more questions right we would be fine, but we do need to get over the hump. My issue was that i had 15 problems left and only 5 minutes to finish the test, so i had 15 B's, since i didnt have time to work these problems that i skipped in the first place. Dont give up, i am studying again and hopefully the studying will be reworded in May. What material did you use to study. I was asking about " FE Civil Practice Problems by Lindeburg " is this the book you were referring to earlier, or just regular Lindeburg book?


----------



## Jbone27 PE (Feb 27, 2016)

1


----------



## FEDream (Feb 27, 2016)

I did not sign up yet, but i am thinking about it, since the material i have been reviewing during the past few month is still fresh.


----------



## FEDream (Feb 27, 2016)

Can you give me the link for  free Georgia Institute of Tech FE prep material, i wasnt able to find it.


----------



## Jbone27 PE (Feb 27, 2016)

1


----------



## FEDream (Feb 28, 2016)

How do you think this material had helped you, how did you do on the topics that are covered by Georgia Tech Free Review. I used some of the material that is on youtube but its not as up to date as the material you have shared with me.


----------



## Jbone27 PE (Feb 29, 2016)

1


----------



## John QPE (Feb 29, 2016)

Sign up for a review course. You can do it....my degree is in Geography and I passed the thing!


----------



## Jbone27 PE (Mar 1, 2016)

1


----------



## matt267 PE (Mar 1, 2016)

I see you did poorly in the math section.

Here are two sources that really helped me when I was studying for the FE exam:

http://ppi2pass.com/calculus-refresher-for-the-fe-exam-calfe.html

and https://www.khanacademy.org/ 

Khan Academy might also help with statics and dynamics.


----------



## John QPE (Mar 1, 2016)

Looking at that diagnostic, I'm fairly certain you have no idea what you should be studying. A review course will help you focus on the topics you need to concentrate on, and not waster time on areas that don't have a high probability of appearing on the exam.

If you're studying the Lindeburgh book you'd not focused in on the real exam-style questions. The 1001 FE Problems book is a good one, as is the Non-Quantitative Problems book. But really dude, a review course will help you a lot.


----------



## Road Guy (Mar 1, 2016)

Do they still do the tricky unit confusion bullshit?

I would defin do a test prep class.

Only strategy i can think of is to look at the ones that you did best on that were left of the"mark".

Whats odd is you did better in harder subjects and worse on easier ones like statics...

I would recommend hitting the am section very hard and not so much the afternoon. Most test prep people teach the strategy (on the PE) to nail the am and then go for half the PM section and you will pass...

Keep on keeping on!


----------



## Jbone27 PE (Mar 2, 2016)

1


----------



## Jbone27 PE (Mar 2, 2016)

1


----------



## John QPE (Mar 2, 2016)

School of PE is really the best option for this.

Don't waste your money on those individual subject classes. Calculus?? You have about a 90% chance that the 1-2 calc problems you see are table lookups, again, see my point about you not knowing what to study.

EET is excellent for the PE, they just started an FE Review not too long ago. If that is half as good as their PE review you'll be good.


----------



## TWJ PE (Mar 2, 2016)

I agree and would suggest a review course.

You are having issues with several of the topics that most folks count as the freebies: math, prob and stats, and ethics. Just those would be a big difference.

Keep after it, you'll get it!


----------



## Jbone27 PE (Mar 2, 2016)

1


----------



## John QPE (Mar 3, 2016)

jerimy.hamilton said:


> Okay I'm convinced. I'm looking into the review courses and I'll be enrolled in one by Monday. I'm sure some of the cheaper ones like the one I posted above have some good material but I'm going to go with one of the tried and true classes I've read about on here. Testmasters, School of PE, or EET. Thanks again. You've all been very helpful.


This is a small investment in your future. EET even takes Paypal, you can sign up for Paypal credit and pay it off over the course of 6 months too if you need to with no interest.

I took SofPE for the FE, as did a guy at my work a few months ago who has been out of school for like 15 years,

Good luck, and post questions here when they come up.


----------



## TWJ PE (Mar 3, 2016)

I took School of PE too for FE review - I would recommend (note I am electrical).


----------



## like_civil (Mar 3, 2016)

Hey everyone,

I took my FE CBT Civil exam today March / 03 / 2016, and I think I did horribly since I guessed on a lot of the questions, the questions i did calculate was the ones that were in my linderburg review, which some of them showed up on the exam. I failed my first attempt way back in October / 2013, which was last ever paper and pencil exam.

one thing i noticed about the FE CBT Civil exam was that there was a lag time in loading the FE reference manual on the exam computer. NCEES charges us arm and a leg, but could not afford to give us a powerful computer to load the FE reference manual in less than a second.

Anyone has any ideas on how to move forward after failing second attempt?

if so, please let me know.


----------



## matt267 PE (Mar 4, 2016)

See the above posts.


----------



## John QPE (Mar 4, 2016)

Get the OP's name, email, and phone number.

Work together, pass.


----------



## Jbone27 PE (Mar 4, 2016)

1


----------



## like_civil (Mar 5, 2016)

matt267 PE said:


> See the above posts.


Thank You,  matt267 PE, for your response. I will certainly look at the prior posts.



John QPE said:


> Get the OP's name, email, and phone number.
> 
> Work together, pass.


Thank You, John QPE,, for your response. By the way, who is OP?



jerimy.hamilton said:


> Yeah these guys provided some great feedback. Main conclusion is that I need to take a refresher class. I'm signing up for SoPE Monday. I'd be happy to bounce concepts off of each other if need be. If you took the test this week you should get your result by roughly Wednesday (thats been my experience). And don't count yourself out 100%. You never know.


Thank You, jerimy.hamilton, for your response.

By the way, how did you calculate the percentage from the failed exam results?

I still have not received my final judgement of the FE Civil CBT Exam, which I took on March / 03 / 2016. I will keep everyone posted as soon as I get the final judgement from NCEES. I am preparing my self for the worst decision any examinee could get.

Yes, I would like to bounce ideas back and forth to passing this exam. But we need a forum that only me and you can use to discuss different subjects within the FE CBT Civil Exam.

I know you are going to take the refresher course, but I feel like independent studies should suffice, I plan on doing self studies, but this time i would like to change something from last time. I had never taken CBT version of the exam until March / 03 / 2016. So, I now have a little better idea on how to carry out my studies, and also how to manage my time. My biggest regret is that I took the scheduled break of 25 minutes. I should've just went to the bathroom, and may be drink a little bit of water, and should've just started on the second portion of the exam at or about 10 to 11 minute mark, instead i brought snacks from home, which I ate thinking I had more than enough time to eat and go to bathroom, and drink water before going back into the exam room. All of this took almost 10 minutes out of my exam time as that computer is programmed to start deducting time even if you are not back. 

I think CBT Exam administrators should tell examinee what time to report back ( that time should reflect exact 25 minutes scheduled break, and not a second more ) so that you are not deducted from the exam time.

In the old paper and pencil exam, exam administrator told us that you must be back at, say 2:38 P.M., or otherwise you will NOT be let back into the exam room once the door closes at 2:39 P.M. That was much better. This is just my two cents into this whole equation of scheduled break.

anyways, thanks to everyone who responded to my post.


----------



## TWJ PE (Mar 6, 2016)

If you took the exam on the 3rd, you should receive your results on Wednesday (3/9) if I remember correctly.


----------



## like_civil (Mar 6, 2016)

W9TWJ said:


> If you took the exam on the 3rd, you should receive your results on Wednesday (3/9) if I remember correctly.


Thank You, W9TWJ, for your response to my post. I will keep everyone posted at or around March / 09 / 2016, and/or March / 10 / 2016.


----------



## like_civil (Mar 6, 2016)

Amount of attempts an examinee takes the FE Exam is limited to 3 in the state where I reside, and after that I have to go and take minimum of 12 credit hours of courses in the areas of deficiencies.

In the neighboring state, there is no limit of how many times examinee can take the FE Exam.

So, does anyone know if it is legal to jump from your current state of resident to the next state to take the FE exam, and claim that neighboring state board as your official state to grant examinee EIT status?

I do not want to bog down to the limited amount of attempts, as per state mandated, and do not want to go back to college.

here is where I am at with regards to my current situation :

I took my first attempt at FE Exam in October / 2013 last ever paper pencil exam, and I did not pass.

I took my second attempt at FE Exam in March / 03 / 2016, my first ever CBT version of the exam.

I still have not received my second attempt FE exam results as I type this on March / 06 / 2016.

I have one LAST attempt left, and I don't want to blow it.

my current resident state is Georgia.

Can anyone help if its legal to jump from current resident state to next neighboring state to take the FE exam, and make that neighboring state's engineering board to be home state just so that i don't have to deal with this limitations on the amount of tries i have to pass the exam.

if anyone can help in this regard, then it would be helpful. -Thanks in advance.


----------



## John QPE (Mar 7, 2016)

You can take the FE anywhere, provided you meet the states requirements. But you should really think positive.


----------



## Jbone27 PE (Mar 7, 2016)

1


----------



## Mike in Gastonia (Mar 7, 2016)

Looking at the sample diagnostic in the ncees examinee guide, it says,



> The Your Performance column indicates your result by knowledge area converted to a scaled score of 0–15. The scaled score conversion is
> necessary for comparison purposes since each exam, while similar to other exams in overall difficulty, is unique. This also allows comparison of
> results by an examinee on multiple attempts. _The number of questions you answered correctly cannot be determined from this scaled score._



????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????So I'm not sure if you really go by what you've calculated based on their statement....


----------



## Jbone27 PE (Mar 7, 2016)

1


----------



## like_civil (Mar 7, 2016)

John QPE said:


> You can take the FE anywhere, provided you meet the states requirements. But you should really think positive.


Thank You, John QPE, for your response.

Yes, I will try to be positive, but by doing analysis as to my current situation, I am just feeling down. I think I should have done better on the exam, but I did not.

I tried to study for the exam in the car just minutes before the exam to make sure I cover the simple things such as ethics, and some easy definitions.

------------------------------------------------------

http://engineerboards.c o m/index.php?/topic/26298-any-last-minute-advice/&amp;do=findComment&amp;comment=7331113

http://engineerboards.c o m/index.php?/topic/26298-any-last-minute-advice/&amp;do=findComment&amp;comment=7331130

Thank You, Jerimy.Hemilton, for your response, and how to calculate the percentage from the data provided by the NCEES.

------------------------------------------------------

http://engineerboards.c o m/index.php?/topic/26298-any-last-minute-advice/&amp;do=findComment&amp;comment=7331115

Thank You, Mike in Gastonia, for your response.


----------



## John QPE (Mar 7, 2016)

Dude I have a degree in freaking Geography. If I can pass it you can. But you need to focus, the upcoming test needs to literally become your life.


----------



## like_civil (Mar 7, 2016)

John QPE said:


> Dude I have a degree in freaking Geography. If I can pass it you can. But you need to focus, the upcoming test needs to literally become your life.


Thanks for your comments, and encouragement. I will try  to take the exam again in about 1 to 2 months depending upon how quickly i learn the materials that I had trouble with on exam. 

In the mean time, waiting for my FE exam results.

Thanks again.


----------



## like_civil (Mar 9, 2016)

Hello everyone,
I have gotten my second attempt of the FE Civil CBT Exam's results this after noon ( March / 09 / 2016 ), and I did not pass. Please see below for the diagnostics as provided by the NCEES.
    Knowledge Areas - - Number of Items - - Your Performance ( out of 15.0)
1.  Mathematics - - - - - - - 7 - - - - - - - - - - - -  ( 7.4 )
2.  Prob &amp; Stat - - - - - - - - 4 - - - - - - - - - - - - - ( 5.8 )
3.  Computation Tools - - - 4 - - - - - - - - - - - -  ( 8.7 )
4.  Ethics - - - - - - - - - - -  4 - - - - - - - - - - - - ( 15.0 )
5.  Eng. Econ. - - - - - - - - 4 - - - - - - - - - - - -  ( 8.1 )
6.  Statics - - - - - - - - - - - 7 - - - - - - - - - - - - - ( 9.5 )
7.  Dynamics - - - - - - - - - - 4 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ( 15.0 )
8.  Mech. of Materials - - - - - 7 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ( 7.2 )
9.  Materials - - - - - - - - -  4 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ( 5.8 )
10. Fluid Mechanics - - - - - - - 4 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ( 5.5 )
11. Hydrology and Hydraulic Systems - 8 - - - - - - - - - - - - ( 5.6 )
12. Structural Analysis - - - - - 6 - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  ( 7.3 )
13. Structural Design - - - - - - 6 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ( 8.7 )
14. Geotechnical Engineering - - - 9 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ( 6.6 )
15. Transportation Engineering - - 8 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ( 8.7 )
16. Environmental Engineering - - 6 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ( 9.4 )
17. Construction - - - - - - - - 4 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ( 5.4 )
18. Surveying - - - - - - - - - - 4 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ( 10.5 )

After looking at the Diagnostics, I have couple of questions.

( Question # 1 ) : Why does my "number of items" max out at only 100, when it was supposed to be maxing out at 110?

( Question # 2 ) : Are we supposed to look at our results, and compare and contrast to the example diagnostic results provided on NCEES website to determine which subjects we need to study more in depth?

( Question # 3 ) The horizontal bar graph provided in the diagnostic results do not match perfectly to the performance. For example, I have 15 out of 15 on the two of the 18 subjects, yet the bar graphs stops at the midway point between Avg. of passing Examinees, and the far right line of the table itself.
 

Based on my report, what subject(s) should I focus on the most?


----------



## Jbone27 PE (Mar 9, 2016)

1


----------



## like_civil (Mar 9, 2016)

jerimy.hamilton said:


> https://cdn.ncees.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/CBT-exams-sample-diagnostic-report.pdf
> 
> See the above link provided by NCEES for interpreting your diagnostic.
> 
> Keep on trucking!!


Yeah, I have seen that document, and I got the message from the document that, we here at NCEES does not want help too much any more than what we, as NCEES, have provided before the exam, mainely speaking, NCEES reference manual. 

Analysis document was supposed to just give you extremely vague idea without giving any real information as to how many questions were asked on the exam, and out of those that were asked on the exam, exactly how many questions we got correct on the exam.

Also that last column, the ones that show some points out of 15 points is as bogus of a data to examinee as the numbers without units on the exam problem.

On top of all of this, NCEES wants to give us, if my understanding of the document is proper, the problems that are supposed to be proposed questions for the upcoming examinee's exam. Those question's proposed points do not count towards our overall passing points of the exam.

I don't like this system. There should be some sort of reward for us on those proposed questions, that is, if we get them right then give us, say 3/4 of a normal point, but there should be no penalty for those proposed questions that we do not get right. 

So i guess those 10 extra questions ( 100 + 10 = 110 ) are just extra, and we don't get any compensation for those problem's attempt we did on the exam. we can't reverse the clock for the time spent doing those proposed problems. If we trade time for money, then they should give us back some money for the time we spent doing those extra 10 problems.

How do we pass this exam with NCEES playing with our exam like this?

Does somebody know any tricks to identifying these annoying extra proposed problems on the exam? 

Am I anywhere close to properly interpreting the NCEES' worthless piece of crappy document on how to interpret their own analysis?

I hope I am, because I am loosing my mind here.


----------



## Jbone27 PE (Apr 8, 2016)

1


----------



## TWJ PE (Apr 13, 2016)

Correct. There are several questions that are pre-test questions (these don't count toward your results).



> Each exam includes a limited number of pretest items that will not be scored
> and will not have an impact on your results. This is common practice within
> high-stakes testing and allows NCEES to evaluate the pretest items for
> potential use in future exams. These items are randomly placed within the
> exam and are not identifiable as pretest items.




Check out Page 12 of the NCEES Examinee Guide


----------



## Jbone27 PE (Oct 12, 2016)

1


----------



## like_civil (Oct 27, 2016)

My belated Congratulations to Jbone27.

My update : since I took the last FE CBT Civil exam, I am thinking about taking the exam in November / 2016.

To all of the other moderators, and helpers on this forum, I would like to state that Engineering Board for the State of Georgia no longer caps on the cumulative attempts on the examinee.   

--------

PRIOR to this change, Engineering Board for the State of Georgia instructed NCEES that there is State Law limiting the cumulative amount to four attempts in one granting period, and after that examinee would have to get the permission for the fifth attempt. If on the fifth attempt the examinee failed, then Engineering Board for the State of Georgia would make the examinee go back to college to take the deficient subject courses as per NCEES FE exam's report.

---------

Well, I am happy that I can now pass the exam without worrying about breaking state law.


----------



## ClosedLoop05 (Nov 14, 2016)

I've done my best (still a work in progress) to compile the tips and resources I've found while studying for the test as well as tips from readers and other websites.  You can find them at www.peexamtips.com.  Take a look and if there is something I can add please let me know! Thanks.


----------

