After taking EET's FE Civil Review class...

[AyanHein]

I passed.......!! : )))

Here is my background. Long story short, I graduated 5 years ago and didn't put effort to pass EIT when I was in school. Now I need to pass this EIT for my career and I decided to take review class. If you scroll down in this forum, I asked about review class back in January/February. I was on fence between School of PE and EET, and I decided to go with EET. I can't speak of School of PE, but I highly recommend EET FE CIVIL review class. (They have demo sample video if you want to see how it's like, but you need to ask them).

I enrolled in Sameh's on demand online class. (Link is here http://www.eetusa.com/classes/fe) because I can't commit class's schedule due to my baby and family. Here are the reasons why I gave EET's FE review class  4.5 starts out of 5.

1.      The class format is very easy to follow and well structured. Sameh goes over a little bit of equations and concepts and he shows you where you can find that equation in NCEES's reference manual. Then follow by examples and quizzes. The class is heavily based on practicing problems than a lot of theories. Keep in mind that we are not trying to get Engineering Degree here, but we are trying to pass FE exam which you need to do a tons of practice problems. 

2.      There are a lot of problems available for you to practice. The level of difficulty of the problems is a little bit below Michael R. Lindeburg but harder than actual NCEES’s problems which i found it very well prepared for actual test. It’s mixed with easy, medium and hard questions.

3.      There will be HW assignments for all subjects. Then timed section exams to test your speed and knowledge of subjects. Finally, you can have timed 110 NCEES’s alike final test.

4.      I can’t conclude without talking about Sameh. He’s a very caring and positive person. I told him that I had to stop studying for 3 months due to my family circumstance and he’s very understanding. His responses are very prompt and you can ask him questions any time any day.

The reason I am giving 4.5 is that there are a few things they can be improved on. The lectures are based on NCEES’s reference 9.0 version, not 9.4. Changes from 9.0 to 9.4 are very minor. NCEES just added a few transportation (2 pages) in 9.4 from 9.3, and a few deflection formulas changed in Mechanic of Materials. Their review is great for someone who got civil engineering background and needed review to recall what you have studied before. It's not designed for someone who needs to understand fundamental of civil engineering from the scratch. 

Here are the study materials that I have used to pass my 1st attempt (with real study):

1.      EET FE Civil Review (Approximately 1000 problems with both examples, quizzes, HW, section exams, final exam)

2.      NCEES practice problems 2014 (50 questions)

3.      NCEES practice problems 2009 (60 morning / 30 afternoon questions)

4.      Utlimate Civil FE practice problems by Isaac Oakeson (110 questions) (Do only after you completed your review to practice your speed)

5.      Michael R. Lindeburg’s FE Civil Practice Problems (I did around 200 problems out of 466 in the book in Math, Hydraulic, Environmental, Geotech, Materials, Transportation, Construction, Computer) (I glanced through Statics, Mechanics of Materials, and Structural and skipped problems that required more than 4 steps which won’t be on test).

My Strategies on Exam Day

1.      Light review or no study at all on a day before exam.

2.      Make sure you have enough 8 hours sleep on a night before exam.

3.      Don’t build up your stress and go into exam room. Just relax and have a little bit of worry to maintain your energy throughout 6 hours.

4.      During the exam, if you don’t know how to tackle problems within 15 seconds, flag and skip to next. Save your brain juice for problems that you know how to do.

5.      Educated guesses are very critical in the exam. You will find yourself with 10-20 questions that you have no idea or you are not sure how to do. Try to eliminate 1-2 impossible answers and make a choice of the remaining 2-3 possible answers. You will gain this skill once you did a tons of practice problems.

I put in around 200ish hours for the exam. I'm glad handwork pay off finally, and i don't have to do FE again. Now on to the PE and I'm heavily leaning toward EET's review class for my 8 hours and seismic exams. 

Finally, I thank engineerboards.com and awesome fellow engineers here for making this happen. Without you, i can't imagine what i'll be studying for FE or how many more times i need to attempt. I'm so glad this forum exists. 

If any of you have any questions about anything, just ask me here. 

 

[matt267 PE]

Well done.

Now on to the  PE exam.

 

[like_civil]

Belated Congratulations on passing the exam.

How many questions did you see from the NCEES FE Reference Manual version 4.0, especially those new content from those two pages in transportation engineering, and updated deflection formulas in Mechanics of Materials, that NCEES just conveniently decided to include into the new exam?

Where did you acquire quick refresher on the new material that is in NCEES FE Reference Manual version 4.0?

I see that you had opted in to use the services of a private individual's services, but for me the price is too high.

Are there any better, and cheaper options other than the one mentioned in your post in terms of acquiring study material that has new content covered from NCEES FE Reference Version 4.0? If so, please list them in your reply. I am looking invest around $60 to $80 range.

 

[like_civil]

1.      EET FE Civil Review (Approximately 1000 problems with both examples, quizzes, HW, section exams, final exam)

Hey Ayanhein,

Is it possible for you to share this above quoted content to others?

If so, I would like to attempt at those 1000 problems if you share them with me.

Thinking about taking the FE CBT Civil exam, my cumulative third attempt, in November / 2016.

Please help out the fellow failed examinee.

- Thanks in advance.

 

[AyanHein]

Belated Congratulations on passing the exam.

How many questions did you see from the NCEES FE Reference Manual version 4.0, especially those new content from those two pages in transportation engineering, and updated deflection formulas in Mechanics of Materials, that NCEES just conveniently decided to include into the new exam?

Where did you acquire quick refresher on the new material that is in NCEES FE Reference Manual version 4.0?

I see that you had opted in to use the services of a private individual's services, but for me the price is too high.

Are there any better, and cheaper options other than the one mentioned in your post in terms of acquiring study material that has new content covered from NCEES FE Reference Version 4.0? If so, please list them in your reply. I am looking invest around $60 to $80 range.

Thank you. No questions was asked from updated version. For 2 pages of transportation, i googled and found some good study materials for it. If you budget is around $70, i recommend these 2 books from Michael Lindeburg: currently around $70 for used books.

https://www.amazon.com/Civil-Review-Manual-Michael-Lindeburg/dp/1591264391/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1477692759&sr=8-1&keywords=fe+civil+review

https://www.amazon.com/Civil-Practice-Problems-Michael-Lindeburg/dp/1591264405/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1477692759&sr=8-2&keywords=fe+civil+review

Good luck.

 

[AyanHein]

Hey Ayanhein,

Is it possible for you to share this above quoted content to others?

If so, I would like to attempt at those 1000 problems if you share them with me.

Thinking about taking the FE CBT Civil exam, my cumulative third attempt, in November / 2016.

Please help out the fellow failed examinee.

- Thanks in advance.

I would like to help but those review books has copyright by EET. Like i suggested above, you could buy review books and it should be more than enough to pass. I also recommend you to buy NCEES's online practice exams: version 2014 and 2009. 

 

[like_civil]

I would like to help but those review books has copyright by EET. Like i suggested above, you could buy review books and it should be more than enough to pass.

Thanks for your quick reply.

No questions was asked from updated version. For 2 pages of transportation, i googled and found some good study materials for it.

Thanks for your quick reply.

The books you mentioned in your reply, I ran across them when I was doing my research for the latest updated FE Civil study material, and after reading some of the online review, I felt that I should continue to look else where for better updated coverage of the material.

Thanks again for your reply.

 

[Michael Denteh]

Congrats!

A question about the raw/scaled passing score

Can I be guaranteed of a pass if I correctly answer over 60-70 out of the 110 questions? I was reading a blog  and I came across the number of questions to answer correctly . Apparently, a Professor who volunteers teaching students to pass the FE Civil Test  stated that  " To pass the exam, you need to get about 77 questions right or 70% of the whole test." I have also read from other posts, including NCEES website, which state that scores are scaled/curved for the 70%. My thought is that he wants his students to work harder that may be the reason why he said so. Can this be true . It seems pretty high (about  80/100) .

Thanks for any remarks

 

[Arjay]

Congrats on passing and goodluck on the PE.

I plan on taking the FE exam but I have to attend a review class next month.  I graduated 20 yrs ago so I really need a good refresher on the theories.

I have only inquired with School of PE and based on my conversation with the representative, they structured their review to about 60% lecture (theories, principles, etc) and 40% workshop.  Based on this, I thought this will be the best option for someone my age.

Do you think the EET class format will be OK with someone like me who's been out of school for more than 10 yrs?

I checked EET's website for the price and not sure if I understand it correctly.  I saw 2 separate pricing for Webinar version and On-demand version.  Does that mean I have to pay double to get both?

Also noticed their last class that ended in Nov. was a morning class.  They dont have the next schedule yet but do you know if they have the evening classes?

Thanks a lot.  Really appreciate the it.

 

[AyanHein]

Congrats!

A question about the raw/scaled passing score

Can I be guaranteed of a pass if I correctly answer over 60-70 out of the 110 questions? I was reading a blog  and I came across the number of questions to answer correctly . Apparently, a Professor who volunteers teaching students to pass the FE Civil Test  stated that  " To pass the exam, you need to get about 77 questions right or 70% of the whole test." I have also read from other posts, including NCEES website, which state that scores are scaled/curved for the 70%. My thought is that he wants his students to work harder that may be the reason why he said so. Can this be true . It seems pretty high (about  80/100) .

Thanks for any remarks

@Michael Denteh sorry for the late reply. NCEES never release the passing score. But according to my research, you are most likely to pass with 70% (77 questions out of 110) with 65% would be a very close to either pass or fail.

 

[AyanHein]

Congrats on passing and goodluck on the PE.

I plan on taking the FE exam but I have to attend a review class next month.  I graduated 20 yrs ago so I really need a good refresher on the theories.

I have only inquired with School of PE and based on my conversation with the representative, they structured their review to about 60% lecture (theories, principles, etc) and 40% workshop.  Based on this, I thought this will be the best option for someone my age.

Do you think the EET class format will be OK with someone like me who's been out of school for more than 10 yrs?

I checked EET's website for the price and not sure if I understand it correctly.  I saw 2 separate pricing for Webinar version and On-demand version.  Does that mean I have to pay double to get both?

Also noticed their last class that ended in Nov. was a morning class.  They dont have the next schedule yet but do you know if they have the evening classes?

Thanks a lot.  Really appreciate the it.

@Arjay Sorry for my late reply. Please don't get confused between Webinar and On-Demand version. Webinar (Live) is a live class and On-Demand is the recorded videos from previous term (it'd be the recorded videos from last class which ended in Nov.). I took On-Demand class which fit my schedule. Instructor Sameh responds your questions very prompt, and he's a very knowledgeable teacher.

The class isn't focused on the theories, but more on practice problems. I can't speak of School of PE since i've never taken their class. But if i were you, not only i'd take a review class, but I'd also buy 2 books (Review Manual and Practice Problems) from Michael R. Lindeburg https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=fe+civil

EET review covers almost all the materials that you need to know, but i felt like it was good to see more practice problems to have fully understanding on some concepts. 2 books from Michael Lindeburg would take care of it. Another resources i'd like to suggest is 'Google' and 'Youtube': there are tons of examples on subject matter if you are not clear on one topic.

Bottom line is EET course to get you set up on a structured review course with an instructor who you can ask questions anytime. But you also want to do extra study materials from outside of class notes. Good luck! Don't give up you can do it!

 

[Michael Denteh]

@Michael Denteh sorry for the late reply. NCEES never release the passing score. But according to my research, you are most likely to pass with 70% (77 questions out of 110) with 65% would be a very close to either pass or fail.




 

@AyanHein

Still on the passing score of the Civil FE Exams. From my little research and a critical review of the sample diagnostic CBT report by NCEES; there are as many as 10 nonscoring questions among the 110 questions. Candidates are assessed on 100 of the 110 questions. Scores are adjusted for a passing score ( 55-60) and the adjusted passing score is then scaled as at least 70%, which is the required passing score by the Professional Engineering Associations. The scale to adjusted score depends on specific discipline and also from administration to administration. Furthermore, Wikipedia on Fundamental of Engineering Exams states  " A scaled score of 70 is required to pass the exam.[citation needed] This does not mean one needs to answer 70% of the answers correctly to pass, however. A portion of previous exam questions are then given on subsequent exams. After the exam, a statistical analysis of these questions is used to equate the new test to the benchmark test. This makes all of the tests more or less equal in difficulty."

Though still working to meet at least 70% of the question

 

[AyanHein]

@AyanHein

Still on the passing score of the Civil FE Exams. From my little research and a critical review of the sample diagnostic CBT report by NCEES; there are as many as 10 nonscoring questions among the 110 questions. Candidates are assessed on 100 of the 110 questions. Scores are adjusted for a passing score ( 55-60) and the adjusted passing score is then scaled as at least 70%, which is the required passing score by the Professional Engineering Associations. The scale to adjusted score depends on specific discipline and also from administration to administration. Furthermore, Wikipedia on Fundamental of Engineering Exams states  " A scaled score of 70 is required to pass the exam.[citation needed] This does not mean one needs to answer 70% of the answers correctly to pass, however. A portion of previous exam questions are then given on subsequent exams. After the exam, a statistical analysis of these questions is used to equate the new test to the benchmark test. This makes all of the tests more or less equal in difficulty."

Though still working to meet at least 70% of the question

Correct. 10 questions won't be counted toward final total scores. But since they don't identify those 10 problems, it's safe to assume you need to answer 70 (70% of 100 questions) to 77 questions (70% of 110) correctly. Good luck.