EIT/FE Exam

[D-NIC]

I am looking to take the EIT exam in April. I am an EE major and I have never taken many of the subject matter that is covered. For example power, thermodynamics, statics, and all other civil or mechanical geared subjects.

1) Any suggestions on reviews books that could help me learn about these subjects?

2) How much should I learn for the test? Should I just brush over topics or do I have to know each subject well?

I'm afraid if I go with MGI or South Florida review it assumes that you have learned about all the subjects already and it will be over my head? Is this a correct assumption?

 

[EM_PS]

you must've had some exposure to power, thermo, statics at the least. . . typ 1st 2 yrs of eng degrees are all pretty similar

Best review manual is the FERM (FE review manual) - covers all the material that will be on general portion of FE exam. You'll have plenty of time to get up-to-speed if you're taking the exam next April - the manual's huge, so best to get it sooner than later - good luck!

 

[Flyer_PE]

When I took the FE it was still called the EIT. Here's how it was described to me at the first review session offered at the school:

A few of us EE's decided to attend the fluid mechanics review session. It was an auditorium classroom and there were well over 100 people in the room. The two instructors had a quick conversation to confirm between themselves that this was indeed the first review session offered for the test. Here is how they explained it to us:

How many of you in this room have taken fluid mechanics. A little under a third of the people raised their hands. First off, this is a REVIEW session for fluid mechanics. For those of you that have not taken fluids, we aren't going to teach you anything of value in three hours. However, you don't need to sign up for a fluids class in order to pass the exam.

The EIT is a test to establish minimum competence. It is designed such that you should be able to pass regardless of the engineering discipline you have chosen. Between the core classes every engineer takes regardless of discipline and a choice in the afternoon sections, you should be able to answer enough questions correctly to pass. He then went into a long discussion of how 70% was an adjusted percentage based on blah blah blah.......

The key to this test is not to get stalled and run out of time. Work the sections that you know how to do first. Don't waste a lot of time trying to answer questions in areas that you have not had a class. Since I was a EE and hadn't had a fluids class, I took that to mean pick either B or C for that entire section and figure you have 25% of them correct on pure chance. Better to spend the time on problems you know how to solve.

As I was in school (senior year) and didn't figure I would ever need the PE, I was taking the test on a bit of a lark. I also figured there wasn't anything preventing me from taking another shot at it should I fail. I didn't study at all for the thing and I passed. That being said, I wouldn't have a prayer of passing that test today without a LOT of preparation.

 

[FutureCSE]

On the AM portion, many of the questions are simply plugging the appropriate numbers in the appropriate equation. The key is to be able to quickly use the FE handbook to find what you need. This skill is best developed by grinding through as many practice questions as possible.

I'll assume you'll be taking the PM portion in your discipline. AFAIK, the total score is cumulative of AM & PM. So if you ace the PM, it can make up for less than stellar AM results. I suggest focusing on EE and mathematics. The economics and ethics material is pretty simple also. A basic understanding of the other disciplines should get you a few easy points in the AM section.

 

[Twofrogs]

I was in a similar situation last year, EE major taking the FE, many subjects that I'm unfamiliar with and about 11 years after graduating college. My recommendation is to buy all the review books on the market. My preference - all the FE eview books from ppi2pass.com. Basically I started studying about nine months from the exam and focussed on the easy parts of statics, dynamics, thermodynamics, material science... (anything unrelated to electrical) and made sure I become well versed in answering the easy problems, with the harder problems a guesstimate. Also I chose the electrical section for the PM, that way I could focus on the familiar electrical discipline and focus on the easy parts of everything else for the am portion of the exam. In the end, this strategy worked like a charm and I passed.

Other pointers - do problems every night, and know every part of the handbook provided with the exam, this will come naturally as you do many, many problems. Also, try timed practice exams and always try doing problems with the handbook only as reference and use a timer for problems. I don't recommend taking a review class, unless you lack the discipline to study for this test.

Good luck and hope everything goes well!

 

[D-NIC]

you must've had some exposure to power, thermo, statics at the least. . . typ 1st 2 yrs of eng degrees are all pretty similar
Best review manual is the FERM (FE review manual) - covers all the material that will be on general portion of FE exam. You'll have plenty of time to get up-to-speed if you're taking the exam next April - the manual's huge, so best to get it sooner than later - good luck!

Well, I actually never had a class called those names, but maybe some of the subject material was blended into other classes. I wasn't sure if I should take the exam as all my teachers said it probably wouldn't help you. Now, as I look around in our current economy I see a lot of jobs that want an engineer working towards a PE. I'll look into purchasing this book, thanks!

 

[D-NIC]

When I took the FE it was still called the EIT. Here's how it was described to me at the first review session offered at the school:
A few of us EE's decided to attend the fluid mechanics review session. It was an auditorium classroom and there were well over 100 people in the room. The two instructors had a quick conversation to confirm between themselves that this was indeed the first review session offered for the test. Here is how they explained it to us:

How many of you in this room have taken fluid mechanics. A little under a third of the people raised their hands. First off, this is a REVIEW session for fluid mechanics. For those of you that have not taken fluids, we aren't going to teach you anything of value in three hours. However, you don't need to sign up for a fluids class in order to pass the exam.

The EIT is a test to establish minimum competence. It is designed such that you should be able to pass regardless of the engineering discipline you have chosen. Between the core classes every engineer takes regardless of discipline and a choice in the afternoon sections, you should be able to answer enough questions correctly to pass. He then went into a long discussion of how 70% was an adjusted percentage based on blah blah blah.......

The key to this test is not to get stalled and run out of time. Work the sections that you know how to do first. Don't waste a lot of time trying to answer questions in areas that you have not had a class. Since I was a EE and hadn't had a fluids class, I took that to mean pick either B or C for that entire section and figure you have 25% of them correct on pure chance. Better to spend the time on problems you know how to solve.

As I was in school (senior year) and didn't figure I would ever need the PE, I was taking the test on a bit of a lark. I also figured there wasn't anything preventing me from taking another shot at it should I fail. I didn't study at all for the thing and I passed. That being said, I wouldn't have a prayer of passing that test today without a LOT of preparation.

I agree with that professor. I wasn't sure how to approach the several classes that I haven't taken. I have a lot of time to study so hopefully I can get some good study materials. I haven't heard good things about review classss, but I also haven't seen any offered within a few hours from me either so I guess it doesn't matter. I'm glad that there are other people that faced the same problems as I and got through it. There may be hope for me yet!

 

[D-NIC]

I was in a similar situation last year, EE major taking the FE, many subjects that I'm unfamiliar with and about 11 years after graduating college. My recommendation is to buy all the review books on the market. My preference - all the FE eview books from ppi2pass.com. Basically I started studying about nine months from the exam and focussed on the easy parts of statics, dynamics, thermodynamics, material science... (anything unrelated to electrical) and made sure I become well versed in answering the easy problems, with the harder problems a guesstimate. Also I chose the electrical section for the PM, that way I could focus on the familiar electrical discipline and focus on the easy parts of everything else for the am portion of the exam. In the end, this strategy worked like a charm and I passed. Other pointers - do problems every night, and know every part of the handbook provided with the exam, this will come naturally as you do many, many problems. Also, try timed practice exams and always try doing problems with the handbook only as reference and use a timer for problems. I don't recommend taking a review class, unless you lack the discipline to study for this test.

Good luck and hope everything goes well!

I will check that site out. Thanks for your help! Could you tell me where I could get a a copy of the handbook used for the FE exam? Thanks.

 

[EM_PS]

Well, I actually never had a class called those names, but maybe some of the subject material was blended into other classes. I wasn't sure if I should take the exam as all my teachers said it probably wouldn't help you. Now, as I look around in our current economy I see a lot of jobs that want an engineer working towards a PE. I'll look into purchasing this book, thanks!

Yeah, i never took some of the specific classes either (Thermo!), though it was covered in Physics & Chemistry. I am also struggling alot with it in the FERM, but some familiarity is better than none.

I will check that site out. Thanks for your help! Could you tell me where I could get a a copy of the handbook used for the FE exam? Thanks.

you can download the handbook / reference manual as a pdf for free from this site:

http://www.ncees.org/exams/study_materials/fe_handbook/

Make sure you print out a hard copy of this, because you'll need to know your way thru it frontwards & backwards - too time consuming scrolling thru the pdf on a pc while you're studying for the FE.

The NCEES website is a good one to familiarize yourself with concerning exam format, allowable calculators, gen quests, etc. Good luck in your studies, sounds like you're setting yourself up well for the April exam! I will be taking FE this October :wacko:

 

[k2keylargo]

I am an EE that graduated in 1978. I cut and pasted some info from an old email, so here it is - hope it helps:

I just took the FE in April - the first time I've ever tried. I studied starting in November for the April exam - but I didn't study much in November, and with holidays I studied sporadically in December - never on weekends until the last month. I took the general PM section.

Studying for the test almost killed me. I did stress a lot trying to relearn all that stuff that I had forgotten. I swore that I wouldn't study for it a second time.

I took the General in the PM - when I finished the am test, I felt great - It was much easier than I expected. I guessed that I knew about 80% of the answers for sure.

I had a great lunch, went back and started the pm test. Out of the first 13 questions, I didn't have any idea how to solve 10 of them!!! The rest of the test was very tough too. In the end, I had enough time to work all I could work, then I went back and tried to figure out some of the ones that I skipped. I did figure a few of them out and guessed on a lot of them. I figured that I knew about 50% on the pm.

I passed. Don't know by how much of course, but I think my raw score had to be below 70%

I thought the electrical problems that they gave were so simple, and the fluid and dynamics problems were really tough.

I didn't study biology at all - it was 5% of the pm test, I think. There were a couple of questions - I answered them - looked at the reference book and made a guess.

I did use the reference book a lot when I was studying, and I think that helped, cause I used it a lot during the test. I would buy a copy of the book - I bought two copies. I hi lited one and used it to study at first, then I used the clean copy to work some problems so that I had to find stuff without the hi lite. I think knowing where everything is in the reference book is very important.

I didn't think I was very knowledgable on some of the subjects - fluids, dynamics, thermo - and when I worked problems out of the Lindeburg book, I didn't really get high percent right - maybe 60-70%. I'd make stupid mistakes a lot - math errors a lot. I never used any books other than Lindberg, and I used the Dr. Blank DVD's, but I didn't watch the last few DVDs because I kind of got p.o.ed at him - he didn't return my phone calls -I got a message he was out of town just before the test. The first half of the dvd's I thought were really good, but he's an EE I think, and his explainations of thermo, fluids, and dynamics and mechanics were pretty sucky. I could not grasp the diagrams in mechanics (i think they were there) where you have shear and stresses of different kinds - a square with arrows pointing different directions all over the place - I called and talked to him trying to get an explaination, but he didn't have much to say - so I don't think he understood it very well either. I finally got my girlfriend's son (senior at Georgia Tech in aerospace engr) to explain it somewhat - but he hated the subject, and didn't remember it exactly, but he was able to get me to see it somewhat.

I used my calculator a lot. I brought two HP 33 S to the test,and a spare set of batteries. I did not program any formulas into it - don't think it would have helped any, as the formulas are in the reference book if you remember where to find them, which I'd recommend learning where everything is - there's stuff in it that I never used in studying - I didn't need much of anything that I didn't run across in practice problems. there's a lot of stuff in the ref book that you'd use if you did one of the specific pm exams I guess.

 

[John Williams]

I took the FE last October after being out of school 5 years. I bought the FERM from PPI and reviewed the whole book and took the sample test. I also used the free videos at http://engineeringregistration.tamu.edu/ta...ws/FEreview.htm. The videos were made in the 90's by Texas A&M and are actually really helpful.

I graduated with a degree in computer engineering so more than 1/2 the FE I never had (probably why I failed it in college). I did not even think about studying for it when I was in school, I had way to much going on to care about it and figured I would never need it. I also took the EE section in the afternoon when I was in school and it is way to hard for CompE's.

This time I took the Industrial Engineering afternoon exam. I also bought a sample test from PPI for industrial engineering. It was really easy and I finished the afternoon exam in 2.5 hours. I also have never had an Industrial Engineering class but the problems are incredibly simple (even a business major could work them). After reviewing the PPI book and watching the Texas A&M videos the morning section was also very easy. I barely finished on time for the morning and only was not sure on about 10 questions.

All that being said the test really is not that hard and I suck at taking tests. This time I just studied about 1 hour a day for about 3 months and by the time the test came I knew the stuff cold. Also get the Casio calculator and use it to study with. I was able to straight up solve 10-20 problems in 30 seconds because I knew the functions of the calculator (Matrix stuff, Binary Hex conversion, Vectors, Stats, Integration, etc.).

Good Luck!

 

[SE PE 2B]

I noticed this site just made a new FE / EIT exam forum today.

Glad to see