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Hi everyone.

I know passing score should be the 70% of the total number of items which is 120 in the morning plus 60 in the afternoon, so total of 180.

70% of 180 is 126 and supposed to be approximately the passing score. Not 100% sure though.

Basically to get 70% of each examination, you should get a score of 84/120 in the morning and 42/60 in the afternoon examination.

I am not really sure if they individually consider each examination or just get the 70% out of total correct score.

I hope this helps.

God bless everyone. Good luck.

 
Hi everyone.

I know passing score should be the 70% of the total number of items which is 120 in the morning plus 60 in the afternoon, so total of 180.

70% of 180 is 126 and supposed to be approximately the passing score. Not 100% sure though.

Basically to get 70% of each examination, you should get a score of 84/120 in the morning and 42/60 in the afternoon examination.

I am not really sure if they individually consider each examination or just get the 70% out of total correct score.

I hope this helps.

God bless everyone. Good luck.
Afternoon problems are worth 2 points, so there's a total of 240 points. 70% would be 168. I don't recall anyone ever failing with anything close to that. Further proof that the infamous "70" is not a raw percentage but a set scaled score. Past posts on this board show that the 70 is set to whatever the raw points are to pass. It's different for the seven different FE exams, too.

 
I took the FE (Mechanical) with only two hours of flipping through the reference book and practice book. Personally I have no idea how I passed it with so little preparation. (The lack of prep wasn't up to me our Senior Design projects and presentations were due the week that the FE was going to take place). My strategy was to go through all the questions of the section I was on and put a little symbol next to each question. One meant do immediately (because it's easy), One meant do eventually (Because it's more difficult but I think I know or can do it), and one meant Ignore this one (Because I had no idea). 5 minutes before the end of the test all the ones I hadn't answered I bubbled in C to get the straight 25% credit for those questions. (Because they don't penalize you for being wrong)

 
Are there any online courses besides PPI Exam Cafe to prepare? I know there is Kaplan online but their services are very expensive. I am a new graduate without a full-time position. I am giving interviews so hopefully I will get hired soon and will get able to afford it.
Georgia Tech has an online course, I believe there are a few others if you'll Google Sucks them. For the EIT I think all you need to do is buy the PPI review manual and go through every page and do all the problems.

 
Are there any online courses besides PPI Exam Cafe to prepare? I know there is Kaplan online but their services are very expensive. I am a new graduate without a full-time position. I am giving interviews so hopefully I will get hired soon and will get able to afford it.
Georgia Tech has an online course, I believe there are a few others if you'll Google Sucks Sucks them. For the EIT I think all you need to do is buy the PPI review manual and go through every page and do all the problems.
Ok.... why does the forum insert sucks automatically when you type in "Google Sucks"?

 
I would recommend trying peexcel.com. There are a lot of practice problems on this site.

 
I passed the FE the first time 5 years back, I took it while I was close to graduation. It is way better if you take the FE while in school, so you don't have to get to memorize all in compressed time. I even did practice exam problems that PPI provided in the FE Review Manual. I don't have the manual right now with me, but it covers all of the exam material you'll expect. I even did a review course one semester and it helped. If you don't break down the FE in sections and study a topic a week up to the FE, you are going to have problems tackling the exam. I know it's pretty hard because of the amount of questions they cover with closed book and just the reference material NCEES passes on along. I have read stories of people taking the FE ten times and still can't pass. Something to do with their study habits - one of my co-workers had to take it six times before he passed.

 
I took the FE (Mechanical) last April and passed. First time taking it. I was 11 years out of undergrad. I did take a prep class, and spent a lot of time studying. Mostly did Lindeberg practice exams. Those are WAY harder than the actual test. I figured though that if I could figure them out with just the Reference Manual I'd be fine. Apparently that worked well enough for me.

 
Reminder that 2013 are the last pencil and paper versions of this exam. From the IL boards minutes they posted yesterday it looks like the proposed test fee for the computer based testing for FE is going be $250. I don't remember how much I paid when I took it, but that seems a like a lot more than what I did. That seems like motivator enough to get it done and out of the way ASAP.

 
Reminder that 2013 are the last pencil and paper versions of this exam. From the IL boards minutes they posted yesterday it looks like the proposed test fee for the computer based testing for FE is going be $250. I don't remember how much I paid when I took it, but that seems a like a lot more than what I did. That seems like motivator enough to get it done and out of the way ASAP.
That's double what I paid in April.

 
when I passed in 2006 the test fees were a little bit cheaper. My suggestion to anyone taking the FE to do General-General and plan on acing the Math sections.... I think i got every math question right. Know your calculus, physics, Laplace, determinants, derivatives, etc. Probably the hardest test I ever took even considering the PE.

 
My suggestion to anyone taking the FE to do General-General ...
I disagree. They have the specialized sections for a reason. Maybe if you're still in college the General EIT exam is the way to go, but lots of folks take it after they've been working for a while (I was 11 years out from undergrad). No reason not to take the module that best corresponds with your experiences and strengths.

 
I took my EIT exam after 16 years graduated.

My best recommendation is to take the Testmasters course, I passed the first time and studied only two months and 20 days since the course began January 20 and examination was April 9.

I resolved all workshop problems and bought two exams, PPI and NCEES.

I felt very confident in the test, I answered the easy questions first and then the difficult ones.

 
I am with NatGasPE - take the General Afternoon Section (I think they call it Other Disciplines these days). Its just more of the same stuff you did all morning long with an extra step to the problem. My reason behind this is - you already have your brain going a mile a minute with the basic concepts, don't try and change gears after lunch.

I took the FE twice, first time I failed and I took the Mechanical Afternoon because I have a degree in Mechanical Engineering, (duh!). Second time I took it, I passed and did the General Afternoon. When I think back to the first exam it was too much to try and do a four bar linkage question. It was easier to just do more math, economics and statics questions. YMMV.

The other advantage to this is, the yellow Lindeberg FE Review book, the FE Reference Book, calculator, pencil and scratch paper is all you need to study. I am convinced the only reason I passed the second time was I spent the better part of 8 months doing that Lindeberg book. Don't skip any chapters, go cover to cover. Understand every question. And by that I don't mean look at it for 10 seconds, realize you don't know it, glance at the solution, give it the nod and move to the next question. Really KNOW every question. If Lindeberg's solution doesn't instill confidence or you look at it and say "where the hell did he get that from?" then the internet is your friend as are your old text books. Research it and understand. Many of his solutions start from a shortcut method and he frequently does not start from the base equations in the FE Reference Manual and work the problem - he likes to show off and does his own thing. That's fine and all but *you* need to understand it. I have two binders of my own solutions to every problem in that book. I don't always agree with his methods but most of the time I agree with his answer.

When I took the exam the second time I felt like I had seen every single question on that exam. Granted, I think some of Lindeberg's answers need to elaborate a bit more on some of the explanations and you need to memorize a few economics equations that aren't in the FE Reference Book - but by and large I felt it was simply a matter of putting in your time.

We have several people here at work who aren't degreed engineers but came up "through the ranks" so to speak. Many took my advice and have since passed. I am convinced that the specialty afternoon modules are for kids still in school who's 300 and 400 level classes are still fresh in their mind and do not have to study much. You still need to be familiar with the Reference Manual but conceptually its all logged into your short term memory. I think anyone out of college for more than a year (or never completed their Bachelor's Degree in a Engineering Discipline) should just go for the General (Other Disciplines) to minimize the pain and maximize your study time.

 
wow. im reading this and feeling like i got really lucky!

i took the test once in oct 2011, 7 years after graduation, and passed it. just reading that score report scares me and makes me wonder how i passed haha. i was working full-time for a GC and in grad school when i took it, in a real estate management class that dealt with a whole lot of engineering econ stuff. that might be how i passed, i probably crushed that section, did ok on the math, and crushed the chemistry (was my best subject in HS almost was a chem major), ethics, statics, structural, CM and materials parts. pretty much guessed on the entire rest of the test (educated guesses!)

 
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Oh and I know there is a poll running in another thread but I'll chime in here - the FE Exam was the single most difficult exam I have ever taken, even when compared to the PE Exam. For me it was the biggest hurdle to getting licensed. Once you get this bear behind you, believe me when I say the rest really will be down hill.

I am not sure if this makes sense but - it seems to me to be an endurance exam designed to test what you know, not what you don't know. Its four years of engineering school in eight hours. Its a drastically different exam than I ever took in any of my school classes and for me that's what made it hard. The FE Exam really doesn't give you time to "think" about anything - you either know it or you don't. Psychologically, it can be very frustrating and discouraging during the exam if you hit multiple problems is a row and you just guess. Especially for engineers who by their nature and education are taught to move slow and methodically to get to the right answer because the public welfare or client's safety might be at stake. By knowing the problems backwards and forwards you will minimize the chances of getting brain-block or brain-freeze (whatever you wanna call it)that's commonly reported by test takers.

If it was easy, everyone would do it.

 
Oh and I know there is a poll running in another thread but I'll chime in here - the FE Exam was the single most difficult exam I have ever taken, even when compared to the PE Exam. For me it was the biggest hurdle to getting licensed. Once you get this bear behind you, believe me when I say the rest really will be down hill.

I am not sure if this makes sense but - it seems to me to be an endurance exam designed to test what you know, not what you don't know. Its four years of engineering school in eight hours. Its a drastically different exam than I ever took in any of my school classes and for me that's what made it hard. The FE Exam really doesn't give you time to "think" about anything - you either know it or you don't. Psychologically, it can be very frustrating and discouraging during the exam if you hit multiple problems is a row and you just guess. Especially for engineers who by their nature and education are taught to move slow and methodically to get to the right answer because the public welfare or client's safety might be at stake. By knowing the problems backwards and forwards you will minimize the chances of getting brain-block or brain-freeze (whatever you wanna call it)that's commonly reported by test takers.

If it was easy, everyone would do it.
Agree, I took the PE for the first time this past October, and felt the FE was waaay harder than the PE, because of what the FE covers. It'd definitely be way tougher to take the FE after graduating than before (I took it before graduation and passed the first time).

 
Failed Oct 2012 exam. Guess a month of studying wasn't enough. Did anyone else have trouble with time management in morning session?

 

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