I would say practice many questions as you can and over and over, like PPI quiz bank, NCESS practice question...
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The PPI Quiz Bank is great! It allows you to select the subjects you want to be quizzed on and you can choose how many questions from each subject you want to see. I also used the PPI flashcards to make the fundamentals stick in my mind. The NCEES Practice FE Exam is the same exam each time you buy it. I had mistakenly assumed that buying another CBT Practice Exam would generate a whole new set of questions, so when I placed my second order, I ordered four more practice tests.
So if you order it, I would save it for last and only buy one copy of it. It's setup exactly like the CBT you'll take on exam day, which helps with getting comfortable with the layout.
Hang in there, Frustrated Engineer - you can do it!
Here's the strategy I used for my FE exam: I made an Excel spreadsheet for this.
I shot for a minimum score of 55% as a "passing" result. It's improbable that anyone would score a 100%, so I broke my exam specifications into three categories - A, B, and C categories.
"A" Category: These were the subjects I considered my strongest subjects. I would accept no less than a 75% pass rate on these subjects. I spent the most time studying this material and making sure that I knew these subjects inside and out. I ultimately included 9 subjects in this category. Using the exam specifications, I took the worst-case scenario and assumed that I would be asked the fewest number of questions in the range given in the specifications. This resulted in my seeing approximately 50 questions, which equates to 45.5% of the exam. If I accept no less than 75% pass rate, then I would get 34.1% of my "A" Category questions correct.
"B" Category: These are subjects that I was somewhat comfortable with. I would accept no less than a 60% pass rate on these subjects. I spent a lot of time (not as much as Category A) on these subjects, but not to a point that I knew it inside and out...just enough to ensure that I could get the minimum 60% pass rate. I wound up including 5 subjects in this category. I also assumed the worst-case scenario and assumed I would, again, see the fewest number of questions in the range given in the specifications. This resulted in 31 questions, which equates to 28.2% of total questions. If I accept no less than 60% pass rate, then I would get 16.9% of my Category "B" questions correct.
"C" Category: These are my weakest subjects. If I didn't retain it from college, I doubt very seriously that I'm going to cram that information into my head leading up to this exam. I completely ignored these subjects, knowing that a pure guess on these subjects would net a 25% chance of guessing correctly. There is an art to guessing - you can eliminate some wrong answers, which will greatly improve your odds. I included 4 subjects in this category and, again, assumed the worst-case and assumed that they would ask me the most questions from these subjects. This resulted in 30 questions, which equates to 27.3% of the total questions. If I purely guessed, and accepted a 25% probability of getting the right answer, that means I'd get 6.8% of these questions correct.
Adding them up: 34.1% + 16.9% + 6.8% = 57.8% = SUCCESS!
Note that this is an iterative process. I had to begrudgingly move some of my Category B subjects to Category A, and had to move some Category C to Category B to get the pass rate greater than 55%. But at least I
knew what subjects I had to study (and to what extent) to pass.
Exam Day Experience:
The morning session went great! I was on fire - I finished about 30 minutes early and went to lunch. I was feeling so good that I got my phone from my locker and took it outside and called my wife and told her how great it was going. After we hung up, I said to myself, "I want to get this over with - I'm going back in."
I was given an hour for lunch, but I only took 15 minutes.
The afternoon session SUCKED. The very first questions out of the gate were on my Category C subjects that I didn't even look over or review and I was purely guessing at them and at one point thought that I was going to fail, but then I remembered that this was to be expected and forced myself to calm down and try to eliminate wrong answers and make the best guesses I could. When that passed, I started to see subjects again that I was familiar with and then more Category C subjects...it swung back and forth. By the time I finished, I was not sure if I passed or not. I did wind up passing, but I remember waiting for the results and feeling like I had a 50/50 shot at passing.
I just took it for the fourth time last Friday. Here's to not having to do it 8 times lol!
