Failed the FE 7 times now - Need Help!

Professional Engineer & PE Exam Forum

Help Support Professional Engineer & PE Exam Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Hello everyone! Greetings from Southern California! I graduated in 2012 with a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Georgia. I have been working as an engineer now for close to 4 years. I failed the FE when I graduated college because I didn't try very hard to study and pass it (really bad decision). I also waited about 2.5 years after that to start trying to take it again (also a bad decision). I have since taken the test 6 more times (total of 7 times) and I studied a lot for all of them and I just found out I failed it AGAIN! And for the past exam I took a review class beforehand. I've never been a good test taker throughout my entire academic career. Standardized tests have always been the worst for me. I'm getting very discouraged and lost, wondering if there is any tactic for me to use to finally pass this awful P.O.S. test once and for all. I know that there are certain people out there who think that if you can't pass it the first couple of times, then maybe you shouldn't be an engineer..blah blah blah, I will say this, I do well at my job and I don't believe I need a passed FE to prove that, even though NCEES thinks differently unfortunately. I don't use 80% of the material on the exam anyways for what I do for a living.
I would love to hear from some of you on what you did to get yourself past this giant speed bump of a test! Especially if you were in the same boat as me!
I graduated with a BS in Civil Engineering in 2012. I have just received the results from my recent attempt at the FE Other Disciplines exam. This marks my 17th time failing the exam.
 
I know that feeling, been there. I lost count of how many times I failed that **** test and I would love to tell you that it's because it was difficult and I didn't knew the material but no, I knew the material. So last time I did a review of the conceptual material and index cards with formulas that weren't available on the Reference Manual. I also used the School of PE review book, most conceptual questions were from there. I did tons of problems and saw the videos from Michaelson (youtube)YouTube. I took time after time so the last time I took it I only reviewed problems and the review I made with conceptual questions.

As of now that's my strategy for the PE except that I paid for EET review course from which I'm doing a review for conceptual questions and bought like 3 exams for the breadth and 1 for the depth besides the School of PE reference book.
 
May I ask why you took Other Disciplines instead of Civil?
I took other Disciplines instead of Civil because I have taken the Civil FE and failed more than 10 times. I am desperately trying to pass this exam and be done with it...I guess I will try Mechanical next time.FE Civil Score.JPGFE OD score.JPG
 
1652977834771.png

I would stick to my core and re-attempt in civil because eventually, you would take PE in civil engineering depth. Secondly, book with SOPE or any other source and make a schedule of study and study continuously and focus on the core subjects as its where you lack more. good luck..
 
I failed the FE CBT 2 times after being out of school for 9 years back in 2017. I decided to enroll in the School of PE FE course and it was great because it did help me pass the exam specially with the computational tools part of the exam. I was doing online live session from 6 pm to 9 pm cst from Monday through Friday. I'm not sure if the scheduling has changed but it's something I would recommend looking into.
 
I took other Disciplines instead of Civil because I have taken the Civil FE and failed more than 10 times. I am desperately trying to pass this exam and be done with it...I guess I will try Mechanical next time.View attachment 27854View attachment 27856
I'd recommend locking in on one discipline and really going for it as others have suggested. My first attempt at the FE resulted in a fail, but I also didn't commit to studying because I was sure I just knew everything from my degree. The second time I buckled down and studied and really just drilled problems. I think review courses can be very helpful.

Good luck!
 
Back
Top