Has anyone taken the CBT version of the FE?

[neworleans]

Maddukes,

I am sort of on the same page with you. I took FE several times recently, took the general and failed, then tried the Civil and failed again but felt more comfortable with the Civil, I thought I really did good but failed it, now taking the CBT next week (civil), Since you got your Masters in Civil, I would recommend you to take Civil next time. We can create a room for Civil takers and get ready for the exam if there is not one already in the forum.

 

[pxt123]

I would say, on average (I took the Other Disciplines both paper and CBT) that they were about the same - but I think easier/faster to solve due to electronic FE reference and being able to find answers faster.

Do you know if the the exam is still being graded on a curve or do you now have to get a real 70% to pass?

 

[CntrlEngrPE]

I think it's still on a curve. I remember reading on ncees site that the scoring method is still the same, the cbt just changed the way of delivering the exam, scheduling it etc. PE exams will also transition to cbt eventually.

 

[Kamba]

Maddukes,

is the exam divided into chapters? for example: all the Statics / Dynamics problems are grouped together under one Header ??

 

[maddukes]

the topics are grouped together

 

[mike2014]

Hello group! I am going to be taking the FE at the end of this month. I took it a couple of years back and did not pass.

I have been studiying from the Lindburg book successfully. I am also doing problems of the 2014 NCEES exam prep book by Iqbal its pretty much 600 questions fitted to the new format of the exam. I would really recomend this book because it got me back in the college mood of just sitting down and doing problems for hours. There a ton of mistakes in it though but it works. I personally find the lindburg book to overwhelming but I will use it for reference, I also use wikipedia a lot and also youtube.

On the new exam I noticed that the subject that has the most questions is geotech with 9-14 questions. I am very rusty in this area and was wondering if anybody had any good resources for this subject area. Acually if anybody can recomend a reference that focuses more on the Civil disciplines such as transportation, hydraulics, etc.

Does anybody have any practice test they would like to share? I would really appreciate it.

Good luck to everibody taking the exam.

 

[neworleans]

Mike,

I am also taking the FE Civil next week. There is not many civil study guides out there unfortunately, purchased Lindeburg's civil book (3rd ed), it is ok but I don't think it is enough to pass the exam if you have forgotten about the topics. Anybody knows a better one please share

 

[CntrlEngrPE]

mike 2014 and neworleans,

Firstly, all the best for the exam! I hope you both crack it. Secondly, I recently researched a lot on what people did after failing to eventually pass. Time and again I read that people changed strategies from focusing on theory to focusing lot more on doing questions and for this purpose, lots of people relied on 1001 solved questions (3rd edition) from Lindberg. I recently bought it off of Amazon for $35. Word of caution- I read that the book has a lot of errors in it, so keep an eye out for them. Hope this helps.

 

[mike2014]

Thank you amitsahdev

Do you know if the lindburg 1001 problem book covers the civil topics. I have plenty of review material but I want something more focused on Geotech, Transportation, etc. I still have not found a good review for those topics.

Somebody please help

 

[mike2014]

Would a PE book be a good study guide?

 

[CntrlEngrPE]

Mike2014,

Sorry, I don't know. The 1001 problems cover only the others exam..not specific to civil...Check out other threads in the forum...maybe there are some resources there?

 

[gpoli111]

Lindeburg covers general only in the 1001

 

[neworleans]

Mike

Here are the ISBN's for the Civil books I have...

ISBN 0793195675

ISBN 978-1-59126-177-3

Both are good books, gives you an idea how to use the formulas on the reference book.

 

[Surf and Snow]

First post, but I've been lurking for a bit. Mainly trying to gleam bits of advice for the FE exam. I'll be taking it tomorrow, 13 hours from now!

I'll give all of you looking for feedback on it any advice I can. This is my first attempt, so I can't offer comparison with the old paper exam. I've only been studying for the FE exam for about 4 weeks now, but not much due to my school work load, and my job.

Background: In school currently - graduating this coming June w/ a BSEE specializing in power. I also work in the power industry.

 

[Surf and Snow]

First post, but I've been lurking for a bit. Mainly trying to gleam bits of advice for the FE exam. I'll be taking it tomorrow, 13 hours from now!

I'll give all of you looking for feedback on it any advice I can. This is my first attempt, so I can't offer comparison with the old paper exam. I've only been studying for the FE exam for about 4 weeks now, but not much due to my school work load, and my job.

Background: In school currently - graduating this coming June w/ a BSEE specializing in power. I also work in the power industry.

Well, I took it today. Pretty sure I nailed it. kept a tally of the # I knew I had right, as well as the ones I was pretty sure of and those that I had no idea and just guessed. Based on that I should be in the 75-80% correct range, so I should easily be good to go. But, I'll know for sure in 7-10 business days…

 

[Kamba]

Hello Surf and Snow,

Very Good news that you nailed it Good Luck

It will be very helpful if you can provide a feedback for the following:

1- Is the exam going deep into subjects?

2- Can you jump into a certain chapter you are interested to do first? (i.e Jump to Fluid mechanics and skip probability?)

3- If you have gone through "FE Review Manual" MR Lindeburg ? is it the same level as the exam or harder?

 

[neworleans]

Hello guys,

I took the test yesterday (Civil), I wish I could say I did nail it too but I couldn't, I found it pretty difficult this time. This is the second time I took the Civil, here are my comments:

- In Overall the cbt test is a lot better than the old one because it is shorter, and less areas for civil, no more thermo, circuits and chemistry.

Downsides:

- In the old exam they would give the problems layout like Math 1-19, Statics 20-29 etc, so you would know which questions belong to what topics. They are still grouped but not having this layout gives you problem when you are done with problems and come to the review page at the end, all you see is question numbers flags and incomplete, for example you finish the exam and come to the review page, you have some flagged questions and incomplete questions but you don't know which one belongs to which area unless you go to the question and read it, basically you waste time, if I was given the layout in the review page I would go to the areas I am strong with and work on those questions.

- When I took the old FE, I wasn't able to finish the morning problems and had to guess on Thermo and Chemistry, this time arranging your time is up to you, I took the half of the time for the first 50 questions and the rest for the second section which was the Civil part. I ran out of time this time, in the old exam I had enough time to work on the 60 questions. Therefore, I would suggest you guys to finish the first 50 questions in 2 hours.

- When you enter the room, they give you laminated notebook and pen, get two of those notebooks just in case you may need the second one, will save you some time.

- The questions were a lot harder this time, had to convert so many units, if you are not careful they will get you.

- One other thing they should do about the PDF reference book is, they should add tabs for the civil sections, there is only one tab for Civil, you will need to either search or scroll it down to come to the area you will be working on.

- I can give you guys some advise on what to study for the Civil part but I gotta go now. Let me know if you have any questions.

 

[Jennalelv]

Hello guys,

I took the test yesterday (Civil), I wish I could say I did nail it too but I couldn't, I found it pretty difficult this time. This is the second time I took the Civil, here are my comments:

- In Overall the cbt test is a lot better than the old one because it is shorter, and less areas for civil, no more thermo, circuits and chemistry.

Downsides:

- In the old exam they would give the problems layout like Math 1-19, Statics 20-29 etc, so you would know which questions belong to what topics. They are still grouped but not having this layout gives you problem when you are done with problems and come to the review page at the end, all you see is question numbers flags and incomplete, for example you finish the exam and come to the review page, you have some flagged questions and incomplete questions but you don't know which one belongs to which area unless you go to the question and read it, basically you waste time, if I was given the layout in the review page I would go to the areas I am strong with and work on those questions.

- When I took the old FE, I wasn't able to finish the morning problems and had to guess on Thermo and Chemistry, this time arranging your time is up to you, I took the half of the time for the first 50 questions and the rest for the second section which was the Civil part. I ran out of time this time, in the old exam I had enough time to work on the 60 questions. Therefore, I would suggest you guys to finish the first 50 questions in 2 hours.

- When you enter the room, they give you laminated notebook and pen, get two of those notebooks just in case you may need the second one, will save you some time.

- The questions were a lot harder this time, had to convert so many units, if you are not careful they will get you.

- One other thing they should do about the PDF reference book is, they should add tabs for the civil sections, there is only one tab for Civil, you will need to either search or scroll it down to come to the area you will be working on.

- I can give you guys some advise on what to study for the Civil part but I gotta go now. Let me know if you have any questions.

Can you use ctrl+F in the Reference Manual.

Quick follow-up question, what did you mean by arranging the time is up to you? Are morning and afternoon still broken up by certain topics?

Thanks!

 

[neworleans]

Yes you can use CTRL + F to flaf the questions, or just click on Flag on the right upper screen.

The way you use the available time on exam is up to you, if you finish the first 50 questions before the break in 1 hour, you will have rest of the 5 hrs and 20 min for the rest of the problems.

Yes, take a look at this link and find your area, you will see the topics.

http://ncees.org/exams/fe-exam/

For the Civil part, the first 50 questions were Math thru Fluid Mechanics, and the layout of topics in the exam match the specifications.

 

[chibibenz]

I take the test in less than two weeks and consistently have been getting 60% on practice exams...eek. Anyone have any idea of % is needed to pass on the new exam?

I think the question about ctrl F is can you search the reference manual for specific terms so you can quickly jump to the correct page, not about flagging questions within the exam. Also, is there a list of bookmarks in the reference manual so you can easily jump to a particular section, such as civil, ethics, safety, etc?