Just passed the new CBT FE exam

[ABEngineer]

WARNING .......To all FE Exam takers............The TIME is against YOU!!

You have 110 problems to solve in less than 6 hours (including introduction and a survey)....so with simple calculations you will get around 3 minutes or less for each problem.

Now, we all know that......But what you don't know (unless you've taken the CBT exam of course) is that after 57 questions you get an optional 25 minutes break ending the first half of the exam and they don't show you how much you have spent or left for the second half.

Let me explain.....Before with the old paper version they used to give you 4 hrs for the morning session with a count down every now and then to keep you a ware of the time and how much time left you got. In this CBT version you do have to calculate your time left by yourself which is found to be confusing and distracting. So what happens is that you "typically" use the time given for the morning session and also some time from the afternoon session and end up having much "less" time for the remaining 53 questions.

It's easier to track time when you have a certain hours set for the amount of questions given, but on this CBT version you only see the time through the computer clock which doesn't tell you how much time you spent per question and how much time left.

What happened to me was that I came back from my 25 minutes break to find myself having less than an hour and a half (1.5hrs) which means I'm a full hour behind and that put tremendous stress on me in order to answer all of the remaining problems "correctly" in the short time available.

As I said earlier....Time is really critical for the new version and although the CBT FE Exam is shorter, it's more tricky to fall into the time trap, so just be a ware of that and try to skip the problems you don't know or maybe will take you more than 3 minutes to solve and head for the sweet problems that get you more points and then flag the skipped ones and later come back to make an educated guess and hopefully would have accumulated enough markes to pass this exam once and for all.

It looks to me like they give you a countdown clock in the upper right hand corner with 5 hours and 20 minutes on it from the beginning. So if you look at the clock when you take your break, you know exactly how much time you have left, correct? True, it looks like they've made you responsible for how/where you spend your time. But isn't that a good thing?

When you look at the clock when you want to take your break then it's too late . Knowing how much time left for you before your break won't actually change the remaining time, and by then you most probably have taken longer time to do the first half since no one will tell you the time left for the first half.

Honestly, I was only focusing on the problems and I didn't have enough time to add/subtract the minutes remaining as every second counts. You work best when there is a deadline, but if there is no time set to do your first part then it would be very hard to balance your total time between the 2 parts.

I was literally solving questions until the last SECOND. I had no time to review or go back and change any of the answers. That was so stressful.

I don't know why do they let you responsible for calculating the time!! I have enough responsibility to work through the problems in such a short time. I just think that it would be more fair for students to know how much time left for the first session so they can act accordingly.

 

[Mike in Gastonia]

WARNING .......To all FE Exam takers............The TIME is against YOU!!

You have 110 problems to solve in less than 6 hours (including introduction and a survey)....so with simple calculations you will get around 3 minutes or less for each problem.

Now, we all know that......But what you don't know (unless you've taken the CBT exam of course) is that after 57 questions you get an optional 25 minutes break ending the first half of the exam and they don't show you how much you have spent or left for the second half.

Let me explain.....Before with the old paper version they used to give you 4 hrs for the morning session with a count down every now and then to keep you a ware of the time and how much time left you got. In this CBT version you do have to calculate your time left by yourself which is found to be confusing and distracting. So what happens is that you "typically" use the time given for the morning session and also some time from the afternoon session and end up having much "less" time for the remaining 53 questions.

It's easier to track time when you have a certain hours set for the amount of questions given, but on this CBT version you only see the time through the computer clock which doesn't tell you how much time you spent per question and how much time left.

What happened to me was that I came back from my 25 minutes break to find myself having less than an hour and a half (1.5hrs) which means I'm a full hour behind and that put tremendous stress on me in order to answer all of the remaining problems "correctly" in the short time available.

As I said earlier....Time is really critical for the new version and although the CBT FE Exam is shorter, it's more tricky to fall into the time trap, so just be a ware of that and try to skip the problems you don't know or maybe will take you more than 3 minutes to solve and head for the sweet problems that get you more points and then flag the skipped ones and later come back to make an educated guess and hopefully would have accumulated enough markes to pass this exam once and for all.

It looks to me like they give you a countdown clock in the upper right hand corner with 5 hours and 20 minutes on it from the beginning. So if you look at the clock when you take your break, you know exactly how much time you have left, correct? True, it looks like they've made you responsible for how/where you spend your time. But isn't that a good thing?

When you look at the clock when you want to take your break then it's too late . Knowing how much time left for you before your break won't actually change the remaining time, and by then you most probably have taken longer time to do the first half since no one will tell you the time left for the first half.

Honestly, I was only focusing on the problems and I didn't have enough time to add/subtract the minutes remaining as every second counts. You work best when there is a deadline, but if there is no time set to do your first part then it would be very hard to balance your total time between the 2 parts.

I was literally solving questions until the last SECOND. I had no time to review or go back and change any of the answers. That was so stressful.

I don't know why do they let you responsible for calculating the time!! I have enough responsibility to work through the problems in such a short time. I just think that it would be more fair for students to know how much time left for the first session so they can act accordingly.

I disagree. It's your time - you're responsible for deciding how to spend it. If I know the second section topics are harder for me, I can push through the first section and save time for the second. If I want to spend extra time in the first section to make sure I've got those right, it's my choice.

 

[ABEngineer]

WARNING .......To all FE Exam takers............The TIME is against YOU!!

You have 110 problems to solve in less than 6 hours (including introduction and a survey)....so with simple calculations you will get around 3 minutes or less for each problem.

Now, we all know that......But what you don't know (unless you've taken the CBT exam of course) is that after 57 questions you get an optional 25 minutes break ending the first half of the exam and they don't show you how much you have spent or left for the second half.

Let me explain.....Before with the old paper version they used to give you 4 hrs for the morning session with a count down every now and then to keep you a ware of the time and how much time left you got. In this CBT version you do have to calculate your time left by yourself which is found to be confusing and distracting. So what happens is that you "typically" use the time given for the morning session and also some time from the afternoon session and end up having much "less" time for the remaining 53 questions.

It's easier to track time when you have a certain hours set for the amount of questions given, but on this CBT version you only see the time through the computer clock which doesn't tell you how much time you spent per question and how much time left.

What happened to me was that I came back from my 25 minutes break to find myself having less than an hour and a half (1.5hrs) which means I'm a full hour behind and that put tremendous stress on me in order to answer all of the remaining problems "correctly" in the short time available.

As I said earlier....Time is really critical for the new version and although the CBT FE Exam is shorter, it's more tricky to fall into the time trap, so just be a ware of that and try to skip the problems you don't know or maybe will take you more than 3 minutes to solve and head for the sweet problems that get you more points and then flag the skipped ones and later come back to make an educated guess and hopefully would have accumulated enough markes to pass this exam once and for all.

It looks to me like they give you a countdown clock in the upper right hand corner with 5 hours and 20 minutes on it from the beginning. So if you look at the clock when you take your break, you know exactly how much time you have left, correct? True, it looks like they've made you responsible for how/where you spend your time. But isn't that a good thing?

When you look at the clock when you want to take your break then it's too late . Knowing how much time left for you before your break won't actually change the remaining time, and by then you most probably have taken longer time to do the first half since no one will tell you the time left for the first half.

Honestly, I was only focusing on the problems and I didn't have enough time to add/subtract the minutes remaining as every second counts. You work best when there is a deadline, but if there is no time set to do your first part then it would be very hard to balance your total time between the 2 parts.

I was literally solving questions until the last SECOND. I had no time to review or go back and change any of the answers. That was so stressful.

I don't know why do they let you responsible for calculating the time!! I have enough responsibility to work through the problems in such a short time. I just think that it would be more fair for students to know how much time left for the first session so they can act accordingly.

I disagree. It's your time - you're responsible for deciding how to spend it. If I know the second section topics are harder for me, I can push through the first section and save time for the second. If I want to spend extra time in the first section to make sure I've got those right, it's my choice.

It's true that you "own" the time on both old paper or the CBT version and there is no way you can tell if the second part will be more difficult or not for you to make enough time for it.

Ideally speaking, you should not exceed the time allocated on a problem, but this is generally not always the case. The idea here to collect as many as "easy" problems and leave the more demanding and time consuming ones for later.

Speaking of myself, I used to do better on the AM sessions and on other attempts I do very good on the PM session so each person is different based on your study habit and how well you mastered some objects and not other ones.

To make the best out of your time in the exam, you have to be given the guidelines that will help you doing so.

As far as this posts concern, I'm drawing the attention of the people who are actually going to sit for this exam and giving them an insight of what the 3 months old FE exam looks like and I hope all exam takers will take care of this issue and make their ways through problems and pay more attention to the time they spend on each question.

You guys can use all the help you can get so good luck.

 

[Mike in Gastonia]

Here's a video ncees put on their youtube channel. It looks like they're trying to publicize that you're responsible for managing your time.

>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqI00SPe7ro&list=PLiZ0hjHNi9jzR8RW69ndkjIgH8bzj0ew-&feature=c4-overview-vl

 

[ABEngineer]

Firstly, the NCEES video is inaccurate! You don't get a break after 55 questions, but you are required to complete a 57 of the total 110 questions.

Secondly, the fact that the computer clock turns yellow, this only happens at the last 5 minutes of the TOTAL exam time, when it's pretty much too late.

Lastly, You don't ask the examinees to act accordingly and except him to manage his time efficiently if you don't provide the means and the proper tools and guidelines in order to do so.

"Easier Say Than Done"

 

[matt267 PE]

Firstly, the NCEES video is inaccurate! You don't get a break after 55 questions, but you are required to complete a 57 of the total 110 questions.

Secondly, the fact that the computer clock turns yellow, this only happens at the last 5 minutes of the TOTAL exam time, when it's pretty much too late.

Lastly, You don't ask the examinees to act accordingly and except him to manage his time efficiently if you don't provide the means and the proper tools and guidelines in order to do so.

"Easier Say Than Done"

Effective time management is part of the test. It is your responsibility to manage your own time. A stopwatch on your wrist might help. When I took the paper exam, I didn't time each question. Instead I made sure that I was at least 1/4 done after one hour, etc. Taking multiple full length practice exams will help refine your time management strategy.

 

[ABEngineer]

Firstly, the NCEES video is inaccurate! You don't get a break after 55 questions, but you are required to complete a 57 of the total 110 questions.

Secondly, the fact that the computer clock turns yellow, this only happens at the last 5 minutes of the TOTAL exam time, when it's pretty much too late.

Lastly, You don't ask the examinees to act accordingly and except him to manage his time efficiently if you don't provide the means and the proper tools and guidelines in order to do so.

"Easier Say Than Done"

Effective time management is part of the test. It is your responsibility to manage your own time. A stopwatch on your wrist might help. When I took the paper exam, I didn't time each question. Instead I made sure that I was at least 1/4 done after one hour, etc. Taking multiple full length practice exams will help refine your time management strategy.

Stop watches are not allowed in the CBT FE exam!

 

[ABEngineer]

That's exactly why I'm pointing out this matter!

So exam takers can take extra cautions and make sure to practice more and more on time management skills so they will not to fall in the time trap and hopefully pass the exam on the first attempt.

Thanks for your feedback.

 

[matt267 PE]

Firstly, the NCEES video is inaccurate! You don't get a break after 55 questions, but you are required to complete a 57 of the total 110 questions.

Secondly, the fact that the computer clock turns yellow, this only happens at the last 5 minutes of the TOTAL exam time, when it's pretty much too late.

Lastly, You don't ask the examinees to act accordingly and except him to manage his time efficiently if you don't provide the means and the proper tools and guidelines in order to do so.

"Easier Say Than Done"

Effective time management is part of the test. It is your responsibility to manage your own time. A stopwatch on your wrist might help. When I took the paper exam, I didn't time each question. Instead I made sure that I was at least 1/4 done after one hour, etc. Taking multiple full length practice exams will help refine your time management strategy.

Stop watches are not allowed in the CBT FE exam!

Damn, you're right, watches are not allowed anymore. I didn't believe you at first but I found it here: http://cdn1.ncees.co/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/ncees-examinee-guide-12-17-13.pdf

 

[benzene]

Firstly, the NCEES video is inaccurate! You don't get a break after 55 questions, but you are required to complete a 57 of the total 110 questions.

Mine (FE Chemical) was 51 questions then the 25 minute break, and it said that at the beginning. So I decided when the clock said 3 hrs and 20 minutes left I was going to be done with the first section no matter what.

 

[PE4IE]

How many correct we shd get out of 115 questions to pass the exam. I just took the exam yesterday. Last 10 - 15 questions I didnot have enough time to answer. But made some guess though! Waiting for the results. Fingers Crossed. :shakehead:

 

[ABEngineer]

Firstly, the NCEES video is inaccurate! You don't get a break after 55 questions, but you are required to complete a 57 of the total 110 questions.

Mine (FE Chemical) was 51 questions then the 25 minute break, and it said that at the beginning. So I decided when the clock said 3 hrs and 20 minutes left I was going to be done with the first section no matter what.

Okay great, so that's another way of how exam takers can manage their exam time.

Based on what you are saying I'm guessing that different exam disciplines have different number of question before and after the break! That's really helpful for others to know how many problems they will encounter based on their selected disciplines, so will act accordingly.

Thank you for sharing these useful informations.

 

[ABEngineer]

How many correct we shd get out of 115 questions to pass the exam. I just took the exam yesterday. Last 10 - 15 questions I didnot have enough time to answer. But made some guess though! Waiting for the results. Fingers Crossed. :shakehead:

I really hope you pass the exam.

My understanding was that different states have different passing score (in the US), and in Canada different provincial associations have their own minimum passing percentage set by their own board of engineers.

I'm not sure if the passing score itself changes from time to time in the new CBT FE Exam. I mean before in the paper version we used to have different passing scores for both the spring and fall FE exams. Also now they don't show you how many problems you got correct (no diagnostic report).

 

[chibibenz]

Mine had 40 questions before the break. Luckily they tell you the question split BEFORE the exam clock starts ticking. So while I had that unlimited time I took a moment to calculate how long 40 questions should take at 3 minutes each and I wrote down my goal time on the top of my pad. My goal was to finish the first half by the time the clock hit 4 hrs, 3.5 hours at the worst. Take your time before you start to think about when you want to be done with the first section and remember the second section is harder so you should error on the side of giving yourself more time for the second half.

 

[ABEngineer]

Mine had 40 questions before the break. Luckily they tell you the question split BEFORE the exam clock starts ticking. So while I had that unlimited time I took a moment to calculate how long 40 questions should take at 3 minutes each and I wrote down my goal time on the top of my pad. My goal was to finish the first half by the time the clock hit 4 hrs, 3.5 hours at the worst. Take your time before you start to think about when you want to be done with the first section and remember the second section is harder so you should error on the side of giving yourself more time for the second half.

That is a really good and simple plan.

You definitely want to save extra minutes for second part as the questions get nasty. My first part was really good and when I took my 25 minutes break I was 100% sure that I will pass, but when I did the second part that it went down to 60% sure . I was disappointed, but luckily I passed it. )

Please share your results if you don't mind and any exam related helpful information.

Best of luck and I hope that every one passes too.

 

[PE4IE]

How many correct we shd get out of 115 questions to pass the exam. I just took the exam yesterday. Last 10 - 15 questions I didnot have enough time to answer. But made some guess though! Waiting for the results. Fingers Crossed. :shakehead:

I really hope you pass the exam.

My understanding was that different states have different passing score (in the US), and in Canada different provincial associations have their own minimum passing percentage set by their own board of engineers.

I'm not sure if the passing score itself changes from time to time in the new CBT FE Exam. I mean before in the paper version we used to have different passing scores for both the spring and fall FE exams. Also now they don't show you how many problems you got correct (no diagnostic report).

Thank you for your encouraging words. From my experience as well, we shd plan to spend less time on 1st session and leave more time for second session. 2nd session requires some thinking to solve it.

 

[ABEngineer]

How many correct we shd get out of 115 questions to pass the exam. I just took the exam yesterday. Last 10 - 15 questions I didnot have enough time to answer. But made some guess though! Waiting for the results. Fingers Crossed. :shakehead:

I really hope you pass the exam.

My understanding was that different states have different passing score (in the US), and in Canada different provincial associations have their own minimum passing percentage set by their own board of engineers.

I'm not sure if the passing score itself changes from time to time in the new CBT FE Exam. I mean before in the paper version we used to have different passing scores for both the spring and fall FE exams. Also now they don't show you how many problems you got correct (no diagnostic report).

Thank you for your encouraging words. From my experience as well, we shd plan to spend less time on 1st session and leave more time for second session. 2nd session requires some thinking to solve it.

Yes, but always remember to work smart not hard! Meaning that your job is to collect points as much as possible throughout getting correct answers for the easy problems on both sessions.

What I mean is that, in my case for example I spent more time on the "AM" session, because I thought it worth it to spend a "little" more time when I know that these problems can be answered correctly. But my problem was that I lost track of time and spent more time than I should. So try to avoid that.

Since you will get less correct answers on the "PM" part, as based on the feedback I'm seeing here, almost everyone found that the "PM" session has harder problems than the morning one, so I think spending few extra minutes on the "AM' can benefit you in collecting legit and easy points towards success.

 

[Dug]

Hi there

 

[ABEngineer]

Hi there

Hello

 

[ABEngineer]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYzvUHMXvZU