My Experience with the FE Exam

[itismakingme]

Hi All,

I just passed the FE (Electrical and Computer) Exam and wanted to pass along my experiences before gleaning what I can from this site for PE prep.  I was a non-traditional student who worked full-time while going to school part-time.  Because of this, calculus was seven years in my past by graduation.  I chose not to take the FE my last semester.  I focused on my new engineering job straight out of school and began studying for the FE three years after graduation.  Here are the highlights of my studies and exam experience:

• Watched a YouTube video featuring Joel Erway - this was motivating and helpful to me for efficient study planning.  I used Joel's input to create a spreadsheet for prioritizing my study time.
  
• Purchased and read Lindeburg's FE Electrical and Computer Review Manual cover-to-cover (2015 version).  Made note-cards and worked all problems during the read-through.  I invested over 100 hours during this read-through and associated prep.
  
• Got side-tracked by work and family needs for several months.
  
• Ran through the chapter review questions for the Electrical Lindeburg manual again and highlighted my weaknesses.
  
• Purchased a 10 year old used Lindeburg FE review manual.  This one had far more practice problems and a practice test at the end.  I worked through most applicable practice problems (skipped many that were not applicable to the newer CBT for Electrical and Computer).  I would estimate 15 hours spent in this book.  Got >80% on the practice exam at the end of the book.
  
• Purchased old paper copy of NCEES Electrical sample questions + solutions (this was around $10).  Took this as a practice exam and skipped all questions not applicable to the new CBT.  Got ~75% on this.
  
• Purchased and took the FE practice exams #1 and #2 by Wasim Asghar. Got >80% on exam #1 and >70% on exam #2.
  
• Purchased the NCEES CBT practice problems.  Got >80%.
  
• Signed up for the exam and took it on President's day.  I had practiced so much prior to the exam that I zipped through the problems I knew very quickly and generally new pretty quickly if I was better off just guessing.  All-in-all, I had several minutes to review problems after reaching the end of the first and second 1/2 of the exam.  I'll never know, but I felt like I got 58-65% raw score.  Worst case estimate-low 50's, best-case-70.
  
• For 9 days I stressed....stressed....stressed...
  
• Received results -  Passed.  You may notice other threads indicating FE results seem to be released on Wednesday mornings - that was my experience as well.
  

My opinions on my study sources:

• 2015 Lindeburg FE Electrical and Computer: The best resource I bought.  It covered most things but did not have as many practice problems as I would have liked.  It was the most well-rounded source.  Its problems were generally on-par with or a little harder than what I experienced on the exam.
  
• Old Lindeburg FE: Good only for practice problems in math, statistics, physics, economics, materials, and some basic electrical.
  
• Old NCEES Electrical Practice Problems: Okay if you're looking for problems to practice.  About 2/3 of the morning problems were applicable, and all of the afternoon problems were applicable.  The questions were at least well written.
  
• Wasim Asghar Practice Exams:  I bought these because they had decent reviews and were cheaper than other practice exams.  There were mistakes in some problems, several repeats of the same types of questions (within one exam), and some questions were poorly written.  Questions were generally easier than what I experienced on the exam.  I don't regret buying these, but they need improvement (IMHO).
  
• NCEES CBT Practice Exam Problems: Worth the money but quite a bit easier than the actual exam.
  

I hope this helps some of you studying for the FE.  You can do it!  Probably with far less studying than I put in.  Now on to the October PE exam.

 

[energyengg]

Congratulations on passing the FE exam.

 

[itismakingme]

Congratulations on passing the FE exam.

Thanks!

 

[energyengg]

@itismakingme, if you do not mind sharing your experience with the exam, would you be able to recall, how many questions in first section made up your first half( 52 or 55?). Also, how did you order NCEES paper based questions? I could not find on their website to order these. Thanks for your help.

 

[itismakingme]

@itismakingme, if you do not mind sharing your experience with the exam, would you be able to recall, how many questions in first section made up your first half( 52 or 55?). Also, how did you order NCEES paper based questions? I could not find on their website to order these. Thanks for your help.

Not a problem.  I don't remember exactly - it was either 54 or 56 in the morning.  It was in the limitations NCEES said it would be within.  The paper based NCEES problems and solutions manual is no longer in print.  I actually bought it on Amazon in December of 2013.  I just didn't use it until I got ready for the exam early this year.  Originally paid ~$41.  It looks like it's not available for a reasonable price at the moment.  I'll probably wind up selling it grouped with my other study materials on ebay.  Sorry to bring up a resource that was so scarce.  

 

[itismakingme]

By the way, here is a link to the book we're talking about:

https://www.amazon.com/Electrical-FE-Sample-Questions-Solutions/dp/1932613447/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1489030974&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=fe+practice+electrical+ncees  

 

[energyengg]

@itismakingme, thank you for the information. 

 

[Uma]

Did u interest in selling FE electrical books??

 

[pittedavo]

@itismakingme, thanks for all of the info! I am studying for the electrical FE and am planning on eventually taking the Electric Power PE. 

Are there parts of the FE that you would recommend studying harder and more thoroughly to more effectively prepare for the PE? How did your PE studying go?

Thanks in advance!

 

[NY-Computer-Engineer]

@itismakingme, thanks for all of the info! I am studying for the electrical FE and am planning on eventually taking the Electric Power PE. 

Are there parts of the FE that you would recommend studying harder and more thoroughly to more effectively prepare for the PE? How did your PE studying go?

Thanks in advance!

On the FE - Spend most of your time studying the material in the middle of your experience and knowledge level.  For example, if you're great at math, you can spend less time on that area.  If you are absolutely terrible at Control Systems, then don't waste much time on that topic (focus on some simple examples only).  Then if you are 'ok' in engineering economics and transistor/logic circuits, then spend 80% of your time getting faster at solving those problems.

For the PE, it changes from a sprint to a marathon run.  Use a similar study plan to what I just mentioned for the FE, however spend much more time on the 'depth' of questions and problems.  You have more than twice the time to work on a PE problem than you had on the FE, so they tend to make them a bit more complex.  Although be ready for the unexpected - I believe I saw the same problem in computer logic design on both tests (which I can't describe in any more detail without risking sanctions from NCEES).  The difference was that I did not have enough time to work it out during the FE exam, however I did have the time on the PE exam.

 

[Harryasd]

Hello,



I gave FE mechanical exam last week and I have been having mixed thoughts about passing. I think I did fairly bad on first half, I guessed on alot of questions, but I think my second half was good. I strongly focused on thermo, fluid mech, heat transfer and mechanics of materials section thinking a good portion of questions will come from these. Now I am confused!! After finishing first half, I thought I failed although first half had just 52 questions. I am getting mixed and anxious feeling. Please anyone who's had same feeling but passed, kindly share your experiences. Thanks!!!

 

[fyrfytr310]

Hello,



I gave FE mechanical exam last week and I have been having mixed thoughts about passing. I think I did fairly bad on first half, I guessed on alot of questions, but I think my second half was good. I strongly focused on thermo, fluid mech, heat transfer and mechanics of materials section thinking a good portion of questions will come from these. Now I am confused!! After finishing first half, I thought I failed although first half had just 52 questions. I am getting mixed and anxious feeling. Please anyone who's had same feeling but passed, kindly share your experiences. Thanks!!!

History says you should have your results about now.  How did you do?

For what it is worth, I didn't feel too good walking out of that exam myself but still passed.