Exam & Study Tips

How to Take the Test

My method for taking the test -- and this was also suggested to the class by one professor in a refresher course I took, after I had already decided on the method -- is to break the test down into four (give or take) "passes" through, going from beginning to end four times total. Something like the following:

1. Do all of the "automatic" problems. These are the ones which you are very comfortable with and either know the answer immediately, or can complete the procedure very quickly off the top of your head.
2. Do all the problems that you feel good about, but need a little time to think/work on. These are ones where you are familiar with the problem but need a little help from the book. If you get bogged down on one problem, move on.
3. Do all the problems that seem hard but which you think you might be able to figure out -- or at least narrow down -- with some effort. Chip away at these problems until you have just a few minutes left.
4. Take one last lightning-fast pass through the exam with a few minutes remaining to shoot in the dark. If you have narrowed the possible answers down, choose one of the remaining options. Otherwise pick one letter and fill in every remaining bubble with that letter.

Basically, you want to solve the problems in order of difficulty from easiest to hardest (or quickest to most time-consuming). The rationale is that no one who takes the Fundamentals of Engineering exam manages to solve every problem within the allotted time -- and you don't need to. You need to get roughly 50% of the questions on each session correct (or some combination thereof, weighting considered). An easy question is worth as much as a hard question on the same session, so make sure you answer all the easy ones.

Hopefully by the time you've gotten through Pass 2 you've got about half the questions answered with a good level of confidence and at that point you can spend the rest of the time giving yourself some breathing room by picking away at the brainbusters. If a question is really, really hard, don't waste your time on it. Work on something else and come back to it; if you run out of time and have to guess you want to make sure you've given every problem you're familiar with a good shot and save your wild guesses for the ones that are a complete mystery. You definitely don't want to waste your time learning a problem from scratch when you could solve two, three or four other ones in that same amount of time.

Finally, once you're about out of time, make sure that every bubble is filled. If you have at least half the questions answered with 75% confidence, you could guess on the other half and probably still squeak by. There is no penalty for guessing wrong, so the worst thing you can do is leave a question blank.

How to Study for the Exam

My method for studying is roughly the same as taking the exam. Ideally we'd all have enough time to review an entire four to five years of study so that every topic is fresh in our minds on test day, but that's not going to happen. But again, you don't need to know everything, and an easy question is worth as much as a hard question (on the same session). So start with the concepts that seem intuitive to you and work your way into the more difficult material.

Some people suggest focusing on your best subjects and "punting" the ones you did poorly in. Others suggest studying everything. I suggest a hybrid of the two; review every topic briefly and then focus in on the concepts in each topic which make sense to you. That way, not only are you really getting the stuff which gives you the highest chance of success -- as an example, for me statics was easier than thermo, but the easiest thermo problem will be better than the hardest statics one -- but even if you don't get it, at least you've seen the hard problems before and something might pop out at you, and you'll know where each section is in the Supplied-Reference Handbook. I took a refresher course on campus that went over each topic in a two-hour cram session; I wrote down everything but I starred the concepts that I thought would be a potential FE question, and which I thought that I could handle with a little more studying.

While I think that this is the best approach to studying, there is some risk in this method though, and you have to be aware that the FE will not be a cakewalk. Yes, get all the easy stuff fresh in your mind so you don't have to guess on a no-brainer, but don't be afraid to venture out of your comfort zone once you've gone over the soft ones. You can't bank on the exam being 50% or more gimmes. You're going to have to answer some tough questions in order to pass. So give yourself time to nail down the easy stuff AND master some of the hard concepts.

Which Afternoon Session Should I Take?

This is a question you really have to answer yourself. Again, there are two common schools of thought. One is that you should take the discipline-specific exam that matches your field of study. The questions on there are probably fresher in your mind and statistics show that folks who do this have a higher pass rate. The other trend is not without merit, however, and folks who subscribe to this school of thought believe that you should take the general afternoon session because the topics are pretty much the same as the ones on the morning session, so there are less topics to study.

I think you should look at the topics on both and ask yourself which subjects you have a better handle on. Remember that the afternoon session questions are more challenging. I chose the Civil afternoon session because I felt that I had to answer some brainbusters I'd rather them be in something like transportation or soils -- subjects which resonate with me more -- than thermodynamics or chemistry. However, if you have an excellent grasp on the "general" topics and don't have a broad background in the upper-division discipline-specific courses, the General might be better for you. So just look at it and see what you think.

Miscellaneous Tips:

• Some questions can be answered by working each of the multiple choices "in reverse". Sometimes this method is actually faster than doing it the "correct" way.
• Narrow the questions down if at all possible. There are bound to be some nonsense multiple-choice answers; if you can identify those you can increase your odds of at least guessing correctly, even if you can't work the problem to solution.
• It's not terribly unusual for an error to occur on a test, and they throw these ones out later. So if you're confident that you did the question correctly and can't figure out your error -- or if all of the choices are complete nonsense -- don't waste time beating your head on it. It could be an error. Come back to it last and if all else fails, guess. 
• Get a NCEES-approved calculator ASAP and use it all the time. Learn its "power features" to save you time and errors.
• Similarly, get the NCEES Supplied-Reference Handbook. The index sucks and you can burn a lot of valuable time trying to find an equation if you don't know where it is (or even if it's in there). If you want to be able to flip around the book fast, use it to study so you can "be one with the book." 
• Pack a bag lunch. Depending on where you take the exam, there will be dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of others taking it with you, and the line at nearby eateries will be long.
• Never, ever, ever leave a question blank. There's no penalty for guessing, and you have a 0% chance of getting it right if you leave it blank.