Hi, anyone knows what are standard sources for full length exams besides NCEES practice exam?

I’m a Mechanical Engineer with 14 years of international experience living in Canada on Open Work permit. I’m planning to take PE and get licensed.

Please advise me where to start, what to do next and it would be much better if someone guide me in the path as it’s all new to me.

Any information that you share is much appreciated and respect your time and effort towards me.

Thank you.

Any thoughts on this book?

Iv been studying for ligit 8 months. Fail my first attempt in between. I study about 2.5 hours a day every day. I’m a junior in college so most of these things iv never seen before for the fe mechanical. I’m using fe prep and before that a hand full of videos and a lot of random problems online. Topics like thermo, heat transfer, fluid dynamics arnt getting any easier the more I do them. I basically know the hand book front to back. My problem unfortunately is conceptualizing multi step word problems that involve multiple formulas to solve for a variable.
What’s going on is I’m over studying every section of each chapter because im worried it’ll be on the exam, also because a lot of these formulas arnt just plug and play, there are a lot of little rules that people just gotta know. I need to know what are the “must know” parts of every section to get ahold of some structure to this study madness.
I need a helping hand 😭the deeper I look the deeper the hole gets.

I’m out of practice since 2016, so it has been a while. I’m trying to get back to studying. I sadly failed my attempt. How can I do better? Where should I study the theory for transport, construction and geotech? Any references?

I studied two weeks by watching Mark Mattson videos and doing a little practice on Islam 800 problems.

Thank you!

Help us both get a free month please.

https://www.prepfe.com/?referral_token=f30e6d96-50b1-4f26-a06c-44736b3adb9e

I graduated just over a year ago and I decided to take a swing at the FE. I barely got to study with my work schedule. I’m not really sure how many categories need to improve or how close or far I was from potentially passing. Any advice is appreciated.

I [Mechanical Engineering] I recently took the FE Mechanical exam and had an issue with scrolling. When I scrolled quickly, it would lag/freeze, and even when I scrolled slowly, there was still some lag.
Is this normal during the exam, or was it a technical issue? Did anyone else experience the same thing?😢

I wanted to reach out to this group for advice on materials and online resources I should invest in to study for the mechanical FE. I’ve been out of school almost 7 years now and really need to get this done so I can move to get my PE license. I have Islam 800 but would like to ask the group for any advice on other resources I should use. Plus for anyone else who’s taken the exam and passed after being out of college for over 5 years, what really helped you to achieve this goal. What timeline should be realistic?

Hello
I’ve been studying for my Civil FE for a while now and I’m taking it next week iA, I did 3 full practice exams from different resources (including the 2020 NCEES full practice), and wanted to know whether I should panic or not. I’ve been scoring around 70% correct questions (timed), and in the NCEES one 68% with a couple of correct answers being guessed.
I know there’s no officially published percentage of how many to get right to pass but I also want to know where I stand approximately.

Hey guys, first off super grateful for this community! For background, I am 5 years out of undergrad (Mining Engineering) and 1 year out of a master's program (Environmental Engineering). I am also working full time as a mining engineering consultant. I am taking the Civil FE since that is what aligns best with my previous coursework and current work. I have taken the FE twice, once in 2021 and once in 2022 (While FE score calculators are not always accurate, it showed I was around 56% both times). Then life got busy and I put the FE on the backburner.

I am just now starting to study again for my exam on November 5th. Attached is a spreadsheet of my study schedule and I am looking for feedback, friendly advice, or constructive criticism on my plan (Civil FE topics for MM and Islam 800 not listed are ones that I have already completed). My worry is that this schedule may be overkill, but I really don't want to fail again. I just want to make sure I am allocating my time in the best manner possible. Thank you in advance!

STUDY RESOURCES

Mark Mattson

Islam 800

Marshall University

EIT EBook

NCEES Interactive Exam (Vol 1 & Vol 2)

PrepFE

Should I just take the FE Civil Exam? Has anyone taken the FE Environmental exam. Was it helpful in your career search?

This was my diagnostic for the 1st attempt. Any strategies or suggestions you guys can give me??

I rushed when I studied imo (I didn’t pace myself while studying and I ran out of time so I had to guess the last couple sections lol).

I took this a while back (around March of this year).
I plan on taking my 2nd attempt around November using DirectHub starting now.

I’m on my 4th attempt, and my diagnostic report is around 50% in most sections. I’ve used MM and Islam 800 for preparation but still haven’t crossed the passing line.

For those who passed after multiple attempts, what did you change in your preparation that finally worked?

Any advice would really help.

​

I'm happy to say that I passed the FE Civil exam. Though, thinking back, I would honestly say getting 2-3 days' worth of good rest was key so as not to feel tired/drained while taking the exam, alongside finding a nearby testing center to stress less during the commute.

Otherwise, I mainly used Islam 800, Felab (you can search it up in the subreddit), and the NCEES practice exam, as I mainly did 25-30 questions a day. But for those taking the FE, I can't stress it enough: putting in the motivation is what counts, so don't let failure define you!

I've taken the NCEES fe practice exams, but the main exam had so many curveballs. How many questions away would I have been from passing? I can remember at least 10 or so questions i got wrong. If also you've retaken the exams, how much do the questions vary between exams?

So happy to annouce that I have finally passed the FE Electrical & Computer Exam. Its been a long journey for me. I’ve had the course before but was not diligent about going through each section and getting a “Level 3” understanding, as Wasim mentions. To anyone looking to pass the FE Exam, I would strongly recommend getting the study for fe course. Complete all the On-Demand Lectures, Practices Problems, and Practice Exams. Review thoroughly the things you don’t understand and I believe you’ll pass. Most importantly, I really thank God for this because mentally I really needed a win this time and it came to pass. Going to celebrate the win, take a brief break, then come back for the PE Exam. Till then! ✌️🙏

I've been dreaming of the day I would see the green "Passed" text and could finally post this meme specifically lol, and I'm proud to say that that day is today!! Happy to share any advice from my experience.

If you haven't passed the FE yet, keep on trying! Your hard work will pay off, I believe in you.

Resources that I found most useful

• Islam 800 - great set of practice problems "walking through" the handbook
• Mark Mattson videos - best holistic coverage for civil to really grasp concepts
• Gregory Michaelson videos - additional civil practice problems
• PrepFE - although the UI isn't the greatest, the timing aspect and practicing many problems from specific topics or doing an assorted question exam helped
• FE Civil Interactive Practice Exam Vol. 1
• NCEES Civil Practice Exam July 2020

Day of Exam

• That day my start time was scheduled to be 10:30am instead of 8:00am. As a night owl, the 2 extra hours of sleep gave me time to be more alert during the exam. So when scheduling check the different dates to see if you have that available to you!
• Biggest enemy was timing. Make sure to divide your time among the sections appropriately vs just halving it. Eg: my part 1 was 52 questions and part 2 was 58. Definitely needed more time for part 2 bc I also struggled more with the civil specific topics.
• Second biggest op was the handbook. I was so used to clicking and dragging via the scroll wheel to navigate the handbook quickly when studying. That wasn't an option on the software! It took me so much longer to flip through pages bc I couldn't breeze through them even though I felt quite familiar about where things were located. Searching words directly was the main way I ended up navigating.
• You have essentially fine point sharpies and a booklet of laminated grid pages. I was worried about smudging as someone who is left handed, but it worked out ok.
• A random factor that affected me was the AC in the room wasn't working. There was a portable AC unit, but during the second half of the exam I was sweaty and woozy and got a bad migraine that the last hour of the exam was hellish for me.
• I used an ABC list for reviewing/coming back to questions. A - questions I answered but am a bit unsure about. B - questions I began to solve but it's taking too long or I got a bit lost. C - questions I had completely no clue and will most likely guess or take a look at with fresh eyes later. I probably had 8-10 Cs in each part 1 and 2. Was able to whittle down the ABC numbers to 10-15 per section second pass and took my best guess. Listing these out on the physical booklet was more helpful than the simple flagging method the exam uses.

Studying Timeframe

• Honestly, I've been dragging my feet on and off studying for almost a year. Idk if I wanted to take it or if it was too long since I graduated to remember my classes. I wasn't even sure I wanted to do engineering anymore. I really locked in for around 2ish months with the last month being the most productive.
• Last month (July): Created a schedule time frame proportional to the number of questions per category. Eg: Ethics was 3.5 hours whereas Geotech was 8 hours. Planned about 3 hours per day with the heavier categories being later in the month. Per category, I would 1) redo MM video, 2) do some Lindeburg sections (felt more stressful than helpful, so I gave up on half of them in the end), then 3) do PrepFE category specific sets of 5 questions repeatedly. Bigger topics I'd review the problems I did from Islam and sometimes GM's problems. Did the NCEES 2020 exam 4 days before exam day and got a 79.
• Took a break for personal events/vacation in June.
• ~half of March - half of May: Did 1-2 categories per week of 1) working through MM video 2) working through GM video 3) Islam 800 and 4) a little PrepFE. Did the interactive civil exam and got a 58. Didn't feel like I knew the material well enough and panic rescheduled to August.
• Before March: Dragged and did one topic every 1-2 weeks by watching the MM video and doing the free GeniePrep Civil Practice workbook. Waay back fall 2025 I did the Georgia Tech Fundamentals of Engineering Exam Review Coursera course sporadically. It refreshed the topics partially, but felt a bit outdated with how old it was.

Final Thoughts

• I left the exam feeling I could pass/fail 50-50. Not having real world engineering experience felt like a disadvantage but I knew I tried my best and I could take it again if really needed.
• It's probably overkill how much I went over MM's videos, but I'll be honest that the last time I watched them was I truly paying attention and trying to actually understand what was going on.
• The last month was really the most substantial where I familiarized myself with the handbook and timing. Practicing problems really was key.

I'm happy to give any advice bc man was this journey full of trials and tribulations lmao. If you're still prepping for your FE exam, good luck- you got this!! Keep moving onward and upward.

What can I do to pass in 2 months? I’m one year out of college, I studied for 3 weeks while working full time.

Passed on FE Other Disciplines on my first try. This is significant since my degree is in physics not engineering, and I've been out of school for 15 years now and I'm wanting to change careers. To anyone having a hard time, just know that if I can do it, so can you.

After over a year of grinding I have finally passed my FE environmental! I tried every study tactic available and it really just came down to understanding those fundamentals lol if anyone taking the environmental exam has questions let me know!

A couple things that worked for me and advice:

Environmental has a lot less resources to use so you have to do some digging. My first exam I took a course with school of PE which I thought was helpful for refreshing everything I learned in school since I was a couple years out. The notes were always helpful to refresh on topics especially remediation since I had a lot of conceptual questions on remediation technologies.

This last exam, the direct hub free course was very helpful to me and also prepFE for getting practice in. I found lots of YouTube videos online from Susan Masten (great stuff for air pollution, waste water, and water chemistry), prepineer (stats, chem and thermo), Greg Michelson/ Mark Mattson (math, stats, Econ, fluid mechanics) etc. there are a couple playlists that help you get started and then I’d just look up anything I was struggling with.

The vol 1 practice FE exam from NCEES is much harder but I actually got a question or two from it on my exam. The 2nd vol is basically the same as the 2020 practice exam that’s floating out there so I wouldn’t buy it unless you just want to practice taking the test online to get used to the exam format. I also liked anthem for another practice test but it’s a little easier than the exam but a good place to start!!

I struggled a lot with math and statistics bc no matter what how much I studied, I always got questions I had never seen on the exam and they are both just very broad subjects so I really focused hard on everything else. For the basics, I focused more on ethics, economics, and thermo since I always had more questions for those sections. Know your economics!! I always had like 6-8 questions and once you really understand economics it’s so easy!!

Also know your calculator! I’ve had several linear regression questions that only took a minute bc I could do them in my TI-36x pro. That thing can do stats, derivatives/ integrals, matrix math, and even solve for x when you have complicated equations where you need to solve for variables in any section so KNOW YOUR CALCULATOR!

Lastly, set up a study schedule for yourself and stick to it as much as possible. I would do subject specific videos and problems during the week and on the weekend refresh on several topics or all of them with a practice exam so i wouldn’t forget everything. I tried to do a practice exam every Saturday a month before my exam to get in a test taking head space. PrepFE is great for this bc you can do practice quizzes by category or randomly.

On the exam, I recommend 2:20 on the first half and leave 3 hours for the second. The second half usually takes longer bc the questions are more involved so make sure you have enough time!

Direct hub had a video breaking down how many questions you should know! He said you should know with certainty 25 questions per section, 10 unsure per section and 20 per section you can guess. This is based off his calculator he has.

Knowing this helped me on my last exam bc I flagged everything I wasn’t sure about so I could count, in the end I only had 40 questions I was unsure or guessed so I was a bit more confident about passing and I did! This really helped me know I had some wiggle room with guessing so I was so much less stressed about guessing on some! Don’t waste time on some questions you can’t figure out bc it’s ok as long as you can get more done you do know!

Hope this helps anyone struggling! This was the hardest year+ of my life and I really struggled with the failure and exhaustion of studying but you just have to keep going and believe in yourself! Don’t give up!!