Hey everyone, happy to have my 1st (minus the last test one from a year ago) blog post. This one will be about the FE exam and how I pass it in a relatively short amount of time. I HIGHLY recommend you don’t spend the same amount of time or less studying for the exam as I did because as frankly I got lucky. I have no idea how “well” I did, as the NCEES only give you a breakdown of your results if failed. I could have barely passed or got a perfect score so take everything I say with a grain of salt. This is my experience, everyone has a different study/exam method that works best for them.
Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam is the 1st assessment that all engineers need to pass to become a professional licensed engineer (P.E.). The 2nd and last is the PE exam. The FE exam is targeted at engineering students who finished or about to finish undergraduate. It’s computer-based with mostly multiple-choice, some enter the correct value type questions, and special questions type depending on what exam you take. More information about the exam can be found on the NCEES website. Generally, it is suggested to study for this test for around 2 to 3 months. I took a fraction of that time to pass.
I took the exam in January 2020, after my 1st semester of grad school at Purdue University. I did most of my studying over winter break though I did start the math section the previous summer, I didn’t get very far to retain much of anything, which caused me I started over in the winter. The coursework I took my 1st semester had barely had anything to do with the FE exam. I took Random Variables, Linear Algebra, Deep Learning, Data Analysis, and Embedded Systems. Probability (Random Variable), Linear Algebra, and Computer Systems (Embedded Systems) were on the exam however, those probably 15 questions at most compared to the total of 110. Fortunately for me, I had a degree in both Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering from the University of Rhode Island (URI), where I had encounter most of these subjects at least once. But there were topics that I either didn’t do too hot in undergrad / I simply didn’t know /learned. For me, I was incompetent with Electronics and Electromagnetic and I simply never learned Engineering Economics, and Communications. So most of those weeks I spent reviewing and only learning new material here and there along the way. Ideally, this would be the case for most future exam takers, so it’s important to take the exam as soon as you have taken the proper coursework or graduated.
I paid for my exam date July 2019, the summer before I took the exam. I knew I wanted to take it over winter break as I would be the most available rather than the busy semester. With this exam date in the back of my head, it added more pressure on me to start studying. As I said before I did start to study a bit during that summer however, my determination diminished as who wants to be stuck inside studying during the summertime? If you’re like me I recommend picking a winter date as well.
I knew the FE exam was a popular test among Civil Engineers as it’s a common requirement for employment for them however I didn’t know anyone who took the FE Electrical and Computer. So I went online, started with my favorite forum for finding information, Reddit. There’s a subreddit just for the FE exam that offers anecdotes and other helpful advice for the exam. From there I found a WhatsApp group full of other people currently studying for the exam. I found this very helpful, as when I was stuck on a topic I could post my question on there and usually get a sufficient response to help me understand better. Unfortunately, as of 6/27/2021 that WhatsApp isn’t very active. I believe they moved to discord which is a better platform anyway.
The most vital resource for the exam is the Reference Handbook. It has almost everything you will need to know for the exam, and during the exam, you will have it. However, it’s more of a tool more than a cheat sheet. You still need to know how to use it. DO NOT GO INTO THE EXAM WITHOUT BEING FAMILIAR WITH THE HANDBOOK, as you will spend more time phasing the Handbook than answering questions and won’t do well. I got familiar with the Handbook by studying it. Whenever I solving a question, I had the Handbook open in a pdf and used it to find constants and formulas. After a week or two, you should be able to find information without even using F5 (you will be able to search the document during the exam but it’s kinda slow from what I can remember).
When I started to study, I started with a textbook. The textbook I found wasn’t the best as it had questions that were unlikely to be found on the exam. For example, the software section had a whole subsection about excel/spreadsheets which wasn’t on the actual exam when I took it. Despite that, I felt the textbook was thorough when it came to the other topics covered. The book was FE Electrical and Computer Review Manual by Michael R. Lindeburg PE (I believe this was the version I used). This book was my primary study material during my three weeks of studying. The book has a “Diagnostic Exam” before every topic that I found helpful. These Diagnostic exams are challenging since they cover each topic, which holds a large diversity of questions. However, don’t get discouraged if you aren’t able to answer most of them. I believe the questions were designed to find weaknesses and gaps in understanding for those topics, and from what I remember they were much more challenging than the average exam question. Within the chapters, you’ll find a breakdown of various supplemental problems that go along with them. Try to do as many supplemental problems as possible, as these will help you remember the topics. I took this book apart in two weeks, with a total of 15 topics, I effectively covered a Topic or two a day (Beside the 1st Math Topic which was the longest topic in the book). Again, this a lot and I don’t recommend doing what I did. The book also offers much “tamer” and spaced-out study plans. I didn’t go through the book with a plan of mastery, I wanted to make sure I have a decent understanding of everything to maximize studying time. So there are a few problem types I marked in my notebook for review at a later point.
Youtube University was a phrase I got from my older brother, who would always recommend relearning/learning via Youtube. There’s a ton of FE resources on Youtube, even for the FE Electrical and Computer. Whenever I was stuck on topics I would try to find similar problems, sometime I was able to find that same problem on Youtube! Other times I would be too lazy to go over to my desk in the morning and so I would put on a Youtube playlist on my phone that was full of FE questions to help get my brain in gear. Here are a couple of playlists / YouTubers I watched.
Engineering Education - Playlist - Great Coverage of Circuit Theory and some advance ELE / CPE topics.
Raiya Academy - Great Coverage all around.
enGENIEer - Engineering Economics - Even Though she mostly covers Civil Engineering topic, her Engineering Economics lectures were a great help.
Khanacademy - Best website for math, if you’re having any issues with math you’re bound to find a helpful video here and even practice problems.
If you have any friends or collages who are still in school/recently got out of school, it may be a good idea to see if they can help you out with a question or two if you’re the type that needs something more personalized. With the Engineering Economics section, I never learned it in school and it frankly just didn’t click for me when I was self-studying. Luckily my good friend, Keven Brito studied Business Administration in undergrad and knew all Engineering Economics from one of his classes and was able to walk me through.
As I said before I spent around 2 weeks going through the Lindeburg textbook. During the last week, I went back to questions/topics I had issues with and went to find similar problems online or through Lindeburg’s practice problems to find more examples. Once I felt okay with my weakness, I did practice exams. I did two, one was the official FE practice exam and the other was a practice exam that I was luckily enough to get from Dr. Yasanayake P.E. who runs courses for both FE and PE topics. For the most part, I did okay with both of them and was ready to take the exam.
There are 5 or 10 questions (I forgot the exact number) that are “experimental” questions. These questions may seem way out of left field, won’t make much sense, and probably will take you a while to work out. From my understanding, these questions won’t count against you, so save them for last. I found this out after I took the exam, so I felt better to hear that there were purposefully questionable questions but annoyed that I spent so much time staring at them.
Be calm and pace yourself. After you do 5-10 questions (q), do the math of your pacing. How long did it take you to solve those questions (t)? Now based on that how long will it take you to do the exam? (t)*110/(q). If it’s less time than the time you have you’re good, if not it may be a good idea to make educated guesses for tougher questions / mark them for later. All questions are worth the same amount of points so making sure you’re maximizing the easy questions is essential.
If you’re a URI student, these are the classes I felt helped me the most with each subject. Noted I graduated from URI in 2018/2019 so these classes may not exist, had their name change, or there’s a better class to take. If you’re not a URI student there may be a similar course at your institution. After writing this I believe an Electrical Engineer grad from URI would have a much easier time with this exam compared to a Computer Engineer grad due to the course work being more in their favor.
Mathematics:
MTH 111 - Precalculus (Required, if you didn't do well on the Math entrance exam)
MTH 141 - Calculus I (Required)
MTH 142 - Calculus II (Required)
MTH 215 - Introduction to Linear Algebra (Optional, used for Math minor)
MTH 243 - Calculus for Functions of Several Variables (Calculus III) (Required)
MTH 362 - Advanced Engineering Mathematics (Required)
MTH 447 - Discrete Mathematical Structures (Required for CPE)
Probability and Statistics:
MTH 451 - Introduction to Probability and Statistics (Optional, there's a easier option)
Ethics and Professional Practice:
N/A
Engineering Economics:
N/A
Properties of Electrical Materials:
ELE 331 - Introduction to Solid State Devices (Required for ELE)
Circuit Analysis (DC and AC Steady State):
ELE 212 - Linear Circuit Theory (Required)
Linear Systems:
ELE 313 - Linear Systems (Required)
ELE 314 - Linear Systems and Signals (Required for ELE)
Signal Processing:
ELE 313 - Linear Systems (Required)
ELE 314 - Linear Systems and Signals (Required for ELE)
Electronics:
ELE 338 - Electronics I (Required)
ELE 425 - Renewable Electrical Power (Optional, Professional Elective)
Power Systems:
ELE 425 - Renewable Electrical Power (Optional, Professional Elective)
Electromagnetics:
ELE 322 - Electromagnetic Fields I (Required for ELE)
Control Systems:
ELE 458 - Digital Control Systems (Optional, Professional Elective)
Communications:
ELE 435 - Communication Systems (Optional, Professional Elective, I didn't take this class but I assume this would be the right class to take for this topic)
Computer Networks:
ELE 437 - Computer Communications (Required for CPE)
Digital Systems:
ELE 201 - Digital Circuit Design (Required)
ELE 301 - Electronic Design Automation (Required)
Computer Systems:
ELE 301 - Electronic Design Automation (Required)
ELE 305 - Introduction to Computer Architecture (Required for CPE)
Software Engineering:
CS 212 - Data Structures and Abstractions (Required for CPE)
Comments
Join the discussion for this article on this ticket. Comments appear on this page instantly.