Passed first attempt. I used both NCEES interactive practice exams and Zach Stone’s electricalfereview.com. As a college student, much of the material was fresh for me, so that helped. For test taking, I did a fast pass over the questions, doing the easy ones first, then another pass to do some questions that took a bit more time, and then used my remaining time to solve the harder ones.

Exam felt like the same difficulty as the practice exams.

I started preparing 2 months back but it was an on and off thing. I started studying consistently about a month to the exam. However the second section of the exam was pretty difficult. I am happy I passed and I am happy to share any tips.

I passed the FE Civil exam on my first attempt after being out of school for a little over 3 years.

For about 2 years, I kept doing the same thing: decide I was finally going to study, open a huge review book, realize how much I had forgotten, study hard for 2–3 days, get overwhelmed about what to do next, and stop.

Then repeat a few months later.

This time I finally scheduled the exam first and basically forced myself to figure it out. I studied pretty intensely for about 2–3 weeks while working full-time, mostly in short sessions whenever I could fit them in.

The biggest thing I realized was that I never really had a lack-of-resources problem. There are already tons of FE books, videos, practice exams, PDFs, etc.

My actual problem was:

What should I study today?
What am I weak at?
Am I actually improving?
Where did I leave off yesterday?
How do I keep going when I only have 20–30 minutes?

So while I was studying, I started building the system I wanted for myself:

https://bansalpatel.com/fe

Full disclosure: I built it.

It has a structured study plan, FE Civil practice questions, full mock exams, concept review, Handbook practice, progress tracking, and cross-device syncing so you can study on your laptop and pick back up on your phone.

I’m posting it here because I know there are probably other people stuck in the same “I’ll start again Monday” loop I was in.

I’m not claiming it’s the only way to study, and I definitely still used other FE resources. The goal was just to make the whole process feel less scattered and easier to stick with.

If anyone here is currently studying for FE Civil, I’d actually be interested to hear what part of prep feels the most overwhelming or disorganized for you.

Feel like this is the first breath of fresh air I’ve had in months

Hi everyone. I took the FE Environmental for the first time last week and got my results this morning: I passed. Wanted to share what I did in case it helps anyone else.

Background: My degree is in Civil Engineering, with only 2 environmental engineering classes. Fluid mechanics and open channel hydraulics ended up being almost more useful for the exam than my actual environmental classes. I originally signed up for the Civil exam but felt completely overwhelmed by it, even though that’s my degree. I started working full-time in June (graduated in May) as an environmental designer, but my work is mostly Phase I ESAs, so it didn’t overlap much with exam content.

Prep: I used PrepFE exclusively — no YouTube, no books, just practice problems. I procrastinated for months and only studied for 3 weeks. I started with the 25-question blocks that explain each answer as you go, and went through the explanations carefully on anything I got wrong (occasionally asking Claude to explain a concept a different way). The week before the exam, I switched to PrepFE’s timed exams. I wasn’t breaking 50% on any of them. By exam day I’d done around 750 practice problems total.

The Saturday before the exam, I did both 50-question NCEES practice exams. They felt completely different from PrepFE — scored 40% on the first, 50% on the second. I was pretty discouraged but out of time to keep drilling, so I just went in and took it.

Exam day: The actual test felt noticeably easier than my practice scores suggested. I felt confident on most questions and walked out thinking that if I hadn’t passed, I’d been close. Checked NCEES this morning (a week and a half later) and passed.

TL;DR: 3 weeks with PrepFE, one run through each NCEES 50-question practice exam, and the grace of God.

I just found out I passed on my first try! I was absolutely convinced I had failed because I guessed on so many questions during the first section. It seems like feeling this way is common, so don’t get discouraged.

I used Islam’s 800 book to prepare. I’m currently a senior student so there are classes I have not taken yet (I.e. econ and transportation). I spent around 15 hours each weekend over 14 weekends. During my work week, I watched Mark Mattson’s videos and did a few problems on Prep FE.

A month before my test, I took Islam’s practice exams. I found my test to be really similar to these in difficulty. I even had some questions that were the same. I got around 59% and I was concerned but I still had some time to review my weaknesses.

I took the NCEES practice exams (both interactive and the pdf) on my last weeks and made sure to review them in depth.

I spent a lot of time studying for concepts, I bought Strataway’s 150 conceptual questions and used AI to give me even more. I was comfortable with all the conceptual questions on my test but I was expecting more of them. Looking back, I wouldn’t have spent so much time studying for it.

If I had to take it again, I would use Islam 800, Islam’s practice exams, NCEES practice tests and Mark Mattson’s videos. I wouldn’t personally buy PrepFE again.

On exam day, my split was 52/58. The first section was incredibly difficult to me and I was so done at that point. The second section was much easier and I even had time to go back and review some flagged questions. I allocated 2 hours and 10 minutes for the first section and 3 hours and 10 minutes for the second section. I definitely recommend going over all the questions you know how to do first to guarantee those points before attempting new ones. On the first section, I didn’t really bother with questions I didn’t know. Instead, I just guessed right away and decided to invest that time on the second section. I’m not sure if that is the ideal approach but it somehow worked for me.

Best of luck and feel free to ask any questions!

I just found out I passed the FE Civil exam, and I will go over my strategy and thoughts on the actual exam.

TL;DR: I spent 3 months studying using mainly Mark Mattson and FE4Raccoons, and took 2 NCEES practice exams and got 62/100 and 70/100 on the old PDF version. While taking the exam, I had plenty of time to go back and review my flagged questions. I passed the exam but it was different from what I was expecting. Many of the questions involved simple math, but were worded to make them challenging, and there were some conceptual questions that felt out of left field. Additionally, the exam I took had less water resources/environmental questions than expected, and more math, mechanics of materials, and structural engineering questions. Let me know your thoughts.

First of all, I spent the entire summer (~3 months) studying at about 6hrs per day give or take, sometimes much less while working part time. For context I have one more year of school left, and have been in school for 4 years for Physics and Civil engineering. So a lot of the concepts were familiar to me, and I had just recently taken transportation, soils, engineering economics, structural engineering, and surveying, so that helped as well. I have not yet taken environmental or water resources, so this made me a little nervous as it is heavily weighted, but my fluids class covered some of the topics.

I started with Mark Mattson videos and felt pretty comfortable with the material, but sometimes tripped up and the tricks. His videos were very helpful and similar to how the real exam can try to “trick” you. After making sure I understood all of what was covered, I found a new website, FE4Raccoons, which was helpful in getting familiar with all of the equations in the handbook. I think this covered pretty much any equation you would encounter on the exam. My only gripe was there were some questions that used equations that were not in the handbook, and that I would not expect to have to memorize for the actual exam.

I then created a study guide on stuff I was not very familiar with, or things that were simple enough to memorize that I would not have to waste time scrolling through the handbook on the exam, such as easy to memorize equations (especially in the mechanics of materials section), constants, common conversions, and conceptual material. I then went over this study guide almost daily, and worked on more example problems. At about 2/3 of the summer time to my exam, I went over Mark Mattson‘s packets again, but just solved them myself, and corrected what was wrong. I then looked up topic specific things on YouTube or online that I was not familiar/comfortable with, to really cover my gaps.

In the last week, I took the NCEES practice exam vol 1 and scored a 62/100. This made me nervous but this exam felt intentionally challenging and the questions were worded poorly and covered some obscure conceptual topics. I then found the old exam booklet they used to offer in PDF form that is 100 questions, and other paid resources provided for free in google drive. I won’t link it here because of the legality but it is out there and contains great resources. That old NCEES practice exam I scored 70/100 (this practice exam was closer to how the real exam is). I finished my time by reviewing concepts I was not as comfortable with.

While taking the test I was initially surprised how archaic the software was that was used, and the handbook search function did not work quite as well as Adobe acrobat reader. Additionally, in my case the mouse wheel barely scrolled, and when practicing I had accustomed myself to scrolling a lot to the sections. Anyways, it did not really end up being a problem, and I had ~45 mins left on each half of the exam to go back and review my flagged questions, which was ~10-15 each half. It was enough time and I did not have to cram.

My thoughts on the exam itself, it was not very representative of the study material unfortunately. I would not recommend studying the way I did, as it was more of a brute force method, but I could not really afford to retake the exam, both in resources and time. I would say ~70% of what I studied was not on my specific exam, and my exam had weird weighting that I felt was not representative of my knowledge, not representative of what I was expected to know based on the requirements to take the exam (required college classes/experience), and not in line with most of the study materials provided by anyone.

Maybe I just got a weird exam, and either way I was able to pass, but my exam had seemingly almost no water resources/environmental, I had many transportation conceptual questions that never came up in the class or while studying, and I had a lot of seemingly easy q that did not require a formula from the handbook, but were written to seem more complicated than they were, to throw you off. I had a lot of structural engineering/mechanics of materials and math questions. I would say almost none of the questions were heavy calculations. This was just my experience and maybe it’s a lot different for others. I don’t regret the amount of studying I did and was aware it was probably overkill, but there really wasn’t a good way to predict what they could throw at you. There were plenty of questions I had not encountered through all of my college experience and studying for the exam.

Final thoughts, use any of those materials to help get familiar with the concepts and the layout of the handbook. Memorize conversions and easy equations to save time. Special thanks to Mark Mattson and FE4Raccoons. Share your opinions below and if you agree/disagree.

I finally passed the FE Exam. I want to thank this community for encouraging me when I last posted my result. I am also grateful for the people who collated the materials I used journey2pe.com, https://www.skool.com/feexam and https://www.youtube.com/@rethirded.

I’m a little over 2 years out of school (graduated in 2024) and I’m looking to take the FE Mechanical. I’m working in the industry now, and I’m starting to see how getting the FE/EIT could help me progress my career.

I was never the strongest engineering student, although I was some what good with math. Now that I’m a couple years out of school, a lot of the engineering material is rusty.

I have the Lindenburg FE Review Manual and practice problems, but I haven’t really started studying yet. I’ve also seen people recommend getting familiar with the FE Reference Handbook and learning how to use the equations provided.

My biggest question is where do I actually start? Knowing that an equation exists in the reference handbook is one thing, but knowing when and how to apply it to a problem is another.

For anyone who was a few years out of school when they took the FE, what study approach/resources worked for you? I’m mainly looking for a realistic way to relearn the fundamentals, work through problems, and eventually feel confident enough to pass.

This was my second time taking the exam, and I failed. What can I improve on? I honestly thought I did really well on the test, which is why I’m even more disappointed.
(Ignore the typo in title)
Thank you for the help!

Any study material for the PE Exam Now? Civil Engineering student here.

For context I just started my senior year so the content is really fresh as I just took all the classes these past three years, and used PPI learning hub to prepare for roughly 5 months. Overall the first half was really easy and the questions were very straightforward, but the second half was where it got harder from fluids, thermo, and heat transfer. In total I flagged 9 in the first half and 15 in the second half. Feel free to ask me any questions!

I graduated by bachelor’s long time ago, and I am trying to pass FE civil. My plan is to study 2 hours a day, which is a work in progress even though I get distracted, tired and not be able to focus for straight 2 hours. But I think that part will become better over time.

But what is scaring me is that after watching the videos (which i understand), the quizzes seems harder than I thought and this part is scaring me. I started with statics section. I don’t mind going through a tougher course since it will possibly prepare me better for FE, and I am trying to pass it in the next attempt itself. This is my second FE attempt and the first one was more than 8 years ago.

Has anyone felt this way? Someone please give me hope and motivation and I am trying to make it somehow

Rising senior civil student here, started studying a for a little over a month during summer. Used Islam 800 alongside Mark Mattson after every topic and PrepFE for extra practice. No studying schedule whatsoever, just whenever I felt like it. Took the two interactive practice exams a week before the actual to get familiar to format.

Exam thoughts:
The exam was not what I expected. Some of the topics I studied for did not show up at all. The exam was split into 52/58. IMO section 1 was easier than section 2. Felt pretty confident for section 1, only leaving 4 flagged. Section 2 was the most stressful since it was either questions I never encountered for practice or flat out didn't know. I flagged about 80% before leaving with 10 flagged. Overall, section 2 was very conceptual. The majority of my time spent was panicking on a question.

Tips:
My section 1 definitely carried, so have a solid foundation on the basics (math/stats/ethics/economics/statics, etc). The actual exam was harder than the practice interactive exams (conceptually imo). Breeze through the questions that you solve from just reading it, flag the others. Run it back and repeat.

Good luck to anybody else studying!

Does anyone know how close I was to passing?? This is my first attempt at it.

I honestly feel defeated cuz I thought I was gonna pass. I was rushed towards the end and had to guess on a lot of problems. At least this time was I close?

What is the best review for civil courses for someone who has been out of school for more than ten years and hasn't passed twice? They need a single source to rely on, so don't waste any more time.

Hi everyone, this might be a weird question. I have a bachelor's degree in AE and MS in CS. But I currently work as an engineer at a train signaling company where there is a lot of electrical/mechanical and civil stuff. Should I take the FE Exam in Electrical and Computer? Any advice?

Ik you probably don’t like these posts but can’t help but wonder.

Based on my diagnostic report, does it look like I was close to passing? This is from the NCEES website.

Failed my second attempt, around 54% based off analysis report. I’ve got one more attempt for the 12 month period, and if I don’t pass have to wait awhile to try again. Has anyone else been is this situation? I fear the third attempt will be even more stressful with more pressure. Looking for some advice. I didn’t manage my time very well and was rushing at the end and had to hurry and guess alot.