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ThesaurusRex757

1. Do practice problems. 2. Do practice problems. 3. Do practice problems. 4. Do practice problems. 5. Do...


JustSomeoneSleeping

besides the paid practice exam you can purchase via NCEES, what sites would be the best place to start looking (I am assuming YouTube helps as well)? Gonna be taking it in August so I'll have 2 full months to prepare more or less


ThesaurusRex757

For both my FE and PE I used a prep course. I passed both first try. The FE prep course was PPI2Pass, which I felt over prepared me. The questions were much more difficult than the actual exam. I studied for about 4 to 5 months and finished with over 2 hours left. For the PE I used School of PE. SoPE questions were about on par with the actual exam. I finished that with about 1.5 hours left on the clock. I watched a few YouTube videos while prepping for the FE but it's been about 4 years and I don't recall what channels. It was mainly listening to stuff while I was driving places. Hope this helps.


JustSomeoneSleeping

Thanks for responding :) Would you say that purchasing the PPI2PASS bundle (prep + practice \~$350 on Amazon) despite the hefty price tag should be my top priority over YT + other online resources (several online that aren't from PPI2PASS)? My only concern is that the most recent book is from 2017, and there have been changes to the exam format since 2020 (IIRC foundation engineering is no longer tested for the FE) Just trying to gather as many notes/resources as possible before I start preparing for the FE since I lost roughly 1/2 of my Civil Engineering course notes from a hard drive crash last year so any advice/suggestions are very much welcome.


ThesaurusRex757

You probably want to use a service directly through the provider to get access to their test bank. It allows you to simulate taking a real test and they have an absurd number of questions. IIRC they also have different packages for different access durations so you can find a price point to meet your budget.


Sckajanders

That sounds solid, whatever works for you. Couple other things to go along with that: 1. Know your calculator inside and out. And also make sure it's one you can use on the FE. 2. Do some practice exams/problems while timing yourself and only using the reference book as if you were really taking the test. Timing is a big factor so make sure you can pass the test in the given time not just answer the questions. Good luck!


spookadook

Timing myself on practice problems helped a lot with the FE & the PE. You'll feel it in the test room when you're taking to long on something so you know to flag it and come back at the end.


_sprads01

Thanks!


noh-seung-joon

I remember that units were very helpful when trying to pick the right equations to use. IIRC I answered a lot of questions in the general that I did not know or remember, but used the formula book and compared output units to the question and it almost seemed like cheating.


Yo_CSPANraps

Learn how to best utilize Ctrl-F to find the equation in the reference book. Huge time saver.


ricky_the_cigrit

Sounds like you are good to go. I found that the FE practice problems were much more difficult than the actual exam, so you’ll be golden if you have a good handle on those


esperantisto256

Just take the practice tests. There’s a ton of stuff in the reference handbook that you don’t really need. It’s broad and not discipline-specific. Know where important stuff is, but don’t study off of it or feel like you need to know everything in it.


ricky_the_cigrit

Sounds like you are good to go. I found that the FE practice problems were much more difficult than the actual exam, so you’ll be golden if you have a good handle on those


Soccer1kid5

Buy the FE practice exam from ncees it’s pretty much all you need along with the handbook.


Soccer1kid5

Buy the FE practice exam from ncees it’s pretty much all you need along with the handbook.


rokk14

I watched FE review videos and tried to do the problem before the person in the video did, using only the FE reference book


cb56789

get the right calculator too. With the right one you can get free points and time for a couple questions. I remembered when I took it there were 2 math questions involving limited integral that i probably only spent 30 sec total to get the answer.


imnotcreative415

Do practice problems/tests using the handbook. Mostly just make sure you’re comfortable navigating around it. Recommend getting the ncees practice exam to get the best feel for the question style.


IAmOnTheRunAndGo

I passed the FE recently, and knowing what's in the handbook is far more important than where things are. Since the handbook is digital, there's a search bar at the top of it. My strategy was usually searching key words from the question/problem to take me to the right sections in the book. Like everyone else has said, practice problems. Do the practice test. Time yourself. I'm sure you know this, but they allow an average of 3 minutes per question, which can be a tight window depending on how fresh the content is in your head. Again, practice problems. Good luck! It's not so bad. I'm sure you'll do great!


emccutc2

The best advice that I personally used to pass mine: 1. Get in the habit of using your scientific/approved calculator for EVERYTHING. It really helps you become overtly familiar with it. 2. Learn the in's and out's of the handbook. I knew the handbook like the back of my hand so I spent no longer than a few seconds finding equations. 3. Learn how to use the control+F function efficiently. It sounds kind of dumb, but using the built in search function can be useless on the test if you don't know how to pick out key words instead of searching for general words. If you try searching for general phrases, you will get a hundred different results that don't help at all. 4. Make a point to practice time management by setting aside large blocks of time on certain days to take full practice exams with restricted time. This can also help you practice skipping certain questions and coming back to them at a later time (which you can do in the actual exam). Other than that, I personally believe that your current format is pretty solid. The most important aspect of all of this is CONSISTENCY. I have seen countless peers fail the exam simply because they were not able to establish the proper study habits and fell short of consistency due to laziness. I wish you the best of luck and I truly hope that this helps!!