FE Exam: Last Minute Prep for Saturday's 8-Hour Test

[Physics_wiz]

I have to take the FE exam on saturday (it's 8 hours) and unfortunately I haven't done any studying for it. I believe if I pull an all-nighter tomorrow night I'll pass, because everything on it is simple. I just need to go over everything once, but it's too much stuff. Argh...tough decision. If I don't pass I'll have to take it in October, but I believe not passing will not affect my career in any way since I'm going to grad school.

 

[franznietzsche]

Well its thursday now...so why not start now istead of tomorrow night? Or are you in one of those parts of the world where its already friday?

 

[Physics_wiz]

Well its thursday now...so why not start now istead of tomorrow night? Or are you in one of those parts of the world where its already friday?

I already started. I'll have to make that decision tomorrow night, but hmmm...I just got an idea. I could pull the all-nighter tonight and study all day tomorrow then get a good night's sleep before the test. Interesting.

 

[franznietzsche]

I already started. I'll have to make that decision tomorrow night, but hmmm...I just got an idea. I could pull the all-nighter tonight and study all day tomorrow then get a good night's sleep before the test. Interesting.

Yeah that's what i would do.

 

[Physics_wiz]

Yeah that's what i would do.

Hmm then again, I don't know if I'll be able to study at all tomorrow if I spend the next 6 hours studying instead of sleeping. If I do that then all my studying for this test will be while I'm craving sleep. Hmm...study while sleep deprived and take the test while feeling good or study while feeling good and take the test sleep deprived?

 

[gravenewworld]

I did all nighters all the time, and they did work for me. one year I had 7 final exams in 3 straight days and I ended up not sleeping for 64 hours. I passed all the exams with flying colors. There is no way I could do that now, I'm just too old.

 

[Physics_wiz]

I did all nighters all the time, and they did work for me. one year I had 7 final exams in 3 straight days and I ended up not sleeping for 64 hours. I passed all the exams with flying colors. There is no way I could do that now, I'm just too old.

24 is old? I'm not much younger..20

 

[denverdoc]

Great thread, when I went to college, i rarely went to class, read the material the nite or two beforethe exams, had a lot of fun, but can't remember much. Where did I go wrong?

 

[Moonbear]

I don't think an all-nighter before an 8 hour exam is a good idea. I don't usually think an all-nighter is a good idea before a 1 hr exam. If you're tired, you're more likely to make mistakes even on the sections you do know, and an 8 hr exam is already enough to make one tired by the end, let alone if you start out the day exhausted from lack of sleep.

Spend as much time studying as much as you can all day, and then just accept that you're not going to absorb any more when you're dead tired and get a good night's sleep. If you're awake going in, you're less likely to make mistakes on what you did have time to study, and there's also a chance you'll be mentally alert enough to reason through the stuff you didn't have time to study and get some points on that anyway.

Good luck.

 

[Cyrus]

You're not going to pass an FE the night before, or it will be hard.

 

[cristo]

What's an FE? An 8 hour exam sounds awful!

 

[Cyrus]

Its the first exam you take to get a Professional Engineering Licence.

 

[Bladibla]

I don't think it is highly likely and certainly not dependable to work all nighter a day before a exam and get a respectable result.

I like to think that studying is a slow and tedius process, but ultimately rewarding.

 

[Physics_wiz]

I just got my results...I PASSED!

It's too bad they don't say how well I actually did, they just say I passed. I ended up not pulling any all nighters. I'm happy . Now that I passed, I have to get 4 years of approved experience then take another huge test (a harder one) and if I pass I'll be a "Professional Engineer" .

 

[Moonbear]

Congrats!

 

[Physics_wiz]

Congrats!

Thank you.

 

[Cyrus]

What was the material on that exam? I know they ask stuff from ME courses. Was there any out of major stuff, like Chemistry, or Biology, or Math?

I don't remember any Chemistry. I know most math, but some small things I don't remember.

 

[Physics_wiz]

What was the material on that exam? I know they ask stuff from ME courses. Was there any out of major stuff, like Chemistry, or Biology, or Math?

I don't remember any Chemistry. I know most math, but some small things I don't remember.

After I took the exam I got out thinking that it asked about every single area I could have thought about...it has an incredible number of questions (relative to any exam I took before anyways).

There was a lot of math and some probability. I think that's what helped me because I probably got at least 95% of those right. There was some chemistry, some environmental engineering (which I had no idea how to do), and a some engineering economics (learn how to use the tables to do this because it's really easy, and if you don't know how to do it then you probably won't figure it out during the exam...I didn't). There was some biology, but when it came to that area I was so confused, I didn't even know if the questions were biology or environmental engineering so I didn't know which reference section to look at it, but it wasn't much at all. They also have an Ethics section...those questions can actually be hard. There was some chemistry but not a huge amount and most of it was simple stuff. Assuming you know everything in ME well enough (including the math since most of it was math, and excel), the biggest "out of major" thing to study is probably engineering economics. Learn how to use the tables, because I believe they're easy to use and iirc there was more engineering econ than any other off-topic subject.

BTW, I took the general exam in the afternoon.
Here's a link:
http://www.ncees.org/exams/fundamentals/fe_exam_specs.pdf

EDIT: The link tells you all the subjects and what % of the exam each subject is. So, everything I said above can probably be ignored if you look at the link . Don't forget to learn how to use the engineering economics tables.

 

[Maxwell]

I just got my results...I PASSED!

It's too bad they don't say how well I actually did, they just say I passed. I ended up not pulling any all nighters. I'm happy . Now that I passed, I have to get 4 years of approved experience then take another huge test (a harder one) and if I pass I'll be a "Professional Engineer" .

You got your exam results already?? I took the FE in April as well, and they told me it would take like four months to get my results!

 

[Physics_wiz]

You got your exam results already?? I took the FE in April as well, and they told me it would take like four months to get my results!

Every state is slightly different. I live in West Virginia. They tell everyone it's going to take 12 weeks, but I'm pretty sure you will get your results within the next few days or maybe next week. The reason states are different is because NCEES (the guys who grade the test) send the scores out to every state (at the same time I believe). The states then have to record the results then send them to us, which is why every state is different. Good luck. Did you just graduate too? What are you doing after you pass?