Is it really worth spending a lot of time preparing for, or could a good standing engineering student wing it?

5/20/2008 9:25:24 PM

the best prep is knowing the equation book

5/20/2008 9:28:04 PM

Depends what type of engineering student you are, mechanical, chem, textile?

These should help
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5/20/2008 10:32:20 PM

i passed it my first try out...

5/20/2008 10:33:01 PM

study the equation book, get a copy of a test prep book and do those problems

5/21/2008 7:48:19 AM

Knowing where the equations are in the equation book is the most important thing.

5/21/2008 9:11:03 AM

i didn't study, i wasted money on the books and never opened them. passed on the first try. for CE anyway, to me it really depends on your ability to recall old old old information, and also to reason your way through problems you've never seen using an equation you think might work. learning where the equations were in the equation book would have helped save some time though.


on the other hand, a couple of my friends went to the test prep class, studied a lot and they passed too. can't say if they did better than me or not since they don't give you a score if you pass, just a letter saying you passed. but for them, studying worked. i guess it depends on you and if you cheated your way to a 3.5 gpa like a lot of people, or if you earned it.

[Edited on May 21, 2008 at 9:51 AM. Reason : .]

5/21/2008 9:50:00 AM

Quote :

"i guess it depends on you and if you cheated your way to a 3.5 gpa like a lot of people, or if you earned it."

you kindof went off on a tangent there.

5/21/2008 10:04:49 AM

I didnt take any prep classes, I had one of those reference manuals made for the exam and looked over that whenever I had some free time, which was a total of about 6 hours. I passed on my first try

if you just go in there and try every single problem, it really isnt that difficult. Most of the questions that you dont know how to do have very spelled out variables that can be plugged into formulas in your equation booklet. the main people who failed (that I knew) were the ones who got fed up and just guessed half of the answers in the afternoon session

5/21/2008 11:56:39 AM

Quote :

"the best prep is knowing the equation book"

its really easy

i wouldnt worry about it

5/21/2008 12:14:04 PM

Quote :

"you kindof went off on a tangent there."

well what i meant was there are plenty of people in engineering with a 3.5+ who don't know a damn thing, but their friends carry them through. those people fail the FE and everyone is suprised. i don't know this kid, so i don't know what a "good standing engineering student" means to him.

5/21/2008 1:22:14 PM

^ 6 1/2 years in che and pse, and 3 years total work experience in the industry, plus working full time for the department in a technical postion is what i consider good standing

5/21/2008 1:38:24 PM

It's worth taking the prep course just to get in the mindset of solving multiple choice problems from the bottom up instead of trying to work out each problem. Being familiar with the equation book helps, but there isn't really a need to go overboard with studying. I did limited studying, and passed the first time (ME). Most of the people I know that had to take it twice came no where near finishing within the time limit because they didn't have the right mindset of taking a standardized test, not problem solving.

5/21/2008 6:39:20 PM

the FE is heavily geared toward Civil/Mechanical/Aerospace Engineers

i used FE Review Manual: Rapid Preparation for the General Fundamentals of Engineering Exam and it seemed to work well enough

5/21/2008 8:40:22 PM

i was textile

i passed first try...just know your math and have some good guessing skills on all the subjects you know nothing about

you only really have to get about 52% of it right



i went to that FE Exam prep class for a few weeks and stopped going...never studied much at all before the test

[Edited on May 21, 2008 at 9:05 PM. Reason : ]

5/21/2008 9:04:42 PM

it's not worth spending time studying for.

it's easy. i signed up for the class and bought the books and shit, then gave up studying after 1 minute. all the prep stuff was a complete waste, considering i never used it and passed easily (it felt easy)

5/21/2008 9:13:31 PM

I didn't think the test was as easy as everyone has said it was. I took the time to go through the review book, do all the problems, and re-learn all of the shit I did in early college.

Like Bigman said, it's geared towards Civil/Mechanical folks, so for me coming from electrical (where there's like 3 problems) it was more difficult.

5/21/2008 9:18:50 PM

i have a review book (for general as well as civil) and the supplied equation book from ~2002... if anyone is interested.. its just taking up space and i'll never use it.. come get it out of my way.

[Edited on May 23, 2008 at 3:34 PM. Reason : ..]

5/23/2008 3:34:28 PM

take it in virginia

5/23/2008 3:51:41 PM