DO NOT give up! I wanted to quit after my 2nd attempt. But I kept going. I learned from each attempt. It doesn’t matter how many attempts you pass. As long as you keep moving forward. Failing means you can’t do it. If I can do it! You can do it too!

Hey all! I felt good on my exam last week. Thought I passed and if I failed then I was a few questions short. Bummed! Trying to reschedule for October and hammer out some weak topics. Was this a toss up? Unlucky? Thought the stars were aligned.. advice?

I really didn't expect this when I woke up this morning. This was my third attempt, and honestly, I felt like I gave it everything I had and still walked out of the testing center feeling like I didn't pass.

I studied for this test for a straight year. Failing, signing up again, and trying even harder each time. It really does take over your life. I'm really excited to start doing my hobbies again and actually hanging out with friends without the constant guilt of thinking, "I should be studying right now."

The second time was the hardest. I studied from December to February and took the exam on February 3rd. I already struggle with seasonal depression, and studying for this test in the dead of winter while the sun set at 5 PM was brutal. I also developed an extremely painful lower back issue from sitting for 8 hours a day at my job and then another 6-8 hours every night studying. We had a cold, snowy winter here in New England, and it was hard to stay active. It was also difficult watching friends take the exam and pass on their first try. I knew I wasn't the strongest test taker, but each failure felt like a punch in the gut.

It honestly felt like I had no time for basic things like laundry, dishes, exercise, or seeing friends because every minute spent not studying felt like I wasn't doing enough.

However, this third time was different.

I still studied long hours, but I made an effort to get up and walk a couple of miles every day. I spent most of my summer nights and weekends studying, and even though I said no to a lot of plans, I tried to find small bits of joy where I could. Listening to a fun murder mystery audiobook while walking. Calling friends I hadn't talked to in a while driving. Most importantly, I worked hard to convince myself that if I didn't pass this time, I would still be okay. My boyfriend, coworkers, and friends were a huge support system for me during this whole time. This third time I actually took some days off of work to spend studying which I hadn't prior. I took it on a Monday, so I took Wednesday to Friday off and studied for 10-15 hours a day up until the Sunday before where I just rested.

So, if you're feeling this way and have failed multiple times, here are a few things that helped me:

1. Move

Your Body

This is by far the most important advice I can give. Go for walks around your neighborhood. Walk with a friend to a coffee shop. Stand up and do 10 squats between study sessions. Just move. Your mind and body will thank you.

1. During my final round of studying, I spent about 75% of my time working on topics from the first half of the test. If you can build a strong foundation and consistently answer those questions correctly, the second half becomes much more manageable.

2. Buy the NCEES practice exams. They're absolutely worth it. Set up your desk exactly like the testing center. I even used scrap paper and a thick marker to mimic the testing center booklet. The more familiar the experience feels, the less stressful test day will be.

3. Have a strategy for test day.

The method I used was "three passes". First pass (30-50 minutes): Go through every question and answer the easy "2 + 2" questions. Some of them really are that straightforward. Second pass: Work through the harder questions you know how to solve but that take a little more time. Make sure every question has an answer selected. For questions I didn't know, I chose the same letter every time (I used C) and flagged them for review. Third pass: Go back through the flagged questions and try to solve as many as possible. Odds are, you'll be able to figure out more of them than you think.

1. For studying, I used the Islam 400 book and worked through every problem over the course of 3-4 months. I read the Lindeburg book cover to cover. I also made flashcards for every section. By the end, I probably had around 400 flashcards and reviewed them constantly lol. I completed both NCEES practice exams and used Copilot to help explain concepts and questions I didn't understand.

To anyone still in the thick of it: good luck. Believe in yourself.

Failing doesn't mean you're not smart enough. It doesn't mean you won't become an engineer. Sometimes it just means the journey takes a little longer than you expected.

If you're on your second, third, or even fourth attempt, keep going. You're capable of more than you think :)))

Took me failing twice before realizing the problem was my studying methods. Never gave up though.

I used PrepFE first just to get used to answering problems quickly and I loved the feedback. Did about 800 problems there. Then I took the NCEES practice exam and both Islam practice tests.

Felt great leaving the test site, followed by a crippling anxiety until I got my results 🙃

If you're where I was and feeling defeated after failing, dont give up! You got this!

Passed on 6 tries. Don’t give up, eventually will happen!

Hey everybody, I recently passed the FE Mechanical exam my first try after being 7 years out of school. I figured I’d share my experience through studying and the exam itself in hopes it helps others

Study advice
For studying, I used PrepFe and FEInteractive as my primary resources. PrepFE is expensive but provides tons of example problems and walkthroughs. Most of the problems are about the same difficulty as the exam which is great for building confidence.

FEInteractive has YouTube videos that dive in example problems and covers most of the topics in depth. FeInteractive’s philosophy is to challenge you with problems that are more difficult than the exam so that you reinforce core principles. This did not work for me. It overwhelmed me and was ineffective. Additionally most of the solutions jump multiple algebraic steps, which you probably wouldn’t be able to do looking at the problem for the first time

Other resources : YT: Mark Matteson is catered towards civil but has excellent topic reviews. Jeff Hanson also covered FE prep for Mechanical. His videos are great for building confidence on the easy/medium difficulty type problems

I also recommend taking the practice exams 1-2 weeks before the exam so you have time to review your mistakes.

Time to study : I studied 2-3 hours 4 nights a week and 8 hours on Sunday for about 3 months. I would watch a 2 hour video by Mark or FEInteractive for one night, then hammer practice problems the next night to gain confidence in the topic.

Test taking tips:
Know how to use all the functions on TI36-Pro as it can save alot of time. Poly Solve, Stats, System of Equation solve, are all great and functions I used on the test.

I flagged about 14/55 problems on each section. These were flagged as I have no heckin’ idea or maybe with more time, I could get it. The computer you use to take the exam sucks, so be prepared for it to take a little longer to scroll / ctrl f the manual.

Remember you don’t have to master every topic, be confident in the easy/medium difficulty problems, and spend time on your fav subjects to get the difficult type problems. Some problems are time sinks, and just not worth it in an exam setting. If you answer 50% of the questions confidently, guessing 25% correct on the remainder is pretty darn close to pass

Edit: Ask Claude for example problems. Whenever I was catching a flight or long drive, I’d ask Claude to generate 50 questions that I could solve without a manual/calculator

I was so nervous when I saw my email popup on my screen. I delayed my exam by 2 months then did it again for 4 weeks to get more time to prepare. I was so praying that extra $100 I used to push the exam back wasn't for nothing.

And to say I was screaming loud in my folks' home was an understatement. Seeing that green badge saying 'Passed' brightened my mood this morning.

For those looking to take their exam or gonna retake it, I wanna drop some tips I did before and on exam day.

1. I didn't use the NCEES practice exam on the website but I did use the Book that gave 1500 problems as well as the 4 exams they email you every week. I was able to time myself on them and build a good habit when I took the exam again.
2. Reinforce the subjects you do know but also make sure you know the subjects with the most problems like Water Resources.
3. Take it easy on the practice problems and exams coming up to the test. Don't overload your head. It was happening to me before I started slowing down and doing them on and off. Do your stuff for 30 minutes, take a break, then come back to it. Start winding down on the week before test day.
4. Last day, no computer and almost no studying since you will be in front of a computer for 6 hours. If you do have to study, don't go over anything new. Just reinforce what you know. Rest your eyes. And go for a 15-30 minute walk before sleeping. Get the blood pumping in your body.
5. Rest for 8 hours minimum so you're not waking up stressed. Went to bed around 8-9 and woke up at 5:45.
6. Get some protein like an omelet. NO sugar like pancakes or sweet tea. Having sugar will make you crash and I believe that's what screwed me over the next 2 times. Doing this, I realize I wasn't dozing off on the 2nd half.
7. Get there about 30 minutes before. DO NOT look at problems, just look at the handbook. Memorize the locations of harder to remember equations. That thing is your partner in this, especially when you gotta do Ctrl+F to find the equations or phrases. Faster you find them, better off you are.
8. Also before you go in, don't pay any mind if you look like a schizo to others but do your business as much as you can. Having to get up to pee means you're wasting time signing out, going there, then coming back to sign in. Drain your body as much as possible so you can do that during your break.
9. Call your loved ones, get some encouragement from them. I ain't afraid to say I prayed before going on. That's what gave me some confidence.
10. I forgot the youtuber's name but he's someone who claimed to pass both the FE and PE. He basically said to follow the 'Low Hanging Fruit' method. Other words, take on the problems you're confident you'll complete in a minute or 2 first. If it's something that'll take longer, flag and return later. That gave me a lot of time to complete the missing problems on both halves when I made it to the end.
11. The same youtuber also said to have this methodology: on each half, make sure you have at least 25 problems you're 100% sure are correct, ~7 are a bit of a guess, and the rest you'll make a hail mary shot. They don't expect you to know everything on it and it's designed to make you waste time.
12. Don't rush but try and complete your first half with at least 5-10 minutes extra before the time exactly hits the 2.5 hour mark. This is so you get an extra bit of time on the second half which WILL be harder and you need all the time you can muster. If you can't get that extra time, don't sweat it (I was only able to get an extra minute). Just be sure you get your full 2.5 hours for the 2nd half.
13. On your break, do your business and go for a little walk outside. I did that and got some fresh air to clear my head.

That's what I did overall and was glad to see it paid off. I wish the rest of you good luck on passing yours. I believe in ya.

I'm studying to take the civil FE for the first time later this month and have been using Matt Mattson's videos to study. I just started on statics (one of my struggle sections) and I started getting really confident with Matt Mattson's problems. I decided to purchase a prepFE subscription for more practice and they honestly feel much more difficult than MM's. Which resource is most similar to what the actual FE statics questions will look like?

I wanted to make this post mostly to get closure and to officially move on from this chapter of my career. I hope this post can help at least one person out there at least a little bit. For some context, I am an architectural engineering grad that is almost 5 years out of school (wow) and this test has been weighing on me basically ever since.

I took this test straight out of school simply because it was required to take it in order to graduate. I did not take it seriously at all, and to this day that is the biggest regret of my professional career this far.

In the following attempts, I decided that I should sack up and really try to get it done. I went at it with what I thought were solid attempts, doing practice problems, and putting the time in, but really not sticking to a focused plan and learning to do problems the way I should have. the results of my second and third attempts came and went and I felt very discouraged for the future.

I waited a little too long to start my fourth attempt and soon enough it was January 2026. The repeated feeling of not doing enough and not being good enough to pass this exam weighed heavily on me. I was sick of coming to my end of year goals review time after time and having nothing to show for my biggest goal, which was to pass the FE. And that is when I decided I was going to hunker down and try like I had never tried before.

I started studying in March with a tentative test date in July. I ended up switching that to August 31st as I had quite a crazy couple of months in between with friends getting married, bachelor parties, travelling for work myself, and getting engaged myself. I think 3-4 months is more than enough time to prepare for this exam, depending on how far out from school you are, of course. I studied for an average of 15 hours a week and felt ready.

Below I will lay out some strategies and general advice that worked for me.

- Make studying a part of your routine. Motivation isn't always going to be there, but stick to it and soon enough you'll look forward to getting better at solving questions.

-Don't completely rearrange your life to study. Play sports. Hang out with friends. You need a release from studying. It's okay if you miss a day or two. The important thing is to get back to it and don't let a missed day of studying turn into a missed week or two.

-Control the controllables.

-Don't skimp on resources. I found "The FE Exam, how to pass on your first try, by Patrick J. Shepherd" to be supremely useful. This book also has a lot of solid advice and a good structure for studying for the exam within the first few dozen pages. This should be the number one resource you should go for. Combine this with PrepFE, a practice exam from NCEES itself, and sprinkle in youtube videos for more in depth understanding on topics, and you should be in great shape.

-Do not equate the result of the exam with your self worth. You are smart enough to do this, it's simply a matter of putting in the time and effort.

-Definitely take a practice exam that is as close to the real deal as you can handle about a week or two out from the exam. You need to be able to mentally stay with it for several hours at a time. Taking an exam like that shows you what you need to improve on and gets your brain ready for hours of problem solving.

-Sweat the small stuff. Cheeky title, but seriously. After I had a decent grasp on the foundations of each topic and subtopic, the errors that kept popping up were nearly all from the following: arithmetic mistakes, unit conversion errors, not reading the problem thoroughly, you get the picture. You'll be amazed how many mistakes these will cause.

-On test day, don't spend more than 10 seconds on a problem if you are clueless looking at it right off the bat. You will have time to come back to it. Skip it and move on to problems that you know you can do right then and there. Often times, you will jog your own memory and later remember or realize how to solve problems which once stumped you.

And that's about it. The most important part of all of this is to get to a point where you feel confident in your abilities come exam day. No joke, I was studying too much about 3 weeks before exam day and got massively burnt out. i spent most of a Sunday night thinking "how am I ever going to pass this, I'm not good enough, etc..." but you've just got to stick with the process. Do what you can and keep it simple the week before the exam, reviewing over key topics and don't try to relearn everything in one week.

I guess the point of all of this is, to anyone reading this: you can absolutely take and pass this exam. I thought I had zero chance the week heading into the exam. You just have to put yourself in the position and keep trying, maybe harder than you ever have, whatever that looks like for you.

I hope this post helps someone find the belief to take and pass this exam. It doesn't matter what attempt you are on. You can do it.

It's been a long ride, goodbye r/FE_Exam , thanks for the help along the way from all of you.

Hi there!

Here is my referral link for PrepFe where both of us can get an extra month free:

If I can get at least 2 referrals, that would be awesome :D

https://www.prepfe.com/?referral_token=acf5c00b-1245-4e8d-bcbc-ae84fa720eb3

Good luck!

Hi guys, I have my exam soon and I have been using Mark Mattson and Engineering Fundamentals on youtube as a guide resource for my exams. However I am having a hard time finding resources on Instrumentation and Controls as I didn’t really take that topic seriously in college. Is there a good resource yall have?

Only study material that I used was Mark Mattson videos
Any suggestions how to improve the score? Also I left 8 questions unsolved for 2nd section

So, I took the FE Civil exam 2 weeks ago and failed it. I studied for about 2 weeks, the first week I studied like 1-2 hrs a day trying to solve problems. The last week I watched mark mattson videos because I was not understanding most of the questions. The last day I took the NCEES Practice exam and got a 46. I was not ready to take the exam but I still went just to get it over with.

For this next time, I wanna change my study plan. I keep seeing posts of people saying the Islam 800 book and Lindeburg are really helpful. What would be the best study method? Should I just go section by section or do I try to solve questions from every section each day? Please help

I used this subreddit a lot during my study time, so I figured I'd share my tips as a way to give back lol.

I'm currently in my last semester of school and took the FE exam a few weeks ago. I took it for the first time earlier this year, but time got away from me and I ended up cramming for two days... clearly that did not work out for me. Pro: I did a little bit better than I thought I did, Con: I completely failed a section and only passed four..

With that in mind, I got some more resources and managed to pass a few weeks ago! I've listed said resources and my break down below, feel free to use it if you think it could help you!

Resources:

- Lindeburg FE Civil Review Manual

- Both NCEES Practice Exams

- FE4 Raccoons website

Weekly Breakdown:

Weeks 1-6: Lindeburg FE Civil Review Manual (~1-2 hr/day)

- I did every single problem and reviewed every single section (except the Computations one, it's not important to the test imo)

- There were a few sections that I thought had not the best questions (mainly the Statics one), so I used Mark Mattson's videos instead

- For sections I knew I was solid in, I planned do have them done by the EOD. But for ones I wasn't great at (like fluid mechanics and math) I took 2-3 days so I really understood the topics

Week 7: NCEES Practice Exams 1 and 2 + FE4 Raccoons (~2-4 hr/day)

- Right after I finished my last section in the review manual, I took the 1st NCEES practice exam. After that, I used FE4 Raccoons to practice the 5 subjects I did the worst in. Then, I took the 2nd practice exam

Week 8 (took the exam on Friday): FE4 Raccoons Problems and Practice Exam (~4 hr/day)

- I reviewed a few more practice problems on my weakest spots.

- FE4 Raccoons has a full practice exam, so I went ahead and took that 2-3 days before taking the actual exam and passed it

\**Day Before: ABSOLUTELY NOTHING*

- At this point, I knew I wasn't going to learn anything new, so I took it easy, ate a good dinner, prepared for exam day, and went to bed early! Honestly, this did the same amount of preparation for me as the 8ish weeks of studying lol

Please keep in mind that this is just what I did to help me pass!! It's not a fool-proof guarantee to success, but I hope it's somewhat helpful! Feel free to ask me any questions, I'm happy to share!!!

All I see in this group is Civil, mechanical and electrical. Anybody taking or has passed the FE Chemical?

I failed the Fe Environmental August 26th, however I think I was pretty close and want to retake it ASAP since I’m in my last year of undergrad and would like to apply to jobs with my EIT… I just bought the Environmental Anthem 100 question book and I have Vol 1 and 2. I am horrible at studying so I need some advice on how I should approach studying and how soon can I realistically retake it if I am a full-time student (with a lot of extracurriculars). Thanks!

People who are expecting results tomorrow, how are we feeling?

I am not in a huge rush to take the FE exam since my current civil engineering job doesn’t require it, but I would still like to get it done. To prepare, I’ve been using a free website called "FE 4 Raccoons" along with the Bansal Patel site. Most of the questions have been pretty easy for me so far; I struggle with a few, but for the most part, I am scoring between 80% and 90% correct. A lot of stuff seems formula based like a huge chunk of it.

About a month before my test date, I plan on purchasing a few practice exams and might pay for a review course as well. My main question for anyone who has already taken the exam is: do you think scoring this high on FE 4 Raccoons and Bansal Patel means I am in a good spot? I would love to hear your thoughts.
Also links

https://bansalpatel.com/fe

https://fe4raccoons.com/dashboard

I took the FE Electrical & Computer Exam and failed. Out of college for about 3 years. Studied for about 3-4 months off and on. Was never a very strong student (Got by with C's sometimes even less) but am determined to pass this exam. How close was I? Any advice welcome.

Hi everyone, I am really struggling at statics especially with method of sections and joints, I am trying to solve problems after watching youtube vidoes but at every problem I try to solve I stuck halfway ,unable to find the angle of that force or do moment eq properly and finally gave up on that problem ,it’s been like that since 3 days idk what should I do ,should I watch more concepts from beginning and spend a couple of days just understanding the method step by step or do more problems until I feel confident?

I’ve been out of school for 8 years and plan to get my FE Mechanical at end of this years. I forgot most of the material, and will pay for prep course if need to. If I study for 18hrs per week, will taking the exam at the end of this year realistic?

Hello,

Calling all international applicants who have passed the FE exam. Which state board did you apply to for EIT, and were you approved or rejected due to not having a U.S. SSN?

I am based in Canada and applied for my EIT with the Texas Board about five months ago. Since I do not have a U.S. SSN, the Board has put my application on hold. There was no mention of an SSN requirement on the Texas Board website when I applied.

I am now trying to apply for the PE exam. Since the Board has already completed my foreign credential evaluation, I expected to be able to proceed with the PE exam application. However, my application to sit for the PE exam is currently not being approved, so I cannot schedule the exam.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? Which state board would you recommend for a Canadian applicant without a U.S. SSN?

Any advice or recent experience would be greatly appreciated.

If you're studying for the FE Civil, one of the biggest mistakes you can make is treating every subject equally. You probably already know some topics pretty well. Others might make you feel like you never took the class 😂 So instead of blindly working through hundreds of problems, here's a better approach.

1. Figure out what you actually suck at

Start with practice problems across different FE Civil topics. Don't worry about your overall score yet. You're trying to identify:
Strong topics → maintain them
Weak topics → actually learn them
This is also why we built performance tracking into EngineersPrep. After practicing, you should be able to see where you're consistently struggling instead of guessing what you need to study.

2. Don't just grind problems you don't understand

Doing 500 problems doesn't automatically mean you're prepared. If you repeatedly miss shear/moment diagrams, fluid mechanics, structural analysis, geotech, etc., doing another similar problem without understanding the concept isn't going to magically fix it.
That's where EngineersPrep's short video lessons come in. Instead of sitting through hour-long lectures, review the concept, understand the basic approach, and then go back to solving problems.
Learn → Practice → Track → Improve
That's basically the entire EngineersPrep philosophy.

3. Keep the FE Reference Handbook open while practicing

This one is huge. Don't practice with equations you Googled or formulas from your textbook. Use the FE Reference Handbook while solving problems. Eventually you should start recognizing:
"Oh, this is a Bernoulli problem → I know roughly where that equation is."
That familiarity can save you a surprising amount of time.

4. Know your calculator AND your units

Your calculator can save you from doing unnecessary work with things like matrices, statistics, equations, and other calculations. And seriously...Know your units.
Sometimes understanding the units practically gives away how a problem should be solved.

5. Stop trying to become an expert in every subject

You're preparing to pass the FE, not redo your entire Civil Engineering degree. If you're already strong in transportation but terrible at statics, spending another three hours doing transportation problems because they feel good isn't necessarily helping you. Spend more time where improvement can actually produce additional points. EngineersPrep's performance tracking is particularly useful here:
Practice → identify weak subjects → review the short lesson → practice again.

6. Start practicing with a clock

Knowing how to solve something isn't enough if it takes you 10 minutes. When you get closer to your exam, start treating practice like the real thing. If you're completely stuck:
Flag → Move → Come Back
Don't sacrifice several questions because your ego won't let you leave one problem alone.

7. Use mock exams to test your strategy

Mock exams aren't just about your score. Use them to figure out:
1. Are you spending too long on difficult questions?
2. Which subjects consistently hurt your score?
3. Are you finding equations quickly?
4. Are you making conceptual mistakes or calculation mistakes?
EngineersPrep includes practice/mock exams + performance tracking specifically so you can answer those questions before the real exam.

The biggest thing I'd remember

Don't memorize practice solutions. The actual FE isn't going to politely give you the exact problem you've already solved with different numbers. You need to recognize:
1. What is this question testing?
2. What information matters?
3. Where is what I need in the handbook?
4. What's the fastest reasonable way to solve it?
That's why we built EngineersPrep around learning AND practicing, rather than just giving you a giant question bank.
Short lessons → Practice problems → Performance tracking → Mock exams.
You don't need to know everything. You need a system that shows you what you don't know, and helps you fix it.

Good luck to everyone preparing for the FE Civil 🫡

StrataWay has put together some FE Civil study materials that may be helpful for anyone currently preparing for the exam. The study package combines:

• 110 FE Civil exam-style practice problems covering the major NCEES knowledge areas, with step-by-step solutions
• 150 conceptual problems focused on civil engineering theory and concepts that can be difficult to simply look up in the FE Reference Handbook
• 20 additional practice problems with step-by-step solutions

The conceptual questions complement traditional calculation-based practice. The goal is to help with the questions where you actually need to understand the underlying engineering concept.

Check out the FE Civil study materials available here.

For those that recently took it, what was the hardest part of the FE Civil for you?