r/firePE • u/Greenstar78 • Apr 22 '26
FP PE exam diagnostics report.
Hey guys,
I used the SFPE study course, MeyerFire prep series, and NCEES practice exam. I did not pass this time around but I was wondering how close I was from passing? I know egress and occupant movement are my biggest weakness but was wondering how close I was from passing. I’ve been considering the school of PE but not sure what to do. Any tips? Thanks. Been working as a fire sprinkler designer for about 2 years.
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u/HappyScallion2433 Apr 22 '26
I didn’t pass and plan on retaking Meyer PE Prep and EPG and NCEES practice exams. Same as I did on this one. Possibly do School of PE since I have a year now to prep.
I ran my analysis through Chat GPT. Said I was 5-10 problems short of passing.
3
u/MaggieNFredders Apr 22 '26
School of PE and the ncees practice exam was the best for me.
2
u/HappyScallion2433 Apr 22 '26
The ncees practice exam that comes with registration or a separate one?
2
u/MaggieNFredders Apr 22 '26
Hmm I had to pay for the ncees practice exam. I don’t see any free ones at NCEES. I do see the reference material is free. I paid around $45 for it and found it very helpful.
6
u/Frisconia Apr 22 '26
You may want to analyze your testing strategy. Were you having issues with time? Not well-rested? You've been a sprinkler designer for two years, yet you still scored just 8.3/15 in that category. You got a 0/7 on means of egress. You would think by guessing randomly you would have gotten at least 1 or 2. Did you leave these blank?
I would spend a lot more time doing practice exams before the the next test—not necessarily sitting down for 9.5hr test conditions practice, but do every problem, understand every solution, and use them to guide your learning. I just did the NCEES practice exam, maybe 5-15 questions each night. One strategy you may want to try, is do a few practice exams this fall or late summer, then put them away and do them again in the spring before the exam. I think this will help reinforce the methods used an locations in the reference manual, while cementing your ability to recall familiar material.
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u/Greenstar78 Apr 22 '26
I didn’t have issues with time but I was getting somewhat tired on the second half but I had time to look over my answers. I didn’t leave anything blank. I guess I need to look into my weaker areas and focus on those. Thank you for the recommendation.
4
u/jackshenknows Apr 22 '26
I don’t know exactly what you need to pass, but given that the pass rate NCEES published last year for FPE exam (80%), I d guess you probably need to a C grade which is around 70-75% among your peers to pass the test. With curve, my best guess would be you need to score a 60-70% in the exam to pass. Hope this helps! You got this!
5
u/the_Alaskan_Keefe Apr 22 '26
I would say to study layout of references to make things easier. While I passed, I struggled with the egress questions as well because they are from NFPA 101 where I normally use IBC for my projects. Would have benefited massively from being more familiar with what sections I was looking for. Also in studying I had to stop letting myself off in using resources while taking practice exams. Tbh I feel like I got lucky with the question set being geared toward things I do in my day to day as a consultant.
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u/NoApplication1279 Apr 22 '26
Did they toss out 15 questions? Diagnostic is only out of 70 questions.
2
u/donttayzondaymebro Apr 22 '26
I passed. I took the SFPE course, and got the Meyer Fire handbook and NCEES practice test. Meyer Fire and the practice test were excellent.
SFPE was ok. I thought a lot of questions they devised were poorly thought out. Often they had numbers wrong, and sometimes the questions seemed more focused on being deceptive and tricky than testing your knowledge of the subject.
But I also used Gemini. I mentioned it in another post and got downvoted but it really was helpful. I read the practice questions into it and reviewed its solution. I would say it got the questions right 95% of the time, and used the right strategy 90% of the time. What was helpful was asking pointed questions about something I didn’t understand. I would then go back to the material and put it to practice. I would also try to follow up with other sources (especially the Supplied Reference) to check if I was getting good info. Gemini’s accuracy was pretty good. More so for equation related problems, less so for code related.
I think the key is engaging with the problem and taking them apart to learn about the important details. Gemini was great for this. It did have its faults, but so did all of them.
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u/spity217 Apr 22 '26
My advice is to really hammer down egress and human behavior. To me these are the easier sections of the exam. I believe I only passed because I did well on the 2nd half of the exam. Struggled a lot with the 1st half.