Path to Licensure, Part 2a
If you are like me, you probably have a career or life goal of some sort, and you also probably want to be recognized as a leader in your field. For me, these requirements are both met by pursuing my Professional Engineering (P.E.) license.
In short, the P.E. license is a symbol of a person who is primarily: 1) recognized in their field, and 2) committed to public safety. When a P.E. "stamps" a design, it means that they take responsibility for the design in question, and certify that it is safe for use in the public context and will perform as expected and demonstrated.
In the US, each state has different requirements for licensure, but in general, the minimum requirements for being licensed as a P.E. are as follows:
In my state, candidates are required to have 8 years' worth of work experience, but if you graduated from an accredited engineering program, up to 4 of those years can be counted toward that experience. An accredited engineering program is one that meets the standards of ABET. If you want to know if your university's engineering program is accredited, you can visit their website and search for your school.
First off, I am proud to report that I have passed the October 2018 PE Exam! It was my first try, and I'm thankful it is also my last. I am hoping that this blog post will help provide you with useful tips, so that you also can have a one-time-only exam experience.
The Principles and Practice of Engineering Exam (abbreviated "PE Exam") is the final step for becoming a licensed Professional Engineer (P.E.) in most states. The requirements for taking the exam can vary by state, so I will describe the requirements for being able to take this exam as is applicable in my state.
Where I live (and where I will be licensed), the following requirements must be met before a prospective candidate can take the PE exam:
Once the candidate has met the above requirements and applied, they may register for the PE exam. The exam is administered by an organization called the National Council of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors (NCEES); this is the same organization that administers the FE exam.
Similar to the FE exam (before it was computerized), most PE exams are pencil-and-paper based 8-hour exams, split into two 4-hour sessions. I say most, because there are some PE disciplines whose exams are computerized, and the format is different for those (PE Chemical, Environmental, Nuclear, and Petrolium disciplines are the only computer-based exams available at the time of writing). Since most exams are pencil-and-paper (and since I took one of them), I will spend my time focusing on that format.
The PE exam is administered by NCEES twice per year, in April and October. The exam is split into two sessions: morning and afternoon. Both sessions contain 40 questions. Don't be deceived by the seemingly small number of questions; these questions are in-depth and cover a very broad spectrum of topics in the discipline being tested. The assumption is that those taking the PE exam have practical and working knowledge of the subject being tested on. In this sense, the PE exam is more difficult than the FE exam, which only covers essential engineering concepts (I will give my opinion about which is harder/easier later).
The PE is an open-book exam, which means that you may bring as many "approved" reference materials into the exam as you want. I say that in quotes, because there are some guidelines for what references are acceptable. For instance, NCEES specifies that all references must be properly bound; you cannot have any loose paper (they don't want anyone publishing any of their exam materials). There are many more guidelines, and they are published in their Examinee Guide (which candidates are required to review prior to the exam). Also in this guide is what specific other items you can take with you; for instance, you can't bring just any calculator to the exam room (as is the case with the FE exam); make sure that if you are planning on taking the PE exam you review this thoroughly beforehand.
For your reference, here is a general list of items that I took with me into the exam room:
So now, you've decided to take the PE exam. How do you study? Where do you start? Fortunately for all of us, we don't have to be completely in the dark about what the exam will cover; NCEES publishes exam specifications for each PE discipline. This is a good starting point for determining how to study for your specific subject. The specifications and format for all exams are described on their web site.
Studying for this exam can be a real chore (it certainly was for me). Despite having exam specifications available, there's no guarantee of the exact subjects you will be tested on; almost anything can appear on this exam as long as it falls within the specific subject that you are being tested on. This makes the PE exam much more daunting than the FE exam. As a result, studying needs to be strategic and needs to cover as much ground as possible.
What I found, and I'm sure others have found, is that there are concepts that I had to study that I haven't touched since college, if at all. Re-learning old concepts, and having to learn new ones, makes the process all that much harder. My brain has not been in academic mode for the last 5 years, so re-training myself for this caliber of exam took a lot of effort and discipline. This is one of the reasons I recommend taking the FE exam during college or very shortly after; the material is fresh in your mind, and you are already in "test mode", so the task is much less consuming. You won't have this luxury for the PE exam, unless you've done absolutely everything throughout your career.
Because of the amount of studying required and the broad range of topics, many candidates choose to begin studying many months in advance; some even choose to study for over 300 hours for this exam. There are others (of whom I am envious) who claim to only have studied the week before and still were able to pass the exam on their first try. I chose to begin studying 6 months in advance, and I studied for a total of 177.5 hours (yes, I kept track. I'll be discussing this more in part b of this blog post).
First thing you will need to do is create a study plan. It can be flexible, but at a minimum, you should know what specifically you are going to study during every week leading up to the exam. I created a spreadsheet and created one row per week, writing down specifically which chapters in which of my reference materials I would focus on. Once you've created the study plan, stick to it, all the way through.
You will need to make sure you are keeping your brain active for the entire time you choose to study for this exam. For me, this meant that, virtually every night after work, I would sit down and do practice problems or read up on another subject that I expected would be on the exam. If you can hack it, you should also dedicate your weekends to long sessions of practice problems and reading. You need to get your mind in the game for this exam, because it will be brutal.
Now note, I didn't have perfect study habits. I have a life outside of work; I have a wife, kids, family, friends, and other work that needs to be done around our home. Sometimes, I also just needed a break; your brain can only take so much. It's okay, and understandable; the point here is just not to let your mind go so long without practice that your head falls out of the game.
My specific strategy for studying involved reading through and working problems in 3 core textbooks, researching related subjects on the internet as required, and taking two distinct exam simulations (that is, taken in the same way as I would take the real exam).
When reviewing my three core materials, I made sure to spend at least 60 percent of my time solving practice problems from these reference materials, and the other 40 percent reading and tabbing the important areas of the references. Knowing these references front and back made it a lot easier to quickly find information about any practice problem I tackled, and helped immensely on the actual day of the exam.
Another thing I made sure to do was tab the indexes of these references. This seems silly, but if you have 4 hours to answer 40 questions, that's 6 minutes per question, and they are difficult. The exam really is not just about testing you on specific subjects, but also testing your ability to manage time and make decisions under pressure. Ergo, the less time you have to spend flipping through pages and pages of words, the more time you'll have to work on those problems you're having issues with.
As for the practice exams, they really were key for my preparation, for two reasons:
In the other part of this blog post, I will discuss more specifics. Without going into too much detail about the specific exam content I studied, this really is all I can say for now. In sum:
For me, the week before the exam was probably the most stressful, even though I really wound down my study habits at that point. I had put in 6 months-worth of nightly study time in, I had taken two practice exams, and I was starting to feel confident about what I knew. I was mainly concerned about the logistics of the day of the exam; how I will get to the exam site, what I would do for food, contingency in case my plans didn't work out, etc.
I tend to be a high-stress person, so for me, eliminating as many stressors as possible helped me feel confident for the actual day of the exam. Some of the ways I made the exam day as seamless as possible are as follows:
Then, exam day came. I had a good, protein-filled breakfast and made my way to the exam room, making sure I had with me my exam authorization and my driver's license; all other non-exam-related items, including my cell phone, wallet, and lunch was left in my car. The exam room is very strict about what you can bring into the room, so the less I had on me, the less likely I would have problems.
It should be noted, my exam site had an "amnesty" table where people could temporarily store their cell phones and other prohibited items while the exam was taking place. Your exam site may or may not have this, and I didn't expect mine to, so I left my valuables in the car instead. Funny story, during the morning session of the exam, we all learned that someone who liked Ozzy Ozbourne's "Crazy Train" forgot to silence their cell phone. It was hilarious to suddenly hear laughter through my earplugs. Luckily, I didn't see anyone get kicked out of the room. Anyway...
Upon reaching the exam site, the NCEES examiners looked at my registration and ID and directed me to my seat. After a quick run through of the instructions and a few signatures, the exam began.
One of the keys to doing well on this exam is having a good strategy for how you are going to take the test. You must keep in mind that you only have 6 minutes per question, so every moment is precious and should be taken seriously. Again, time management is a skill that you must be able to demonstrate, since you are an engineer and you will experience such conditions in the real world.
I have always been a good test taker, and have devised a strategy that worked really well for me on the exam. The strategy is a three-pass system on each of the two 40-question sessions.
I walked out of the exam feeling pretty good about what just happened, but I was just happy to be done with it. As I drove home, I thought about some exam questions I had trouble with, and it was only then that I realized that I put the wrong answer. This made me more anxious for the exam results.
The point being, I guarantee that no matter how hard you prepare for this exam, there are going to be some questions that you're just not going to know the answer to, and I would suggest that you not fret about this. First of all, the questions are NOT weighted, so one wrong answer is not going to bring the rest of your exam down (thank goodness!). Second, the exam passing score changes with every administration, which means that if you felt the exam was hard, your result is not a guaranteed failure (I will discuss this a little more later).
Without a doubt, the most difficult part of this exam is waiting for the result to come back. NCEES states that results are released within 8 to 10 weeks following exam administration. The reason for this lies in their grading process; it's very complicated and helps to ensure that the exam is written well and adequately tests engineers wanting to be licensed in particular fields.
NCEES describes their exam scoring process as follows (in my own words): After exam day, the bubble sheets (I guess they're also called "scantrons") are pushed through the scanner for initial grading. Random samples of each exam type are also manually graded to verify that the scanning process was accurate.
This is not the end of the grading process, however; after the initial work is done, the passing score must be determined (that's right, no one knows what the passing score is during exam administration). To accomplish this, a panel of testing experts and some professionals in the field review the exam content and determine the minimum passing score for that administration. This is the part of the grading process that takes the longest, and my understanding is that this may also include throwing out unsatisfactory questions or adjusting the answer key for other questions. Basically, this all means that the sheer difficulty of the exam content won't necessarily seal or prevent your victory.
Regardless of the reason, however, 8 to 10 weeks is a very long time to wait. I definitely got anxious about my result; "What if I didn't pass? Will I get fired from my job? What will my peers think of me?"
I can't speak to what happens if you fail from experience, but there are many other engineers that can, and I spent some time reading experiences of other engineers on web forums to prepare myself for the possibility. What I've found is that the exam may be hit or miss for many prospective engineers, even great ones. Some people are just not great test-takers, some people may have had a hiccup during actual exam day (maybe calculator stopped working?), some people may not have brought enough references, some people may have had negative life experiences that affected them, and some more may have just approached the exam with too much confidence.
There are lots of reasons for exam failure, but this does not necessarily disqualify you from being a terrific engineer. I would encourage you personally to try again until you succeed. Above all, though, don't forget to learn from any mistakes you made (if any); the mark of a true engineer is to continue improving, and you can't do that if you don't learn from your mistakes. Use them to adjust your study strategy, hone your skills in particular areas, and correct errors or flukes from exam day.
Anyways, after 40 days of waiting, NCEES released the results to member licensing boards, and to examinees through their MyNCEES account. So, it was shorter than 6 weeks. I'm very glad for this, as I don't think I would have been able to take any more waiting; it is just too stressful for me. You can bet that I was celebrating after I got my pass result back.
Finally, I want to address a few common questions that I saw while studying for this exam, and provide my own personal opinions based on all of my experiences.
In conclusion, the PE exam is a real monster, but for me it was certainly worth the experience. I don't say this just because I got a passing grade; I also learned a lot about my subject while studying. This, as opposed to the exam itself, is really what made me a better engineer.
Keep on learning!
Cheers,
-EE
In short, the P.E. license is a symbol of a person who is primarily: 1) recognized in their field, and 2) committed to public safety. When a P.E. "stamps" a design, it means that they take responsibility for the design in question, and certify that it is safe for use in the public context and will perform as expected and demonstrated.
In the US, each state has different requirements for licensure, but in general, the minimum requirements for being licensed as a P.E. are as follows:
- Take and pass the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam,
- Gain engineering experience under a P.E. (after college), and
- Take and pass the Principles and Practice of Engineering (PE) exam.
In my state, candidates are required to have 8 years' worth of work experience, but if you graduated from an accredited engineering program, up to 4 of those years can be counted toward that experience. An accredited engineering program is one that meets the standards of ABET. If you want to know if your university's engineering program is accredited, you can visit their website and search for your school.
In all US states, the FE and PE exams are administered by an organization called NCEES (National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying). At the date of writing, the FE is administered via computer-based examination, and most of the PE disciplines are administered via pencil and paper exam on a bi-yearly basis. Eventually the hope is that all PE exams will be administered by computer.
I will be splitting this blog post into two parts. This part will be dedicated to the PE exam in general. In a later post, I will talk specifically about the Computer Engineering PE exam, which is the exam that I took. I've addressed the FE exam in this post, and I will address work experience requirements and the application process in a later post.
DISCLAIMERS:
DISCLAIMERS:
- Past examinees are not allowed to reveal information about specific questions or content presented on the exam per the NCEES Candidate Agreement. This means that I'm not allowed to answer questions or reveal any information about the content of the exam itself.
- I do not work for or officially endorse any of the companies or organizations mentioned in this blog post.
First off, I am proud to report that I have passed the October 2018 PE Exam! It was my first try, and I'm thankful it is also my last. I am hoping that this blog post will help provide you with useful tips, so that you also can have a one-time-only exam experience.
The Principles and Practice of Engineering Exam (abbreviated "PE Exam") is the final step for becoming a licensed Professional Engineer (P.E.) in most states. The requirements for taking the exam can vary by state, so I will describe the requirements for being able to take this exam as is applicable in my state.
Where I live (and where I will be licensed), the following requirements must be met before a prospective candidate can take the PE exam:
- The candidate must pass the FE exam (described in an earlier post).
- The candidate must have adequate and demonstrable work experience under a licensed PE.
- The candidate must have approval from the engineering licensing board to take the exam, by filling out an application.
Once the candidate has met the above requirements and applied, they may register for the PE exam. The exam is administered by an organization called the National Council of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors (NCEES); this is the same organization that administers the FE exam.
Similar to the FE exam (before it was computerized), most PE exams are pencil-and-paper based 8-hour exams, split into two 4-hour sessions. I say most, because there are some PE disciplines whose exams are computerized, and the format is different for those (PE Chemical, Environmental, Nuclear, and Petrolium disciplines are the only computer-based exams available at the time of writing). Since most exams are pencil-and-paper (and since I took one of them), I will spend my time focusing on that format.
The PE exam is administered by NCEES twice per year, in April and October. The exam is split into two sessions: morning and afternoon. Both sessions contain 40 questions. Don't be deceived by the seemingly small number of questions; these questions are in-depth and cover a very broad spectrum of topics in the discipline being tested. The assumption is that those taking the PE exam have practical and working knowledge of the subject being tested on. In this sense, the PE exam is more difficult than the FE exam, which only covers essential engineering concepts (I will give my opinion about which is harder/easier later).
The PE is an open-book exam, which means that you may bring as many "approved" reference materials into the exam as you want. I say that in quotes, because there are some guidelines for what references are acceptable. For instance, NCEES specifies that all references must be properly bound; you cannot have any loose paper (they don't want anyone publishing any of their exam materials). There are many more guidelines, and they are published in their Examinee Guide (which candidates are required to review prior to the exam). Also in this guide is what specific other items you can take with you; for instance, you can't bring just any calculator to the exam room (as is the case with the FE exam); make sure that if you are planning on taking the PE exam you review this thoroughly beforehand.
For your reference, here is a general list of items that I took with me into the exam room:
- Exam authorization copy, plus drivers' license (you will need a current, signed ID that meets NCEES specifications)
- Reference materials
- 2 calculators (both Casio fx-115ES PLUS models; this model was approved when I took the exam)
- Replacement batteries for calculators
- A small screwdriver
- A ruler
- A protractor
- Earplugs (several sets)
- A watch (Casio F-91W model, with alarm feature turned off)
- Re-usable water bottles
- A plastic bag of unwrapped Werther's hard candy (I find that giving my mouth something to do helps me concentrate a little better)
The above was sufficient for me to take the exam. Don't take my suggestion as word though, as you may have different needs and/or strategies than me, and guidelines may change between exam sessions. All this to say, make sure you have reviewed NCEES examinee guide. You'll be glad you did; following it will prevent undue headaches on exam day.
By the way, NCEES' web site has a nice little "chat" feature built in, so if you have any questions about what you can bring into the exam room, questions about the examinee guide, questions about the process, or other related inquiries, you can immediately be connected with a support person. This is very helpful if you aren't sure about some of the nuances.
So now, you've decided to take the PE exam. How do you study? Where do you start? Fortunately for all of us, we don't have to be completely in the dark about what the exam will cover; NCEES publishes exam specifications for each PE discipline. This is a good starting point for determining how to study for your specific subject. The specifications and format for all exams are described on their web site.
Studying for this exam can be a real chore (it certainly was for me). Despite having exam specifications available, there's no guarantee of the exact subjects you will be tested on; almost anything can appear on this exam as long as it falls within the specific subject that you are being tested on. This makes the PE exam much more daunting than the FE exam. As a result, studying needs to be strategic and needs to cover as much ground as possible.
What I found, and I'm sure others have found, is that there are concepts that I had to study that I haven't touched since college, if at all. Re-learning old concepts, and having to learn new ones, makes the process all that much harder. My brain has not been in academic mode for the last 5 years, so re-training myself for this caliber of exam took a lot of effort and discipline. This is one of the reasons I recommend taking the FE exam during college or very shortly after; the material is fresh in your mind, and you are already in "test mode", so the task is much less consuming. You won't have this luxury for the PE exam, unless you've done absolutely everything throughout your career.
Because of the amount of studying required and the broad range of topics, many candidates choose to begin studying many months in advance; some even choose to study for over 300 hours for this exam. There are others (of whom I am envious) who claim to only have studied the week before and still were able to pass the exam on their first try. I chose to begin studying 6 months in advance, and I studied for a total of 177.5 hours (yes, I kept track. I'll be discussing this more in part b of this blog post).
First thing you will need to do is create a study plan. It can be flexible, but at a minimum, you should know what specifically you are going to study during every week leading up to the exam. I created a spreadsheet and created one row per week, writing down specifically which chapters in which of my reference materials I would focus on. Once you've created the study plan, stick to it, all the way through.
You will need to make sure you are keeping your brain active for the entire time you choose to study for this exam. For me, this meant that, virtually every night after work, I would sit down and do practice problems or read up on another subject that I expected would be on the exam. If you can hack it, you should also dedicate your weekends to long sessions of practice problems and reading. You need to get your mind in the game for this exam, because it will be brutal.
Now note, I didn't have perfect study habits. I have a life outside of work; I have a wife, kids, family, friends, and other work that needs to be done around our home. Sometimes, I also just needed a break; your brain can only take so much. It's okay, and understandable; the point here is just not to let your mind go so long without practice that your head falls out of the game.
My specific strategy for studying involved reading through and working problems in 3 core textbooks, researching related subjects on the internet as required, and taking two distinct exam simulations (that is, taken in the same way as I would take the real exam).
When reviewing my three core materials, I made sure to spend at least 60 percent of my time solving practice problems from these reference materials, and the other 40 percent reading and tabbing the important areas of the references. Knowing these references front and back made it a lot easier to quickly find information about any practice problem I tackled, and helped immensely on the actual day of the exam.
Another thing I made sure to do was tab the indexes of these references. This seems silly, but if you have 4 hours to answer 40 questions, that's 6 minutes per question, and they are difficult. The exam really is not just about testing you on specific subjects, but also testing your ability to manage time and make decisions under pressure. Ergo, the less time you have to spend flipping through pages and pages of words, the more time you'll have to work on those problems you're having issues with.
As for the practice exams, they really were key for my preparation, for two reasons:
- I was able to feel what the real exam day would be like; how my mental stamina would fare, how well I would be able to concentrate, and how well I would be able to answer questions under these conditions.
- I was able to gauge how ready I was for the exam's content.
- I was able to gauge my ability to read each question carefully.
To be clear, these practice exams simulated the real exam; two sessions with 40 questions each, with a time limit of 4 hours for each of the two sessions, taken in a single day, only an hour apart. I wore earplugs and the specific watch I would put on my wrist on exam day (by the way, wearing a watch is a very good idea, since there may or may not be a clock in the exam room. Just make sure it's approved; you can find guidelines on NCEES' examinee guide). I also used only the two calculators that I was planning on bringing with me to the exam site.
I had with me only those references I planned to use for the real exam. Doing this helped me determine whether or not I was studying the right material, and helped me find ways to improve my speed for finding information. After finishing the practice exams, the questions I had missed became my focus for the next week, and I honed my skills on those subjects.
I want to add here, from #3 above, that not only are the questions simply in-depth; they are also designed to throw you off. You will be given questions with a lot of different information, and you must select the correct information from what is given to solve for the answer that the question asks for. You may also be asked for an answer in units that you are not used to solving in, so you must read each problem very carefully.
This is why it is important to select a good practice exam for the subject you are being tested on; it will actually be like the real exam. The closest thing to a real exam would probably be the material that NCEES offers from its own website; you can purchase practice exams from them here.
I had with me only those references I planned to use for the real exam. Doing this helped me determine whether or not I was studying the right material, and helped me find ways to improve my speed for finding information. After finishing the practice exams, the questions I had missed became my focus for the next week, and I honed my skills on those subjects.
I want to add here, from #3 above, that not only are the questions simply in-depth; they are also designed to throw you off. You will be given questions with a lot of different information, and you must select the correct information from what is given to solve for the answer that the question asks for. You may also be asked for an answer in units that you are not used to solving in, so you must read each problem very carefully.
This is why it is important to select a good practice exam for the subject you are being tested on; it will actually be like the real exam. The closest thing to a real exam would probably be the material that NCEES offers from its own website; you can purchase practice exams from them here.
In the other part of this blog post, I will discuss more specifics. Without going into too much detail about the specific exam content I studied, this really is all I can say for now. In sum:
- Tab your references, including your indexes in the back of your book.
- Do lots and lots of practice problems.
- Take simulated practice exams that match the actual exam day experience as closely as possible.
For me, the week before the exam was probably the most stressful, even though I really wound down my study habits at that point. I had put in 6 months-worth of nightly study time in, I had taken two practice exams, and I was starting to feel confident about what I knew. I was mainly concerned about the logistics of the day of the exam; how I will get to the exam site, what I would do for food, contingency in case my plans didn't work out, etc.
I tend to be a high-stress person, so for me, eliminating as many stressors as possible helped me feel confident for the actual day of the exam. Some of the ways I made the exam day as seamless as possible are as follows:
- I booked a hotel room as close to the exam site as I could.
- During registration for the exam through NCEES, I was allowed to select one of two areas in my state where I could potentially take the test. I selected the one closest to me, and booked a hotel, hoping it would be close to the exam site (unfortunately, the NCEES registration doesn't tell you exactly where the exam will be until later). Ultimately, I ended up in a hotel directly adjacent to the exam site (within a 5 minute walk to the room), which was very fortunate.
- I bought food at the grocery store in advance that I knew I could store in the hotel refrigerator.
- Since there are bound to be a lot of people taking the exam, there's a good possibility that restaurants will be crowded and will take too much time to eat at. Rather than having to worry about long wait times and the possibility of not being able to get food, I decided it would be easier to just have it ready.
- During the week of the exam, I got my car checked up on and made sure there were no problems before I traveled the distance to my hotel site.
- Prior to leaving for the exam, I stored all of my references and materials in a milk crate with handles.
- This made carrying all my stuff much easier. It was heavy, but at least I didn't have to worry about books falling out of my hands on exam day.
- Depending on the amount of references you are using, you might want to consider something that rolls on wheels. I didn't have too many materials, so this wasn't necessary for me.
- Note that it is a good idea to have 2 calculators (recommend 2 of the same), as well as extra batteries and tools to replace them; if your calculator goes bad, you're in deep yogurt.
- Once I got to my hotel, I took a long walk around the exam site.
- This allowed me to locate exactly where the exam would be and what route I would take to get there, as well as find alternate routes in case my primary route didn't work.
- As it turned out, my primary route was a sky bridge from the hotel to the general area, which was not open in time for me to be able to make it to the exam, so I took my alternate route outside, in the rain. I was a short distance, but it was still in the rain, and the books I was carrying in my milk crate got slightly wet. Still better than missing the exam entirely.
- I made sure not to study much, if at all, the day/night before the exam.
- At this point in your sprint, you will know what you know, and extra studying will do little to nothing to help you; in fact, it may lead to second-guessing yourself.
- Instead, I ended up watching football in my hotel room (It was the Texans vs. Dolphins), and thoroughly appreciating that the Texans were finally showing signs of being playoff-worthy.
- I went to sleep very early, and got up very early.
- Actually, I feel like I got up way too early. I definitely could have slept in at least one more hour. But at least I had plenty of time to eat breakfast and get to the exam area.
Then, exam day came. I had a good, protein-filled breakfast and made my way to the exam room, making sure I had with me my exam authorization and my driver's license; all other non-exam-related items, including my cell phone, wallet, and lunch was left in my car. The exam room is very strict about what you can bring into the room, so the less I had on me, the less likely I would have problems.
It should be noted, my exam site had an "amnesty" table where people could temporarily store their cell phones and other prohibited items while the exam was taking place. Your exam site may or may not have this, and I didn't expect mine to, so I left my valuables in the car instead. Funny story, during the morning session of the exam, we all learned that someone who liked Ozzy Ozbourne's "Crazy Train" forgot to silence their cell phone. It was hilarious to suddenly hear laughter through my earplugs. Luckily, I didn't see anyone get kicked out of the room. Anyway...
Upon reaching the exam site, the NCEES examiners looked at my registration and ID and directed me to my seat. After a quick run through of the instructions and a few signatures, the exam began.
One of the keys to doing well on this exam is having a good strategy for how you are going to take the test. You must keep in mind that you only have 6 minutes per question, so every moment is precious and should be taken seriously. Again, time management is a skill that you must be able to demonstrate, since you are an engineer and you will experience such conditions in the real world.
I have always been a good test taker, and have devised a strategy that worked really well for me on the exam. The strategy is a three-pass system on each of the two 40-question sessions.
- Pass #1 is dedicated to reading and working each question on the exam, and marking the answer on both the exam and bubble sheet, even if it might not be the correct answer.
- This stage should take you roughly 2 hours, and you should not spend more than 3 minutes on any one problem.
- While going through each question, mark more difficult questions with a star next to it so that you can come back to it on another pass.
- Also, underline important information on each exam question (specifically, units for each parameter and what the solution is looking for)
- This accomplishes three things: it allows you to have read every question, it helps you get the easy questions out of the way, and it gets an answer on the board for each question. You have a 0% chance of getting an answer right if there is no answer selected, but a 25% chance of getting an answer right if one answer is selected, and I like those odds better.
- Note: If you need a break for the bathroom, now is the time to do it. I actually went ahead and took this opportunity on both the morning and afternoon sessions.
- Pass #2 is dedicated to working the problems that were marked as "more difficult" in the first pass.
- This pass should take you roughly 1 hour and 30 minutes, or less.
- Since you have 2 more hours, and since you most likely have only about 10-15 problems to work on at this point, you should be able to dedicate more time and thought to these ones.
- If necessary, make sure to change the answers to re-worked problems on both the exam and the bubble sheet.
- Pass #3 (if there's time) is dedicated to a quick double-check of the circled answers on your exam and the marked answers on the bubble sheet and making sure they all match.
- This should take the remainder of your exam time.
- The worst thing that could possibly happen on a test is for you to be marking answers on a bubble sheet and somehow accidentally "offset" your answers (i.e. you marked your answer for question 10 on bubble 11), and it propagates through the rest of the bubble sheet. By cross-checking, you eliminate this possibility and really save yourself some headaches.
I walked out of the exam feeling pretty good about what just happened, but I was just happy to be done with it. As I drove home, I thought about some exam questions I had trouble with, and it was only then that I realized that I put the wrong answer. This made me more anxious for the exam results.
The point being, I guarantee that no matter how hard you prepare for this exam, there are going to be some questions that you're just not going to know the answer to, and I would suggest that you not fret about this. First of all, the questions are NOT weighted, so one wrong answer is not going to bring the rest of your exam down (thank goodness!). Second, the exam passing score changes with every administration, which means that if you felt the exam was hard, your result is not a guaranteed failure (I will discuss this a little more later).
Without a doubt, the most difficult part of this exam is waiting for the result to come back. NCEES states that results are released within 8 to 10 weeks following exam administration. The reason for this lies in their grading process; it's very complicated and helps to ensure that the exam is written well and adequately tests engineers wanting to be licensed in particular fields.
NCEES describes their exam scoring process as follows (in my own words): After exam day, the bubble sheets (I guess they're also called "scantrons") are pushed through the scanner for initial grading. Random samples of each exam type are also manually graded to verify that the scanning process was accurate.
This is not the end of the grading process, however; after the initial work is done, the passing score must be determined (that's right, no one knows what the passing score is during exam administration). To accomplish this, a panel of testing experts and some professionals in the field review the exam content and determine the minimum passing score for that administration. This is the part of the grading process that takes the longest, and my understanding is that this may also include throwing out unsatisfactory questions or adjusting the answer key for other questions. Basically, this all means that the sheer difficulty of the exam content won't necessarily seal or prevent your victory.
Regardless of the reason, however, 8 to 10 weeks is a very long time to wait. I definitely got anxious about my result; "What if I didn't pass? Will I get fired from my job? What will my peers think of me?"
I can't speak to what happens if you fail from experience, but there are many other engineers that can, and I spent some time reading experiences of other engineers on web forums to prepare myself for the possibility. What I've found is that the exam may be hit or miss for many prospective engineers, even great ones. Some people are just not great test-takers, some people may have had a hiccup during actual exam day (maybe calculator stopped working?), some people may not have brought enough references, some people may have had negative life experiences that affected them, and some more may have just approached the exam with too much confidence.
There are lots of reasons for exam failure, but this does not necessarily disqualify you from being a terrific engineer. I would encourage you personally to try again until you succeed. Above all, though, don't forget to learn from any mistakes you made (if any); the mark of a true engineer is to continue improving, and you can't do that if you don't learn from your mistakes. Use them to adjust your study strategy, hone your skills in particular areas, and correct errors or flukes from exam day.
Anyways, after 40 days of waiting, NCEES released the results to member licensing boards, and to examinees through their MyNCEES account. So, it was shorter than 6 weeks. I'm very glad for this, as I don't think I would have been able to take any more waiting; it is just too stressful for me. You can bet that I was celebrating after I got my pass result back.
Finally, I want to address a few common questions that I saw while studying for this exam, and provide my own personal opinions based on all of my experiences.
- Which is harder: PE exam, or FE exam?
- For me, I would say the PE exam was harder, mostly because of the lack of knowledge I had on the subject I studied for, and the length of time I went without practicing such subjects. I reiterate; the FE exam is best taken either during or right after college, while the material is fresh in your head. I did this, and it made the exam a lot easier for me.
- Should I take a review course?
- I would personally recommend it, if you can. Unfortunately, my specific subject did not have any review courses available anywhere, so this wasn't an option for me. Also note, everyone's experience is different; if you learn better in a classroom setting, the answer is definitely yes, but if not, maybe it's not necessary. I was able to pass without one, even though I would have preferred to have one available.
- Do I really need to study for 300 hours?
- I can't answer this one for you. As I stated, I studied for 177.5 hours, and I passed on my first try. One of my colleagues claims he only studied the week before and he passed on his first attempt also. It really does vary with each person.
- When should I start studying?
- Again, this is different for everyone. I decided to begin studying 6 months before I took my exam. Turns out, this might have been a little too cautious for me, but I would rather have given myself too much time than too little time.
- Should I get the really expensive study materials offered by websites like PPI?
- Maybe. I can't specifically say for other disciplines, but I will go into detail about this within my subject in part b of this post.
- What is the passing score for the PE exam?
- As I discussed earlier, no one really knows, and it may change with every administration for each subject. When I took my practice exams (and the real one, for that matter), I shot for a score of at least 70%. Realistically, this may or may not be sufficient; some people have thrown around the magic number of 75%.
- How many references do I need?
- This is another one of those "it depends" questions. My final list of references included 13 books and a three-ring binder containing some notes and other useful information I threw together (I'll discuss more in part b of this post).
- What calculators can I take with me?
- The approved calculator list can change often, so it's difficult to answer this one concretely. I'd recommend checking NCEES' calculator policy prior to taking your exam so you're not caught by surprise. I used Casio fx-115ES PLUS.
- Can I call myself a P.E. after passing the exam?
- NOT NECESSARILY. This is an important point; you are not considered a P.E. until your state provides you with your license. Depending on the state, you may get your license within hours of getting your passing score, or you may have to wait a few weeks, or you may have to take additional steps. Stating that you are a P.E. before having your license is considered a civil infraction and can get you into big trouble. So, be careful.
In conclusion, the PE exam is a real monster, but for me it was certainly worth the experience. I don't say this just because I got a passing grade; I also learned a lot about my subject while studying. This, as opposed to the exam itself, is really what made me a better engineer.
Keep on learning!
Cheers,
-EE
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