OK, so you hear about an EIT or FE exam, but you don’t know much about it. Well, you are in luck! I have summarized below everything you ever want to know about this test.
What is the EIT/FE exam?
The Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam, also known as Engineer-In-Training (EIT) exam, is the first step in the journey to obtain your Professional Engineering (PE) license. The test is designed for recent college graduates or students who are close to finishing an under graduate engineering degree from an EAC/ABET-accredited program. The first paper-based FE exam was administered by National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) in 1965 and transitioned to a computer-based exam in 2014. The test contains 110 multiple-choice questions and lasts around 6 hours.
What topics are covered on this test?
You can choose to take the test in one of seven disciplines: Chemical, Civil, Electrical and Computer, Environmental, Industrial, Mechanical, and “Other Disciplines”. I recommend choosing the discipline that is most closely aligned with your undergraduate studies. For example, if your career goal is to become a structural engineer, you should pick the FE Civil test since you are most familiar with this topic. In addition to knowing your particular disciplines, the exam will test you on general “school” knowledge such as mathematics, probability and statistics, computational tools, ethics and professional practice, and engineering economics. You can learn more about the exam topics by reading the exam specifications on the NCEES website.
Do you need to take this test?
The answer to this question depends on your discipline and career goals. If you want to be a practicing civil or structural engineer, the answer is definitely yes. The simple fact is if you want to advance in your career as a civil or structural engineer, you will need to obtain a professional engineering license and the EIT/FE exam is the first step in doing so. In fact, if you plan to work for public agencies, many of the positions does require you to have a professional engineering license.
The answer is a bit more complicated for disciplines other than civil. A professional engineer license probably won’t do you much good if you are a electrical engineer and your career goal is to work for a technology company such as Intel or Cisco. However, if you want to be an electrical engineer for a civil consulting firm or a public agency, it’s probably a good idea to get a professional engineering license since you will likely work on projects that have public safety implications. My personal recommendation is that you should take the FE/EIT test regardless of your engineering career goal/disciplines so you have all options open to you in the future.
When should you take this test?
This exam’s main focus is to test you on your engineering knowledge obtained in your undergraduate program. Therefore, I strongly recommend you take this test sometime during your senior (or last) year of college. By this time you should have finished a large majority of the classes with topics covered on the test and you are still in a test-taking mind set since you are still in school. You of course do have the option of taking this test after you have obtain your undergraduate degree or after you started working. However, the longer you wait, the harder it will be to pass this exam simply because a large part of the test will be on subjects that you wouldn’t touch on in your professional life.
Where can you sign up for the test and how much does it cost?
You can sign up for the test on the NCEES website any time since the test registration is open year-round. The exam fee is $175 payable to NCEES. You will also need to check with your particular state engineering board for any other fees and requirements to the FE/EIT certification in addition to passing the FE/EIT test. For example, California requires you to submit fingerprints, have a minimum 3 years of college-level engineering education or engineering-related work experience, submit an application to the state board, and pay an additional application fee before issuing you your FE/EIT certification.
How can you prepare for the test?
In theory, you have been preparing for this test your whole college life by attending and passing your engineering and science classes. In practice, however, I don’t recommend you go take this test without doing a little bit of studying unless you are extremely smart and have a photographic memory because this test covers a wide range of topics. Therefore, to save you time, you need a tool to help you focus on just what you need to study and get familiar with those subjects. The best source for studying materials can be found on the Professional Publications Inc. (PPI) website. In fact, they provide the best and most focused study materials for all of your licensing test from FE, PE, to SE. In addition to the study materials, PPI also has a great set of live or on demand online courses for the exam. I recommend you take a PPI review class if you are unsure of your knowledge of the FE exam subject, especially if you are out of school for a couple of years or more. Click on the link below to learn more about the review course for your exam subject.
I also encourage you to get familiar with the NCEES FE Reference Handbook as part of your study. This reference will be provided onscreen electronically as a PDF during the test. In fact, this is the only reference material allowed for the exam so it is in your best interest to be as familiar with it as possible. You can download it electronically for free in your MyNCEES account or purchase a hard copy by clicking here.
If you want step-by-step instructions of how to study for the FE exam, check out this post: 7 Easy Steps to Crushing the FE Exam.
What can you expect on exam day and what can you bring to the test?
The FE/EIT test is administered at a Pearson VUE testing center of your choice. You can read more about the official exam-day policies and watch a video of what to expect by clicking here. The three most important items to bring to the test sites are your driver license or passport, your appointment confirmation letter, and an NCEES-approved calculator.
What is the NCEES calculator policy?
It’s very important to bring an NCEES-approved calculator to the test site. This policy is strictly enforced and you will not be allowed to take the test with a non-approved calculator. I have listed three different NCEES-approved calculators below so you have an idea of what they are. See the NCEES website for additional approved calculators. Note that NONE of these calculators is a graphing calculator, so you will need to get a new calculator for the test if that’s the only calculator you currently have.
When will you get the results?
You will get the exam results 7 to 10 days after you take the exam. NCEES will send you an email telling you that the results are ready and you can log into your MyNCEES account to check it out. The results will include information specific to your state licensing board and the next steps based on your performance.
What’s the passing rate and what are your chances of passing?
According to NCEES statistics, the passing rate is relative high for the FE exam compare to other exams that they administer. For first-time test taker that attend an ABET-accredited engineering program and took the test during college or within 12 months of graduation, the average passing rate is hovering around 70%-80%.
However, don’t let this statistic fools you. If NCEES includes the statistics of repeat test takers and those who took the test more than 12 months after graduation, the passing rate will probably go down significantly. You are investing pretty good money into this test when it’s all said and done, so make sure you spend a little bit of time preparing for it. The last thing you want to do is waste money and have to take the test over again. Make sure you put some effort into studying and you will ace this test like a champ!
Do you recommend any website that might have sample questions for FE, that might help me to know how the question will be?
Jone,
Good question. I would recommend doing the online practice exam put on by NCEES (see link below). NCEES is the organization that writes the real exam, so their sample test closely resembles what will be on the actual test.
https://account.ncees.org/exam-prep/store/category/FE
Other than this, you can also try review materials on the Professional Publications website (see link below). Their review materials also closely resemble the actual test (enter in Promo Code TSG01 to get a 10% discount on their printed review materials). Good luck!
http://ppi2pass.com/shop/fe-eit-exam
Thanks for the informative post and I have a question…
Which calculator shall I buy for the FE civil exam? Shall I buy TI 36x or any other model. Please help me to decide.
Rajaul,
Thank you for your question. Some of the allowable calculators are listed in the above post. In addition, per NCEES website, the following calculations are allowed for the 2018 exams.
Casio: All fx-115 and fx-991 models (Any Casio calculator must have “fx-115” or “fx-991” in its model name.)
Hewlett Packard: The HP 33s and HP 35s models, but no others
Texas Instruments: All TI-30X and TI-36X models (Any Texas Instruments calculator must have “TI-30X” or “TI-36X” in its model name.)