FE Exam - Page 2

ecnerwalc3321 · 05-19-2008, 05:32 PM

what about barron's fe book? I used barron's extensively in hs, but this book seems a bit thin for all the material covered on the test.

ken285 · 05-20-2008, 07:13 PM

I'm not that familiar with the Barrons book, though I knew someone who had the Lindeburgh, Barrons, and the REI (?) book, and she felt the Lindeburg book was the best of the three.

I too used Barrons a lot in high school, but I don't trust them as much as I do ppi2pass for professional exams because it's not their specialty. PPI has books for not only the FE/PE, but the ARE (architecture), NCIDQ (interior design) and LEED (sustainability). I didn't even know Barrons made books for exams like these actually.

The only other publisher I would consider is Kaplan AEC. A few years ago, they bought out a company that specialized in FE/PE.

aibarr · 05-20-2008, 07:21 PM

I'd personally just recommend going through the manual that the licensing board publishes. The FE's long and grueling, but it's not too hard to pass. Most of the equations you need are given to you in the accompanying equations manual, which as I mentioned before, is published on the NCEES website. Download it, skim it, make sure you're familiar with most of the equations in your discipline, make sure you can decipher most of the equations in the whole thing, and you'll probably do just fine.

ken285 · 05-20-2008, 07:34 PM

Know what's in the equations manual and what's not, so you don't spend too much time looking up something that's not listed.

I guess you could get by with just the equations manual, but it's very helpful to have practice questions. There aren't really any test-taking tricks or strategies for the FE like there are for the SAT. I remember some SAT review books were all about the tricks. For the FE, you just have to know your stuff, so the benefit of having a review book for the FE isn't as much as for the SAT.

nshah9617 · 05-21-2008, 10:05 PM

I took the FE this past May.

The FE, in my opinion, doesn't really test your engineering ability but your ability to look up things in the massive reference book it gives you. I'd advise you to take the FE during the last semester of your senior year and in the field that you are most familiar with.