Prepare for and Pass The Fundamentals of Engineering Exam

1. Prepare for and PassThe Fundamentals of Engineering Exam David A. Rockstraw, Ph. D., P. E.

2. Overview • What to expect on the exam • Strategies for taking the exam • How the exam is scored • What should you do if you fail?

3. What to Expect on the FE Exam • designed for students who are close to finishing an undergraduate engineering degree (a test of engineering fundamentals) • 8 Hours long • AM Session • 120 multiple choice questions • PM Session • 60 multiple choice questions • Given twice per year (April and October)

4. How to Prepare for the FE • Spend some time reviewing for the exam • Remember though that you have been preparing throughout your undergraduate education • Study review books • Attend review sessions • Take the exam seriously

5. Study Materials • Sample questions, supplied reference book, and other material is available at www.ncees.org • Most review books have a sample exam with solutions

6. To what level should you prepare? • Focus on your core education areas as this is where you are likely to be most successful • Learn “new topics” of areas your discipline was not a focus to the extent they are covered on the exam • This is an area where outside guidance is helpful

7. What to bring with you • Your exam authorization notice. • available for download via your My NCEES account 2–3 weeks prior to the exam date. • A current, signed, government-issued photo ID (i.e., driver’s license or passport). • first and last name on the photo ID must match the name on the exam authorization notice. • A student ID card is not acceptable for admittance.

8. NCEES Candidate Agreement • Approved calculators • Admission requirements • Grounds for dismissal from exam • Reference Materials • Personal Items • Items permitted on desktop • Intellectual Property Rights and Exam Security • Exam Irregularities

9. Reference materials • The FE and FS exams are closed-book. • FE exam candidates will receive a copy of the FE Supplied-Reference Handbook on exam day. • FS exam candidates will be supplied with surveying reference formulas.

10. Permitted Calculators • Casio fx-115 models • HP 33s and HP 35s models • TI-30X and TI-36X models • policy through Nov. 15, 2011

11. Items Permitted on Desktop during Exam • answer sheet • exam booklet • ID • admission notice • NCEES-approved calculators • NCEES-issued pencils with erasers • small snacks • two straightedges such as a ruler, scale, triangle, or protractor.

12. Personal Items • FE and FS examinees may bring personal items in a clear plastic bag only. • Purses and backpacks are not permitted in closed-book exams. • Examinees may bring snacks (e.g., hard candies, candy bars, gum) and nonalcoholic drinks, as long as having them does not disturb other examinees.

13. Personal Items • Examinees may wear wristwatches or place them on the floor. Small clocks must be placed on the floor. • Examinees may not wear hoods (on hooded sweat-shirts, for example) or hats with brims during the exam. • Head coverings that qualify as religious apparel are permitted.

14. Personal Items • Examinees may not bring slide charts or wheel charts (hand-held cardboard or plastic calculating devices with rotating or sliding pieces) or drafting compasses. • Examinees may not bring weapons of any kind. • Examinees may not bring tobacco products or personal chairs.

15. Grounds for Dismissal • Having in your possession… • a cell phone • a calculator that is not on the NCEES-approved list • loose papers, legal pads, writing tablets, or unbound notes • a device with copying, recording, or communication capabilities • including but are not limited to cameras, pagers, PDAs, radios, headsets, tape players, MP3 players, calculator watches, electronic dictionaries, electronic translators, and transmitting devices.

16. Grounds for Dismissal • Using a non-NCEES writing instrument or eraser to complete any portion of the exam • Copying from another examinee’s answer sheet or colluding with other examinees • Beginning exam before proctor instructs you to do so • Failure to stop writing immediately when time called • Writing on anything other than your exam booklet or answer sheet (including FE Supplied Handbook) • Removing pages from your exam booklet • Leaving the exam area without authorization

17. AM Exam Specifications

18. Mathematics • Analytic geometry • Integral calculus • Matrix operations • Roots of equations • Vector analysis • Differential equations • Differential calculus

19. Engineering Probability and Statistics • Measures of central tendencies and dispersions (e.g., mean, mode, standard deviation) • Probability distributions (e.g., discrete, continuous, normal, binomial) • Conditional probabilities • Estimation (e.g., point, confidence intervals) for a single mean • Regression and curve fitting • Expected value (weighted average) in decision-making • Hypothesis testing

20. Chemistry • Nomenclature • Oxidation and reduction • Periodic table • States of matter • Acids and bases • Equations (e.g., stoichiometry) • Equilibrium • Metals and nonmetals

21. Computers • Terminology (e.g., memory types, CPU, baud rates, Internet) • Spreadsheets (e.g., addresses, interpretation, “what if,” copying formulas) • Structured programming (e.g., assignment statements, loops and branches, function calls)

22. Ethics and Business Practices • Code of ethics (professional and technical societies) • Agreements and contracts • Ethical versus legal • Professional liability • Public protection issues (e.g., licensing boards)

23. Engineering Economics • Discounted cash flow (e.g., equivalence, PW, equivalent annual FW, rate of return) • Cost (e.g., incremental, average, sunk, estimating) • Analyses (e.g., breakeven, benefit-cost) • Uncertainty (e.g., expected value and risk)

24. Engineering Mechanics (A. Statics) • Resultants of force systems • Concurrent force systems • Equilibrium of rigid bodies • Frames and trusses • Centroid of area • Area moments of inertia • Friction

25. Engineering Mechanics (B. Dynamics) • Linear motion (e.g., force, mass, acceleration, momentum) 2. Angular motion (e.g., torque, inertia, acceleration, momentum) 3. Mass moments of inertia 4. Impulse and momentum 5. Work, energy, and power 6. Friction 5. and 6. applied to Particles or rigid bodies

26. Strength of Materials • Shear and moment diagrams • Stress types (e.g., normal, shear, bending, torsion) • Stress strain caused by: 1. axial loads; 2. bending loads; 3. torsion; 4. shear • Deformations (e.g., axial, bending, torsion) • Combined stresses • Columns • Indeterminant analysis • Plastic versus elastic deformation

27. Material Properties • Properties 1. chemical 2. electrical 3. mechanical 4. physical • Corrosion mechanisms and control • Materials 1. engineered materials 2. ferrous metals 3. nonferrous metals

28. Fluid Mechanics • Flow measurement • Fluid properties • Fluid statics • Energy, impulse, and momentum equations • Pipe and other internal flow

29. Electricity and Magnetism • Charge, energy, current, voltage, power • Work done in moving a charge in an electric field (relationship between voltage and work) • Force between charges • Current and voltage laws (Kirchhoff, Ohm) • Equivalent circuits (series, parallel) • Capacitance and inductance • Reactance and impedance, susceptance and admittance • AC circuits • Basic complex algebra

30. Thermodynamics • Thermodynamic laws (e.g., 1st Law, 2nd Law) • Energy, heat, and work • Availability and reversibility • Cycles • Ideal gases • Mixture of gases • Phase changes • Heat transfer • Properties of: 1. enthalpy 2. entropy

31. Afternoon Session Subjects • PM Exam is Discipline-Specific • Chemical; Civil; Industrial; Electrical; Mechanical; General • All exams are contained in the same booklet. • Review the published “exam specifications” for the discipline you intend to take • http://www.ncees.org/Exams/FE_exam.php

32. PM General Exam (Other Disciplines) • Advanced Engineering Mathematics • Engineering Probability and Statistics • Biology • Engineering Economics • Application of Engineering Mechanics • Engineering of Materials • Fluids • Electricity and Magnetism • Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer

33. Strategies for Taking the FE Exam • Watch the clock, time limits are strictly enforced • Average of 2 minutes/problem in the AM • Average of 4 minutes/problem in the PM • Attack the areas you know best, first • Save difficult problems for last

34. Strategies for Taking the FE Exam • Think before you start a problem • Is there an easy way to work this? • If you don’t know the correct answer, eliminate some incorrect answers • Are of these answers obviously wrong? • Can you work backwards?

35. Strategies for Taking the FE Exam • Mark your best guess (may be your first guess) with a “?” and come back to it • Make notes and a best guess before moving on to the next question • Answer each question • There is no penalty for an incorrect answer • Your score is based on number of correct answers

36. Handling Difficult Problems • If you have no clue at all: • Make your best guess • Circle the problem number (or identify it some other way) to indicate you have no clue • Come back to these problems only if have more time • Never leave a question unanswered

37. Saving Time • Write the letter of the correct answer in the margin on the test booklet • At the end of the page, transcribe the answers to the answer sheet • Do this one page at a time. • Do not do this for the entire exam and then attempt to transfer the answers

38. Units • In the morning some problems are given in both SI and ENG units • Work with what you are most comfortable • Most afternoon exams will be SI only so be prepared

39. Terminology • Not everyone uses the same terminology • Try to be familiar with other nomenclature • Focus on the problem; do you know it by another name?

40. Reference Manual • Be familiar with its organization • Where are your most frequently used equations? • What data will you use the most? • Not necessarily a good idea to study by the reference manual

41. Work Out Of Sequence • Problems tend to be grouped in sections • Work what you know best, first • Save the most difficult for last • If you don’t know it, guess

42. Write Out the Problem • Work in the test booklet • Solving problems in your head may not be the fastest way • Make sure you record your answer on the answer sheet—graders do not look at your test booklet

43. Timeline to Results • Typically, NCEES releases scores to licensing boards 8–10 weeks after the exam date. The licensing boards or testing services then notify you of your results.

44. Sample Score Report

45. Determining Passing Scores • After each administration, every NCEES exam undergoes extensive statistical analysis to determine the minimum level of performance required for entry into the profession. • A committee of subject-matter experts works with experienced psychometricians (testing experts with a background in statistics) to determine the level of performance that corresponds with minimal competence in that discipline. This becomes the passing score.

46. Determining Passing Scores • NCEES • does not publish passing scores because they change with each administration. • scores each exam without predetermined % of examinees that should pass or fail. • All exams are scored the same way.

47. Determining Passing Scores • Diagnostics are applied • Unfair problems are eliminated • Possibility of multiple correct answers • Score determined after “bad” problems are eliminated • First-time takers and repeat takers are graded to the same standard.

48. National Pass Rates

49. National Pass Rates PM General Exam

50. What If You Do Not Pass? • Take it again • Exam is offered twice a year • Review and study for the next time • use “diagnostic report” to focus your study • No adverse information is placed on your record