r/civilengineering • u/Equivalent-Pound-441 • 1d ago

Fe Exam

Currently studying for my FE exam, I've been studying 2 hours a day for 2 weeks now is that enough? I've also only studied the exam prep on NCEES is that enough? I'm genuinely really scared since it's a 5-hour-long exam. I've never done anything like that before, and I also experience anxiety when taking exams as well. Any advice?

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u/nuetrolizer_98 22h ago

I wish I can auto-reply this comment to every user taking the FE Civil:

Plz watch Mar Mattson's youtube videos and DirectHub's. Both really drilled concepts and unique problems to practice. I'm sure there are other fabulous FE channels that others can suggest; but for me praimrily, I used ythese two and they helped so much.

The FE DirectHub subscription is also pretty great, if u have enough for a 1 or 3 month subscription.

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u/MrSmiley_1 Bridge EI 18h ago

lol that is kinda what I did. I watched the Mark Matteo videos and then took the practice exam. After I scored it I looked up “will I pass the FE if I scored an x on the practice exam” and people said yes. And I did pass.

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u/nuetrolizer_98 15h ago

Awesome. It's kinda scary (in a good way) how MM's concepts on his vids were consistently throughout the exam. Did u also end up passing the 8 hour exam?

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u/Sensitive-Ruin0822 23h ago

What worked for me was at least working on a 100 item practice problem a day since those strengthen the concepts of what I’m studying. Once you get a hang of those, like knowing why the formulas are used, what to use, you’re basically good to go. Plus the questions given in the exam weren’t computation heavy that you have to do a one page computation, you may even have an extra time at the end of the exam. Goodluck on your FE, hope everything goes smoothly!!

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u/fitemebtch 22h ago

It depends if you understand the concepts well, I knew people in my senior year who only studied for a week and passed it since everything is still fresh. But if you've been out of school for awhile you might wanna give yourself more time to study. I watched all Mark Mattson's videos and did his practice exams, I also used PrepFE to study, I'd say the actual questions from FE exams are pretty close to it. Best of luck!

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u/Beck943 18h ago

First, be glad you didn't need to take the 8-hour version given only twice a year (I did 😜)!

You don't mention how far out of school you are, or if you're in school.

If you're out of school a few years, I would suggest studying at least a couple of months, a couple days a week, so you retain info better. 

If you're still in school or a recent graduate, most of the exam material is relatively fresh so you might not need that long to study.

Get familiar with the FE reference material you'll have in the exam. Know where to find each set of reference equations.

And as a general suggestion:  Go through the entire exam and only answer questions you know how to do right away. Get those "easy" points first.  Then go back and try to at least eliminate wrong answers from the questions you'd skipped. Then try to solve those questions.

When you're down to the last 10 minutes, finish your last problem, and if you'd left any blanks, guess at those last few questions. 

If you're that close that guessing will get you an extra point or two, no questions about suggesting that.