How to Pass the P.E. Licensing Exams
By Dennis Dahlquist, P.E.
It’s licensing exam time again and time to review some strategies for passing the Professional Engineering examinations (Fundamentals of Engineering, FE and Professional Engineer, PE).  This author teaches review courses for the Fundamentals of Engineering, FE (formerly known as the Engineering In Training examination, EIT) and the Electrical Engineering Professional Engineering Exam, EE PE.  The following are some of the strategies that many people have found useful in taking the exams.

If you are interested in taking the Professional Engineering exams, contact the California Board of Engineers and Land Surveyors (or the State Board of the state in which you want to be licensed).  Also, refer to National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) web site, http://www.ncees.org.  You may also consider taking a review course before the exam. Check around, there are many for the FE and some for the PE’s (CE, ME, EE, etc.). Two of the best organizations for successful study for the exams are; Professional Engineering Institute for review courses and Professional Publications Inc. for review books.

These examinations require review.  They are not to be taken lightly. The Board has the latest data on the previous exams; however the pass rates (number of people passing) are in the range of 20% ~ 50%.  This varies from exam to exam and year to year.  The Board can give you the pass rates for the last five years.

The exams are not easy and this is by design.  The exams are compiled by engineers, psychologists, and professional exam writers.  The key point here is that the exam is a multi-level test of one's engineering ability.  To pass the exam you must engineer your way to the exam and through the exam.  You engineer your way to the exam by studying and reviewing the necessary material, and engineer your way through the exam by using good engineering technique.

Exam Format
The Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) is a multiple-choice, closed-book test and is the first of the licensing series.  It includes a morning of general engineering problems and is followed by the afternoon section where you have your choice of a general or discipline specific exam.  The second test of the series, The Professional Engineer exam, is discipline specific.  It is also a multiple choice, open-book exam with a combination of breath (morning) and depth (afternoon) of the discipline.  You qualify to take this exam after passing the FE and completing some years as a practicing engineer. 

Becoming a P.E. (short version)
Acquire a good education, a Bachelors (BS) or a Masters (MS) engineering degree from an ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) accredited school.  This will save you some qualifying time for the exams.  Take the FE while you are finishing school (if not, take a review course tailored for people who have been out of school for some time).  Work in your discipline for the number of years required by the Board (this varies based upon education and discipline) and take the PE exam in your discipline.  Upon passing the exam you are now a Consulting Engineer or also known as a Licensed Professional Engineer (and you can now legally put P.E. after your name).

OK, you signed up for the exam (or are about to).  How do you engineer your way to the exam?  Seek out review courses near you.  Find others who are planning to take the exam and form a study group.  Work problems, problems, problems.  Obviously, you have other obligations.  However, you want to make a commitment to yourself to pass this exam.  Set up a schedule for studying.  You are preparing yourself for a mental marathon.  Just as you wouldn't try to run 26 miles without training for it, you can't expect to pass the exams without studying.  The more problems you work, the better.  However, you don't want to do just the problems you like.  As a matter of fact, you want to do the opposite of that, do the problems you don't like.  Engineers are usually called in when there are problems and it has not been done before, chaos.  As soon as the engineer applies order to chaos, the job is done and it is time for the engineer to go.  So, for the poor engineer who likes order, one keeps finding chaos.  My, that was a long justification for working problems you don't like.

Materials You Will Need
When working practice problems in preparation for the exam; use the same materials that you will be using on the exam, calculator(s) and reference book(s).  You want to be very familiar with your tools.  Reference books:  For the FE your reference book will be provided to you (so prior to the exam you want to be familiar with it).   The PE is open book, so you can take what you want.  But, you had best know the references you are planning to take into the exam, because there is no time during the exam to read books.  Calculators:  No computers are currently allowed during the exam.  However, you can take in some programmable calculators.  These days there is a blur between calculators and computers.  As far as the examiners are concerned, anything that has a "typewriter type" of keyboard and/or communication capability will probably not be allowed on the exam.  For the current rules on what is acceptable, refer to your state board.

Exam Preparation and Performance
While you are doing your practice problems, try to not use you calculator very much.  "What do you mean?  This is Engineering; you HAVE to use the calculator!"...you might say.  However, remember that the exam is a test of your engineering ability, not how well you use a calculator.  This is an engineering exam not a math test.  Calculator time is "dead" time.  Every time you use your calculator it is time you are not spending "thinking" about (engineering) the problem at hand.  Yes, you will need use your calculator, just to use it wisely.  How does one calculate with out using a calculator?  Use you brain, it is much faster!  For example, what is the common log of 1000?  Before you reach for your calculator, think about it.  What is the power of ten representation of 1000?  1000 is ten to the third power.  What is the log of 1000, 3!  See you can do it without a calculator.  Fine you say, but what about the log of 2,354?  Well, you can come up with a close approximation of 2,354.  You know the log of 1,000 is 3 and the log of 10,000 is 4, so the log of 2,354 is between 3 and 4, and closer to 3.  This may be enough information to isolate an answer in a multiple-choice question.

Try to check your answers as much as possible.  I realize that you are under time restrictions; however, you want to at least estimate your answer.  Under the, "stress of test" you can hit extra keys on the calculator (or maybe make a calculation error) and by mentally estimating or doing an alternate solution, you will be able to catch these errors.

Study hard and study well.  You want to practice exam conditions when solving the practice problems.  This means you probably will not have a TV (or computer) during the exam, so don't study with the TV.  On the other hand, you probably will not have a completely quiet and isolated room either, so study accordingly.

Just before the exam, get two good nights of sleep.  This is not to imply that you sleep for 16 hours before the exam that will create another set of problems.  It seems that today's society is run by a lot of people under sleep deprivation and you want a useful rested brain on the exam.

Don't cram before the exam.  This may have worked in college, but it doesn't work well for the Professional Engineering exam.  Being rested for the exams is very important.  You will know a lot of information for the exam if you have studied along the way.  However, it will be of no use to you if your brain is asleep on the exam day.

Strategies During the Exam
You want to develop a plan for the exam.  One I recommend is to read the exam.  Read through all the questions and classify them into; "easy", "will require some work", and "I don't know ".  This should take 10 - 20 minutes, depending on the exam and you.  Implement your plan.  The easy ones you might answer during the first pass through as you read them; however, watch the time.  Don't spend all of your time on the problem(s) you like.  Get them done as soon as possible.  You are going to have to spend your time on the others, i.e., the ones you don't like as much.  If the whole exam is easy for you, great, do it and go home.  For most people, there aren’t enough of the "easy" problems for them to pass the exam (otherwise the pass rates would be higher).

On the "will require some work" problems, don't spend your time completely calculating the problems.  A natural human reaction is to start at the beginning and serially move to the end.  You don't have time for that.  Check as you are calculating, to see if you have enough information to isolate the answer.  For multiple-choice questions, if two answers are correct and there is a selection for "all", select it and go on.  Don't take the time to prove to yourself all the answers are correct.  Use the answers from multiple choice to back calculate, this can save you time.  You need to be efficient with your time. 

By reading the "I don't know" problems again, you may discover that they can be moved into the category of "may require some work".  If not, do some intelligent guessing.  If you find yourself in a problem and it just looks too hard, remind yourself that you are not "looking" at it correctly.  This helps in two main ways.  One way is that this will cause you to re-look at the problem and there may be something you missed.  The second way is more of a psychological help.   If you think it is too hard for you, you may convince yourself and give up.  Don't give up; just look at it differently.  That is the main point of being an engineer.  Don't give up; try another way.  That's what being an engineer is all about...trying until you find a solution.  The people who give up are not engineers (and they can't pass the exam).  The people who do are the engineers.

Summary Check List
Before the exam:

  • Check with the Board for an Application and current requirements for the exams.
  • Develop a plan for the exam.  How are you going to engineer your way to and through the exam?  One specialty area is not enough to pass the exam.
  • Study for the exam, take a review course, and/or form a study group.
  • Familiarize yourself with your calculator and reference materials.
  • Plan on being fully rested for the exam.

On the exam:

  • Read all the problems and sort by difficulty.
  • Estimate as much as possible.
  • Make efficient use of the calculator and your time.
  • Keep in mind, if it looks too hard you are not looking at it correctly.
  • Check the answers; make sure your answer is the answer to the question asked. 

Good Luck, on your path to becoming a professional engineer!

Other sources of information:

Dennis Dahlquist, P.E is a consulting engineer in California.  He teaches Electrical Engineering and general Engineering courses at California State University, Sacramento.  He also teaches review courses for the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) and Electrical Engineering (EEPE) licensing exams.  He can be reached by email at: d.dahlquist@ieee.org, and on the Web at:  http://gaia.ecs.csus.edu/~dahlquid.