Are you Optimizing to pass your FE exam?

Not all exams are created equal. If you’re still in school or have been out of school for a while, think of those midterm or final college exams. What approach did you take when studying for these exams? How did you optimize your performance when preparing for these exams? What questions did you ask your professor to better gauge what you need to focus on when practicing for these exams?

If we deeply think about these midterm or final college exams, one conclusion we can draw is this: we are optimizing for the highest score possible. We would constantly nag the professor with this question, “will this be on the test?”. We wanted to know exactly what would be tested on the exam to better guide our study strategy…… Did the professor say what type of questions would be asked? What parts did the professor emphasize? Do we have exams from previous years? All of this is useful in determining what the upcoming tests will be like.

Now here comes the FE exam..

Unlike those engineering college exams, we’re used to, the FE exam isn’t about getting the highest score possible. Many students fall into a trap by studying for the FE just like they would study for their college exams. This often leads to burnout, frustration, and an ineffective study routine that’s not aligned with the actual exam day conditions.

First of all, remember that the FE exam is graded on a pass/fail system. Since each test is a bit different (eg. FE Civil, FE Mechanical, FE Electrical, etc.), the NCEES doesn’t publish the score needed to pass. No one really knows what the passing score is, and we shouldn’t bother fixating on this score.

We should optimize for a pass/fail environment and not an environment where we want to get the highest score possible. The crucial thing to remember is to do your best and to let go of any desire to get that “A” score. Setting this benchmark isn’t a good use of your effort.

Rather, focus on passing with a healthy margin. Focus on doing “good enough” by setting realistic performance goals that will get you through a 5-hour and 20-minute exam while confidently answering the majority of the problems using your own problem-solving toolbox.

Now that we’ve determined the big picture strategy for optimizing for the FE exam, we need to narrow down the list of resources that will allow us to develop the mindset, endurance, and problem-solving skills to hit that passing score with confidence.

Hands down, the best strategy is to focus on high-quality practice questions, practice quizzes, and full-length practice exams. Don’t wait too long before doing practice problems. Study the basic concept during your content review stage, but afterwards, make sure to test yourself by doing a lot of timed practice problems. Practice problems provide the immediate feedback you need to assess your weaknesses while also forcing you to engage in active learning. The key to rapid improvement is using relevant practice problems. This also means reviewing all the questions, even the ones you get correct.

As your exam date approaches, shift a huge chunk of your time towards doing practice exams and reviewing them. Let’s say 90% of your time should be allocated to doing practice exams, while the other 10% is allocated to reviewing/learning new content. It is critical that you understand the question styling, pacing, and what the real exam will be like.

If you complete a high volume of these questions with proper technique and attention, you won’t only learn the crucial problem-solving skills but also build your endurance and your problem recognition when it’s time to solve FE questions that might be asked on exam day.

If you’re exploring FE exam resources, remember that going through more resources and materials isn’t necessarily better. Prioritize getting through all of the high-quality practice questions and practice tests with enough time to get through every question and review each and every one. This is exactly how my course is designed: to expose your problem-solving techniques, practice quizzes, and a full-length practice exam. This is the only resource you need and the only practice problem-based course that will absolutely sharpen up your problem-solving skills to tackle all kinds of FE problems on exam day.