Getting to Know the Mechanical FE Exam

FE exam is the first test you must pass on your path to become a licensed professional engineer. You have the best chances of passing the Fundamentals of Engineering exam by getting to know the exam.

Who administers the FE exam?

The Fundamentals of Engineering examination is administered by the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying or NCEES. It is the national nonprofit organization responsible for conducting the examination across the United States.

All examinees are required to read the NCEES Examinee Guide available here https://ncees.org/exams/examinee-guide. The exams are offered all year round, but you can only take the exam once in each of the four test windows. The four test windows are January-March, April-June, July-September and October-December. To register for the exam, you have to create a MyNCEES account.

The FE exam is discipline-specific and differs for each discipline but the format of all examinations is split into two sessions of 55 questions each (total 110 multiple-choice questions).The total exam time is 5 hours and 20 minutes, which results in 2.9 minutes per problem.

While taking the FE exam you can use the NCEES handbook which is displayed on the computer screen side-by-side the questions, an approved calculator and the provided scratch paper and pencils.

Approved Calculators

The following are approved calculators for the 2018 NCEES exam.

Casio FX-115 and FX-991 (all models)

Hewlett Packard HP-33 and HP-35, no other models

Texas Instrument TI-30X and TI-36X (all models)

The TI-36X Pro is the most popular.

What is the required passing score for the Mechanical Fundamentals of Engineering exam?

FE exam scoring system does not deduct marks for incorrect answers and your final score is based on the total number of correct answers. There is no absolute passing score made public by the NCEES and the raw scores are adjusted slightly and then the final scores are scaled. You receive your pass/fail result in about 7 to 10 days.

You should aim to get a 60% or higher on the exam in order to pass the exam.

What reference material is allowed during the FE exam?

Only the NCEES FE Reference Handbook is allowed in the FE exam. You can either purchase a hard copy from the NCEES website or download a free pdf version from your MyNCEES account. On the day of the actual exam, you will be provided with a searchable pdf on a computer.

I would recommend studying from the pdf since this is the most like the actual exam, where you will be able to use the search function (CTRL+F).

This is the only resource you need during the exam and many of the exam problems can be solved with the equations, formulas, constants and information within the PDF. You should be able to quickly navigate this PDF and you should know where all the materials relevant to the Mechanical FE exam are located. Some of the relevant materials may be in the civil section, while most are in the mechanical sections.

The Mechanical Fundamentals of Engineering exam requires a lot of practice. The study material available with Engproguides helps you strategize how to study for the Mechanical FE exam.