Mechanical vs General FE exam

[Vaporware]

I am determining how to pursue the FE exam, but I have heard that I shouldn't (as a mechanical engineer) take the Mechanical FE, I should take the General FE which is easier in the mechanical aspect but more diverse. Would the choice between these two affect my ability to take the PE in a few years? I haven't found any good info about this process in my research.

 

[jpankask]

Your choice of FE exam does not affect taking the PE exam. All that matters is that you have passed the FE. Good luck!

 

[Vaporware]

Thanks!

 

[JTMcQ]

That was the exact recommendation of the departement at my alma mater.

 

[Jabberwocky]

I decided (on the fly) that the general exam sounded easier. I stand by my decision, I've been working but not in any kind of thermodynamics capacity, and that seemed to be the majority of the 'mechanical' section. The General section did have more 'general' things, like some stuff from way back in Calc II, but I think it was worth it.

It's not even registered on your certificate which you chose.

 

[HVACctrl]

We were told to do the general FE as well. I don't recall if that was handed on by other students or if one of the faculty actually endorsed the idea.

I did the general as suggested and passed first try. I do recall a guy from work (who was also a student taking the FE) commenting that he thought it strange for us to take the general exam. It worked for us.

I'm now getting ready for the PE test. FE test choice had no relevance whatsoever. In fact it never even came up. I doubt they even have the records anymore.

Ed

 

[ischgl99]

It won't make a difference as to your scoring or for the PE, but it will make a difference as to what you are stronger in. If you are stronger in the general subjects like math, then that might be the way to go. I took the mechanical FE portion and had a lot of thermo questions, I studied more of the machine design area, but did pass on the first try, multiple guess is a nice advantage.

The way I looked at it was I would be taking the mechanical PE exam, so might as well take the mechanical FE and get a good taste for the questions asked. I also found the FE to be the harder of the two, I was surprised at how easy I thought the PE exam was in comparison.

 

[Vaporware]

Thanks for all the good advise, guys.

 

[zdas04]

The point that drove me to the general afternoon session is that you have to study the general stuff for the morning anyway and to then start a detailed mechanical course of study for the afternoon seemed stupid.

Good luck.

David

 

[StressGuy]

How long has this been going on? I must confess, I don't even remember there being a choice back when I took the FE - 1995. I thought we all took the same test. Of course, I haven't thought or cared about it in a long, long, long time.

Edward L. Klein
Pipe Stress Engineer
Houston, Texas

"All the world is a Spring"

All opinions expressed here are my own and not my company's.

 

[zdas04]

It was pretty new in 2000 when I took it. Then in 2002 they went to the multiple-choice PE with the test I took (fall).

David

 

[HgTX]

I took the FE in 1996, and that was the first year they had the choice.

For me, it was a complete no-brainer of a choice. I'd been out of school and come back, so all that math and physics was ancient history, while the stuff in my own discipline was freshly learned. So I took the discipline-specific exam. In civil engineering you can get away without knowing the finer points of math & physics, so by taking the CivE afternoon test, I didn't have to bone up so much on the general stuff. Some of my classmates chose general because they were afraid of the discipline-specific material, and then complained because of the depth of the math & physics they found on the general.

For ME, you may very well have to know all the math & physics to that depth anyway just to do the ME problems. I don't know.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies: faq731-376

 

[prost]

Just checked out the

http://www.ncees.org/exams/fundamentals/

website. NCEES is the US organization that regulates all of the PE/FE exams I have taken. For reference, the FE exam is the first, more general exam everyone needs to take; the PE exam is the more specific one you take that allows you to call yourself a Professional Engineer. I took my FE exam long enough in the distant past that it was called the EIT. I too thought there was no difference for all FE takers; after looking at the ncees.org website, it appears that there are still two sessions, morning and afternoon. Morning session, everyone takes the same exam. In the afternoon, there are several, more specific exams (they are called 'modules'): chemical, civil, electrical, environmental, industrial, mechanical and other/general. I suppose you take whichever one you think you are most likely to pass!

Does it matter to any employer which you take, as long as you pass it? I personally don't know. It does make a difference which specific PE exam you take if you have to affix your PE stamp to any documents. Personally, though a PE, I've never affixed my stamp to anything, I just don't work in a place that requires it.

 

[zdas04]

It is pass/fail scoring for the entire exam. If you fail either section, you fail the test. The scoring system is very arcane and the raw score on either section is meaningless in an absolute sense (passing one time may be 65% and the next it is a raw score of 75%), they manipulate the numbers so that it looks like a particular score will "always" be passing, but it is too weird to be believed.

Bottom line is that if you pass both the general morning session and any afternoon session you have passed and can call yourself an EIT. NCEES doesn't provide any information beyond pass/fail to anyone but you.

David

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

http://www.muleshoe-eng.com

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