FE & PE exam guides
Straight answers about the NCEES exams (difficulty, pass rates, study plans, and exam-day strategy) with no email wall and no fluff.
Do you need a prep course to pass the FE or PE?
Nothing in NCEES's rules asks for one, and the handbook is free. What a course adds, who gains from one, and a ten-problem test to run before paying anyone.
Read the guideFailed the PE exam? Plan the retake from your report
One attempt per testing window, three in any 12 months. Repeat pass rates for the PE exams we cover, what the NCEES diagnostic report shows, and a free planner built from it.
Read the guidePE references: who can sign, and when
The NCEES rule asks for five people to vouch for your engineering, three of them licensed, and the application waits for the slowest. Then the rule board by board.
Read the guideHow to prepare for the PE Mechanical HVAC exam
A twelve-week plan built on what NCEES publishes: the question range behind each knowledge area, the one on-screen handbook, and six minutes a question.
Read the guideWhich FE exam should you take? Other Disciplines vs your major
FE Other Disciplines ties for the lowest first-time pass rate of the seven FE exams, not the highest, and half of it is mechanics. All seven compared on the published specifications.
Read the guideHow hard is the PE Civil exam? Structural vs Transportation vs Water Resources
NCEES's own pass rates for all five PE Civil depths, what each specification actually weights, and how to pick your depth from the numbers rather than the folklore.
Read the guideNCEES pass rates for the FE and PE exams
NCEES first-time and repeat pass rates for every FE and PE exam in NCEES Squared 2025 (FY2024-25), with examinee counts and the exact reporting period. One sourced table instead of half-remembered numbers.
Read the guideFE exam cost, format and scheduling
$225 to NCEES is the only fee anyone can publish honestly. What the six-hour appointment actually contains, and why the four testing windows are not exam dates.
Read the guideThe PE Civil Transportation exam
Geometric design carries 30 to 40 of the 80 questions against traffic engineering's 20 to 30, and Drainage is exactly as large as Horizontal Design.
Read the guideThe PE Civil Water Resources and Environmental exam
Its largest knowledge area is Project Sitework, not hydraulics. By the NCEES specification's own ranges, 20 to 30 of the 80 questions are not water engineering at all.
Read the guideHow to document your PE experience
Boards want progressive engineering experience verified by people who can still be found. What counts, how many years your state asks for, and why the record is built as you go rather than the week you apply.
Read the guideHow hard is the FE Electrical and Computer exam?
64% pass first time (fourth of seven), and that is the least interesting thing about it. Seventeen knowledge areas spanning two professions, where most candidates are fluent in half the exam.
Read the guideHow hard is the FE Mechanical exam?
The highest first-time pass rate of the seven FE disciplines, at 69%. Why that is less reassuring than it sounds, and which knowledge areas mechanical engineers reliably underestimate.
Read the guideHow hard is the FE Civil exam?
The most-taken FE exam is also tied for the lowest first-time pass rate, at 61%. Fourteen knowledge areas, under three minutes a question, and wrong answers that are the right answer to a slightly different problem.
Read the guideHow hard is the FE Environmental exam?
67% of first-time takers pass, third-highest of the seven FE disciplines. Why that number is more encouraging than it should be, and what the exam actually asks of you.
Read the guideFE Electrical practice problems: the math is the exam
Three FE Electrical and Computer practice problems worked in full (an RC corner frequency, an aliased tone, an inverting op-amp), and why mathematics ties for the largest knowledge area on this exam and on no other FE exam.
Read the guideFE Chemical practice problems: the specialist FE exam
Three FE Chemical practice problems worked in full (an evaporator balance, Fick's law, percent overshoot), and the four knowledge areas no other FE exam lists.
Read the guideFE Other Disciplines practice problems: breadth, no depth
Three FE Other Disciplines practice problems worked in full (beam reactions, pH, a time-weighted exposure average), and why it is the only FE exam with both a statics and a chemistry knowledge area.
Read the guideFE Mechanical practice problems: one dropped factor
Three FE Mechanical practice problems worked in full (von Mises, Fourier conduction, bending stress), and why each of the nine wrong answers traces to one mishandled term, constant or quantity.
Read the guideFE Environmental practice problems: it is a water exam
Three FE Environmental practice problems worked in full (rational method, continuity, Darcy), and why four of the fifteen knowledge areas are water, and up to 46% of the exam.
Read the guideFE Civil practice problems: what the exam actually asks
Three FE Civil practice problems worked in full (horizontal curve length, traverse area by coordinates, total float), and why the hardest wrong answers are other correct properties of the same figure.
Read the guidePE Power exam: what the problems actually look like
Three PE Power practice problems, fully worked, plus the six codes and standards NCEES supplies in the exam, and why one of these questions is not in the handbook at all.
Read the guidePE HVAC exam: what the problems actually look like
Three PE HVAC practice problems, fully worked, and why every wrong answer on this exam is an engineered mistake rather than a random number.
Read the guideHow hard is the PE Power exam?
The lowest first-time pass rate of any PE depth most engineers take: 58%. What NCEES's data says, why prepared engineers fail it, and how to prepare.
Read the guideHow hard is the PE Mechanical HVAC exam?
One of the friendlier PE depths at 74% first time. Its topic weighting, straight from the NCEES specification: equipment, not psychrometrics, is the biggest block.
Read the guideFailed the FE exam? Here is what actually works next
You are one of roughly 16,500 engineers a year who retake the FE. The retake rules, how to read your NCEES diagnostic report, and a free retake planner built from it.
Read the guideHow long should you study for the FE exam?
NCEES publishes no official study-time guidance. Here is a realistic answer, plus how to budget your hours using the exam's published question weights.
Read the guideHow hard is the FE exam?
NCEES's own pass rates by discipline, why prepared engineers still fail, and a study plan that matches how the exam actually works.
Read the guideReady to practice? Every guide pairs with a full question bank, mock exams, and an AI tutor. See all 11 exams we cover.