Are You Ready to Pass the Mechanical PE Exam? Here is What it Takes

The Principles and Practice of Engineering (PE) Exam is different from what you have seen with the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) Exam. The PE Exam is much more practical, focusing on actual engineering scenarios that you may encounter in your career and industry. You need to be able to make decisions and be mindful of allocating your time differently for each question. Some questions you will see and immediately know the answer, while other questions require some thought and longer process steps. Remember, that it is okay to take a little longer with certain questions; the key is to stay cool and recognize that you do not need to solve out every questions and attain a perfect score to pass the PE Exam.

There is a "Cut Score" which determines your Pass/Fail result (similar to the FE Exam, there is no true letter grade or percentage assigned to you). I believe the PE Exam is also relevant towards current industry events, so you should see the PE Exam as an opportunity to learn, not a hurdle that you must overcome. By studying and learning you will find the PE Exam to be a much more fruitful experience, and that is how you can reach the next level. Since you need Licensed PE References, you should chat with those individuals about their study habits and methodology. I found the PE Exam to be more about becoming familiar with the subject matter and knowing where to find specific reference information, rather than trying to memorize certain equations and process steps. Many of the topics overlap and all mix together, so you may notice hints within questions. Remember too, that the PE Exam questions must be realistic; if you are using parameters such as the density of water and Earth's gravity, then the other parameters and solutions must also be realistic. You may even encounter a question or two where you can immediately identify the solution based on the most realistic answer choice. The Mechanical PE Exam is entirely multiple choice, so you are not being graded directly on your methodology and showing your work on scratch paper; you need to demonstrate that you can approach an engineering situation appropriately for the good of public welfare.

You should not dwell or ruminate over certain questions you may not fully understand. I passed the Chemical FE, so when I saw questions from the Morning General section on Mechanics of Materials, I was certainly taken aback! There is a good chance that many other candidates in the exam room are encountering similar questions, but you should focus solely on playing your own game. I would recommend taking the first couple minutes to look through the exam before starting on the first question; this will give you a better idea of how the exam will flow, from the one topic to the next. You can make mental notes of which topics you will need for certain questions. Fluid Mechanics covers flow, and you will need to be in control of your own pace and flow during the PE Exam!

Become familiar with your Unit Conversions; many questions can be systematically solved by cancelling out units and understanding the unit convention. You will need to co-exist with the different unit systems (e.g., SI, U.S. Customary). Different equations can be used to solve for different parameters, such as heat transfer (Q). The "Q" value can be obtained from different methods, so always be on the lookout for another angle. There is no universal study habit or equation that solves every question.

Preparation is vital. I do feel that most failures and incidents occur due to a lack of preparation. This applies not just to the PE Exam, but also holds true for the engineering industry. It is true that many workplace and accidents could have been avoided if there was better planning and preparation. Be sure that you are taking the time to prepare so that you feel good about the upcoming examination. Again, it is not just about passing the PE Exam, so you have the licensed credentials; it is also an excellent opportunity to learn and expand your knowledge.

About the Author: Gregory Nicosia

Gregory Nicosia, PE is an engineer who has been practicing in the industry for eight years. His background includes natural gas, utilities, mechanical, and civil engineering. He earned his chemical engineering undergraduate degree at Drexel University (2014) and master's in business administration (MBA) from Penn State Harrisburg (2018). He received his EIT designation in 2014 and PE license in 2018. Mr. Nicosia firmly believes in continuing to grow his skillset to become a more well-rounded engineer and adapt to an ever-changing world.

Civil Engineering Subdisciplines

Engineering consists of applying math and science to real-world problems and building solutions to those problems. Civil engineering specifically solves problems in our infrastructure and environment. Although most people think of roads, bridges, and skyscrapers in relation to civil engineering, there are far more applications that I will briefly describe in this piece.

Construction engineers are responsible for planning and executing designs. They spend time scheduling and managing employees or subcontractors to make sure that work is completed correctly, on time, and under budget. Construction engineers require a strong grasp of other fields of civil engineering in order to not only find possible conflicts in designs but also confirm that the final product is both functional and safe.

Geotechnical engineers design foundations, dams, retaining walls, bridge abutments, road subgrades, and other earthen works. This field is computation heavy; the equations that geotechnical engineers use to calculate stresses, settlements, and other soil properties can be complex. Further complicating the matter, knowing the exact parameters of the worksite and underlying ground is nearly impossible; it just isn't feasible to analyze an entire construction site to know what the soil conditions are like all the way to the bedrock. To gain information about the site, geotechnical engineers drill bore holes, pull samples from them for laboratory testing, and send various investigative instruments down into the holes. If you want to work in a math-heavy field where no two jobs are the same, this subdiscipline of engineering may be for you.

Structural engineers design the skeletons of buildings, bridges, antennas, and other constructions. They design each piece of a building's frame to be strong enough to hold up the structure itself as well as live loads such as occupants, cars, wind, earthquakes, or, in the case of a dam, thousands of tons of water. Structural engineering is another computation-heavy discipline. The size, weight, and strength of each part of a building affect its surrounding parts, so calculating and recalculating are usually done by specialized software to ease the mathematical workload of balancing loads, cost, and strength.

Transportation engineers design our transportation infrastructure including local roads, highway interchanges, timing of traffic signals, railroads, placement of bus stops, and more. This broad category can range from math-heavy tasks like predicting traffic flows or designing for adequate stopping distance of increasingly distracted drivers to the field work of traffic counts. This discipline can also include management duties like operating a city's public transit system.

Hydrologic engineers design systems that provide for the movement of water and containment of waste and pollutants. Focuses could include drinking water treatment and distribution networks, sewers and sewage treatment, and stormwater collection and distribution systems including canals and detention ponds. Hydrologic engineers also evaluate the environmental impact of other projects; for example, the effect that a dam will have on surrounding aquatic life or the effects of coal ash storage onsite after power production. This field uses math and chemistry and involves a mix of desk and field work.

There are many other types of civil engineering such as coastal engineering and urban engineering that use elements of each of the subdisciplines I described in this blog. For more information on civil engineering and its many different subdisciplines, check out the American Society of Civil Engineers' home page at www.asce.org/.

About the Author: Zane Hartzog

Zane Hartzog is a 2012 graduate of Auburn University's Samuel Ginn College of Engineering and a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Alabama. Zane is the Hot Mix Asphalt and Liquid Asphalt Specifications and Special Projects Engineer at Alabama Department of Transportation where he has been working since 2013. He is currently enrolled in a Graduate Certificate Program in Pavement Materials. Zane and his wife Kasey live near Montgomery Alabama.

Your experience taking the exam (FE and PE exams)

My personal experience with the FE and PE exams was quite challenging. I hope that by sharing my story, I encourage others in similar situations to pursue the road less travelled.

I graduated from college with a chemical engineering degree, and after working in that sector for a year, I transitioned to the environmental engineering field. As soon as I joined an environmental consulting firm, I was faced with the choice to pursue the PE license by taking the FE exam. It took me 3 years to come to the decision to study for the FE exam. The reasons being:

• Studying would take time away from my personal and work life. I had a 1-year-old son, and other than my spouse, I had little support.
• Four years had passed since I'd been in school.
• I would have to learn environmental engineering topics from scratch.
• Figuring out whether environmental engineering would be my career path.

Knowing that a PE license could set me apart and make me a more confident engineer, I decided to give it a shot.

Taking an online course would optimize my studying strategy - so I signed up with the School of PE for a 3-month long weekend FE course. I must admit that it was pretty daunting that most of the topics were completely new for me. But it was also comforting to know that the FE course was all encompassing, which meant that if I studied all the chapters in the course, I would be fine. Outside of the 6-hour long weekend classes, I committed to studying 2 hours before work each day, and 1 hour during lunch break. I did lots of practice problems which helped me understand concepts better. I focused on topics that weighted more heavily in the exam. I did two practice exams a week before the exam and went through a third exam the day before the exam.

Exam day was surreal to me. I had this adrenalin rush which helped me focus on the computer screen and answer questions during the exam. I was trained in my FE course to quickly skip through questions I did not know and first answer questions that I was comfortable with. The downside of that was that I spent time reading through questions, before skipping ones I didn't know right away, which ate up time during the exam. A lot of questions were plug and chug for me, meaning if you searched for key words and found the relevant formula in the handbook, you were all set. In the last 8 minutes of the exam, I still had 18 unanswered questions. I quickly went over them and made the best engineering assumptions to answer those questions, without having to actually solve them.

My experience studying for the PE exam was better. I took the PE exam only a year after my FE exam, so a lot of the concepts were still fresh in my mind. I modeled my studying around what I had done for the FE exam. I opted to take the recorded version of the School of PE course, which still allowed me to reach out to instructors with questions. I listened to the recorded lectures several times to prepare. I recall spending a good 4 months studying for the PE exam. There were times when I felt I wasn't ready. I took three practice exams the week of the exam and did a lot of practice problems in the weeks leading up to the exam. Ideally, you would want to take these exams well ahead of time. On exam day, adrenalin rush made me focus for those 8 long hours. The exam questions were very similar to what my PE course had prepared me for, which was very helpful. I was getting tired near the end of the exam, and when I wanted to give up and move on, I thought of all the sacrifices my family had made to reach this point. I came out of the exam, feeling unsure, and thinking I would have to re-take it. I passed.

Studying for the FE and PE exams were hard, but attainable. Taking the exam made me better at my job - I look at every project from an ethical and safety standpoint. It also feels great to have a P.E. designation after my name! Good luck on your journey to becoming a licensed P.E.!

What Is Civil Engineering and What Do Civil Engineers Do?

Civil Engineering is a very broad career field. Disciplines within Civil Engineering include transportation, structural, environmental, geotechnical, traffic, utilities, and more. In short, Civil Engineers solve problems and work to make the world a better place through the built environment.

Civil Engineers design and manage the construction and maintenance of the built environment. Whether involving bridges, roadways, buildings, utilities, rivers and streams, dams and water supply, or other aspects of the built environment, Civil Engineers have a significant role. Public safety and stewardship are two of the most important facets of Civil Engineering.

Public sector Civil Engineers work for government organizations at the federal, state, or local level, and may also include tribal governments and the military. Quasi-governmental organizations such as metropolitan planning organizations may also employ civil engineers.

Private sector Civil Engineers usually work for engineering firms but may also work for land development companies or private utility companies. Employers may also include organizations such as universities or large corporations that have infrastructure assets they manage.

Public sector Civil Engineers usually manage the design, construction, and maintenance of roads, bridges, and government-operated utilities. Work may also include review of proposed building developments in their jurisdiction. Often, this work falls into a project management role, where the government agency will hire design engineering firms to perform engineering design and construction firms to build or maintain the improvements. Sometimes public sector Engineers will perform the design themselves. Because of the project management nature, engineers spend a lot of time managing and reviewing budgets, schedules, construction documents (plans and specifications), local design guidelines, federal or state requirements and contract documents. It is common for public sector Civil Engineers to be working on several projects at once and working with different teams on each project. Although many project management roles can be performed by non-engineers, it is important to have a strong working knowledge of engineering best practices for the proper review of design and construction documents.

Private sector Civil Engineers usually work for engineering firms ranging from small, local firms to large, global firms. These firms provide services ranging from performing studies, developing designs, or managing construction. Two common clients of these firms are government agencies or private developers. Firms are often hired on a project-specific basis to perform engineering services but may be retained for services on an as-needed basis. The firm will staff a project with the engineering and non-engineering people needed to successfully deliver the project, often including design engineers, project managers, environmental scientists, architects, landscape architects, inspectors and material testers. Private sector engineers are often working on several projects at once and working with different teams at the same time. In recent months, it has become more common to be working on teams spread across the country or globe.

For a Civil Engineer working at a city government, a typical workload may include two or three roadway improvement projects being designed, bridge inventory asset management, and one or two roadway projects in construction. The design projects will involve meetings with design consultants to get project updates and direct the consultants on design decisions, managing the project budget to ensure delivery within the money available, and managing the schedule to ensure construction happens on the project schedule. Managing the bridge inventory may involve working with engineering consultants to inspect the condition of each bridge on a regular basis, determine which bridges need repair or replacement in the short and long-term future, and hire contractors to repair or replace bridges. Construction project management may involve hiring a construction contractor to perform the work within a certain budget, monitoring construction activities to ensure the road is built to engineering standards, public outreach to make sure residents are informed of construction and how it will impact their lives, and coordination with funding partners and other stakeholders, such as state Departments of Transportation, the federal government, businesses, and utility companies.

Civil Engineering is an exciting and rewarding profession. It is a broad discipline which focuses on improving the world around us. Civil Engineers are involved in the creation of things we often take for granted. Next time you drive on a road, drink a glass of clean water, or walk into a building, be grateful for the Civil Engineers who made it possible.

Pass the PE Civil Exam on Your First Try

Preparing for and taking the PE Civil Exam is a big investment. It usually takes several days or weeks for the application and registration process (depending on your state) and can take many months to study for the exam. The financial cost is usually several hundred dollars to apply for and register for the test. Purchasing review courses and reference books can really add up. Because of the time and money investment, your goal is to pass the Civil PE Exam on your first try!

My advice is to treat earning your PE license like a serious project. Your job likely requires you to participate in engineering projects where you must consider budget, schedule, and resources. You may even be in charge of managing these projects. The first step is to start early and scope your project. Find out in your particular state when you are eligible to take your PE exam (this may be different than when you're eligible to gain your PE license). Take the PE exam as soon as you're eligible. By doing this you take advantage of what you've learned in college. The longer you wait after school, the more you'll forget of the topics you don't use at your job.

Determine all the requirements for registering for the PE exam. In some states, this may be as simple as registering with NCEES. In other states, you may need to get an application approved through your state board of licensure. State applications could take several weeks to complete on your end, and several weeks for approval by the state board. Register for a PE exam date that will allow you at least 4 months of studying. Part of the registration process is selecting your specific Civil PE Depth topic. There is a lot of sound advice for selecting a specific PE Depth topic. I recommend choosing whatever depth topic you are most familiar with (either what you do daily at your job or if you have been in school recently, whatever your focus was in college).

Select a PE Civil prep course which fits your schedule and life circumstances. School of PE has many options including Live, Ondemand, and in-person live courses. Plan to study both the breadth and depth topics using the same reference books you'll take into the exam. Spend time highlighting and tabbing pages in your reference books. I blocked out between 1 and 2 hours per day to study for about 4 months prior to the exam.

About a month before the exam and once you've completed the review course, take 2 or 3 practice exams. Treat them like the real exam (timed breadth and depth sections using the same reference books, calculator, etc. as you will in the exam), and score yourself afterward. Review the questions you missed.

Many people must travel several hours to take the exam. I recommend spending the night prior to the exam in a hotel near the exam site. This will let you get an uninterrupted night's sleep and wake up in plenty of time to get to the exam site.

Time management during the exam is very important. It's also worth noting that all questions on the exam are weighted the same and you're not penalized for wrong answers. With this in mind, I recommend quickly reading through every question at the beginning of the exam. Mark questions 1 through 4, 1 being the quickest to answer and 4 being the longest. Answer all the number 1 questions first, working your way to the number 4 questions. If you are running out of time with unanswered questions, make sure you answer each question even if you have to quickly guess. This strategy will allow you to maximize your right answers and provide an answer on every question.

With an early start and plenty of preparation, passing the PE Civil Exam on your first try is not only possible but also the likely outcome.

How Long Does It Take to Study for the PE Civil Exam?

Once you've registered for the PE Civil exam and have chosen a depth section it's time to study. This is probably the most important and time-consuming task in preparing for the exam. The time it takes depends somewhat on your depth section and the type of review course you select. School of PE offers Live Online and Ondemand review courses and depending on social distancing requirements for COVID may offer in-person courses. I chose to study using the Ondemand review course. This was the most flexible and appropriate based on family, career, etc.

To determine how long studying will take, build a critical path schedule working backward from the date of your exam. You'll learn more about this in your review course, but here's a quick crash course. List all of the tasks in order and work backward from the date of the exam. Here's an example (you should determine task durations specific to your situation):

Tasks:

1. Purchase reference material - 2 weeks with delivery
2. Review course - 8 weeks
3. Practice exams - 3 weeks
4. Additional study for weaker topics - 2 weeks
5. Date of Exam - October 22

Starting with the exam date of October 22, work backward through the tasks above to build your schedule. It will look something like this:

Schedule:

1. Purchase reference material - July 6-July 20
2. Review course - July 21-September 15
3. Practice exams - September 16-October 6
4. Additional study for weaker topics - October 7-October 20 (give yourself a break the day before the exam)
5. Date of Exam - October 22

Building a high-level schedule like this will give you an idea of how long it will take to study, but there are a few tasks you'll want to drill down into. I recommend having all of your reference material prior to beginning the review course. While this isn't absolutely necessary, it will give you the most time to become familiar with the material. Determine how long it will take to identify, purchase, and have the material delivered.

The review course is specific to the depth section you've chosen. Determine the time commitment it will require to complete this. If you're doing an Ondemand course, you'll have more flexibility, but it will also require more discipline. I recommend finishing each video in a single session during uninterrupted time. For me this took place between 5 AM and 7 AM every weekday before work, and many weekends. Some of my colleagues used 2- to 4-hour blocks right after the workday. Others studied for 8 to 12 hours on the weekends. If your review course is longer or you want to block more time for note taking and solving practice problems, make that task duration longer.

Taking practice exams are an essential part of studying for the PE Exam. I used a 3-week block of time prior to the exam. I took one practice exam every Saturday for the 3 weeks, and used the weekdays in between to review areas I was weak in.

Ideally, your job and life circumstances will allow you to focus on studying for the PE Exam. This isn't always the case. If you aren't able to study as much each day, start earlier by increasing each task duration. If you aren't able to start sooner (and this is the least desirable scenario), be selective about what you focus your study on and overlap tasks. You can get reference material purchased and delivered while starting the review course. Focus on topics you're not as strong in. Take practice exams early to determine where to focus your study. Remember, your goal is to maximize the number of right answers on the PE Exam.

As you can tell, passing the PE Civil Exam takes some early planning and discipline throughout the study process. By starting early, setting expectations with colleagues and family, and being disciplined you will have the best possible chance of passing the PE Civil Exam.

How I Passed the Civil Engineering PE Exam

There are many different and successful strategies for passing the Civil Engineering PE exam, and a key part in success is finding the best strategy for you. Below, I will walk you through how I passed the PE exam.

I am a Civil Engineer working in the public sector. My job focuses on roadway and bridge improvement projects. In the state I work and at the time I took the exam, I was required to submit an application to the state licensing board prior to being approved to take the PE exam. The application was to prove I met the minimum requirements of a Professional Engineer and included proof of a Civil Engineering bachelor's degree and passing the FE exam, a list of projects I worked on, engineering duties performed, and references from direct supervisors. The application took approximately one month to complete (including signatures from current and past supervisors) and had to be approved by the state prior to registering for the exam. I submitted the application as early as the state would allow for two reasons: I wanted to make sure I could revise the application in time to register for the exam if needed, and I wanted to take the PE exam as close to graduating college as possible. This was very important to me, as there are many things covered on the PE exam which I hadn't studied since college.

My next step was to select a depth section of the PE exam. The PE exam consists of two sections: a breadth section which covers all facets of civil engineering at a high level, and a depth section which covers one discipline of civil engineering at a more detailed level. Because my work is primarily project management of transportation projects (both design and construction), I selected Transportation for my depth section. It is worth noting that the reference material for each depth section is different. Since the test is open book (with restrictions), the amount of reference material plays a role in studying and taking the exam. I took about 15 reference books in with me to the PE exam.

Once I had successfully registered for the PE exam, I began researching review courses. My job and family life largely dictated which format of review course I eventually selected. I decided on the School of PE Ondemand review course, consisting of recorded sessions of the previous test's live online review course. There are also in-person courses which work well for many people.

I gathered the reference books I would need for studying and taking the exam and blocked out between one and two hours each morning before work to study. Studying included watching prep course videos, reading through reference material, and taking practice exams. I took three practice exams (one each Saturday) in the weeks leading up to the exam.

At the exam, I used a system taught by one of the School of PE instructors to prioritize test questions. I quickly read each question and ranked the questions from 1 to 4, 1 being the quickest to answer and 4 being the longest. I then answered all the #1 questions, then 2, 3 and 4. This allowed me to get the most points early while saving the harder questions for the end, when I may run out of time. Unfortunately, I did run out of time. In both the breadth and depth sections of the test, there were two or three questions I didn't have time to fully answer. Fortunately, they were harder questions which I may not have answered correctly anyway.

People use many different strategies when studying for and taking the PE exam. These strategies played to my personal strengths (learning by instruction rather than reading, taking notes, etc.). The most important strategy is the one that works for you.

Which PE Civil Exam to Choose?

Passing the Civil PE exam takes planning and strategy, there's no doubt about it. Part of that strategy is choosing which Civil exam to take.

The Civil PE exam is made up of two sections. A morning section (breadth) which consists of questions from all disciplines of civil engineering. These include transportation, structural, geotechnical, construction management, etc. The questions in the morning are often more general in nature and you may find you can solve them more quickly. This is good because the wide range of topics may mean you are flipping through several different reference books. Many people use an all-encompassing reference book like the PE Civil Exam Review Guide: Breadth book. Printed material from your PE prep course is also a great resource for the breadth section (just make sure it's bound in a way that it's allowable in the exam).

The afternoon, or depth, section consists of questions in a specific discipline of civil engineering. It's your choice when you register which depth section you will take. It would be really nice if there was a depth section that was easier than all the others, and it would be a great strategy for passing the exam.

The truth is the easiest PE Civil exam to pass is the one you're most experienced in. I took the Transportation Civil exam. I had over a dozen reference books with me in the exam and had to take them in using a hand cart and milk crates. By contrast, the Construction Civil exam has far fewer reference books. I was tempted to take the Construction Civil exam but heard some great advice: just because there are less books doesn't mean the exam is easier. In fact, because I am not nearly as familiar with construction as transportation, I believe it's a safe bet that passing the Construction exam would have been much harder.

Another approach is to choose the depth section based on what you are most interested in. Hopefully, your experience and your interests are the same (i.e., you're working in the field you're most interested in) but if not, consider this: you're going to spend hundreds of hours studying for the PE exam (I spent on average two hours per day for over 4 months, plus three 8-hour practice exams). You will enjoy studying much more if it's something you're interested in. This means you will be more motivated to study. This means that the long hours will be more enjoyable, and you'll likely retain much more of what you learn and believe me you're going to learn a lot.

Studying for the PE Civil exam is like a crash course of all the time you spent in college. You're going to gain a lot of knowledge and remember those things you learned but haven't touched in over four years. You won't be able to help learning new knowledge and remembering forgotten knowledge. There is no one exam that's easier than the rest for everyone. Your safest bet for passing the PE Civil exam is to choose a depth section that you're either most familiar with, most interested in, or if they're the same, both. That's the easiest PE Civil exam for you to choose and pass.