To all Engineers on this forum

[junior varsity]

I got my BSME and passed the FE. Took 5 years. Did one year with only one engineering class though (was school's mascot) so it put graduation off.

Its possible to graduate on time in Engineering. Early? Hell no. It takes discipline, doing homework, and motivation. Curiously, working as an engineer requires the same things.

I'd love to tell you to bite the bullet, and stay in longer (not for partying) and get your masters. Its amazing how many more doors are opened for people with a graduate degree, and how many opportunities I miss out on to others because I don't have that qualification.

If you want big dollars and don't mind more school, go for electrical engineering (magik & sorcery, we called it in the ME dept), and then study for and pass the patent bar - and you'll be a patent agent - a very useful job. You don't need to go to law school to do this (its actually better to get it out of the way BEFORE law school if you want to be a patent attorney). You can sit for the patent bar with any technical degree (all engineering degrees are eligible), and this would allow you to work with a firm (say biotechnology, as that was a major market when I lived in M-town) and work on the newest, coolest stuff.

Food for thought. CE is great, try to get internships with the Corp of Engineers if possible.

[He Man]

atomemphis

You can take the Patent bar before you go to law school? Thats kind of the track  I wanted to go, Law school -> Patent Law. etc. I love both fields, but law is still something thats very broad since it has so many aspects to it.

l need to do more research on this! If You become a patent agent..would going to law school still benefit you? Of course there are certain things that you cant do without passing the bar...

Corps of Engineers eh? Ill have to look into that, they do some pretty neat stuff. I just wouldnt want to join the Army and get paid jack squat and not get to shoot people. For that i might as well go with the original plan to shoot at stuff for a living.

[Airborne]

There are a lot of things patent attorneys can do that patent agents cannot. I believe a patent agent can only work within the uspto system, a patent attorney can practice in a regular court of law where people are actually suing each other, hence they make a lot more $$$. I know people that went that track, one became a patent agent first, it helped him get into law school.

[junior varsity]

Yes, Patent Agents aren't as highly paid or 'useful' as a patent attorney, but its a path one could take to secure employment with a good salary.

Going to law school after having passed the patent bar (thus being a patent agent) would open a lot of doors at Intellectual Property Law firms (and all firms that have this 'department') for the summers between years of law school and for careers post graduation.

The corp of engineers is not the corp that you are thinking of. This is civilian engineering, bridges, dams, etc. 

[Snake]

Provided all goes well with the senior design project, I will graduate in may with a BS in mechanical engineering after 4 years.  The whole thing about the sophomore/junior classes weeding out most of the kids is definitely true.  We went from about 200 kids down to 40 or so.  Just signed up for the FE exam this spring....hope that isn't too bad of a test.  Gotta make it to a few of the review sessions for some older material (statics, thermo, dynamics, fluids) just to make sure it's all still fresh.  Just hoping for some good, hard rain before spring break to get all the salt off the roads for some  [moto]

[junior varsity]

The FE is not a beast that everyone thinks it is. The test is divided into two sessions: Morning & Afternoon, each alloted 4 hrs to complete. They give you an equation manual. Go to your department office and ask for a copy of it now so you can familiarize yourself with it beforehand, no sense in having a manual with most of the equations in it, and not know where they are (its a big manual, no time to go looking during the exam).

The morning section is "GENERAL". Each concentration takes the same morning section. Has some statistics and finance questions that throw people who are unfamiliar with these topics. I was good at Statistics and was excited to see it pop up on the exam to the extent that it was.

The afternoon section is concentration-specific. This is a mis-nomer, you can take any damn afternoon section you please: Civil, Mechanical, OR General II. I took General II, because when I flipped to Mechanical and looked at it, it looked hard, and I wanted to do more statistics, chemistry, basic thermo, statics, fluids, etc. You can choose to take General II in the afternoon regardless of your major, and you do not have to choose which exam you are going to take in the afternoon prior to opening the book. I looked at Mechanical, flipped through a few problems (the first one was by far the hardest) and decided that General II looked more appealing. I then marked my answer sheet accordingly, and took the exam.

The time requirement is also daunting at first glance. Two 4-hour exams sounds like no fun. That's the maximum time given. I took 2:45 in the morning, and felt comfortable with my answers, checked a few, and didn't want to monkey with stuff I had done earlier. What else could I do? Go to lunch. Watched an episode of Scrubs. And came back when it was time to complete the 2nd half. The second half took me the same amount of time, and thus I finished the "8-hour Exam" in 5.5 hours.

Practice using a crappy calculator. You are required to use a TI-30XII or similar, there is a list on the website. The website is horrible, by the way. AND, the deadline to sign up for the exam makes no sense whatsoever, its far too early in comparison with when most collegiate semesters begin. Go to your office and find out the deadline and testing date and location early. At this time you should demand an equation manual to study with and begin using it and your 'crappy calculator' to practice some problems.

[He Man]

ive been dying to do more research after reading your post (i keep wandering off to try and finish of my powder coating oven + testing aluminum! and doing hwk )

But from the little i have searched. THANK YOU FOR TELLING ME THIS STUFF!

pic of hot girl (suppsely miss universe) bows wai to you!

[erkishhorde]

Definitely practice using your junkie calc. I actually got pretty good with my junkie calc and use it all the time now. I got a Casio fx-115MS.

If you do forget to practice with it, at least figure out how to use the fraction functions, exponents, and log functions. If you have a bit more time, tinker with the integral function. You'll probably only use the integral function twice on the whole test but it'll save you a bit of time.

Honestly, I didn't study for the EIT (same as the FE). I went to the study sessions at school and got the sample tests. I got pretty lost and gave up hope so I didn't bother studying. The actual test itself only uses remedial stuff from most subjects. Throughout the whole test I kept thinking, "I should know this. I know this stuff is easy but I just can't figure it out right now."  It was simple stuff like knowing the triangle in EE. What's it called... I...
A... something... R? They give you two and you have to find the third. After the morning general session I felt really bad  because I had missed simple stuff that I shoulda known and knew I should have known so I took the Civil portion for the afternoon since I was scared of the General II. Lol, that was a cake walk. There was a lot of simple geometry stuff and most of the stuff I didn't know I could look up in the equation book and figure out. There were only a couple traffic related questions I had no clue on. Turns out I passed on my first shot. They don't tell you how you scored if you passed; they only do that if you fail. 

The worst part is waiting for results. I didn't get my results until some 2 weeks before registration was due for the next test... and this is like 2 months after you take the test.  Honestly, considering that I passed, I was amazed how many people I knew that didn't pass. Maybe I'm just a lucky test taker. It felt kinda like an SAT test.

[He Man]

i ahve a TI-36X solar, but i have never really touched it. It has way to many buttons and not enough pixels on the screen. stupid thing!

I spoke to a bunch of my engineer friends. only 1 of them knew what the FE was, the others just thought i mixed it up with PE.
I looked up the FE and it seems that you dont need to take it if you have some sort of advance degree or time in field. So exactly how mandatory is it for a CE?

[erkishhorde]

Hmm, as I understand it, FE is the same as an EIT (Engineer in Training) test that you have take here in CA. The requirement here is 2 years college experience or 2 years practical experience I think so a lot of people take it while they're still in school. As far as I know it's a requirement before you can get your PE in CA. It's been a while since I've looked this stuff up though.

[He Man]

it probably is just as required here. I guess people will be suprised when they say "FE? wtf is an FE?" 

maybe some of the MEs here can scoot over to the PC'ing thread in accessories and mods, or right blow this one and tell me something about annealing aluminum.

[junior varsity]

Ok, there are some misnomers floating about:

FE Exam = Fundamentals of Engineering Exam (you take this to be eligible to take the PE Exam, mentioned below)

E.I / E.I.T = Engineering Intern or Engineer-In-Training is the designation given to a person who has passed the FE Exam

PE Exam = Professional Engineer Licensing Exam. This requires X years of field experience working under a P.E. or a graduate degree and a few less years doing the same thing. The exam tests ethics and some other issues. Must have the E.I. or E.I.T. designation (having passed the FE Exam) in order to "sit" for the PE Exam.

P.E. - Professional Engineer. This is the licensed dude that is required to sign off on blue prints before any building can be built, road can be laid, etc etc. If people's lives could be in jeopardy, a PE must have a look-see at the plans. This means more responsibility and liability when stuff goes wrong, which in turn means more $$$. And more $$$ = more 

[Triple J]

Ok, there are some misnomers floating about:

FE Exam = Fundamentals of Engineering Exam (you take this to be eligible to take the PE Exam, mentioned below)

E.I / E.I.T = Engineering Intern or Engineer-In-Training is the designation given to a person who has passed the FE Exam

Correct now...but back when I took the EIT it was called the EIT exam, not the FE exam. That change occured around 1996 IIRC. Anyway...that's probably the reason for the terminology confusion.

He Man:  Like others have said, passing the FE is a requirement to being allowed to take the PE exam. Having a PE license isn't a necessity for Electical Engineers...and isn't even necessary for a lot of Mechanical Engineering work. But, for Civil Engineers it is crucial unless you never want to advance past the Staff Engineer level in your career.

The FE exam isn't all that hard. It's as much about test taking technique as it is about knowledge. Here's a few pointers to help you pass (I was 1 of 2 out of 6 of my buddies to pass the 1st time).

1. Take it in the Spring sitting. More people take it during this period so it's easier to pass due to the curve.

2. Use either B or C (out of A, B, C, & D) for unknown answers during the exam. If you don't 100% (and I mean 100%) know the answer to a question, then pick your guess letter. Use one or the other for the entire test...and stick with it. B/C are the two most common answers on the test (my buddy and I were told this by a professor, and we confirmed with 4 practice tests), and your odds go up if you consistently choose the same one, as opposed to guessing for each one if you kinda think you know the answer. An educated guess is still a guess.

3. Don't study for all of the disciplines. Pick 3-4, study them, and guess on the others unless it's a super easy question. IIRC I chose Statics, Dynamics, Thermo, and Engineering Economics to study. I guessed throughout the rest. At one point in the EE section I had an entire row of C answers. 

4. Do a first pass through the exam, doing only the easy ones. An easy one is one you can do within 90 seconds or so. Then do a second pass for the harder ones you initially skipped...a 3rd pass if time allows. This ensures you complete all of the easy ones, and don't run out of time getting stuck on a tough question.

5. If you're running out of time, DO NOT leave blank answers. If you have to just go down the remaining ones and guess your letter during the last 3 minutes of the sitting, then do it. On the FE there is no penalty for guessing, but if you don't fill out an answer it is obviously wrong.

6. Lastly, don't get hung up on trying to "ace it". No one gives a shit about your FE score...just that you passed. I don't even think you get a score, just a pass/fail notice...can't remember though.

[erkishhorde]

All good test taking tips, J. 

You are correct that you don't get your score for the FE if you pass (at least here in CA). You only get your score if don't pass.