Joel Erway, the author of 30-Minute EIT and creator of the company of the same name.
It’s generally known that without a PE license your engineering career will hit a glass ceiling one way or another. However, the path towards licensure can be treacherous. One Everest you must climb on this path is the Fundamentals of Engineering exam (FE exam).
“The FE exam is large and daunting,” said Joel Erway, author of 30-Minute EIT. “The exam itself takes 6 hours to complete and many more to study for. Worse yet, the topics it covers are vast. You may not have seen them in your Undergrad.”
In a recent ENGINEERING.com poll conducted during a FE Exam prep webinar less than 75% of attendants were registered for the exam. Of that same pool of people, less than 65% took the exam in the past. Given the length of the exam high numbers were expected, but not that high.
“I was shocked to see so many of the attendance were not registered yet,” said Erway. “Though the exam is large it is important to an engineer’s career path. And setting a date to take the exam creates the pressure you need to meet the goal of passing the exam.”
What scared these potential PE’s the most about the FE exam?
With such a large exam ahead of them, most of the potential PE’s at the webinar were worried they were out of school too long. It’s been a while since they have studied for an exam or faced large word problems. Getting back into the swing of things is hard but well worth the effort.
“You have to set the goal and make the commitment. If you have a partner or group to work with it also improves your chances. You don’t have to do it alone,” suggested Erway.
As for the size of the exam it can also lead to other issues such as time to study and a feeling of being overwhelmed. In Erway’s webinar he suggested you divide, conquer, and not aim for perfection.
Example of Joel’s study planning calculations.
“If you plan ahead you can find the topics you are best at and focus your energies there using what I call the F.E. Focus Formula, or ABC approach. You can get away with only knowing definitions and the gimmies of the topics you are less versed in if you ensure there are enough topics your are strong or at least knowledgeable in,” said Erway.
If you wish to learn more about Joel Erway’s F.E. Focus Formula please watch this webinar or visit his website.