How to Study for the FE Exam Afternoon Session
One of the biggest questions on how to study for the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam is “How do I study for the discipline specific section on the exam?” Remember that the FE exam has a discipline specific section given in the afternoon and consists of 60 multiple choice questions covering only subjects in your core engineering discipline (i.e. chemical engineering, electrical engineering, civil engineering, etc).
NOTE: As of 2010, you must pick which subject to take in the afternoon at the time that you register for the exam. In previous years, you did not have to make the choice until exam day and could decide after looking at all the questions for each subject.
The afternoon section problems will generally be harder in difficulty since they are more specialized and you are provided more time to solve them (there are half as many discipline specific problems as the general problems in the morning. Also keep in mind that the afternoon section problems are worth 2 points each (morning session problems are worth 1 point).
So How Should You Study For It?
Discipline Specific Workbook
One of the best ways to study for the discipline specific portion of the FE exam is to get one of the special books
These books are good refreshers for the discipline specific material. They provide answers with explanations, including general section problems. Plus they are also much smaller in size and cheaper than the other giant study manuals.
For the Electrical Engineers, there is also the FE Exam Review EE Study Guide.
FE Supplied Reference Handbook
In addition to a study book, one of the most valuable tools for your study sessions is to get the only resource you will get on test day ahead of time, the FE Exam Supplied Reference Handbook
This will allow you to familiarize yourself with the handbook so that on the test day, you can quickly flip to the sections you need equations from and avoid having to use it too much. The less you have to use the book means more time you’re using to solve problems.
The handbook is also a very good overview of each subject and is actually good to study. It will help you remember key concepts and help you see patterns on where to flip on test day. During the exam, you want to spend as little time as possible looking in your handbook.
Get the Handbook HERE
Quick Tip:
Take some time to look at both the discipline-specific sections and the general sections of the Handbook
when looking to solve a problem. On many occasions, you will find the information required to solve the general problems in the discipline specific sections or vice versa.
For example, say you are a civil engineer, and you have an electrical circuit problem. Try looking in the electrical engineering section in addition to the “General” section of the handbook.
Or say you are working on the chemistry section, there may be an equation you will need that you can only find in the Thermodynamics section of the handbook.
It sounds very obvious, but too many test takers don’t think about doing this when in the heat of the battle.
Action Items
At the end of the day, there really is no way around it; you’re going to have to review concepts and do practice problems. However use the sample questions and solutions books. They are one of the best ways to prepare for the exam (besides this FE Review Guide 
).
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