How to Study for the PE Exam, Engineering License

The Principles and Practice of Engineering (PE) exam is the last exam you have to take before becoming a licensed engineer. The particular PE exam or exams you take will depend on your discipline and the standards set by your jurisdiction, but secrets to success are the same for each exam.

If you are close to obtaining your engineering license, read below to make the most of your PE study time.

Instructions

1. Contact your licensing board to find out which PE discipline exam(s) you need to take to meet lincensure requirements. Once you have a list of the exams, check out the website of the NCEES for detailed specifications of each exam.

   For each PE discipline exam the NCEES administers, you can find a precise break down of the content by topic and question type. Since the NCEES has taken care to make the test content public, there is no reason to be unprepared for what's on the tests.

2. Understand the format of the exam. Each exam is between 6-8 hours long and has 80-100 multiple choice questions. The only exception is the Structural II exam, in which you must answer 4 out of 8 essay questions.

   All exams are open book, though your licensing board may impose some restrictions. This means that for the most part you can bring any text books, study guides, or notes with you to the testing center.

3. If you are taking the PE Civil, or PE Structural Exams, you will need to bring a copy of the Design Standards. You will not be furnished with this on test day. Luckily, the list of required standards is easily found on the NCEES website. Read them thoroughly before test day so you can find information quickly.

4. The NCEES publishes study guide for the following PE exams: chemical, civil, electrical and computer, environmental, mechanical, structural i and ii. If you are taking one of these exams, you should invest in these study guides.

   If the NCEES does not publish a guide for your PE exam, you are still in luck! The website maintains a list of sponsoring organizations that offer exam prep books for the other PE exams.

5. Make a study schedule that you can stick to, and set aside time to work out blocks of 20 questions under time constraints. For the multiple choice PE exams, this is about 4 or 5 minutes per question.

6. Work out PE sample problems in detail and print up the results to add to your reference materials. Since you can bring print materials to the exam, these notes will make tough engineering questions go more smoothly.

7. A few days before your PE exam, gather all the books and note you wish to bring with you. Make sure you are familiar enough with them so that you do not waste valuable time flipping through pages looking for an engineering concept.

8. Get plenty of rest before test day and eat a healthy breakfast. Good luck studying!