Reasons You Failed the FE Exam & How to Pass It Next Time

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• Reasons You Failed the FE Exam How to Pass It
  Next Time

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Why You Failed the FE Exam ?

• The FE exam has the potential to either succeed
  or fail you in your engineering career. That
  isnt accurate, but it will certainly seem that
  way if you fail the FE exam.
• Unfortunately, the FE test does not demonstrate
  that you are an exceptional engineer. It simply
  indicates that you can complete a test quickly
  and accurately answer more questions than your
  fellow future engineers. You must know how to
  play the game to pass this test.
• This article will discuss why you failed the FE
  exam and how you can overcome them in the future.

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Spending More Than 2-3 Minutes on Each Problem

• Spending too much time on a single problem is one
  of the biggest blunders you may make on exam day.
  The FE exams questions are designed to take no
  more than two to three minutes to complete.

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How to Overcome it?

• Its fine to spend more than 3 minutes on those
  questions you know you can answer 100 correctly.
  But if after reading the question, you have no
  idea how to solve or approach it, make a guess,
  flag it, and move on. You can return to it at a
  later time.
• If a question takes longer than 3 minutes (lets
  say 5 minutes), consider making an educated guess
  based on what options youve already eliminated,
  then flagging it and moving on.
• You should monitor your pace every 20-25
  questions to see how much time you have left per
  question. If you just have 3 minutes, you should
  be more selective with your time and use it only
  on questions you are familiar with and confident
  in your ability to answer. If you have more than
  3 minutes per question left, you can be more
  flexible with your time and attempt questions
  that are more challenging but still within your
  capabilities.

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 Attempting to Answer All Questions Manually

• As the FE exam comprises questions that include
  various calculations, trying to answer all the
  questions manually will require a longer time to
  solve each problem.

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How to Overcome it?

• NCEES allows you to bring a calculator for the
  FE exam day. Getting familiar with your
  calculator and all of its functions before the FE
  Exam and using it on the exam day will aid you in
  answering problems quickly. Why would you try to
  answer every question manually if you can use a
  calculator instead to answer it in less time?

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Not Being Able to Make Calculated Guesses in the
Exam

• Some of the questions will be difficult for you
  to solve and may take an unusually long time to
  answer. And if you fail to make a calculated
  guess on those questions, that will become one of
  the reasons for failing your FE exam.

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How to Overcome it?

• The best way to tackle these problems is to make
  a calculated guess on questions that take longer
  than three minutes to solve. There is no negative
  marking for giving a wrong answer, so dont ever
  skip a problem just because youre afraid that
  you will not get the correct answer.

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Not Properly Assessing the Problems Because of
Hurry

• Remaining in haste to complete the exam may
  result in not assessing the problems correctly
  and, therefore, failing to understand how to
  solve them in time. Completing the test
  beforehand would be useless if you havent given
  the correct answers.

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How to Overcome it?

• Stay calm, and read each question carefully.
  Understand what the questions mean and be aware
  of the type of question youre dealing with. For
  example, some questions require several
  responses, whereas some questions starting with
  wordings such as Which of the following is
  NOT?, require you to eliminate one option from
  several choices. The key is to always be aware of
  what type of questions youre dealing with. This
  way, you can answer questions without wasting any
  time.

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Too Greedy to Attempt Every Problem

• Being greedy to solve every problem on the exam
  just to shoot for a perfect score wont help you.
  In fact, with that mindset, you will just solve
  the questions and not know if you are answering
  them correctly.

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How to Overcome it?

• To pass the test, you dont have to answer all
  the questions. Many engineers have previously
  passed this test with a score of only 50. 
• So firstly, answer only those questions you know
  you can solve, then flag the rest of them.
• Once youre satisfied youve answered every
  question correctly, try to solve the problems you
  flagged earlier. 

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Continue..

• If a test question appears to take longer than
  three minutes, make a calculated guess on it for
  now and make a mental note of it so that you can
  come back to it later to solve it properly if you
  are left with some time in the end. This way, you
  can answer the most number of problems in the
  shortest period of time. 
• Remember that time management is the key, so you
  should aim to solve the most number of problems
  correctly in the least amount of time possible
  rather than attempting every question but
  answering them wrong.

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Focusing More on Theory Rather than the Actual
Exam Questions

• Another mistake you can make is prioritizing
  theory rather than focusing on the actual exam
  questions and not solving practice problems.

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How to Overcome it?

• When completing a FE practice test, you should
  assess yourself on more than just correct and
  incorrect answers. You should examine your most
  prevalent blunders and keep track of how long it
  takes you to answer questions.
• Make a checkmark next to any questions that took
  more than three minutes to answer once youve
  completed your practice exam. Determine which
  types of questions you should spend less time
  answering and which ones you should skip on the
  test entirely.

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• Thank You