I guess they must have changed the exams in recent years. I found the FE to be a joke; but from what I hear, the PE (the SE 1, specifically) is a killer.
The FE (I took it 2 and a half years ago) was essentially plug and chug. All you really need to know is where to find the correct equations (and, obviously, figure out which ones applied). There were even some problems on there that if you didn't know what you were doing, only had one possible way to combine the information given in order to obtain an answer in units that made sense.
The SE, on the other hand, is supposed to be evil. It's multiple choice and they give you several answers that one might arrive at if one were to make common, simplifying assumptions. The test is NOT meant to determine whether you can safely, efficiently, design something. It's meant to test whether you have the technical skills to rigorously apply first principles when called upon.
The pass rates also suggest that the FE is substantially easier. FE pass rates for graduates from my University was around 90-something percent. The pass rate for the SE1, I believe, is around 45% for first-time takers and drops significantly for repeat examinees.