Wanna be engineer preparing for FE needs help with basics 1

[Tate6]

Hi. I want to take the FE but I studied economics in college back in the 1980's. (Yes I'm in my late 50's!) Because I don't have an engineering degree, would the classes from School of PE or PPI help? I think they are review classes so does that mean they would be over my head because I never took engineering classes before? If so where else can I learn the basic materials? BTW I took and failed the diagnostic tests in one review book. Thanks.

 

[RVAmeche]

Have you been working in an engineering/technical role in industry? If you haven't been working in the industry I'd expect you'd need significant class time to brush up or even learn the basics for whichever field you want to pursue.

 

[Tate6]

I have not been working in the field at all. Im hoping I can just take the FE Other Disciplines test.

 

[Lomarandil]

They may be slightly outdated now, but search for the Texas A&M FE review videos.

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The name is a long story -- just call me Lo.

 

[Tate6]

Thanks I just saw those A&M videos. Unfortunately they are quite out of focus for some reason. They are showing the FE handbook but you can't see any of the text.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s49AGllvung&t=144s

 

[CWB1]

Most university engineering depts. today should have a breakdown on their website of what classes they recommend students take each year of their attendance, and what others are required for a specific degree. Short of going back to college, you could use one of these lists as guidance and simply take MOOCs to learn the material, there's a number of free sites like Coursera that will offer the bulk of the courses necessary. These sites typically make money by offering some form of certificate for each class, I haven't asked any of my academia friends if those could count toward a degree or otherwise but I'd doubt it so beware paying for anything. Free knowledge is always good tho and best of luck going forward.

 

[StrucPEng]

Check out Gregory Michaelson on youtube (

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGv3KG_qIWQuIZEH-YGpBUw/playlists).

Professor of engineering at Marshall University. He has all his lectures online as well as his yearly FE Exam review class. Should be the most updated lectures on the topic (2018).

Hope that helps, I know it helped me refresh on the basics when I took my FE.

 

[IRstuff]

I think a bigger issue is whether you could even land a job without an engineering degree, because the flip side is that you typically are required to have additional experience to make up for the lack of a degree, but the odds are long that you can even get hired in the first place without that degree. It would be entirely different if you didn't have the degree, but had worked in the field for many years.

I think you need to seriously consider your marketability compared to any new graduate with the same or more relevant FE exam passing score. You could possibly go back to school, and complete an engineering degree; with an existing degree, you could at least get a waiver for all the non-engineering classes.



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[GregLocock]

I doubt MOOCs will be taken seriously as qualifications because there is a very obvious way to score high marks.

Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376

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[Tate6]

Thanks all for your comments. If I just charge ahead and do the review classes, which one is better School of PR or PPI?

 

[StrucPEng]

I cant speak to the review classes but I used the PPI review book (read it cover to cover) and I felt it was really helpful.

 

[EnergyProfessional]

Second the PPI books. They also have a practice exam.

I got my engineering degree from Germany, so many of the things I learned are not covered and some of the FE parts were not necessarily part of my education. But the PPI books and example questions give you a good idea of the FE test questions. I passed first time.

Do all the example problems with the allowed exam materialonly (approved calculator, the approved reference material) so you get used to do that in speed under test conditions. The test isn't really hard, what is hard to do it all within the time frame and without additional reference material.

Some of the PPI example questions in each chapter start out really easy and go to very hard. The hard ones are way beyond what the test questions will be, so don't be discouraged.

 

[zelgar]

Depending on the State where you live, you may not even be allowed to take the exam unless you meet certain educational requirements (e.g., math, sciences and engineering). Check with your local regulations to verify that you meet the minimal requirements to be able to take the exam.

 

[HamburgerHelper]

Go over to

http://www.engineeringboards.com.

There are a lot of stories of people needing to take the exam 3,4 or and I saw one up to 6 times before they passed the test. It is a rough exam if you have been out for school awhile. Even if you have been working as an engineer because a lot of stuff on the exam is stuff most people have only last seen in school. It is going to be really rough to pass the exam and its breadth is pretty wide. The PE exam is easier for a lot of people out of school than the PE because at least with the PE, it will probably have some material that relates to their work. I have known people who have spent 300+ hours studying for the PE exam. I would suspect you would need to spend a similar amount in the least.

I would suggest if you want to get into engineering to go to a tech school and take some classes to become a drafter and work your way into design. A designer does the exact same thing a lot of times as a design engineer and the pay can be very similar. If you are in your mid 50s, any time spent going to school is never going to be recovered. To be a drafter, you only need to take a few classes and you'll start at $20-30 an hour. You could also try to find a job as a project manager.

Please don't think there is a shortage of engineers. There is only a shortage of experienced engineers in specific specialities. Only about a third of people who graduate with an engineering degree go into engineering. There is no shortage of people with no work experience that are trying to get into engineering. You'll have a very hard uphill battle for an employer to want to take you on as an 'engineer'. I would strongly recommend trying to become a drafter/designer over an engineer. I think the job market is better for drafter/designers as well.




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If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.

 

[JStephen]

This sounds like a very unlikely way to make any progress.
If neither your degree nor your work experience are engineering-related, there's really not much point in taking the FE exam.
If by some miracle, you can take and pass the exam, it's not really going to open any doors for you.
I have known people who didn't have a degree who worked in engineering or related fields for years, and for them, that would have made some sense.
One of the challenges of the FE exam is that it covers a very wide range of topics. If you hit it fresh out of engineering school, you're in pretty good shape. If you get into industry and work in a very narrow field, you tend to forget all that stuff you never use, so it's actually harder to do it after 10 or 20 years than it is to do it while the topics are still somewhat fresh on your mind. If you've never taken any of the subjects to begin with, I'd say you're in a considerably worse off shape than all the people who learned it and forgot most of it.