How to Prepare for FE Civil Exam at Your Own Pace
Passing the FE Exam for civil engineering will get you on the path to building the career you want. There are many paths you can take to passing, including self-paced studying. Setting your own schedule gives you the time and flexibility to prepare for the FE Civil Exam and take it with the knowledge and confidence you need.
In this article, I will show you ways to prepare for your FE Civil Exam at your own pace, even with concerns about hitting your goal of passing the FE Exam.
What is Self-Paced Learning?
Self-paced learning allows students to create a custom learning environment that fits their needs. For example, your environment could include various resources, including videos, worksheets, and books. It also means that students can create their own schedules to meet their needs.
With all this flexibility, self-paced learning it will need a level of self-discipline and accountability to meet goals.
There are several options for FE Civil exam prep courses with self-paced learning including our courses.
Why Study for FE Exam at your Own Pace?
Engineers who are studying for the FE exam civil range from recent grads to those with 5-15 years in the field. Sometimes people leave college and start work and find they don’t need their EIT license yet. But as their career goes on, it can become essential to their growth.
Since students with a range of experience, education, and background are preparing for the FE at the same time, large group settings become inefficient. This is because recent grads may breeze by subjects they recently covered in school. Depending on the instructor, experienced engineers are trying to always catch up.
When choosing to study for the FE at their own pace, students don’t have to worry about the larger class, losing momentum, or skipping subjects.
How Self-Study Helps Work, Study, and Life Balance
Preparing for the FE Civil exam at your own pace also allows you to leave time for work, life, and study balance. Balancing schedules is already tough. But adding in inflexible live online classes or in-person long weekend courses, it can cause leaving work or family behind.
To create balance, use tools like a time-block calendar to track your schedule and allow time for each in your daily and weekly calendar.
For example, if you block in 1-2 hours each night to spend with your family at home, then 1-3 hours in the evening to study, it gives you the structure for balance. But it also allows for flexibility to change as needed.
Another way to find balance is to make sure you are exercising each week. On your calendar, include 3-5 workout sessions. But to keep everything on track, I recommend doing these at home or in your neighborhood. Driving to and from the gym can take a lot of time. Remember, this will only be for a few months; pausing your gym membership for a short time is okay.
How to Prepare for the FE Civil Exam at Your Own Pace
Study Plan
All great studying starts with a study plan. To create a study plan, get the right tools in place, have a study spot picked out, and then begin to create a timeline of how long you’d like to study.
After talking to hundreds of students, I have developed the FE Study Plan Guide to help you create your customized study plan that works with self-paced studying. Click here to download.
On-Demand Videos
Choosing FE civil exam prep with on-demand videos instead of live courses, you decide when, how long, and how fast to study. If you struggle to grasp a concept or problem, videos allow you to pause and rewatch as much as you need. If you need to stop or struggle in live classes, they will go on without you.
Remove Unnecessary Pressure
You may have pressure from many different sides to pass the FE Exam for civil engineering. Here are a few solutions to help you remove unwanted pressure so that you can make study progress:
Talk to your employer and let them know you are now on the path to passing the FE. Share your study plan, resources, and timeline. They may allow for more work flexibility for studying and taking the exam. Bonus, they may offer reimbursement for FE exam prep courses.
Check in with your family and friends and update them on your career goals. Tell them you may need extra support with chores, and you’ll be staying in during this study period. Sharing your goals can help them see your vision and remove some of the daily life pressures.
Most importantly, let yourself take the time you need to pass. We engineers can put a lot of pressure on ourselves to get it right the first time or to move fast. But when you give yourself time and flexibility, you will progress steadily and see results.
Include Checkpoints
FE practice exams are your first and best checkpoint in your civil FE exam prep. Taking these allows you to check how well you understand different topics. You’ll also learn your speed of answering and get exposed to different types of questions.
Another checkpoint may include a review course that gives you hundreds of practice problems to solve.
Lifetime Access
Setting your own pace can mean a 3, 6, or even a 12-month plan. You get to decide how long you need to prepare. Finding a civil FE exam prep with lifetime access means one upfront cost, but you’ll also never lose access or pay more renewal fees.
Community
Self-paced studying benefits a community. They can encourage you to keep going, check in on your progress, and be there when it gets tricky. Your community can include your family, colleagues, and an online group of students studying for the same FE Civil exam and using the same study resources.
There are many approaches to preparing for the FE Civil exam. Choose a FE exam prep course that will work best for you, and if self-paced studying, use these tips above to stay on your path to passing.
Responses