How to use Practice Exams to Increase Your Chances of Passing the FE Exam

Taking practice exams during your preparation is proven to be one of the most effective learning techniques. Because when you take a practice exam, it helps you retrieve or recall what you know. You will also be able to determine which concepts you don’t fully understand so that you can focus on those before your exam.

Here are two key strategies for your FE Exam to use practice exam most effectively.

Use Your FE Practice Exam as a Checkpoint, Not an Endpoint.

Periodically throughout your FE journey, schedule a practice exam day. Time block a full day for a practice exam instead of studying.

Many students use practice exams just a week before the actual engineer in training exam. If you only do that then and score low, it can be very discouraging, causing you to lose confidence heading into the exam.

So instead, take time every few weeks to take a practice exam. That might be once a month or every three weeks.

TIP: If you are early in your preparations, you don’t have to take the whole exam. Take up to what you have studied and adjust your test time accordingly.

One of our students, Rosa, used practice exams as a study strategy. However, she found it difficult to carve out 5 to 6 hours in one day to take a practice exam, so instead, she broke it up over a week.

Learn from Your Mistakes and Re-study Your Weak Points.

Using your practice exam as a checkpoint; it gives you time to work on the questions and concepts you got wrong.

Keep track of those problems, go back, and re-study the concepts to truly understand them and not just memorize them.

Also, I know it is easy to study what we already know, and it’s a common mistake students make. It makes us feel confident, but, in the end, it is not what’s going to help you pass your FE exam. So work on your weaknesses as you continue studying.

Practice exams are an important part of your study plan. Here are a few more resources to use as you prepare for the months to come: