The NCEES Just Released a New Interactive FE Practice Exam. Here’s 5 Things You Should Know About It! The following blog post has been adapted from a video, which you can watch here.
How Do I Get the Interactive Practice Exam?
The National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) has launched a new interactive practice exam for students preparing for the FE Exam. This interactive practice exam is designed to give a realistic simulation of the actual test, helping students familiarize themselves with the question types and exam format. Many students requested an overview of it, so today I’ll walk you through how it works, how to access it, and share my thoughts on whether it’s worth the investment.
Image: Start Screen for the Exam
How Does the Interactive Practice Exam Work?
To get started, you’ll need to log into your NCEES account and navigate to the “Exam Prep” section. There, you’ll find two options: Interactive exams and ebooks. While the ebooks are in PDF format, the interactive version is hosted on BenchPrep. This practice FE exam consists of 50 questions, and you’ll have 2 hours and 30 minutes to complete it. You can also extend the time or turn on a review feature to get immediate feedback on each question. It’s a helpful tool, especially if you’re interested in seeing how far you have progressed with your studies. You can use the results to determine where you have gaps in your FE knowledge.
Exam Details:
- 1 year access
- Default time of 2 hours 30 minutes, but you can extend the time or set to unlimited
- View the answers after each question or at the end.
- No partial credit
- Question types include:
- Multiple choice, single answer
- Multiple choice, multiple answers
- Point and click
- Drag and drop
- Fill in the blank
Free resources to help you pass
Is the Practice Exam Similar to the Real Exam?
Image: Example Question Format (Note: Not Actually a Real Problem from the Exam)
Yes! The NCEES actually retired 350 real exam questions from the FE so that they can be used here. Though you won’t see these exact questions on the FE, they’re indicative of the difficulty of the real exam. Some minor differences do exist between this practice exam and the real exam, such as a lack of a on-screen calculator and no built-in reference handbook. The NCEES provides these during the FE Exam, so you’ll need to download the latest version of the reference handbook to practice with.
Image: Another Example Question
Can You Retake the Interactive Practice Exam?
One key feature of this practice exam is the ability to reset and retake it as many times as you’d like during your one-year access period. This allows you to track your progress and identify areas where you need more practice. After completing the exam, you’ll receive immediate feedback with a breakdown of your score, the time spent on each question, and a detailed solution to each problem. This feature alone makes it a great learning tool for students aiming to improve their FE Exam performance.
Image: Completion Screen with % Correct
Image: Score breakdown by Category
Is the New FE Interactive Practice Exam Worth It?
So, is the NCEES interactive practice exam worth the $50 price tag? While it only includes 50 questions compared to the 110 on the real FE Exam, the questions are carefully selected and closely match the difficulty of the actual test. If you’re looking for extra practice or want to familiarize yourself with the exam format, it’s a solid resource. At a cost of a dollar per question, and with only a year of access, this price might feel steep — but as many former test takers can attest to, having representative problems to practice on can be invaluable when trying to get comfortable with the test. In fact, practice exams are practically the only feasible way to accurately judge your studying progress. If the price tag is putting you off, be sure to check out our Youtube FE Problem Set PDF that we’ve released for FREE !
