After weeks of studying and preparing for the FE Exam, the final week before the exam has arrived. You’re ready to ace your upcoming exam, but you might be feeling stressed out and not sure if you prepared well enough. The last week prior to the FE exam is extremely important and that is why in this week’s Pass the FE Exam video, you will be provided with five actions you should take during that last week that might be the difference between you passing the FE Exam or not.
Here Is a List of Five Specific Actions on How To Prep the Week of Your FE Exam:
- Remember that studying for the FE Exam is a process over a long period of time. IT IS NOT a test that you can cram for. So, if you had a good study plan and approach going in, then this last week should really be used for more of a final review week and NOT a “cram and learn everything you need to know” type of week. Start the week, by laying out a plan of what you will focus on, by identifying the biggest areas you feel you still need to work on. This step is your game plan for the week, and action number 5 mentioned below that will help you with this game plan.
- Spend most of your time during the last week doing practice problems. By the last week, you should have already studied the content for each of the sections on the exam and should ideally be doing more practice problems. When you are practicing problems, try to do so in a controlled, timed environment, similar to what you will face during the exam. Many people will do a ton of problems prior to the FE exam, but they rarely put themselves in a timed, pressure-like environment, to replicate exam day. Most engineers can solve a problem with unlimited time, that’s not what this test is about. You should be able to solve a lot of problems, in a finite amount of time. So spend your last few days doing just that.
- Do not stay up late each night the last week to cram in as much studying as possible! Preparing for this exam is a process and should include a measured approach. If you stay up later than normal each night during the last week of the exam, by exam day, you may be worn out and not able to think clearly. You may think that you are helping yourself by doing this, but you’re probably doing more harm than good.
- Stay active physically throughout the week. For many of us, being physically active, keeps us mentally sharp. Don’t overload yourself with studying to the point that you never get outside, you never move around. Again, this may wear you down to the point where you feel burnt out by exam day. Stay active, keep exercising, even if you have to sacrifice some studying time. It will be worth it, in the end. If you really are worried about sacrificing your study time, consider multi-tasking and reading over problems while you walk on the treadmill, but keep active.
- The last action will be to do a full on practice run through exam. I already mentioned that you should spend the last week doing practice problems, however if you can get enough practice problems, consider starting the last week by going through a full practice exam similar to the real exam. Spend an entire day, possibly the weekend before the exam, taking a full exam, timed just like the real one. Afterwards, grade the exam, and use your results to determine what problems to focus more on during that last week. Again you want to put yourself in pressure filled, real exam-like conditions. Doing this will not only make the real exam a little less stressful, but will also ensure you are focusing those last few days to study on the right areas.
You should remember that you won’t be able to learn all of the FE exam content the week before the exam, but how you handle the week before, can have a big effect on your final result. Taking these five actions will go a long way towards making sure that you prepare yourself for the exam as best you can.
I hope you found this week’s video helpful. In upcoming videos, I will share some more studying strategies and also cover some more problems including engineering economics practice problems.
We publish videos weekly on our Pass the FE Exam YouTube Channel. Be sure to visit our page here and click the subscribe button as you’ll get expert tips and tricks each week – to ensure your best success – that you can’t get anywhere else. Believe me, you won’t want to miss a single video.
Lastly, I encourage you to ask questions in the comments of the videos or here on this page and I’ll read and respond to them in future videos. So, if there’s a specific topic you want me to cover or answer, we have you covered.
I’ll see you next week.
Anthony Fasano, P.E.
Engineering Management Institute
Author of Engineer Your Own Success
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