professional engineering license

PE Civil Exam Depth: Geotechnical

March 29, 2022 by Anthony Fasano, P.E. Leave a Comment

Are you struggling to decide what depth exam you should take for your Civil PE Exam? Where do you start when trying to figure this out? Passing the PE exam is the last milestone in the journey towards your professional engineering license, so you must make the right decision.

In the next 5 articles, we will cover each of these Civil PE depth exams in detail, outline which topics show up on each exam, what the pass rates are for each topic, and provide some valuable information that will help you in your decision.

Let’s Look at the PE Civil: Geotechnical Depth Section of the PE Exam:

There are five different areas that you can choose from when taking the PE Civil exam which are:

PE Civil: Geotechnical
PE Civil: Construction
PE Civil: Structural
PE Civil: Transportation
PE Civil: Water Resources & Environmental

Remember that the PE Civil exam is a breadth and depth examination. The breadth items (typically known as the morning section) cover topics from all areas of civil engineering. However, the depth items (also known as the afternoon section) focus more closely on a single area of practice, like Geotechnical Engineering.

What Is Geotechnical Engineering?

Civil PE Exam Practice Problem (Vertical Curves)

December 31, 2020 by Anthony Fasano, P.E. Leave a Comment

Vertical Curves – In this week’s edition of Pass the PE Exam, I’m going to solve a problem that you may encounter during your Civil PE Exam, in the transportation section on vertical curves, as demanded by many of our YouTube subscribers.

A vertical curve provides a transition between two sloped roadways, allowing a vehicle to negotiate the elevation rate change at a gradual rate rather than a sharp cut. These curves are parabolic and are assigned stationing based on a horizontal axis. And during your exam, you will most likely need to answer one or more questions on this topic, which I provide an example of in the video above.

Before moving ahead, let me remind you that most successful engineers will tell you that getting their PE license was the biggest career growth driver they’ve experienced, whether it was due to a promotion, salary increase or just more exciting projects to work on – you want to get your PE license.

However, preparing for the PE exam can be a real challenge which includes solving many problems like the one I am about to show you, but through this and other videos on our YouTube Channel you will learn everything you need to know about the licensing process including PE exam preparation.

Here is the vertical curves problem below: [Read more…] about Civil PE Exam Practice Problem (Vertical Curves)

Five Reasons to Take and Pass the FE Exam

November 23, 2020 by Anthony Fasano, P.E. Leave a Comment

PASS THE FE EXAM — In this post, I’d like to discuss five specific benefits of why ALL engineers should take and pass the FE Exam. However, before I do that, let me start by telling you what exactly the FE Exam is. The Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam is designed for recent engineering graduates and students who are close to finishing an undergraduate engineering degree. The degree must be from an EAC/ABET (Engineering Accreditation Commission or Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) accredited program. The FE exam is a computer-based exam administered year-round at NCEES-approved Pearson VUE test centers.

The FE exam includes 110-questions, and the exam appointment time is six hours long with about five hours and twenty minutes of that time being actual exam time. You can register for the exam through the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) website at NCEES.org.

So, why is it important to take this exam?

Firstly, the FE exam is the first step to getting your professional engineering license, and there are so many benefits to that including accelerating your career path, promotions, salary increases, more exciting job opportunities and projects to work on and more. However, let me stay focused here on the benefits of actually taking and passing the FE exam. Here are five reasons to take and pass the FE exam.