Cramming For and Passing the FE Exam: An Electrical Engineer's Perspective

[Update - 04/2016]

The format has changed quite a bit since I took the FE, so the info below is severly dated. Check out NCEES for more info.

[Original Post - 06/2013]

So you've signed up on the FE and you've waited til the last minute to study for it? No worries.

Suffice to say there are numerous posts on strategies for passing the FE exam. Some are completely crazy. Here was my approach to taking and passing the FE. Did I mention I passed the FE?

Not sure if you noticed; it says PASS.

[Background]

As a EE there were a couple of things to worry about:

1. Compared to all other engineering disciplines electrical engineers have the lowest pass rate for first time and repeat takers. I'm assuming that the graders are biased of how awesome we are.
2. The morning section is chocked full of subjects that mean little to nothing to EEs: mechanics, thermodynamics, fluid flow, social skills. I made that last one up.

Also when I took the exam I was employed. And had friends. And hobbies. This ate up quite a lot of time, so I procrastinated til a week before the exam before opening a book.

[Studying/Prep]

The company I'm working for pays for our study materials so I got the following:

• The FE reference handbook. This is what you'll be using during the test, so get familiar with it. One annoying thing to remember is most constants for equations (such as 'r' for PV-nRT') only appear on the first page, and not the specific subsection that include the equation (i.e. the value for 'r' is not given in the thermo section). 
• A book of practice exams. This is very brief and overpriced BUT I'd say it was the best piece of material I bought. You can take the exams in it quickly and they're very representative of what I saw on test day.
• Practice exams for the electrical section. This will expose you to the type of questions on the afternoon section. It's good for refreshing your memory on topics that might be fuzzy. 
• A giant study guide broken down by section. This was fairly useless to me because I waited so long to start studying.

When you study remember that each section is 4 hours so if you're working full-time you'll be lucky to knock out a single 4 hour block each night. I made it through the Generic Practice exams and Electrical Specific exams before it was time for me to take the test (the 2nd and 3rd bullets above). This took me the better part of a week and also included time spent on wikipedia reviewing rusty subjects. 

[Strategy]

If there is one thing you take away from my unstructured rambling let it be this: TAKE PRACTICE EXAMS, USE THE REFERENCE GUIDE, AND PRACTICE ON THE CALCULATOR YOU ARE BRINGING TO THE EXAM. Otherwise you'll be wasting valuable time trying to figure out where in the reference book you need to be and/or where buttons are on your calculator. Don't be a freshman.

If you wait to the last minute to study you need to prioritize. It occurred to me fairly immediately when studying that I needed to cut my losses and focus on passing the test and NOT mastering every topic. At this point in your career you should have a fairly firm grasp on what you're good at. Play to your strengths and use your weaknesses as your dump stat. If you're already a beast at math, power points, and digital design don't waste your time studying for it. Inversely, if you've never had a materials course there's absolutely no reason to spend valuable hours becoming an expert on tensile strength when it's only a fraction of the exam and you'll most likely never need it in the real world. That leaves us with that awkward middle area. For me these included statistics, economics, and thermodynamics. I spent a majority of my time studying this material because that's where the biggest gains in score could be achieved.

Most questions will have two stupid answers and two feasible ones. Being able to recognize and eliminate bad answers will all but guarantee a passing grade (50%) on the FE.

[Taking the Test]

Remember that this is an 8 hour exam. Don't stay up all night cramming because that is dumb. Get a good nights sleep, wake up on time, have some coffee and breakfast tacos, arrive early to the facility, run into someone you know and have a chat, find your section and be waiting when they open the doors.

The examiners are very strict about having foreign object in the room. Make sure you follow all the rules outlined in your testing documentation including having everything in a clear bag, don't wear a hat, don't bring outside pencils, have a valid ID and print out your exam authorization, use the right type of calculators, wear clothes, etc. 

If you do leave you seat you have to go through a short check in/out procedure where the proctor picks up and holds your exam while you leave. This takes a little time so keep that in mind if you plan on running out of the room to vacate explosive diarrhea from your nervous gut that you shoved full of coffee and breakfast tacos.  

WHY CHORIZO, WHY?

There is an hour break between the morning and afternoon sections. In some places this isn't enough time to eat out and get back before the proctors lock the doors for of the afternoon section (that means you will fail). Brown bag it or order extra breakfast tacos in the morning and eat them in your car during the break like a weirdo. 

[Results]

I passed.

Passing grants you the distinguished title of 'Engineer in Training', which to the layman sounds like an intern but oh well. It's also a good excuse to do a happy dance. 

DIY Bed Frame with Headboard - Hipster Bedroom Part 1

While searching for some new furniture I stumbled across a few bed frames I really liked but were out my price range. Why do manufactures used expensive re-purposed wood harvested by blind orphans from exotic countries instead of just using cheap bulk lumber? "What's a hipster to do?" I asked myself while twirling my mustache.

Fueled by outrage and sustainable-farmed cruelty-free kale I decided to make my own bed frame for less (~$175 for parts) and was pretty successful. Here's how I did it.

Before/After

[Part 0: The Disclaimer]

I was able to do this without losing any eyes, fingers, or toes. However, this did involve the use of power tools, open flames, and chemistry. Be careful, take precautions. Wear safety glasses and protective gloves, work in well ventilated rooms, read labels, so on and so forth. 

[Part 1: The Lumbering]

The diy network has a decent page on building a bed frame which I stole followed closely. All the wood pieces are made uses straight cuts, so the degree of difficulty is fairly low. I didn't like how loose the frame fits the bed and the finish, so those were modified.

This wood stain is best described as 'campground toilet' [Source] 

Here's the lengths of wood I ended up getting:

• Four 2x12x8's for the frame
• Four 2x6x8's for the headboard (more =  taller, less = shorter)
• One 2x4x12 for the headboard

The original version left around a 3-5 inch gap on each side for bedding. I wanted a pronounced 'muffin top' look so I reduced the clearance to 1/2" on each side. A circular saw worked great for the cuts - adjust the blade to slightly larger than the thickness of your board to avoid excess splintering. Here is the length of each board as cut by me:

• 64" - Two 2x12's, Four 2x6's 
• 81" - Two 2x12's 
• 31" - Three 2x4's (Cut 3 pieces from the 12' board)

[Part 2: FIRE]

When you get the wood it's going to look pale and boring. This is where the propane torch comes in.

Torching the lumber raises the grain of the wood and otherstuffwhocaresFIRE.

Pictured: Me not have any fun. At all. Whatsoever.

I'm sure there is a proper technique here that I'm not using. The IKEA Hackers link recommends laying the board down and working at it from the top but I had zero success with that due to the wind. Turning it on it's side made an effective windscreen for me and made torching it much easier. Surprisingly the propane torch lasted me through a single pass of all the boards. Two passes would probably work better and help remove some blotches but I'm not made of time, internet. Speaking of time saving, remember you only have to do the sides that are going to be showing. 

Sanded (bottom) vs not (top). I recommend an orbital sander for the lazies.

Remove the excess char and sap with some ~320 grit medium sandpaper and you're ready for the next step

[Part 3: Science!]

This is really cool.

Okay, maybe not that cool

1.  Stuff some steel wool in a jar and fill it up with vinegar. Let it sit overnight and remove the steel wool. 
2. Brew some strong tea and wipe the board down with it. I used 3 teabags to 6 cups. Also make sure your wood is free of debris before wiping it down
3. Once the tea has dried rub the board down with the vinegar, let it sit, and... 
4. SCIENCE! "Tannic acid treatment for conservation is very effective and widely used but it does have a significant visual effect on the object, turning the corrosion products black and any exposed metal dark blue." [wiki]

Significant visual effect. 

The wood starts darkening and looking like driftwood. Alternatively you can use a stain - but where's the fun in that? 

[Part 4: Boring regular wood treatment stuff]

Once you're done it's time to seal up the wood to protect it from the unspeakable horrors of your bedroom. A few passes with wiping varnish is probably the easiest way to get a top notch looking finish. The downside of wiping varnish is it takes a while to dry and is smelly. I opted to use a water based polyurethane which is difficult to work with but quicker. Also it looks like android blood:

 If you want the wood to look natural go for a satin. If you want it to be shiny go for a gloss. If you want it to be in the middle go for a semi-gloss (my choice). Prep/paint according to the instructions on the can.

[Part 5: Assembly]

By this point you should have all your boards ready. Follow the instructions from the diy page and bam, bed frame. I couldn't find the long corner brackets like they used so I just doubled up two smaller ones and it worked just fine. 

I'll take some better pictures if/when I have access to a real camera. Until then:

hey gurl