Fundamentals of Engineering Exam

Just wondering how many engineers there are on here and if any of y'all have your EIT/PE?

Taking my FE exam in April. I'd also advice on whether to take the PM Electrical or the PM General.

Electrical Engineers apparently don't cover material mechanics, thermodynamics, fluids, chemistry, or half of statics/dynamics in their college curriculum, I feel pretty lost when I'm reading my FE prep guide. At least I'll have excellent Mathematics, Computer Science, and Electrical Engineering scores to tide me over.

I took the EIT/FE years ago as a ME. ME's at my school were advised to take the afternoon general and not the discipline specific. All others were advised to take their discipline specific test in the afternoon. I passed no problem, I picked up one of those giant study guide books and worked every problem in it over the course of 8 weeks before the test.

I took the EIT test many years ago. Didn't study for it and didn't prepare, but it wasn't hard and all the course material was still fresh in my mind, so I passed it no problem.

I am currently a Highway Designer. (I cant call my self an engineer til I pass the PE) I passed the FE in October 2007 on the day of the PSU/Ohio State Game at PSU. I lucked out in that my room was away from college ave/anywhere people were starting to get pumped up for the game. That was a LOOOONG freaking day but I felt confident in my results however we lost that game.

I took the PM Civil section as I am horrible at anything pertaining to thermo/fluids and I had heard the PM general was heavy into those topics. I recommend brushing up on everything just so it is fresh in your mind. Just relax and don't stress over it. you can retake as many times as you want.

I'm studying Mech Eng right now, but I've still got a good few years to go before I'll be going for my PEng. The system is probably different in the States vs. Canada though regardless. Do you have to do about 3 years of EIT before you can become a Professional Engineer?

Here I believe it is 4 years IF you graduated from an ABET-accredited university before you can take the P&P to become a PE.

My son is currently in the electrical/computer engineering program at NC State. I guess he'll be sweating this out in a couple years. Hopefully he'll be able to land a job from the local SAS company where he's had a summer job for the last three years.

Geoff

Popsiclestix said:

Just wondering how many engineers there are on here and if any of y'all have your EIT/PE?

Taking my FE exam in April. I'd also advice on whether to take the PM Electrical or the PM General.

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I took the EIT back in '86, just prior to getting my BSEE. I'm not really sure why they push the EIT for EE's, as I've never had an employer express an interest in PE's. My first employer was an aircraft manufacturer, and my current employer builds earthmoving equipment.

Steve K.

Steve K said:

...and my current employer builds earthmoving equipment.

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Hrmm, and you are in Peoria, IL. That's pretty easy to guess

Kremer said:

Hrmm, and you are in Peoria, IL. That's pretty easy to guess

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but Komatsu has a branch here designing mining trucks... so you might not really know for sure.

but going back to the subject... who actually needs a PE license? My impression is that it is for folks doing civil engineering type stuff, or maybe some consulting work.

Steve K.

Steve K said:

but going back to the subject... who actually needs a PE license? My impression is that it is for folks doing civil engineering type stuff, or maybe some consulting work.

Steve K.

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For engineering consulting work, it is of course a must, and in the civil engineering world as well.

Part of what you get into is liability questions. If the work is performed and certified by a PE, it makes it harder for a company to be sued. Over time, this can be an important aspect.

My brother and I both have BS Che, I only took the first test, he took the PE test. He is a higher level manager than I am, even though he is younger. What can I say?

Just wanted to update all who was reading this thread. I took the PM general.

April 2010 results are out!

I passed with a scaled score of 89 (whatever that means, they give no points of reference except that 70 is a passing score)

Time to celebrate! :drunk:

Congratulations popsiclestix
I'm in my second year of mechanical engineering course, so I've got two more years of uni before I graduate and go for Engineers Australia accreditation. The system seems quite different over there...

I am an engineer by trade and have a degree in Mech Eng gained in England.

Now I work for Parker (American company) and I design hydraulic systems. I tend to specialise in mobile applications such as dumper trucks, backhoe loaders, diggers and the like....

In my spare time I'm looking at CPF :wave:

Stevie said:

I am an engineer by trade and have a degree in Mech Eng gained in England.

Now I work for Parker (American company) and I design hydraulic systems. I tend to specialise in mobile applications such as dumper trucks, backhoe loaders, diggers and the like....

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Parker has been steadily growing and expanding. Here in Peoria, where we make big yellow stuff that uses hydraulics and motion control, Parker does a fair amount of business. Even in the electronics area, we buy sensors from one of the small companies that Parker bought. We've even bought a fancy Parker linear actuator for lab testing some linear sensors purchased from other suppliers.

Returning slightly to the subject of PE's, working for a big company like Parker or my employer, the need for a PE is reduced or eliminated. I think that this is because the corporation has its own methods for watching over engineers and making sure that they do the right things. This includes extensive product testing prior to selling a product (something that is hard to do with most civil engineering projects). They also have a few lawyers for the times when it's not clear who is to blame after something bad happens.

cheers!

Steve K.

My University borrowed some Carbon Fiber accumulators from Parker last year for...wait for it..a race car. Cool stuff.

Now if nobody minds, I think I'll hijack this thread a little -- Do we have any Manufacturing Engineers around? I've been studying Mechanical Engineering, but in the last year it's become obvious that this just isn't the right fit for me. From what I gather, the (Manufacturing) program here is a little different than most, so I need to talk to some people in that department specifically, but I'd be interested in outside perspective as well.

In the USA, manufacturing isn't what it used to be. Is there a degree in supplier management?? There are certainly a lot of jobs with that title!

I have a sister who started out studying M.E., but switched over to Industrial Engineering (very similar to manufacturing eng., I suspect). She's at Goodyear, and been concerned about her job for some time.

At my current employer, I used to design electronics. It was decided that we shouldn't be designing, and should just find companies who could sell us the stuff we need (not a bad idea, in principle). Now we spend our time writing up specs for the device, and later work on test equipment and test plans to verify that the device actually met the spec. The suppliers used to be primarily in the US, but now do most of their manufacturing either in Mexico or China.

Every industry is different, but my recommendation would be to stick to a job that can't be exported, or one that's closer to the top of the food chain (systems engineering, controls, systems integration, ... ). Being near the top of the food chain pays better.

regards,
Steve K.

Popsiclestix said:

I passed with a scaled score of 89 (whatever that means, they give no points of reference except that 70 is a passing score)

Time to celebrate! :drunk:

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Congratulations!

Saaby said:

My University borrowed some Carbon Fiber accumulators from Parker last year for...wait for it..a race car. Cool stuff.

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FSAE?

Hack On Wheels said:

FSAE?

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Yes.

since it took me a while to find the acronym spelled out, here it is:

fsae

formua society of automotive engineers