PPI FE Review Manual: Rapid Preparation for the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam, 3rd Edition – A Comprehensive Preparation Guide for the FE Exam

Better than described.This is the best seller ever!

To start off, I've graduated from school last year in electrical engineering. I have bought this book around June 2013 to study from. I was going to take the last pencil and paper FE exam in October of 2013 but I felt I didn't have enough time to study so I decided to hold out until this year for the new CBT exam around late last year. The new exam seemed to appeal to me considering it is less questions, less time and generally less stress than an 8 hour, 180 question exam. Also the testing center was closer! I was a bit wary of buying this book considering I am from an electrical background. But I figured it would be good for the morning session for the older version of the exam. That's why I bought it. So I ended up reading through the whole book and doing all of the practice problems over and over and over again. The interesting thing is that the book seems to surprise you all of the time. None of the material or the questions get old. It has enough to keep you satisfied and feeling confident for a while.Eventually I filled my head with all of the information in this book (this includes stuff I never learned in school like fluids, dynamics, mechanics, etc.) and opted to take the "other disciplines" CBT FE exam. I was thinking to myself that this was a bad idea considering that I am from an electrical background and didn't feel comfortable with the things that I have just mentioned. After reading this book so much and doing the practice problems everything becomes second nature. The way you approach problems, the problem solving process, using the reference manual and all of the little tricks. To study for the CBT I would have the PDF of the reference manual on my home computer along with a marker, my approved calculator and I would write on my desk (glass surface,erasable) and I would use this book. Finally I felt that I had studied enough, approximately 10 months including time with my job and I registered for the CBT "other disciplines" exam. I took it last Saturday and got my results on Wednesday the following week. Very quick compared to the exam which was approximately 4 months as so I've heard. It turns out that I had passed! The reason why is all due to this book. I took the specific exam for which I had very limited knowledge prior to reading this book. After reading this book and utilizing it the way the author suggests, I passed the exam.So it clearly works for the "other disciplines" CBT exam in a similar fashion to the old "general" pencil and paper exam. The amount of material in this book is great especially for the price. The author gets to the point in all of the reading sections and highlights the equations that are included in the reference manual. He throws some equations of his own in to create a better understanding of the material but generally these are not necessary. There are also a good variety of questions for each subject. In conclusion, read through each section, answer the questions over and over again, know where the find the equations given in the book with the on-screen reference manual (PDF) and once you feel confident, register for the "other disciplines" CBT exam. I really have no gripes with this book at all. It's clear, accurate, gets to the point, no errors and helps you prepare. Although I must say that the term "rapid" to me seems like 1 month or 2 months. That's generally not the case when some of us have life activities to do. All in all 5 out of 5 stars.

I just found out this week that I passed the FE exam using this book to study for the morning exam topics. Having graduated with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering back in 2005 I knew that I would need help to study for the FE exam. I feel that this book prepared me pretty well for the morning portion of the exam. This book will prepare you for only the morning exam if you choose a discipline specific module for your afternoon test. I think that most sections of this book do go into a little more detail and cover additional topics that can help you in the afternoon as well though.I chose the electrical discipline specific exam for the afternoon. I hear a lot of people saying that it is easier to take the "Other Disciplines" exam in the afternoon even if there is a discipline specific module that matches your undergraduate degree. I have to say though that this goes against common logic and the directions of the NCEES. I chose my discipline because the topics were more familiar than diving even deeper into courses which I had not taken during school... like Thermodynamics, Mechanics of Materials, Heat Transfer, etc... Plus if you look at the passing rates on the NCEES web site, in general there is at least a slightly higher pass rate for those who take their "appropriate" afternoon module if it is available. That was the case at least for last October's exam. I feel that you are bound to be more successful in topics which you have taken courses in and what you focused on in school rather than to hope that the Other Disciplines module will be easier and not as in depth.I spent roughly five months studying from this book for the morning exam and one brutal month studying from my old college texts and notes for the Electrical afternoon exam. For me I think I made the mistake of trying to learn new topics, like the ones that I listed above. I feel it is better to really focus on the topics that you are familiar with since you will not have time during the morning test to really think through problems. I pretty much skipped over most of the unfamiliar topic questions in the exam except for the very easy ones. I figure that I actually made a good effort of answering about 2/3 to 3/4 of the questions on each half of the exam and then guessed the rest. The content in this book does cover everything that it needs to, but there is not a whole lot (or any?) theory and not much explanation. It is pretty much just a re-presentation of all the concepts and formulas that you need to know. I think that is why it is a mistake to try to use this book to learn any new concepts other than just understanding formula variables.Also, I think it is very important to get a copy of the NCEES Supplied Reference Handbook to use during your studies. It is important to know the content and layout of the different sections so that you are not searching and wasting a bunch of time during the exam. When I bought mine last fall it was less than $20 including shipping. It is a small price to pay for the benefit of familiarity. Overall I think the FE Review Manual is a pretty thorough review tool for the general portion of the exam.