There is a way to pass the FE exam without studying but we don't usually recommend it. You only want to go through this exam one time - registering, filling out all the paperwork, showing up, taking the exam, etc. We all know people who say that this "test was so easy and I didn't even study!".
Well, unfortunately, this is known as the survivor-ship bias!
A survivor-ship bias is the logical error of concentrating on the people or things that made it past some selection process and overlooking those that did not, typically because of their lack visibility. So if there is a large sample of test takers, of course there will be a small percentage, say 1%, of test takers that pass without studying based on pure luck. They will be excited to tell you how easy the test was and how they didn't even study. But the problem is that you will NEVER hear from the 99% who failed the exam. They won't brag about failing after NOT studying.
The FE Exam is known to be passable with some preparation - view the current passing rates on NCEES.org. But if you really want to wing this exam with the smallest amount of studying....
Follow the steps below:
1) Make a list of the top 3-4 equations used in each of the subjects in your exam topic area. Thermo, fluids, math, dynamics, chemistry, heat transfer, etc. Become very familiar with those.
2) Don't get stuck on any one question. Skip it. Find the low hanging fruit (easy questions) towards the back of the exam.
3) If running low on time, and if all answer choices are different, don't bother entering in values like 10^-5 or 10^8 into the formula because the answer will only be off by that factor. This will save you a lot of time.
4) Download the FE Handbook from NCEES.org (It's FREE) and learn the layout before the exam. Get familiar with it. Don't read it like a manual and think that you need to know everything in it in order to pass. It just represents everything that's "fair game". Simply just know where to find the important equations.
5) If your calculation doesn't match the possible answer choices, take a step back and ask yourself what is the common sense answer in terms of the magnitude of the options listed?
6) Work through a set of 5 practice questions from each topic area. Our
book is specifically designed that way ! The FastTrack Method doesn't waste time on theory or obscure problems, we just jump right into the practice questions and learn theory as we go along. We use the percentage breakdown published by NCEES.org to tailor our study approach!
7)
Download the free 10 Question Demo practice exam to see where you stand.
8) Hopefully you are in the 1% who passes without studying - and then you can tell your friends how easy it was!
