FE Environmental exam prep, by the weights

Where the questions are

Shares below are our arithmetic: the midpoint of each range divided by the sum of all midpoints (127).

1. Water, about 40%: fluid mechanics and hydraulics 12–18, water and wastewater 12–18, surface water and hydrology 9–14, groundwater 8–12.
2. Shared FE, about 19%: mathematics 5–8, probability and statistics 4–6, ethics 5–8, engineering economics 5–8.
3. Chemistry and fundamentals, about 14%: environmental chemistry 7–11, fundamental principles 7–11.
4. Air and energy, about 12%: air quality and control 8–12, energy and environment 4–6.
5. Waste and risk, about 11%: solid and hazardous waste 7–11, health hazards and risk 4–6.
6. Thermodynamics, about 3%: 3–5, covered under FE Mechanical thermodynamics.

A plan in four passes

Out of every 10 hours, give about 4 to water, 2 to the shared areas, 1.5 to chemistry and fundamentals, 1 each to air and to waste, and the last half hour to thermodynamics and review.

1. Diagnose. Take a timed run of the practice exam and list every area where you missed more than you solved.
2. Water first. Fluids is the base for the other three water areas: pipe and channel flow comes back in treatment-plant hydraulics, culverts and stream channels. Then water and wastewater, hydrology, groundwater.
3. The smaller Env areas. Chemistry before air and waste, because partitioning and kinetics come back in both.
4. Shared areas and pacing. Mathematics, statistics and ethics on the FE practice test page, economics on its own page; then full timed sets at about 3 minutes a question.

Scheduling, review cycles and exam-day routine for any discipline: FE exam prep.

Study from the handbook, not a formula sheet

Work every practice problem with the free FE Reference Handbook open and its search box only. The exam gives you nothing else, and the time you lose hunting for an equation is time you do not get back. The search terms that pay off for this discipline: reference handbook.

Law and ethics

Ethics here includes compliance with environmental law. Learn which statute governs what, one line each, on the water, air and waste pages.

What to study from

• The specification: the July 2020 PDF lists every subtopic; use it as a checklist.
• The handbook: free in MyNCEES, the same one as on exam day.
• NCEES practice exams: 2 × 50 questions, $50 each. Written by NCEES, they follow the same July 2020 specifications.
• A review manual: it helps only if its chapters match the 15 areas; a book with a different set of areas predates the current specification.

More on this exam

• FE EnvironmentalThe 15 areas of the July 2020 specification, the exam facts and where each area is covered
• FE Environmental practice testProblems in the proportions of the specification, every step worked
• FE Environmental exam factsReference handbook, units, exam day, scoring, retakes and the next step, with sources
• FE Environmental costFee per attempt, expected attempts at this exam’s pass rates, other path costs
• FE Environmental pass rateEight half-years of first-time pass rates, repeat takers, and the comparison with FE Civil