FE exam pass rates, all seven disciplines

First-time pass rates, Jan–Jun 2026

How to read the table

• Who is counted: recent graduates of accredited engineering programs on their first try, a group that passes more often than the rest. People who studied engineering technology, who sit years after school or who are retaking are not in these rows.
• Cohort size: civil had 6,247 takers in the half-year, Industrial and Systems 259. In a small cohort a few results move the rate by a point or more, so a two-point gap between small disciplines says little.
• Easiest is the wrong question. You sit the discipline that matches your degree and the PE you are heading for, not the one with the best rate; the FE exam overview explains which fits which degree.

Each discipline's half-year series since 2022, with its own reading: FE Civil, FE Mechanical, FE Electrical and Computer, FE Environmental and FE Chemical.

Repeat takers, fiscal year 2024–25

In all seven disciplines repeat takers did far worse than first-timers, from 25% in Industrial and Systems to 37% in Mechanical and Environmental. The FE exam page itself shows first-time rates only; the repeat figures come from the annual report. Part of the gap is selection: the repeat group consists entirely of people who failed once. The practical reading is the same either way: prepare for the first sitting as if it were the only one.

Before or after graduation

Sitting early helps. Pooled over all FE disciplines from 2014 to 2025, first-time takers from ABET-accredited programs passed at 71% before graduating and 71% within a year of it, and at 63% once a year or more had passed (member boards only).

The FE samples the whole undergraduate curriculum. A year in a job that uses a slice of it leaves the rest to relearn, the simplest explanation for the drop. Sit within a year of graduating if your board allows it.

Degree type

The fiscal-year report splits first-time takers by degree, and the spread inside one discipline is wider than the spread between disciplines. In FE Civil, Oct 2024–Sep 2025:

• EAC/ABET engineering bachelor's: 64%
• No EAC or ETAC/ABET bachelor's, or none reported: 53%
• ETAC/ABET engineering technology bachelor's: 32%

NCEES designs the FE for students and recent graduates of EAC/ABET engineering programs, so if you hold a technology degree, budget more study time and check how your board treats it before you plan the path to a PE.

FE Other Disciplines, by degree

FE Other Disciplines is the exam for degrees that have no FE of their own, and NCEES breaks its first-time rate down by degree. Same population and half-year as the first table:

• Naval Architecture and Marine: 83%
• Biological (not biomedical): 68%
• Materials: 67%
• General Engineering: 65%
• Nuclear: 65%
• Engineering Physics or Engineering Science: 62%
• Mechanical: 60%
• Architectural: 55%
• Mining or Mineral: 41%

NCEES lists only degrees with more than 25 first-time takers. Mechanical graduates who chose Other Disciplines passed less often than those who sat FE Mechanical, the exam built on their own coursework.

What makes the FE hard

Breadth and pace, more than depth. Each discipline packs 110 questions into 5 h 20 min, under three minutes a question, across 13 to 17 knowledge areas you studied in different years of school. Three rules make it harder than it looks:

• No target number. Your correct answers become a scaled score judged against a fixed standard, and NCEES keeps the cut point to itself; how scoring works is on FE exam format.
• The first half locks. You submit about half the questions before the break and cannot go back to them.
• One reference, on screen. Everything comes from the FE Reference Handbook, searched in the exam window; speed with it is a skill to practice (FE Reference Handbook).

A failed attempt comes with a diagnostic report by knowledge area, and that report is the retake plan. The quickest way to see where you stand today is a set of shared FE section problems.