Which FE Exam Should I Take? The Answer Most Engineers Never Hear

Which FE Exam Should I Take?

I have this conversation on almost every strategy call I take.

An engineer comes in, they’ve failed the FE exam two, three, five times. They’ve tried different study materials, different programs, different approaches. And at some point in the call I ask them — have you ever considered taking the Other Disciplines exam?

Nine times out of ten, the answer is the same. I didn’t even know that was an option.

The question of which FE exam should I take seems straightforward. It’s not.

That’s where we start.

If you’re also comparing prep options, see our full breakdown of the best FE exam prep courses.

Which FE Exam Should I Take? Let’s Back Up First

Most engineers don’t even think to ask the question of which FE exam to take. If you’re a civil engineer, you take the Civil FE. You’re a mechanical, you take the Mechanical. It makes sense on the surface.

But the NCEES offers seven FE exam disciplines, which are:

• FE Civil
• FE Mechanical
• FE Electrical and Computer
• FE Chemical
• FE Environmental
• FE Industrial and Systems
• FE Other Disciplines

That last one is the answer most engineers never get when asking which FE exam should I take. That’s what I want to talk to you about.

What Is the FE Other Disciplines Exam?

The FE Other Disciplines exam — I’d call it the General Engineering exam if I could — is written for undergraduate degrees that don’t have a dedicated FE specification.

Petroleum engineers. Ocean engineers. Aeronautical engineers.

Programs that don’t have enough candidates to justify their own exam, but still need a route to getting their PE.

Because it’s written for such a broad range of backgrounds, the exam covers general engineering fundamentals: math, probability and statistics, engineering economics, ethics, statics, dynamics, mechanics of materials, fluids, thermodynamics, and more. Topics that overlap heavily with every discipline-specific exam.

And here’s where it gets interesting.

Because NCEES is writing this exam for engineers who may not have seen certain subjects before, the depth of every question gets naturally filtered.

That’s not an accident — it’s a structural feature of the exam. And it’s the whole reason this strategy works.

Which FE Exam Should I Take? The Logic To Think Through

Put yourself in NCEES’s position for a minute, where you are writing a Statics problem for the FE Mechanical exam.

You know with certainty that the person taking this exam has a mechanical engineering degree. They’ve seen Statics without a doubt in their undergraduate program. So you can ask a challenging question — no filter needed.

Now consider the flip side to this.

Again, put yourself in NCEES’s position, but this time, you are writing a Statics problem for the FE Other Disciplines exam.

You have no idea who’s on the other end.

It might be a mechanical engineer, or it might be a petroleum engineer who has never seen Statics in their life. You have to account for that. You can’t expect a Petroleum engineer to have a seasoned understanding of Statics as you could expect for a Mechanical engineer.

That’s just the reality.

So the question gets pulled back — you naturally limit the depth because the exam has to be fair to all of those different backgrounds.

That’s the logic behind this strategy.

NCEES doesn’t publish how they calibrate question difficulty by discipline — but the reasoning holds. And the results we’ve seen bear it out.

Same subject. Same topic. But the question on the Other Disciplines exam is calibrated for someone who may never have seen it before.

If you’re a civil or mechanical engineer, you’re walking in with significantly more background than that exam is designed around.

Your existing knowledge goes further than it would on your discipline-specific exam — because the questions aren’t written with you in mind.

The Only Requirement Is Passing the FE — Not Which One

Here’s the part nobody tells you.

The only requirement to move toward your PE license is that you pass the FE exam. Not which version.

If you want your Civil PE, you don’t need to take the FE Civil.

If you want your Mechanical PE, you don’t need to take the FE Mechanical.

If you want your Electrical PE, you don’t need to take the FE Electrical.

Your state licensing board requires that you pass the Fundamentals of Engineering exam — full stop.

The discipline you choose doesn’t limit which PE exam you sit for later. It doesn’t affect your career. It doesn’t limit anything downstream.

It’s just a box you need to check, and you can check it with any version of the FE exam. So when you ask which FE exam should I take — the honest answer is whichever one gives you the best shot at passing.

Bottom line, I’m a Mechanical PE. When I took the FE exam, I didn’t take the FE Mechanical. I took the FE Other Disciplines exam. For all the reasons I just laid out.

And I passed.

If you’re weighing how to prepare once you’ve made this decision, here’s an honest look at FE exam self study and whether it’s the right approach. For a full breakdown of what the exam costs before you commit, see how much the FE exam costs.

Who This Makes the Most Sense For

After I lay out the logic behind this strategy, the direction of the calls shift – and maybe this post has done the same.

If you are now asking which FE Exam should I take, let me put it this way.

If you have an engineering background — civil, mechanical, electrical, chemical — you’re walking into the Other Disciplines exam with a natural advantage. The depth is filtered for someone with far less foundation than you have. That’s the whole point.

Here’s who this makes the most sense for — and for each of these, the answer to which FE exam to take is the same.

If you’ve failed your discipline-specific exam. This is the most common scenario I see.

Engineers who have taken the FE Civil or FE Mechanical four, five, six times and can’t get past the specialty-heavy end of the exam.

Civil engineers fail on geotechnical, transportation, and structural — subjects they may have seen once in school but haven’t touched since.

Mechanical engineers get tripped up on machine design and advanced topics they don’t use daily.

The FE Other Disciplines exam removes that concentrated depth. The core topics are the same, but the questions are calibrated for a broader audience.

For engineers who have been struggling with the specialty end of their discipline exam, this strategy can change it all – in an instant.

If you’re years out of school. The further you are from graduation, the more you’ve specialized — and the more the breadth of your discipline exam works against you.

The Other Disciplines exam’s broader, shallower coverage is a much better fit for where you actually are after years in the workforce.

Your options are pouring a ton of time into understanding the most granular concepts within all subjects, or getting “just dangerous enough” across all subjects.

Anyone can get dangerous enough.

If your work doesn’t match your degree. A lot of engineers end up working outside their degree discipline.

A mechanical engineer doing project management. A civil engineer in facilities. An electrical engineer in process work.

If your daily work isn’t reinforcing the specialty depth your discipline exam tests, the Other Disciplines exam is simply the smarter path.

If you want the most strategic route to a pass. This isn’t about avoiding a hard exam. The FE Other Disciplines exam is a real exam with real engineering content.

It’s about going in with a strategic and structural advantage — and for engineers with a solid engineering foundation, that advantage is real.

If you’re also weighing which prep program to use once you’ve made this decision, see how Prepineer compares to PPI and the other major options.

What the FE Other Disciplines Exam Covers

Here’s what you’re looking at on the Other Disciplines specification:

• Mathematics and Advanced Engineering Mathematics
• Probability and Statistics
• Chemistry
• Instrumentation and Data Acquisition
• Ethics and Professional Practice
• Engineering Economics
• Statics
• Dynamics
• Mechanics of Materials
• Materials Science
• Fluid Mechanics
• Thermodynamics
• Electricity, Power, and Magnetism
• Heat, Mass, and Energy Transfer

If you’re a civil, mechanical, or electrical engineer, most of this list is material you’ve already seen.

There will be a subject or two on the list that gives you pause — Electricity was that for me. But the exam covers all of it at a general level, not the specialized depth a discipline exam demands.

That’s the point.

Before exam day, make sure your calculator is on the NCEES approved list. See our guide on the best calculator for the FE exam.

Engineers Who Made This Call

This isn’t just a theory. Engineers across every discipline have been right where you are — asking which FE exam should I take — and found the same answer.

Zach Shepard was an electrical engineer who failed the FE exam seven times. He failed so many times that he didn’t feel engineering was a career he was meant for and ended up dropping out of the industry altogether.

A few years later, he knew he had to give it one more shot, for his family, for himself, and that’s when we met.

We had this discussion and for him, it made all the difference.

Zach switched to the Other Disciplines exam using Prepineer, passed, and is now a licensed PE in multiple states.

Then there’s William, who spent years and a lot of money trying to pass the FE Environmental.

And Bonnie, who like most Civils, thought there was only one path to getting her PE.

The pattern is consistent across disciplines. Engineers who have been stuck on their discipline-specific exam for years make the switch, and it all changes.

Final Thoughts: Which FE Exam Should I Take?

For most engineers — and especially for engineers who have struggled on their discipline-specific exam — the answer to which FE exam should I take is the FE Other Disciplines exam.

Not because it’s the easy route. Because it’s the smart one.

The depth is calibrated for a more general audience. The topic overlap with your existing background is significant. And the only requirement is that you pass the FE exam — not which version.

When you’re ready to schedule, see our guide on FE exam dates — four testing windows are available each year.

Once you choose which fits with your plan, see our step-by-step guide on how to register for the FE exam.

At Prepineer, we prepare every student — regardless of discipline background — to take the FE Other Disciplines exam. It’s the foundation of everything we do, and it’s why we see engineers pass who spent years failing their discipline exam.

You’ve seen the logic. You’ve seen the results. The only thing left is the decision.

The trial is free. Access is immediate. We get to work the same day you start.

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