School of PE Blog

As someone who took the Environmental PE exam multiple times before passing, I understand how devastating it is to fail. You've told everyone you know about your exam - your loved ones, friends, and coworkers. Failing the exam after spending so much time and money preparing is embarrassing and disheartening.

Trying to figure out what went wrong? Here are ten reasons why you might have failed the Environmental PE exam.

1. You didn't study and underestimated the exam difficulty.

Life happens. For whatever reason- work or personal- you didn't find time to study. The weekend before the exam, you grabbed your prep material and furiously flipped through the pages. You spent the week of the exam studying several hours after work, your heart pounding as you realized there was more material to cover than you thought. You tell yourself that the exam's reference handbook will help you with any problems you can't figure out. And if your coworker was able to pass with just a week of studying, you can too, right?

I made this same mistake on my first exam. I had started preparing about five weeks before the exam, thinking I could rely on my reference material to help me if I got stuck on a problem. What I didn't anticipate was how difficult the exam problems would be, and that the references wouldn't help me if I didn't understand the basic principles required to solve the problems in the first place.

If you didn't understand the breakdown of topics covered on the exam, then passing the exam is not possible. Figuring out which topics are covered prior to exam day is vital so you have time to prepare. NCEES provides a breakdown of topics covered on the exam, down to the number of approximate questions for each topic. Review this exam specification to determine what areas you will need to focus for your next exam attempt. As a remediation engineer, I knew that I had to spend more time studying water and air, as these topics comprised a higher percentage of the exam questions than remediation.

It's easy to fall into the habit of skimming old college textbooks. Without having a dedicated study plan, it's hard to stay focused on studying the right material. Use the exam specifications and your diagnostic report to determine your weaknesses. Then focus on strengthening any weaknesses in those topics with your prep materials. Remember - the more problems you work, the more you strengthen your understanding of the topics.

My biggest weakness my first two exam attempts was studying aimlessly, sitting on my couch, and reading textbooks without working actual problems. For my third and successful attempt, I used my diagnostic report to figure out my biggest weaknesses (air and water) and scheduled study sessions at my kitchen table every night. Figure out how much study time you need for preparation and where you can study to maximize your study sessions (i.e., Do you focus better from a quiet spot or with ambient noise?) Aim for consistency by studying in small chunks having a solid study session for an hour is better than sitting at your chair for four hours and not being able to focus.

We are all adults with jobs and commitments. Even if you prepare a study schedule, you may not be able to devote all the time you planned due to personal or work commitments. If you have an upcoming major life event, my advice is to postpone the exam until you are able to focus on studying. I was planning my wedding my first two exam attempts, making it difficult to focus on studying. Once I got married and no longer had to spend so much time and energy on planning my wedding, I was able to prepare for the exam. I passed the exam six months after my wedding.

My work involves environmental remediation-I assess contaminated sites, use analytical data to determine where the contamination is and at what levels, and what can be done to clean it up. I don't perform any water resources engineering or work with air pollution with my work, which are major components of the Environmental PE exam. According to my diagnostic reports, these two categories were my weakest. I took a prep course to deepen my understanding of the material and practiced as many problems as I could for my successful attempt.

Chances are, you are pretty comfortable tackling problems within your specific environmental discipline. I did not spend much time studying for remediation problems since I felt pretty comfortable with the topic. Instead, I focused the majority of my study in topics with which I was not as familiar. Figure out where your weaknesses are so you can focus on those during your study.

The week leading up to the exam fills you with dread and you can hardly sleep the night before. On exam day, your heart is beating wildly, and you can barely focus. The questions swim in front of you as you struggle to discern what they are saying.

Test anxiety is not easy to deal with, especially if you've already failed before. You may not think you are good enough to take the exam and believe that failing again is inevitable. What can you do?

While preparing for the exam, be sure to set aside time to work through practice exams for multiple sessions. Work through the practice exam and simulate the test taking environment as much as you can - that means using only the Reference Guide to solve the problems, timing yourself as you work through the problems, and minimizing as many distractions as you can. We tend to feel anxious about situations that are unfamiliar to us. By simulating the test-taking environment in your home, you are able to both study for the exam and become more relaxed with what the test-taking experience feels like. Don't despair if you fail the practice exam (it happens to all of us, myself included) just figure out what mistakes you made and practice the problems you missed.

Make a list of things that will help you feel better about the exam. Listen to a playlist of good tunes to prepare. Figure out your test day plans (lunch, parking) to minimize stress. The day before the exam, treat yourself to a nice dinner and take the day off if you have the opportunity. Remind yourself of how far you have come in your life and how many obstacles you completed to become an engineer engineering school, the FE exam, and interviewing for your job. You've already completed the hardest steps to get to this point. Just eight more hours stand between you and the license!

I passed. FE exam in 2007 but didn't take the PE exam for the first time until ten years later. As you can imagine, there was a lot of material I'd forgotten about. If you have been out of school for a long time, give yourself extra time to study and reacquaint yourself with the core concepts. Make sure you procure solid preparation materials to aid your study (see #9).

If your study material consists solely of fifteen-year-old class notes, you will need to reassess your study strategy. You will want to procure materials that are aimed at preparing specifically for the exam - think practice exams, practice problem books, and prep courses. There's certainly nothing wrong with using class notes to study but be sure you are finding quality materials that consist of practice problems with a difficulty like what is covered on the exam.

I understand how expensive prep materials and classes are. If these materials are outside of your budget, don't worry - there are options! Ask coworkers if you can borrow their exam prep textbooks. Some employers will cover the cost of a prep course - see if yours will. If you're part of a professional organization like ASCE, those organizations might offer prep classes as well.

Taking an eight-hour exam is mentally demanding since you are sitting and focusing on difficult problems all day long. Don't underestimate the care your body and mind need the day of the exam. If you are staying up late and studying until midnight, you are not going to feel at your best for exam day. My personal recommendation is not to study the week of the exam. You wouldn't want to run twenty miles the week of a marathon; similarly, you will want to give your body and mind time to rest for the exam by resting and not studying.

It can be difficult to sleep the night before, especially if you are retaking the exam. I had a challenging time sleeping the night before my passing attempt. I used advice that my old running coach had told me - if you get a good night's rest two days before a race, then that rest will cover any missed rest the night before a race. I'm not sure how true that actually is, but I used that advice to feel better about missing sleep the night before my test.