FE Exam 60-Day Study Plan (Week by Week)

Sixty days gives you enough room for a structured FE review, provided you plan around your discipline’s specification. The exam covers 110 questions in 5 hours and 20 minutes. We suggest eight weeks: on Day 1, write down each knowledge area and its question range, then study the heaviest areas first. Practice inside the free FE Reference Handbook PDF, and save timed sets for weeks 7 and 8 so Day 60 becomes a rehearsal.

Build the plan from your specification

Order the eight weeks from the question ranges on your discipline’s specification, since those ranges are the weights you can actually plan against. In every FE specification, the low ends of the ranges add up to 100 of the 110 questions, and the rest of the exam is whatever sits above those minimums, which you will not know until you see the form. Cover every area at least to its floor, and spend the most days where both the floor and the top of the range run high.

On the FE Civil exam specification effective July 2020, that means Water Resources and Environmental Engineering, Structural Engineering, and Geotechnical Engineering, each 10 to 15 questions, then Transportation Engineering at 9 to 14. On the FE Environmental exam specification, also effective July 2020, Fluid Mechanics and Hydraulics and Water and Wastewater lead, each at 12 to 18, followed by Surface Water Resources and Hydrology at 9 to 14. If you are taking another discipline, do the same sort on that specification rather than borrowing civil weights.

Two habits belong in the plan from Day 1. Work problems in the free FE Reference Handbook PDF from MyNCEES, and write down the section you used, since you will need to search that file in the exam software. Learn the search habits early: the search box is on the left, references are usually best viewed at 100% zoom, and Ctrl + F does not work. Practice that skill on the FE Reference Handbook page before the clock matters, and keep weeks 1 through 6 mostly untimed, saving exam-pace sets for weeks 7 and 8.

Small ranges still stay on the calendar. Ethics and Professional Practice is 4 to 6 questions on the civil specification and 5 to 8 on the environmental specification, Dynamics is 4 to 6 on civil, and Thermodynamics is 3 to 5 on environmental. Skipping them gives away questions the floors already count, and it does not make up for a heavy area you left unfinished.

What to study each week

The table below is one way to split 60 days. It is our suggestion, not an NCEES schedule, and the same blocks work for any discipline if you drop in that specification’s ranges.

For civil, weeks 1-2 are the three 10 to 15 areas. In water resources, trace water from rainfall through a channel, a pipe, a pump, or a treatment step. In structures, solve a determinate beam, truss, or frame, follow the load path, and check a steel or concrete member with the handbook relations. In geotechnical, classify the soil, compute effective stress, then look at bearing, settlement, a wall, or a slope. Do not leave an area after one lucky problem. Stay until you can find the handbook section without paging at random.

Weeks 3-4 add Transportation Engineering (9 to 14), then Mathematics and Statistics, Statics, and Construction Engineering (8 to 12 each). Transportation covers roadway geometry, pavement, traffic flow, and control devices. Statics covers resultants, equilibrium, trusses and frames, centroids, and friction. Construction covers documents, methods, scheduling, estimating, and reading drawings. Mix a statics problem with a structural one so those skills do not stay in separate boxes.

Weeks 5-6 finish the civil list. Mechanics of Materials is 7 to 11 questions, and it stays separate from Structural Engineering in your notes because the specification lists them apart: internal forces, stress and strain, deformation, and combined stress, rather than member design. Fluid Mechanics and Surveying are 6 to 9 each, and Engineering Economics and Materials are 5 to 8 each. Economics means equivalence and comparisons such as break-even and benefit-cost. Materials means how concrete, asphalt, metals, aggregates, and wood are specified and tested, including mix design, not the stress formulas from mechanics of materials.

Week 7 covers Ethics and Professional Practice and Dynamics, both 4 to 6. Ethics items use codes, liability, licensure, and contracts as they appear on the exam. Dynamics covers motion, force and acceleration, and energy for particles and rigid bodies. This is also the week we suggest an NCEES practice exam. NCEES sells those exams in MyNCEES, and the price is shown after you log in.

If you are on the environmental specification, refill the same weeks. Weeks 1-2: Fluid Mechanics and Hydraulics and Water and Wastewater (12 to 18 each). Weeks 3-4: Surface Water Resources and Hydrology (9 to 14), then Groundwater, Soils, and Sediments and Air Quality and Control (8 to 12 each). Weeks 5-6: Fundamental Principles, Environmental Chemistry, and Solid and Hazardous Waste (7 to 11 each), then Mathematics, Ethics and Professional Practice, and Engineering Economics (5 to 8 each). Week 7: Probability and Statistics, Health Hazards and Risk Assessment, and Energy and Environment (4 to 6 each), plus Thermodynamics (3 to 5). Closed conduits, open channels, pumps, and treatment processes form the core of that exam, so do not give them the shorter slot a civil fluid block would get.

How to run a study day

Each day, take one problem from the area scheduled that week and finish it before you read a solution. Draw that problem from a set of free FE practice problems or from any set that shows the full work. Write units as you go, find the relation in the handbook PDF, note the section, and complete the arithmetic. Then read the solution and mark the miss as setup, handbook location, units, or arithmetic.

Start the next session by reworking one problem you missed, still without looking at the solution. That redo matters more than starting a fresh stack. During weeks 1-2, stay inside one knowledge area for the whole session so the handbook path sticks. From weeks 3-4 on, add one problem from an earlier area at the end of the session. If you cannot say which handbook section a problem used, you are not done with it, even if the final number was right.

When a solution uses a factor, a chart, or a unit conversion, go find that item in the PDF yourself. Recognizing the formula on a solution sheet is a different skill from searching it under the exam software. Build the search now, while nothing is timed.

What to change if an area is weak

If you already have a diagnostic report, read it before you lock weeks 1-2. Each knowledge area is shown as a scaled score from 0 to 15, next to the average of passing examinees. Extra days belong on a high-range area where your score sits well below that average. The report cannot be turned into a passing score or a count of right answers, so do not spend a study day trying.

If you have no report, use the first part of week 1 as a self-test. Work a few problems from each knowledge area with the handbook and no timer. An area is weak if you cannot start, or if you cannot find the relation. Move days toward a weak area that also has a high range, and leave a short area you already handle on its own week. Clearing the calendar to polish Ethics and Professional Practice while Geotechnical Engineering is still shaky studies the wrong end of the specification.

After the week 7 practice exam, sort misses by knowledge area and feed only those topics into the remaining days. A miss on a 10 to 15 area outranks a miss on a 4 to 6 area. If both are weak, repair the larger range first and keep a few problems from the smaller one so it does not go cold.

How fast each question has to go

You have 5 hours and 20 minutes for 110 questions, which works out to about 2.9 minutes, or 2 minutes 55 seconds, per question. Some items are faster than that, and some are slower. The figure is a budget for a set, not a rule that every item deserves the same time. The page on time per question walks through that budget in more detail.

Ignore the clock in weeks 1-2. A correct setup you can repeat is worth more than a rushed wrong one. In weeks 5-6, time a short mixed set and notice only whether you are far over 2 minutes 55 seconds because you are still hunting in the handbook. That is a search problem, and the fix is more reps in that section of the PDF, not a new stack of unread notes. In week 7 and week 8, run sets on the clock. When a set ends, list the items that blew the budget and the handbook section that would have shortened them.

What week 8 is for

Week 8 is the last stretch of this plan, and it is a different job from learning. What to do on each of those days is covered in the week before the FE exam. Inside the 60-day plan, the limits are these. Do not open a knowledge area you have never studied. Redo misses at the pace described above. Run one more pass at the software habits: search box on the left, 100% zoom, no Ctrl + F.

Use Day 60 for a short timed set and a short list of handbook sections you still find slowly. Then stop. A new design topic the night before will not repair a 10 to 15 area, and it will crowd out the search practice that still can.

Frequently asked questions

Is 60 days enough to study for the FE exam?

Sixty days is our suggested length for working through a specification once, with the heaviest ranges studied early and timed practice saved for the end. It holds up when you can give real problem time to the large areas and still touch every area, since the low ends of the ranges already account for 100 of the 110 questions. It gets tight if a high-range area is new to you, in which case move days toward that area instead of adding topics the specification barely asks for.

How many hours a day should I study for the FE?

This plan does not set a daily hour count. Judge the day by the work: you stayed on the areas scheduled for that week, you finished problems with units and a handbook section noted, and you reworked something you missed. A session you actually complete across the 60 days covers more than a few long days followed by a gap. If a heavy area is still slow, lengthen those sessions and shorten a light area you already handle.

Should I take a practice exam?

Yes. We suggest one NCEES practice exam in week 7, bought in MyNCEES, where the price is shown after you log in. Use the misses to decide what week 8 reviews. If you already have a diagnostic report, read the scaled score from 0 to 15 in each knowledge area against the average of passing examinees. That report does not show the passing score or how many questions you got right.

What should I study first for the FE?

Study the knowledge areas with the highest question ranges on your specification. On the FE Civil specification effective July 2020, that is Water Resources and Environmental Engineering, Structural Engineering, and Geotechnical Engineering, each 10 to 15 questions. On the FE Environmental specification effective July 2020, Fluid Mechanics and Hydraulics and Water and Wastewater are each 12 to 18 questions. Download the handbook on Day 1 and work those areas in that PDF before you spend equal time on the short ranges.

Sources

NCEES FE Civil CBT exam specifications (PDF). Retrieved October 3, 2026.
NCEES FE Environmental CBT exam specifications (PDF). Retrieved October 3, 2026.
NCEES Examinee Guide, May 2026 (PDF). Retrieved October 3, 2026.
MyNCEES exam prep (handbooks and practice exams). Retrieved October 3, 2026.

How do you study for the FE exam in 60 days?