Thanks! Not sure if I can help too much with the actual material, but I can share my experience as a civil engineering student that passed on the first try. The actual material breakdown should be provided to help you understand what is covered.

This would be my best advice (in order) that I give anyone asking about my EIT/FE experiences.

- Confidence. If you doubt yourself at all, you will take longer answering the questions and second guess everything. I went in knowing I was going to pass. I reviewed my answers at the end but if I had any doubt, I stuck with the original answer. I felt that my initial answers were right and that reviewing them too much would only cause unneeded doubt.

- Review the reference manual. They provided the manual during the test day but I had one that I reviewed beforehand. I would even go as far to say that the knowing the reference manual is just as important, if not more so than studying the theory. It is impossible to know everything and the majority is in the reference manual, it’s just a matter of utilizing it. Don’t download it, buy it. Flipping through the actual pages is different than scrolling through a PDF. My brain made mental notes of everything that I looked at in the manual. This includes muscle memory from turning from page to page and section to section. Telling my eyes where to look after using that section for a similar problem. 

- Ear plugs. It was allowed and recommended to all the test takers. I sat in a big hall with close to 500 other test takers. The other room had close to 1000 participants for the FE and PE. All you hear is page turning, chairs moving, people clearing their throats, sniffling, and a lot of other sounds. I am one that works best in complete silence and these helped me tremendously. I did adjust by studying with them on, but I made sure to periodically remove them during the test to prevent any nausea. Also be aware of your time, I made sure that I was still able to hear the head proctor.

- Get plenty of rest the night before. A bit obvious, but the actual test was more physically tiring than mentally tiring. I was there for close to 12 hours (arrived early and had delays upon starting the test).

- Rate every question. This was a tip told by a previous professor. I went through and skimmed every single question and rated it on a scale of 1 to 3. 1 means that I know the answer right away, 2 means that I can figure it out, 3 means there is no chance of figuring it out. The idea is that you want to spend most of your time on the easier questions since they are all weighted the same for that section. So answer all the 1’s first, then 2’s, then if you have time, work on the 3’s. It only took roughly 5 minutes to rate, which was barely anything considering the extra time that I had. While my rating may have not been as accurate as I liked, it gave me an idea of the degree of difficulty for the entire test. If you run out of time, guess. Do not spend a lot of time on a single question, move on and and go back if you have time. You will not be deducted for wrong answers. Save some time at the end to fill in any empty blanks.

- Other small things would be: follow the rules, packing a decent lunch, follow the rules, dress comfortably, follow the rules, have a spare (approved) calculator, follow the rules, and do what they tell you. I can’t emphasize enough how strict they are, read up on their regulations and re-read them.

As for studying, I did not do as much as I planned to. I took only two practice tests (one morning and one afternoon) twice each starting the week before. I made sure I knew how the answer was reached using the reference manual. Do not be too overwhelmed either as I had variety of study materials, some that belonged to my dad from his EIT studying days. Some were extremely difficult while others were relatively easy. I would say the test overall was more on the easy side. I felt that with the outstanding course work provided by my school (Cal Poly Pomona), that I would excel with minimal preparation. Note that I was also studying for 3 or 4 midterms for the week immediately before the EIT testing date.

Again this is my experience and does not reflect anyone else’s. I cannot guarantee that these will work for anyone else, so do what you need to do to prepare. These are tips and tips only, it is assumed that you have a decent background and knowledge of the material since these tips can only take you so far.

Feel free to ask anymore questions, and I wish you the best on the exam day. Keep in contact and let me know if this advice helped you at all during the exam.