Preparing Minority Engineering Students To Pass The Fundamentals Of Engineering Examination

The Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) examination is the first of two (2) examinations engineers must pass in order to be certified as a Professional Engineer. Once they pass the FE exam, they are classified as an intern, also known as an Engineering Intern (EI) or an Engineerin-Training (EIT). This exam is offered twice yearly, in April and October, by the National Council of Examiners of Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) and it has jurisdictions in each state. Our engineering program is an ABET accredited program. One of our educational objectives is to produce graduates who are competent enough to pass the FE exam, leading to professional registration. To be able to assess this objective, the program requires students to take the FE exam prior to graduation, preferably after all relevant technical courses have been taken and while the information they have studied is still fresh in their minds. In reality, some students attend the FE exam without any preparation, taking the exam just to satisfy the requirement and lacking the determination to pass the exam since the program does not require the student to do so. To correct this misconception among the students and to stimulate their awareness of the importance of engineering licensure in their profession, the faculty of the department has been undertaking a series of actions that could help students prepare for the FE exam and could improve the pass rate of the FE exam in the future. In this paper, the authors would like to share their experiences and outline the processes that could help minority engineering students pass the FE exam. 1. Fundamentals of Engineering Examination Background The Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) examination is the first of two (2) examinations engineers must pass in order to be licensed as a Professional Engineer. The FE exam is often viewed as a measure of minimum competency to enter the profession. This exam is offered in April and October every year by the National Council of Examiners of Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) and the licensure board for engineers in each state. Those who pass the exam are designated Engineers In Training (EIT) or given an equivalent designation, such as Engineer Intern (EI), by their state's licensure board for engineers, and are partway through the certification process. After completing an apprenticeship (the length of which is set by state law and based on the type of degree received) an EIT or EI may qualify to take the Professional Engineer (PE) exam. Licensure is awarded upon successful completion of the PE exam. The standard time of apprenticeship under a Professional Engineer for graduates of an ABET accredited engineering program is four (4) years of work experience. P ge 13999.2 The FE exam was developed to evaluate fundamental knowledge of mathematics, applied science, and engineering principles. The exam specifications were developed from a survey of accredited engineering programs and licensed practitioners. The content of the exam is based on those specifications and is prepared by a group of volunteers consisting of both engineering educators and practitioners. In recent years, the FE exam is more frequently being used nationwide by engineering colleges to assess minimum technical competencies of their programs. Many colleges and universities encourage students to take the FE exam and use it as an outcome assessment tool upon completion of the coursework. 2. Weakness in Preparing Students to Pass the FE Exam Our civil engineering program at Alabama A&M University is an ABET accredited program and has an enrollment of approximately one hundred (100) undergraduate students. Alabama A&M University is a land-grant historical black university located in Huntsville, Alabama, a major city in North Alabama whose main industry revolves around space, military defense, and hightechnology research and development. One of our educational objectives is to produce graduates who are competent enough to pass the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) examination, leading to professional registration. In order to be able to assess this objective, the program requires that students take the FE exam prior to graduation, preferably after all of the relevant technical courses have been taken and while the information they have studied is still fresh in their minds. In reality, some students attend the FE exam without any preparation, taking the exam just for the matter of satisfying the requirement and lacking the determination to pass the exam since the program does not require them to do so. Based on data provided by the Department, 33% of the students who took the FE exam during the period from October 2004 to April 2007 passed the test. A comparison of the program's FE pass rate versus the National and the State of Alabama's pass rates can be found in Figure 1. Our results for the years reported in the chart have been below the national and regional norms, as well as below our own expectations. According to the published FE results from the October 2007 exam shown on the NCEES website 1 , the national average pass rate for first-time takers from an EAC / ABET accredited civil engineering program who chose the Civil Engineering (CE) Module during the afternoon session was 73%, while the examinees who elected to take the General Engineering Module had a pass rate of 68%. The State of Alabama does not break down pass rate results for each of the available afternoon sessions, however the overall FE pass rates for first-time takers from an EAC / ABET accredited engineering program was lower than the national average. This is shown in Figure 1 where it can be noted that the pass rate for three of the last four FE exams was only 57%, with the other even lower at 45%. The summary of this subset of examination results can be found on the Alabama State Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors 2 website. P ge 13999.3