FE Review Manual (2023) - Reasons To Buy/NOT Buy | Civil, Mechanical, Electrical-Computer, Chemical, Other Disciplines

FE review manual books

In this article, we will discuss why you should or should not buy PPI2PASS’s FE Review Manual book. We incorporate our own analysis, as well as reviews from Amazon customers who have purchased the FE Review Manual for their FE exam preparations.


Reasons To Buy ✅

  1. It’s better than nothing. It’s better to buy the FE Review Manual book than to attempt putting together your own FE exam review using your college notes. The FE Review Manual has some structure to FE exam prep.
  2. Price. You can find used versions of this textbook for $90, which is cheaper than the $1,000+ FE Review prep course the same publisher offers.
  3. Book is published by Kaplan, which is a trusted source of exam preparation books.
  4. Each chapter comes with a 10-question diagnostic exam to gauge how prepared you are in each exam topic category.


Reasons To Not Buy ❌

  1. IMPORTANT: The books are OUTDATED. Yes, you read it right. NCEES, the entity that writes the FE Exam, updated the list of topics asked on the FE exams in July 2020. Why does that matter? Well, the books shown in the image above were published prior to July 2020… when the FE exam topic changes occurred. Not every single topic on the FE Exam changed but many did. Using these outdated textbooks, you will find yourself studying topics that aren’t even asked on the FE exam anymore. Similarly, you could find yourself not studying some important FE exam topics because they are not covered in the FE Review Manual as the textbook was published prior to the FE exam changes

  2. ….don't let the 2017 publish date fool you, it is still old material. This book must have been written to match a test version that was before 2014. - Mr. & Mrs. Green - Amazon.com

    FE review manual books


  3. The book is too thick. It covers too much. It’s overwhelming. The FE exam is a comprehensive exam in the sense that a lot of different topics are asked on the exam. However, attempting to become an expert in each topic as opposed to simply being proficient in a topic is time counterproductive. This book attempts to give you a deep understanding of each topic. The book is more of an engineering review than an FE exam review.

  4. It went over many topics that were not on the test at all and I wasted my time studying - Thomas L Nisson - Amazon.com

  5. It lacks an abundance of practice problems. Although each of the ~12 chapters comes with ~20 questions per chapter, that’s often not enough to practice for the 5.5-hour-long FE Exam. The best way to study for an engineering exam is to do practice problems over and over again. If you’re using this book to prep for the FE exam, we recommend you supplement by also purchasing other prep material with more FE practice problems.

  6. The book doesn’t train you to use the NCEES FE Reference Handbook, which is key to passing the FE Exam. Unlike PPI2PASS FE Review Manual book, PrepFE and the NCEES Practice Exam booklet tell you in each problem solution where you can find the used equations within the FE Reference Handbook.




Recommended FE exam prep (2023) ↓

If you're concerned whether or not the PPI2PASS FE Review Manual book is the right source for your FE exam prep, we invite you to check out PrepFE.com. PrepFE is a startup disrupting the FE exam prep industry by providing the highest quality online FE exam prep experience that traditional textbook publishers just can’t match as their practice questions are stale on paper while PrepFE's problems are always growing, improving, and updating to be the most effective for you.


How to do practice exams on PrepFE.com

Select from timed exams (shown), category specific, and regular practice exams.

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Only review topics relevant to the 2023 FE exam

PrepFE is up-to-date and is built around the latest NCEES FE exam topic specifications. We make sure you only study what you need to know in order to pass the FE exam.

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Know your strengths and weaknesses before the exam

PrepFE.com offers you custom analytics, so you can see how prepared you are for different exam topic categories. Get the most sophisticated FE exam prep possible with PrepFE.


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