FE Exam Prep Courses (School of PE & PPI2PASS) - Reasons To Buy/ Not Buy

In this article, we will discuss the reasons as to why you should or should not buy an FE exam prep course, such as the ones offered by School of PE and PPI2PASS. We will also discuss some alternative FE exam prep sources to consider as you prepare for the FE exam. We incorporate our own analysis, as well as reviews from Reddit users who have purchased any of the FE exam prep products mentioned in this article.

Reasons to buy School of PE or PPI2PASS ✅

1. Lecture videos. Both courses include access to 70-80 hours of recorded lectures with comprehensive theoretical and number-crunching review.


2. Hundreds (or even 2,000+ for School of PE) of practice problems for FE exam practice outside of the recorded online lectures.
3. Flash cards, lectures slides, printable material, etc. Both prep courses offer an abundance of different FE exam prep material included with the subscription.
4. Both courses follow July 2020 NCEES FE exam topic updates.

Reasons to not buy School of PE ❌

1. Price. Access to the School of PE On-demand prep course starts at $290 for one month or $1,090 for 4 months. Similarly, PPI2PASS On-demand prep course goes for $895 for 3 months of access or $1,275 for 6 months of access. These extremely high prices are due to mostly the recorded lecture videos, which other FE exam prep services don’t offer. Many feel like the recorded lectures are an overkill and not worth the steep price.

… just be warned that it's very expensive and is a beast! Over 80 hours of training. Just saying, it’s probably overkill. The trainers are very good ... - Wendy Livingston - Reddit.com
On the other hand, services such as PrepFE that offer hundreds of practice problems with detailed solutions but no lecture videos only cost $59.99.

… I found prepFE to be the superior resource. The interface is user friendly, it is more flexible with how you'd want to study, and I found the questions on prepFE to replicate the real exam questions much better than PPE HQ... - @Filamericantrash - Reddit.com




See PrepFE's Hundreds of FE Practice Problems For Just $59.99 >

When is a ~$1K FE exam prep course worth it?

1. You’ve already failed the FE exam 3 times or more. At this point, lower cost FE exam prep books aren’t cutting it for you. You likely feel defeated and frustrated and you just want to get this exam over with. You need to try something new, something very comprehensive. You need guided FE exam prep that resembles the experience you would receive in an engineering college classroom.


2. Your company is paying for your prep and doesn't have budget constraints. If your company is paying for it, why not?


3. It’s been 10+ years since you graduated from college and perhaps you remember very little from college. After so many years out of college, you likely don’t need to just review for the FE exam but need to relearn for the FE exam.

Affordable alternatives to FE exam prep courses i.e. School of PE and PPI2PASS:

1. If you’re still on the fence whether or not you should purchase the ~$1K FE exam prep course or go with another more affordable prep service, try this: Go ahead and purchase one of the more affordable FE exam prep services out there such as the NCEES Practice Exam (~$50 with shipping) or PrepFE ($59 - online). Try reviewing with one of those two for about a month and see how prepared you start feeling for the FE exam. If after a month of reviewing you feel completely lost and have no idea what’s going on, then consider upgrading to PPI2PASS or School of PE FE exam prep courses.


2. (Applicable to Civil FE exam only) The primary advantage of an FE exam prep course over self-guided textbooks or online prep material is that you get access to videos of someone explaining the engineering concept with the prep course. These videos are definitely useful. The question is more whether or not they are necessary and worth the price. You could try this as a way to get lecture videos without paying the steep price:
   
   
   1. Watch for free Marshall University FE civil prep course videos. They’ve uploaded recordings of their lectures to YouTube for everyone to watch for free. In each lecture video, a professor from Marshall goes over a handful of FE exam practice problems where he briefly explains the engineering theory behind the practice problems, as well as the actual number crunching.
      
      
   
   
   2. Concurrently, you should put to the test what you’re learning from the Marshall YouTube videos by doing hundreds of FE practice problems. We recommend you check out PrepFE.com

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Recommended (Online) FE Exam Prep ↓

You can supplement your NCEES Practice Exam with online practice exams from PrepFE.com.

How to do practice exams on PrepFE.com

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

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Practice problems with detailed explanations

Studies shows that repeated learning, spaced out over time is the most effective way to prepare for a test. PrepFE has hundreds of FE practice problems with detailed explanations. Try it out today!

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Know your strengths and weaknesses before the exam

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