FE Exam

This is Ashley's brain:

This is Ashley's brain after an 8-hour FE Exam:

I spent my Saturday taking this FE engineering licensure exam. It's essentially the bar exam for engineers. (FE stands for Fundamentals of Engineering exam.) It's not mandatory of all engineers, but it is something smart to try to obtain so that down the road, you have clearance to sign off on all of your original designs and blueprints. Although industrial engineers (the type I am going to be, come December graduation) rarely design original components, it's a good tool to have in your back pocket just in case.

The exam was held in downtown Milwaukee; it was split up to take 4 hours of it in the morning (I was up at 5:30 AM), break for an hour lunch, and then return to the test for a last set of 4 hours. (I didn't leave until 5:30 PM.)

By golly gee whizz, I sure wanted to spend 12 hours of my Saturday wrestling my mind and all that I've been trying to archive there for the past 4.5 years! :)

The morning part of the exam was hard. Difficult to the max. I managed to answer all 120 questions, but obviously there were a few that I simply didn't have time to solve completely, and just winged 'em. However, I overheard a few people sitting around me, making the following statements:

Guy #1: "Yeah...this is my 6th time taking this exam. I failed it the other 5 times, obviously." [P.S. Would you want HIM to be designing something for you, after all this?!]

Girl #1: "Oh I know what you mean! I graduated in May and took this exam, although I didn't study for it nor did I take it very seriously. So I failed it, and here I am again. Although this time I studied like a psycho and I still think I'm failing!"

Girl #2: "My god when he called that we had 15 minutes left, I had 35 questions remaining. I just closed my eyes and started bubbling stuff in." [The exam was a Scantron, all multiple choice; our safety net was that we could get at least an answer down for everything.]

----------------------------
All of these statements are merely to provide you all a snapshot of how impossible this examination can be! What a ceiling to punch through!!

I was a bit rattled after the morning part of the exam (just knowing I had a whole other 4 hours of testing ahead of me), that my throat closed up and I couldn't eat lunch on my 1-hour-lunch break for the life of me.

:( I went to Arby's to get a delish meal, and I was so nervous that I just couldn't bring myself to eat the second half of my burger. I felt if I tried to eat it, it was going to come back up and land right back on my lunch tray - just in a much less attractive form!

I had to throw it away. Arby's BLASPHEMY!!!! I am so disappointed in myself. (........And, so hungry now as I type this post, that I would rip that burger out of the very garbage can I left it in, to pop 'er down!)

The afternoon portion of the exam went much better, and I'm ultimately proud of launching myself through something like this. I will be mailed my verdict (pass/fail) in 8 weeks. That puts it on track to be in my mailbox right around graduation day.

Plus, after taking the exam I got to go on "autopilot mode" for the rest of the weekend and went shopping on Sunday. :) :) I bought myself my second business suit, yay! (NY & Company proved once again they are my favorite store. Rawr!!)