This FE Mechanical cheat sheet distills the NCEES Fundamentals of Engineering exam into a quick-reference rundown of the formulas and facts that move your score most across all 14 knowledge areas. It's a premium cheat sheet built by Capital Prep — the one premium prep we trust — and it's yours free. Reinforce it with the rest of your free FE Mechanical toolkit: the practice test, study guide, and flashcards.
FE Mechanical exam at a glance
- Questions: 110 (multiple-choice and alternative item types)
- Time: 6-hour appointment — 5 hours 20 minutes of testing, plus tutorial, agreement, and one 25-minute break
- Result: Pass/Fail only; no fixed passing percentage (NCEES sets a scaled cut score by standard-setting)
- Reference: Closed book, with a searchable electronic FE Reference Handbook (SI and US Customary units)
- Cost: $175 fee payable to NCEES (verify at ncees.org); delivered year-round at Pearson VUE centers
What’s on the FE Mechanical cheat sheet
- Engineering Mechanics (heaviest — ~40%) — Statics equilibrium and trusses, Dynamics and vibrations, and Mechanics of Materials — stress, Mohr's circle, and Euler buckling.
- Thermal & Fluid Systems (~30%) — Fluid Mechanics with Bernoulli and Reynolds number, Thermodynamics cycles and laws, and the three modes of Heat Transfer.
- Materials & Design (~30%) — Material Properties and processing, Mechanical Design and Analysis (factor of safety, fatigue), and Measurements, Instrumentation, and Controls.
- Professional & Math essentials — Mathematics, Probability and Statistics, Electricity and Magnetism, Engineering Economics, and Ethics and Professional Practice — quick points if reviewed.
How to use it in your final week
- Rehearse Handbook lookups, not memorization — the FE is closed book, so time yourself finding σ = P/A, Bernoulli, Re = ρVD/μ, and the flexure formula in the searchable NCEES Reference Handbook.
- Front-load the six heavy areas: Statics, Dynamics, Mechanics of Materials, Fluid Mechanics, Thermodynamics, and Mechanical Design together run roughly two-thirds of the exam.
- Do a morning-of scan of the memory hooks on the sheet — 2D equilibrium's three equations, Euler buckling P_cr = π²EI/(KL)², Carnot η = 1 − T_C/T_H, and the three modes of heat transfer.
- Pair each review pass with a short timed set — 110 questions in 5 h 20 m is under three minutes each, so practice the pacing, not just the content.
The cheat sheet is your review layer — your FE Mechanical practice test drives the exam-readiness ring at the top of this page. Download it, review, then take a full practice exam (or drill with the study guide and flashcards) to see where you stand.
FE Mechanical cheat sheet FAQ
Yes — the FE Mechanical cheat sheet downloads as a PDF with no account and no sign-up. It sits alongside Career Employer's free FE Mechanical toolkit: the practice test, study guide, and flashcards.
It condenses the NCEES exam's highest-yield formulas and facts into a fast-review reference — statics and equilibrium, dynamics, mechanics of materials, fluids, thermodynamics, heat transfer, plus the ethics, economics, and math essentials — grouped by the 14 official knowledge areas so you can scan by topic.
No. The FE is closed book and gives you only a searchable electronic FE Reference Handbook on screen. Use this sheet to prep beforehand and to rehearse where each equation lives in the Handbook, since finding formulas fast is the real exam skill.
There is no fixed passing percentage. NCEES scales your raw score and compares it to a standard-set ability bar, then reports only Pass or Fail — so the sheet targets broad competency across all 14 areas rather than a single number to hit.
Click the download button or the preview card at the top of this page to open the PDF instantly. Bookmark the page so you can pull the sheet back up during your final week of review.
References
- 1.NCEES. “FE Exam — Format, Length, and Computer-Based Testing.” ncees.org. ↑
- 2.NCEES. “FE Mechanical CBT Exam Specifications.” ncees.org. ↑
- 3.NCEES. “FE Reference Handbook.” ncees.org. ↑
- 4.NCEES. “Exam Scoring.” ncees.org. ↑
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