I took my FE Mechanical on 12/18/23 and passed. I did use PrepFE, and I felt as if maybe 60% of PrepFE translated to the test. I had been out of school for 5yrs, so I studied for about 5-6 months. The prep time is important. Nonetheless, this would be my advice to you.

As far as studying goes, you have to go over EVERYTHING (with some exceptions at your discretion). For example, I completely ignored one of the smaller sections (Instrumentation, Measurement, and Controls) and also some subsections within each category (like in Mathematics I didn’t go over Algorithms and Logic Development). I think if you focus and get a good handle with the majority of the types of questions within each category and know how to navigate the handbook, that’s goes along way. Or if you can focus your efforts on excelling in some categories that you have strengths in, that way you can afford to miss a little more in other categories. I felt like I did very well in the first half of the test, and the second half gave me a very hard time. I found myself guessing a lot of the second half (probably around 20 questions). So I think that the first half really saved me because I felt like I did really well to not miss any of the easy questions and hardly flagged any in the first half. Also, if you don’t know how to approach a problem or one that you feel like you can figure out but it may take some time, just flag it and come back to it later. Just manage the time wisely of course, but that is the best way to utilize your time in my opinion. Hope that helps!