FE Chemical study guide, hours by the spec

Where the questions are

Splitting 100 study hours by the midpoint of each range gives this order. The ranges are the official ones; the hours are our arithmetic.

1. Balances, about 10 hours. Material/energy balances, 10–15 questions. Recycle, purge and reactive balances first.
2. Unit operations, about 8 hours each. Fluids, thermodynamics, heat transfer and mass transfer, 8–12 each; solids handling rides with fluids at 3–5.
3. Reactions, design, chemistry, about 7 hours each. Reactions, process design and chemistry and biology, 7–11 each.
4. Safety and control, 4–5 hours each. Safety at 5–8, process control at 4–6.
5. Shared FE areas, about 17 hours together. Mathematics 6–9, statistics 4–6, economics 4–6, ethics 3–5: shared FE practice test and engineering economics.
6. The rest, about 4 hours each. Materials and engineering sciences, 4–6 each.

Picking a review manual

One discipline manual is enough; the reference you will use on exam day is the on-screen handbook, so study with it open.

• Check the outline: the contents should show 17 areas with Solids Handling and a separate Economics area. "Process Design and Economics" in one chapter means the 2014 edition.
• Check the units: the exam mixes SI and USCS; a manual that works only in SI leaves you slow on USCS steam data (the reference’s Mollier chart is in Btu/lb).
• Pair it with the NCEES practice exams: 2 × 50 questions, $50 each, the only problems written by the exam owner.

A general FE plan (weeks, mock exams, test-day logistics) is on FE exam prep; this page only adds what is specific to the chemical exam.

Five traps worth a flashcard

1. Overall versus single-pass conversion in recycle problems: the question names one, the reflex computes the other (balances).
2. Darcy versus Fanning friction factor: the reference’s chart gives Darcy; what a Fanning factor does to head loss is on fluids.
3. Raoult for a dilute gas: a sparingly soluble gas follows Henry’s law (thermodynamics).
4. Kelvin in every exponential: Arrhenius, Clausius-Clapeyron and the equilibrium-constant equation all fail silently in °C (reactions).
5. The q-line for the feed: a saturated-liquid feed gives a vertical q-line, a saturated vapor a horizontal one; swapping them misplaces every stage (mass transfer).

More on FE Chemical

• FE Chemical overviewWhat FE Chemical covers, how it is scored, its pass rate and the path to a PE
• FE Chemical practice testProblems weighted like the July 2020 Chemical outline, every option explained
• FE Chemical exam info and pass rateFormat, rules, reference and eight half-years of pass rates
• FE Chemical costNCEES fee, expected attempts, board fees and practice materials
• FE Chemical reference handbookThe data the Chemical outline expects you to read, and a search drill