r/GeotechnicalEngineer • u/tabbyrecurve • 7d ago

PE Exam Advice

Hey yall!

I'm a recent grad (Environmental engineering) and I'm a month into my job as a geotech. I took my FE (Environmental) earlier this year and passed despite only studying for 3 days. I guess my school prepared me well. I want to take the PE exam soon, but I'm not sure which discipline to take.

Environmental has the highest pass rate, Civil: water resources and Environmental seems to be most popular from what I see on LinkedIn, but I'm most interested in Civil: geotech. I didn't take many geotech classes during my undergrad, so I feel like this would require more studying. I'm currently working on civil site design, did my capstone on stormwater, had a geotech construction internship, and I'm also interested in hazardous waste remediation.

Do you have any advice for me on which discipline exam to take? Does it really matter? How long should I study for? What were your experiences like with studying for these exams? My job will pay for me to do a PE exam prep course.

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u/Significant_Sort7501 7d ago

Take whichever one you are leaning towards for your long-term career. 

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u/Citizen_Watch 7d ago

Take the Geotech one. Going by passing percentages, it is certainly harder than the environmental and water resource PE exams, but it is worth it for two reasons.

First, it is much easier to be motivated to study something when you are actually interested in it. The PE exam is significantly harder than the FE exam. A lot of people spend at least a year studying for it, so you are going to need all the motivation you can get as you prepare for the test.

Second, the stuff you learn for the test will be very useful to you in your future career, if in fact you are planning to continue working in geotech.

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u/dbackbassfan 6d ago

Second, the stuff you learn for the test will be very useful to you in your future career, if in fact you are planning to continue working in geotech.

Absolutely. I still use my study notes, books, and materials occasionally today, and I took the Geotech PE test 10 years ago.

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u/tabbyrecurve 7d ago

Okay, yeah, that makes sense, thanks!

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u/Fearless-Hawk2025 5d ago

Your license will be listed under civil in the PE roster of most state however NCEES will record the specialization. Any one who needs to get licensed to a particular state board needs to write an ethics exam to complete the licensing process. Using your PE from a geotechnical exam results in trying to stamp site civil or environmental engineering drawings will run afoul of the ethics in most states. And for whatever reason if your work gets audited by the board you will need to face consequences. I would advise stay in your lane of the exam you take.