I was going to study tonight, but I made this blog post instead
I’m not someone who procrastinates a lot. I like to get unpleasant things out of the way as quickly as possible, because otherwise I’ll just worry about them. So I remember to go to the dentist, pay my bills, and get the emissions checked. But lately, I’ve had to face facts. There is one major thing I’ve been procrastinating on so long, in fact, that I’m drastically lowering my chances of completing it at all just by not actually DOING it.
That thing is taking and passing the FE. And I have been procrastinating for 4 years.
In case you don’t know what the FE is, it’s the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam. It’s an 8 hour test divided into two parts: the general section, and the specific section. So you get 4 hours of math and chem and statics and thermo and all that stuff, and another 4 hours of whatever engineering discipline you feel like getting owned in. It doesn’t sound like much fun, and I doubt that it is. The people that hold these tests are hardcore. They don’t allow much into the exam room, and they go through all your stuff to make sure you don’t have anything illegal. If you do, you’re out. Done. The test is only held twice a year, so if you fuck up once by cheating or just failing, you have to wait 6 months for the next one to come around. And a lot of people fuck up. Especially the ones who have been out of school for a while. Like me.
If I’m going to buckle down and start studying now, I’ve got 5 months to study. That’s a long time, right? I don’t have to panic yet. But four years is a long time. That’s as long as I’ve been out of college, and was how long I was actually in college. Hopefully I haven’t forgotten things at the rate that I learned them.