The seven FE exam disciplines and the handbook sections they use

The chemical specification spreads across more of the handbook than any other. Material and energy balances, thermodynamics, heat transfer and safety are all served by the general sections at the front of the book, while reactor design, separations and cost estimation come from the chemical engineering section.

Civil candidates work mainly inside the civil engineering section, which is the largest in the handbook, plus statics, mechanics of materials and fluid mechanics. Four of the fourteen civil knowledge areas map onto neighbourhoods inside that one long section.

Almost everything an electrical or computer candidate needs sits in one sixty-page section, which is both convenient and a trap: the distance between a circuits question and a networking question inside that section is enormous.

Environmental candidates split their time between the environmental engineering section and fluid mechanics, which together carry the largest question allocations on the specification. Chemistry and thermodynamics fill in the rest.

The industrial section is one of the shortest discipline sections in the book, which means most industrial questions are actually served from the general statistics and engineering economics sections. Engineering economics carries one of the largest allocations on this specification.

Mechanical candidates need the thermodynamics, fluid mechanics and heat transfer trio at the centre of the book plus the mechanical engineering section at the back, and the split between them is not always obvious.

The Other Disciplines exam is the broadest of the seven and is answered almost entirely from the general sections at the front of the handbook. There is no discipline-specific section for it, which changes how you navigate.