FE discipline
FE Industrial and Systems
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.
The trap
Probability and statistics and engineering economics together account for a large share of the exam, and neither lives in the industrial section. Drill those two at least as hard.
Sections you will be working in
Ordered by how central they are to this exam. Page ranges come from the handbook version this build is calibrated to.
- Industrial and Systems Engineering
Optimization, queueing, quality, reliability, and project scheduling
- Engineering Probability and Statistics
Distributions, hypothesis testing, and statistical quality control
- Engineering Economics
Time value of money, depreciation, and benefit-cost analysis
- Safety
Hazard assessment, toxicology, exposure limits, and noise
- Mathematics
Algebra through differential equations and numerical methods
Knowledge areas on this exam
The knowledge-area names and question counts published by NCEES in the FE exam specifications for this discipline. 13 areas in total.
| # | Knowledge area | Questions |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mathematics | 6-9 |
| 2 | Engineering Sciences | 4-6 |
| 3 | Ethics and Professional Practice | 4-6 |
| 4 | Engineering Economics | 9-14 |
| 5 | Probability and Statistics | 10-15 |
| 6 | Modeling and Quantitative Analysis | 9-14 |
| 7 | Engineering Management | 8-12 |
| 8 | Manufacturing, Service, and Other Production Systems | 9-14 |
| 9 | Facilities and Supply Chain | 9-14 |
| 10 | Human Factors, Ergonomics, and Safety | 8-12 |
| 11 | Work Design | 7-11 |
| 12 | Quality | 9-14 |
| 13 | Systems Engineering, Analysis, and Design | 8-12 |
Page numbers here are read from handbook version 10.5 (seventh printing, April 2025), which runs to 502 pages. NCEES revises the handbook and page numbers move with it, which is why the drill asks which section a topic lives in rather than which page. Check the version of your own copy, downloaded free from NCEES.