Section 2 of 21
Ethics and Professional Practice
Model Rules, Model Law, and professional obligations
- p4-13page range
- 10pages long
- 11subsections
- 16drill items
What the section holds
The ethics section reprints the NCEES Model Rules of Professional Conduct and a series of numbered Model Law sections covering definitions, licensure requirements, grounds for disciplinary action against licensees and against unlicensed individuals, certificates of authorization for firms, and the exemption clause. It closes with material on intellectual property and on the wider societal considerations engineers weigh.
Why it matters for your exam
Every FE discipline is examined on ethics, and the questions are usually answerable directly from the text if you can find the right numbered rule. That makes this one of the highest return sections to be fast in.
How to navigate it
The trap is that the section is organised by law section number, not by topic. Learn which numbered section covers which subject, so that a question about disciplinary grounds sends you straight to the right block instead of making you read the whole chapter.
Search terms that land here
model rules | model law | disciplinary action | certificate of authorization | intellectual property
Subsections, in handbook order
These are the headings the handbook itself uses. The page number beside each is where it begins.
- 2024-25 Model Rules, Section 240.15 Rules of Professional Conductp4
- Code of Ethicsp4
- 2024-25 Model Law, Section 110.20 Definitionsp6
- Model Law, Section 130.10 General Requirements for Licensurep8
- Model Law, Section 150.10, Grounds for Disciplinary Action - Licensees and Internsp9
- Model Law, Section 150.30 Grounds for Disciplinary Action - Unlicensed Individualsp10
- Model Law, Section 160.10 General Requirements for Certificates of Authorizationp10
- Model Law, Section 160.70 Grounds for Disciplinary Action - Firms Holding a Certificate of Authorizationp11
- Model Law, Section 170.20 Exemption Clausep11
- Intellectual Propertyp12
- Societal Considerationsp13
Disciplines that use this section
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.