Who I Am
My name is Ryan Essington. I graduated from Arkansas State University in Jonesboro in 2013 with bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering and general engineering. Before starting my engineering career, I worked in a hospital for much of my life, which gave me a practical appreciation for reliability, safety, and systems that have to work when people are depending on them.
For my senior design project, I built an automatic pet feeder that could dispense food by text message. That project stuck with me because it combined electrical design, controls, communication, and a simple user need: make a tool that solves a real problem without making the user fight the technology.
After graduation, I moved into railroad signal design and began working on rail systems across the country. Railroad work is detail-heavy, safety-focused, and unforgiving in the best way. It teaches you to check assumptions, document decisions, and build around standards — the same habits that matter when studying for the FE and PE exams.
In 2023, Arkansas State University's Alumni Association recognized me as a distinguished alumnus, and my name appears on a plaque in the engineering hall there. Part of that recognition included the chance to mentor newer engineering students. I also completed a Systems Engineering certificate through Florida Institute of Technology.
I built FE Test Prep because I wanted a practical, affordable study tool that felt closer to how engineers actually learn: work problems, check the solution, learn the reference material, and repeat. I also make the app available free to the Arkansas State students I mentor, because Arkansas State is where my engineering path became real and this is one way I can help the next group coming through.
What We Offer
FE Test Prep provides practice exams and study tools for the NCEES Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) and Professional Engineer (PE) exams. We currently cover 12 engineering disciplines in the app (6 FE + 6 PE):
- FE Exams: Electrical & Computer, Civil, Mechanical, Chemical, Environmental, and Other Disciplines
- PE Exams: Civil Transportation, Civil Structural, Civil Water Resources & Environmental, Electrical Power, Electrical and Computer: Computer Engineering, and Electrical and Computer: Electronics, Controls, and Communications
Every question includes a detailed, step-by-step solution walkthrough with reference-section guidance or relevant design-standard cues — so you can practice knowing where to look during the real exam.
Our Approach
We believe the best way to prepare for an engineering exam is by solving problems — lots of them — under realistic conditions. That’s why we focus on:
- Exam-realistic format — timed simulations that match the Pearson VUE testing environment, including all four NCEES question types and per-question timing review
- Detailed solutions — every problem has a complete walkthrough, not just an answer key
- Progress tracking — built-in analytics that show which topics, slow misses, and rushed misses need more work
- Offline access — study anywhere, even without internet, by installing the app on your phone or desktop
- One-time purchase — pay once, keep access forever. No subscriptions, no expiring licenses.
Why I Built This
Engineering exam prep shouldn’t cost more than the exam itself. I built FE Test Prep because I was frustrated with the options: expensive courses that lock you into subscriptions, practice banks with incorrect answers and no explanations, and study tools that haven’t been updated in years.
As a working engineer who has had to study around real project deadlines, travel, and family time, I understand the time pressure and budget constraints candidates deal with. Every feature in this app is built around reducing friction: get into a practice set quickly, see why an answer is right or wrong, and build speed with the formula/reference cues you will rely on during exam prep.
How Content Is Created
The articles, practice prompts, and explanations on this site are written for engineers who need practical study help, not generic test-taking slogans. I build around public NCEES exam specifications, official exam-provided reference materials, and the kinds of topic weights and problem patterns candidates actually have to manage during timed practice.
When something changes — exam specifications, fees, reference documents, or question-bank behavior — the goal is to update the affected pages rather than leave stale advice hanging around. If you notice an error, unclear explanation, or outdated reference, please send it through the contact page so I can review it.
How Questions Are Built and Verified
The practice questions are the heart of this product, so I treat them like engineering work: write to a spec, check the math, and document every correction. The app currently holds more than 8,900 practice questions across the 12 FE and PE disciplines, and every one of them goes through the same process.
Written to the official spec. Each question is authored from the public NCEES exam specifications and the official exam-provided reference materials for that discipline. I map every bank to the official NCEES topic weights, so the mix of problems you practice reflects how the real exam is actually balanced — not a random pile of questions.
Checked by a deterministic verifier. Every change runs through an automated math verifier I built that reads the entire bank and flags the kinds of mistakes no human catches reliably at this scale: a stated answer whose value never appears in its own worked solution, an answer key pointing at the wrong option, missing fields, duplicate question IDs, answer choices that aren’t actually distinct, and banks whose correct answers skew too heavily toward one letter. The verifier is read-only — it never edits a question — so it can only tell me where to look, never silently “fix” something behind my back.
Math cross-checked by computer. Numerical and statistical answers are verified against a computer algebra system (Wolfram Alpha and SymPy) rather than my own mental arithmetic — because the entire value of a practice bank collapses if the answer key is wrong.
Calculator steps tested on the real calculator. Where a problem needs a calculator, the solution includes the exact button sequence on the TI-36X Pro, one of the NCEES-approved exam models, and those keystrokes are tested on the actual device rather than copied from the manual. The goal is that you build the same muscle memory you’ll use on exam day.
Every problem shows its work. Each question carries a full step-by-step solution, a pointer to the relevant reference-handbook section or design standard, and a short note on why each wrong option is wrong — so a missed question teaches you something instead of just marking you down.
And when something slips, I fix it in the open. A bank this size, built and rebuilt over months of daily work, is never perfect — a typo, an ambiguous stem, or a cleaner way to phrase a solution will eventually get through. When it does, I correct it and log the confirmed change on the errata page. If you spot one, send it through the contact page and I’ll review it.
Honest scope: I’m a practicing engineer who built and verified these question banks — I am not a licensed Professional Engineer, and nothing here is professional engineering advice. This is original exam-preparation practice material written to public NCEES specifications; it does not reproduce questions from any real NCEES exam.
Practice Exam Books
In addition to the web app, I maintain paper-friendly practice materials for engineers who prefer studying away from a screen. The web app is still the main product because it can give timed sets, scoring, review, and weak-area tracking in one place.
Disclaimer
FE Test Prep is an independent study tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by NCEES, Pearson VUE, or any state licensing board. “FE” and “PE” refer to the Fundamentals of Engineering and Professional Engineer exams administered by NCEES.
This tool is for educational and exam preparation purposes only. Individual results may vary based on prior knowledge, study habits, and exam conditions. Our pass guarantee is subject to the documented study requirements outlined in the Exam Ready badge criteria. All questions and explanations are original content created for practice purposes and do not reproduce material from any copyrighted exam or publication.
Last reviewed: June 30, 2026, after documenting the question-authoring and verification process and adding a named-author byline across the study guides.
Have a question? Contact us.