Feature News from Chemical Engineering

OSU ChE Students’ FE Exam Performance

October 2005

 We track the pass rate on the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) Exam as one of our performance measures of the OSU ChE undergraduate program, and are very proud of our students’ performance.   OSU Chemical Engineering students have consistently shown high performance on the FE Exam. 

The FE exam is a comprehensive test of competence in engineering and science, and passing it is the first step toward registering as a professional engineer.  The test is administered twice nationally, by the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying.  All students take the same test on the same day.   Nationally, the pass rate for chemical engineering students has recently averaged about 85%.  Our 97% pass rate is one clear indication of excellence in the OSU ChE students, faculty, and staff.   The graph presents a 12-year history of a 3-year moving average of the pass rate for test takers currently enrolled in school.   Using a 3-year average provides a large enough sample to temper test-to-test variability.

We had a perfect, 100%, pass rate in 9 of the past 11 test administrations! 

Engineering education is a comprehensive undertaking of human resource development, and we have many objectives in our mission of preparing students to become professional partners in their enterprise and community.   Some non-technical objectives include writing effectiveness, team effectiveness, and understanding the social implications for engineering design.   While the FE Exam only tests competence in the traditional classroom math, science, and engineering subject matter; while it only evaluates one characteristic of our program, it reveals one aspect of the outstanding performance of our students.  These news pages reveal many other successes and achievements. 

The OSU ChE performance is significantly better than the national ChE performance. But, why should this be? We share the same texts, accreditation criteria, curriculum sequence, etc. that all US schools follow. 

Perhaps the teammanship attributes of the OSU ChE program make the difference. Every OSU ChE student, staff person, and instructor is a member of the team that created this legacy. Their collective dedication and commitment create an excellent educational environment that enables individual on the team to become their best. While students compete with each other for grades, they often compete within team situations. In cooperating within team competition, sometimes called “coopetition”, they accelerate each other’s learning and development. It is wonderful magic to watch.