1st Attempt FE Civil 6YOE
Passed 6 years out of school.
Studied for 9 months:
First 6 months i used the PPI2Pass Kaplan self study package. It helped me get back into the groove of studying but honestly it was too much information to digest and did not help me with the handbook. I wish i used it just for questions then to study each category instead of going through all of it, i ran out of time and was not able to get through all if it. Overall it was too much and i would not recommend it.
What really helped me:
Youtube: all Mark Mattson FE Civil review videos and specific videos on struggle areas from Genie Prep, Gregory Michaelson, Direct Hub, and The Efficient Engineer. The Calculator Guide videos really helped me get quick with the TI-36X Pro calculator he has a whole playlist.
Islam 800 PDF: grind questions from trouble areas.
NCEES Practice Exams: A MUST!! Did both practice tests twice. 52% and 58% first attempts then 70% and 62% the second time. Review all the problems even the ones you got right.
Cheat Sheet: make a cheat sheet of all the info that is not in the handbook. Memorize easy unit conversions and formulas you will not find! This is all i studied the day before and the morning of to be able to regurgitate all the information as soon as the disclosures were signed on test day. Examples: specific weight of water, mph to ft/s, pascal units, newton units, cm^3=mL, 1000g/cm^3=1kg/m^3, Centripetal Force = mv^2/R, stress-strain diagram analysis.
Good luck to all keep grinding you can do this!