Ran Chen, EA, CFP®

Engineering Exam Prep

Education EN ↓ 182 episodes

Engineering Exam Prep is a free, daily podcast by OpenExamPrep covering the most in-demand engineering licensure exams — including FE Fundamentals of Engineering, FE Surveying, and the full PE catalog (Civil, Civil Geotechnical, Civil Construction, Civil Transportation, Civil Water Resources & Environmental, Mechanical, Electrical, Chemical, Architectural, Agricultural & Biological, Control Systems, and more). Each 5-minute episode breaks down one exam topic with worked-style examples, NCEES Reference Handbook callouts, common exam traps, unit-conversion gotchas, and memory tricks to help you...

Be sure to visit the podcast's website and support the creator: open-exam-prep.com

Author

Ran Chen, EA, CFP®

Episodes

FE Mechanical Exam Prep 21, DC Circuits Kirchhoff Laws and Equivalent Resistance 21.08.2026 3:17

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - How to quickly combine series and parallel resistors, includin...

FE Mechanical Exam Prep 20, Voltage Current Power and Electrical Fundamentals 20.08.2026 3:31

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - How to apply the three variations of the electrical power law...

FE Mechanical Exam Prep 19, Rate of Return Benefit Cost and Break Even 19.08.2026 4:19

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - How to calculate the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) and why inc...

FE Mechanical Exam Prep 18, Present Worth Annual Worth and Future Worth 18.08.2026 3:36

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - The importance of choosing a single consistent basis (Present,...

FE Mechanical Exam Prep 17, Cash Flows Interest and Economic Equivalence 17.08.2026 3:31

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - The critical importance of cash flow diagram sign convention:...

FE Mechanical Exam Prep 16, Conflicts of Interest and Intellectual Property 16.08.2026 3:37

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - The first and most critical ethical action for any potential c...

FE Mechanical Exam Prep 15, Engineering Ethics and Public Safety 15.08.2026 3:35

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - The engineer's primary duty is to hold paramount the safety, h...

FE Mechanical Exam Prep 14, Statistics Regression and Confidence Intervals 14.08.2026 3:29

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - How to calculate a confidence interval for a small sample size...

FE Mechanical Exam Prep 13, Probability Distributions and Expected Value 13.08.2026 4:02

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - How to apply the complement rule (1 - P(none)) to quickly solv...

FE Mechanical Exam Prep 12, Algorithms Logic and Engineering Computation 12.08.2026 2:51

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - How to systematically trace variables through loops using a ta...

FE Mechanical Exam Prep 11, Numerical Methods Error and Approximation 11.08.2026 3:12

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - The critical difference between truncation error from approxim...

FE Mechanical Exam Prep 10, Linear Algebra Matrices and Simultaneous Equations 10.08.2026 3:31

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - How to represent a system of linear equations in matrix form (...

FE Mechanical Exam Prep 09, Differential Equations and Laplace Transforms 09.08.2026 3:22

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - How to find the total solution for second-order ODEs by combin...

FE Mechanical Exam Prep 08, Derivatives Integrals and Engineering Applications 08.08.2026 3:24

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - How to identify whether a problem requires differentiation or...

FE Mechanical Exam Prep 07, Analytic Geometry Vectors and Coordinate Systems 07.08.2026 3:08

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - How to use the dot product to find the projection of a force v...

FE Mechanical Exam Prep 06, Pacing Scoring and Retake Strategy 06.08.2026 2:44

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - A practical pacing model to manage your 5 hours and 20 minutes...

FE Mechanical Exam Prep 05, Approved Calculators Units and Equation Checks 05.08.2026 3:33

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - How to navigate the NCEES calculator policy and set up your de...

FE Mechanical Exam Prep 04, FE Reference Handbook Search Strategy 04.08.2026 3:18

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - How to use the handbook's section structure to narrow your sea...

FE Mechanical Exam Prep 03, CBT Rules Breaks and Exam-Day Workflow 03.08.2026 3:12

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - The decision to end the first exam section is irreversible; yo...

FE Mechanical Exam Prep 02, Eligibility Registration and the EIT Path 02.08.2026 3:04

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - The different roles of NCEES and your state licensing board in...

FE Mechanical Exam Prep 01, Exam Format and NCEES Specifications 01.08.2026 2:19

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - The structure of the 6-hour FE Mechanical exam appointment, in...

FE Civil Exam Prep 86, Traverse Computations — Bearings, Latitudes/Departures, Shoelace 22.07.2026 3:20

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - How to convert between bearings and azimuths to correctly appl...

FE Civil Exam Prep 85, Differential Leveling — HI Method and Closure 21.07.2026 3:56

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - The Height of Instrument (HI) is calculated by adding the Back...

FE Civil Exam Prep 84, Construction Safety — OSHA Focus Four and Trenching 20.07.2026 3:32

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - The four leading causes of construction fatalities, known as O...

FE Civil Exam Prep 83, Earned Value — PV, EV, AC, CPI, SPI 19.07.2026 3:56

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - How to differentiate between Planned Value (PV), Earned Value...