What is the PE exam pass rate?

NCEES’s July 2026 update shows first-time PE Civil pass rates from 60% (Construction) to 71% (Water Resources and Environmental), and a 73% first-time rate for PE Environmental. Repeat examinees pass at lower rates in those same reports: 38% to 49% across the five PE Civil modules, and 54% for PE Environmental. The rates cover people who tested under NCEES member boards.

PE Civil pass rates

NCEES reports the five PE Civil depth modules on separate lines, each giving first-time examinees and their pass rate, then repeat examinees and their pass rate. The numbers below are from the July 2026 update.

Water Resources and Environmental has the highest first-time rate of the five, 71%, and the largest first-time group, 2620 examinees. Construction has the lowest first-time rate, 60%, and the lowest repeat rate, 38%. Structural and Transportation both show a 43% repeat rate, though Transportation has the larger repeat group at 1097 examinees.

Choose the depth module that matches the civil work you do, and read the rate for that module as context for people who already sat it. Which PE Civil exam you should take lays out the five options.

PE Environmental pass rate

PE Environmental is a separate exam from the PE Civil module Water Resources and Environmental. In the July 2026 update, 415 first-time examinees took PE Environmental and 73% passed, and of 118 repeat examinees, 54% passed. Both rates run higher than any PE Civil module in that same update, including Water Resources and Environmental’s 71% first-time and 49% repeat figures. The Environmental groups are much smaller than that module’s 2620 first-time and 876 repeat examinees, so each individual result moves the percentage more.

If you are choosing between the two environmental paths, read what is on the PE Environmental exam before you decide.

Other PE exam pass rates

Chemical, Electrical and Computer: Power, and the three Mechanical exams were last updated in July 2026, the same cycle as the civil and environmental figures above. Fire Protection was last updated in July 2025, and Industrial and Systems in January 2026. The date is part of the rate.

Among the July 2026 exams on this page, Chemical has the lowest first-time rate, 55% of 225 examinees, with a 32% repeat rate on 81 examinees. Electrical and Computer: Power has the largest counts outside PE Civil, with 1344 first-time examinees at 62% and 721 repeat examinees at 42%.

The three Mechanical exams split: HVAC and Refrigeration runs 71% first-time on 799 examinees and 40% repeat on 229, Thermal and Fluid Systems runs 70% first-time on 578 and 46% repeat on 109, and Machine Design and Materials runs 61% first-time on 401 and 39% repeat on 140. Fire Protection shows the highest first-time rate in these tables, 85% of 262 examinees, with a 44% repeat rate on 48 examinees, from the July 2025 update. Industrial and Systems shows 69% of 80 first-time examinees and 29% of 21 repeat examinees passing, a result that describes just 21 people in the January 2026 window.

First-time and repeat pass rates

On every line above, repeat examinees passed at a lower rate than first-time examinees. NCEES grades first-time and repeat takers to the same standard, so the lower repeat rate reflects that group’s outcome under the shared standard, not a different bar.

The lowest repeat rate in these tables is 29%, on 21 Industrial and Systems examinees in the January 2026 update. The highest is 54%, on 118 PE Environmental examinees in the July 2026 update. PE Civil repeat rates sit between those ends, from 38% to 49%. If you have already tested, use your exam’s repeat line. For result timing and how often you can test again, see when PE exam results come out and how often you can retake.

Experience is a separate question from that scoring standard. Florida’s licensing board says you must hold an ABET-accredited degree and have passed the FE before taking the PE, and it does not require experience to sit. It also notes that NCEES data show first-time examinees with at least four years of experience are more likely to pass, a point that describes first-time results in NCEES data. Start with how much experience you need before the PE exam and PE license basics in Texas, California, Florida, and New York.

How to read PE pass rates

NCEES does not publish the passing score, because it varies slightly with the difficulty of the exam, and NCEES sets no quota of examinees who should pass or fail. The pass rate is simply the share of examinees in that update who met the standard, and you cannot turn the percentage back into a cut score.

Reporting follows the exam schedule. Year-round exams are reported for January to June or July to December, while single-day exams are updated in July and January. Keep the update date with any comparison you make: the civil, environmental, Chemical, Electrical and Computer: Power, and Mechanical figures here are from July 2026, Fire Protection is from July 2025, and Industrial and Systems is from January 2026.

Read the count next to the percentage. Water Resources and Environmental’s 71% first-time rate covers 2620 examinees, while Industrial and Systems’ 69% first-time rate covers 80 examinees, and a smaller group moves more when a few results change. For the published fundamentals-exam rates, see what the FE exam pass rate is.

Frequently asked questions

What is the PE Civil pass rate?

In the July 2026 update, first-time PE Civil pass rates are 60% for Construction, 63% for Geotechnical, 62% for Structural, 61% for Transportation, and 71% for Water Resources and Environmental. Repeat pass rates, in that same order, are 38%, 44%, 43%, 43%, and 49%. Across the five modules, first-time rates run from 60% to 71%, and repeat rates run from 38% to 49%.

What is the pass rate for PE repeat takers?

There is no single repeat pass rate. In the July 2026 PE Civil update, repeat rates run from 38% (Construction, 417 examinees) to 49% (Water Resources and Environmental, 876 examinees). PE Environmental repeat examinees passed at 54% (118 examinees) in that same update. On the other exams in the table above, repeat rates run from 29% (Industrial and Systems, 21 examinees, January 2026) to 46% (Mechanical: Thermal and Fluid Systems, 109 examinees, July 2026).

Which PE Civil module has the highest pass rate?

Water Resources and Environmental has the highest PE Civil pass rate in the July 2026 update: 71% of 2620 first-time examinees and 49% of 876 repeat examinees. Construction is the lowest of the five, at 60% first-time and 38% repeat. PE Environmental, a different exam, is higher still in that update, at 73% first-time and 54% repeat.

Does NCEES publish a PE passing score?

NCEES does not publish the passing score. The score varies slightly with the difficulty of the exam, and NCEES sets no quota of examinees who should pass or fail. First-time and repeat takers are graded to the same standard. The tables publish pass rates for a reporting period, which is a different number from the cut score on a given form.

When does NCEES update PE pass rates?

Year-round PE exams are reported for January to June or July to December. Single-day exams are updated in July and January. The PE Civil, PE Environmental, Chemical, Electrical and Computer: Power, and Mechanical rates on this page were last updated in July 2026. Fire Protection was last updated in July 2025, and Industrial and Systems in January 2026.

Sources

1. NCEES: PE exam. Retrieved October 3, 2026.
2. NCEES: PE Civil exam. Retrieved October 3, 2026.
3. NCEES: Exam scoring. Retrieved October 3, 2026.