What you can take into the FE exam
Very little, and that is the point: almost everything you need is issued to you. The one thing you bring that matters is a calculator, and there the rule is narrower than most people expect and broader than they fear.
The calculator, and only these
NCEES approves calculators by model family rather than by individual model. That is the useful part of the rule: it decides models that do not exist yet, and it is why the list below is short.
| Manufacturer | Approved families | How to tell |
|---|---|---|
| Casio | fx-115, fx-991 | Any Casio model with "fx-115" or "fx-991" in its name. |
| Hewlett Packard | HP 33s, HP 35s | These two models only — no other HP calculator. |
| Texas Instruments | TI-30X, TI-36X | Any Texas Instruments model with "TI-30X" or "TI-36X" in its name. |
Transcribed from the NCEES calculator policy, read 18 September 2026, where it is stated for the 2026 exams. NCEES reviews the list annually, so check their policy before you buy — not this page.
Which of them should you buy?
People arrive at this question as a comparison — the TI-36X Pro against the Casio fx-991EX against the fx-115ES — and it does not have a comparison in it. All three sit inside approved families, so all three are permitted, and none of them will lose you a mark the others would have saved. Buy the one whose keystrokes you already know, and if you own none of them, buy whichever you can practise on for the next month. The calculator you are fluent on beats the one with the better feature list.
What is issued, and what is not
- Supplied: the FE Reference Handbook, on screen, as a searchable PDF
- Supplied: an on-screen calculator, in addition to the one you bring
- Not allowed: your own copy of the handbook, printed or annotated
- Not allowed: notes, formula sheets, or anything you wrote yourself
Everyone sits the same exam with the same document open, which is why being fast in it is worth more than remembering any part of it. Every question on this site is built against edition 10.6.
What this page deliberately does not tell you
How many calculators you may carry, whether a case is permitted, what scratch materials you are issued, and the extra models allowed at test centres outside North America. Those were not on the policy page we read, and a confident sentence about an exam-day rule that turns out to be wrong costs somebody their sitting. Read the NCEES Examinee Guide and your appointment confirmation for those.
Where to go next
- When the FE exam is, and how booking actually works
- How the FE Reference Handbook behaves during the exam
- How to plan FE study time
Practise for it
A full-length FE Civil mock on the real exam's clock, free once every 30 days, or eight questions in a few minutes to see where you are thin.