NCEES Exam Retake Policy: When You Can Test Again

Failed the FE, FS, PS or a PE exam? For candidates using a U.S. licensing board, here's the rule, how to find your next eligible date, and what to check before you pay again.

The NCEES retake rule: You can take the same NCEES exam once per testing window and no more than three times in any 12-month period. The windows are calendar quarters: January–March, April–June, July–September and October–December. (NCEES Examinee Guide, May 2026, p. 5)

Three conditions sit beside that rule:

• Your exam has to be offered. Some PE exams run on only one or two days a year, so a new quarter doesn't create a new seat.
• Your licensing board can be stricter. NCEES says so itself. Some boards add waiting periods, paperwork or coursework.
• A standard retake costs the full exam fee. There's no discounted retake.

Find your exam's retake route and fee

NCEES exam availability and fee for another attempt

PE means Principles and Practice of Engineering. Schedule and fees from the NCEES Examinee Guide, May 2026 (fees p. 3, dates p. 16) and the NCEES PE Structural page. NCEES fees have applied since January 1, 2024. Your licensing board may charge its own application fee on top.

Two things people trip over:

• PE Civil: Structural is not PE Structural. PE Civil: Structural is one of the year-round PE Civil exams. PE Structural is the separate four-section exam. Check the exact exam name in your record before you plan anything.
• For a one-day exam, the next published administration is your next opportunity. If you sit PE Nuclear on October 27, 2026 and need another attempt, a new quarter won't create one. You wait for the next date NCEES publishes for that exam, subject to board approval and authorization.

NCEES is the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. It writes and scores the exams. Pearson runs the test centers. Your state or territorial licensing board decides who's approved to sit and what counts toward a license.

How the windows and the 12-month limit work together

Every attempt has to pass two separate checks:

1. The window check. Is it a different calendar quarter from your last attempt?
2. The 12-month check. Would this be your fourth attempt inside 12 months?

Count attempts, not retakes. Your first sitting is attempt one. "Three times" doesn't mean three retakes after it.

The 12-month limit is rolling. It isn't a calendar year, so January 1 doesn't reset anything. And the window rule isn't a 90-day wait. Two dates a week apart can sit in different quarters. Two dates 10 weeks apart can sit in the same one.

Quick window lookup (year-round exams)

That's the window check only. If you already have three attempts in the last 12 months, run the 12-month check too.

Four worked examples

These are invented FE dates. Assume no other attempts. They show how the NCEES timing rule works. Your board's approval, your authorization and an open seat still matter.

About exact boundary days: The guide's testing-opportunities section does not define whether the anniversary date itself counts. If you're planning right at the edge, check the dates MyNCEES offers you rather than counting days yourself. If they don't match your math, ask NCEES before you assume anything.

The quarter-boundary trap

A March 28 FE attempt and an April 3 FE attempt fall in different windows. That passes the window check, not every registration requirement. FE results usually take 7–10 days, so the proposed second date may arrive before you have your result and diagnostic report (Examinee Guide, p. 14). Some boards don't allow it at all. South Carolina requires at least three months after a failed exam (S.C. Code § 40-22-230(D)).

Is there a lifetime limit?

The NCEES Examinee Guide doesn't set a lifetime number of attempts. Its standard retake limits are the window rule and the 12-month rule (p. 5).

That isn't the same as "unlimited." The guide also says some licensing boards have a more restrictive policy. Those board rules can require a separate approval step after repeated failures.

What happens after three failed attempts? Your board decides

NCEES's window and 12-month limits control timing. Some boards add their own conditions after a set number of failures. These are real examples, checked against each board's own law, rule or FAQ:

For Florida's credit-hour route, FE coursework must be undergraduate college courses in higher mathematics, basic sciences or engineering; PE coursework must be upper-level or higher engineering coursework. The military exception applies when reserve or active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces or National Guard delays an applicant. It changes when Florida requires added education—not NCEES's three-attempt limit in any 12 months. (Florida rule 61G15-21.007; Florida Statutes § 471.013(1)(e))

South Carolina's calendar-year restriction also applies alongside—not instead of—NCEES's rolling 12-month limit.

This isn't a 50-state list. Use the board named in your NCEES registration, not the state you happen to test in. Before you pay for another attempt, find answers to three questions on your board's site:

1. Is there a waiting period after a failed exam?
2. Do I have to file anything after this attempt number, such as a retake request, study evidence or a new application?
3. Does my board approval or application expire?

Find your licensing board in the NCEES directory.

PE Structural: check your sections and retained results

PE Structural has two components, vertical and lateral. Each component has a breadth section and a depth section. You take the four sections separately, and each one gets its own result. You pass the exam by getting acceptable results on both components (NCEES PE Structural, "Passing Requirements").

What carries over:

• Once you have acceptable results on a component, they don't expire. That's NCEES's wording, and it's about the component. The page doesn't say how a single passed section inside an unfinished component is handled. Ask NCEES or your board rather than assuming it's banked.
• If you passed one component on the old paper exam, you only take the two sections of the remaining component.

Timing is different by section:

• Breadth sections run year-round, so the window and 12-month rules apply.
• Depth sections run twice a year, in April and October. Depth results take 10–13 weeks, not 7–10 days (Examinee Guide, p. 14). If you sit a depth section on October 27 or 28, 2026, expect your result between early and late January 2027, before the April 2027 dates.
• You must take the same depth area for both components. If you chose bridges for vertical depth, you choose bridges for lateral depth too (Examinee Guide, p. 11).
• Depth sections change format starting April 2027, with new exam specifications. If you're retaking depth in April 2027, study from the specifications marked "Effective beginning April 2027" on the Structural page. Breadth retakers should also match their specifications to the test date; that page lists both before-April-2027 and beginning-April-2027 breadth specifications.

One more check: NCEES says not every jurisdiction accepts PE Structural as its PE exam. Confirm with your board that it counts for you.

What another attempt costs, and how not to waste it

A standard retake requires a new registration at the full fee in the table above. Three FE attempts in 12 months is $675 in NCEES fees alone. Three non-Structural PE attempts is $1,200.

A few rules protect that money (Examinee Guide, pp. 4–7):

• You have 12 months to test once you're approved. If you don't test or cancel within that time, you forfeit the fee.
• Canceling an unscheduled registration gets you a refund minus a $50 administrative fee. NCEES waives that administrative fee if you have already paid Pearson's appointment-cancellation fee.
• Rescheduling or canceling an appointment costs $50, paid to Pearson. Reschedule at least 48 hours ahead; for cancellation, use the NCEES help page's more-than-48-hours deadline. If you want a registration refund after canceling an appointment, you must also cancel the now-unscheduled registration.
• Switching discipline or board means canceling and registering again. The same cancellation charges and administrative-fee waiver apply.

How to register for another attempt

1. Read your result and the board instructions in it. NCEES results include information specific to your licensing board about what to do next (NCEES exam scoring). Confirm the exact exam name and board in your record.
2. Check timing and board approval before you pay. Use your full attempt history, the route table and the three board questions above.
3. Use your existing MyNCEES account. Select "Register for an exam," follow the prompts and pay the full fee. Don't create a second account; NCEES allows only one per person (Examinee Guide, p. 2). If you need accommodations, indicate that request during registration and wait for the decision before scheduling (p. 3).
4. Wait for authorization, then schedule. After your board approves you, NCEES emails an "NCEES Exam Ready to Schedule" notice. Then use "Schedule" in MyNCEES. Registering isn't the same as having a seat. Seats are first-come, first-served, and you must book at least one business day ahead (pp. 4–5).
5. Check the Pearson confirmation email. Make sure the exam, date, time, location and your name are right. No confirmation email means you're not booked.

Open MyNCEES

If MyNCEES won't offer the date you expected: write down the exam name, your board, your earlier sitting dates and the date range shown. Then contact NCEES through the message feature in MyNCEES. A date that looks fine by the window rule can still be blocked by the 12-month count, a board condition or your authorization period.

Retaking isn't the same as rescheduling

A retake comes after you've sat the exam. An ordinary failed-exam retake needs a new registration and the full fee. Rescheduling moves an appointment you haven't sat yet. It costs $50 to Pearson and must be done at least 48 hours ahead (Examinee Guide, p. 6; NCEES rescheduling and cancellation rules).

If you missed an appointment, had an emergency or your test was disrupted, follow the instructions for that situation instead of the normal retake rules. NCEES has a documented emergency process: you must send proof within 14 days of the appointment. Fee relief is conditional, not automatic (NCEES emergency and refund policy). Whether a missed appointment counts toward your board's limit depends on the board. Maryland, for example, says an absence isn't a failure (FAQ 26).

For a testing or scoring error that NCEES determines warrants corrective action, its guide describes a corrected result where possible or a no-fee retest or full exam-fee refund. That is a separate remedy, not a discount for an ordinary failed attempt (Examinee Guide, p. 14).

Use your diagnostic report to plan the retake

If you don't pass, NCEES gives you a diagnostic report. It reports a scaled score from 0 to 15 for each knowledge area and shows how you compare with the average examinee who passed (Examinee Guide, pp. 14 and 20–21).

What the report can't tell you:

• the passing score, which NCEES doesn't publish;
• how many questions you got right;
• the questions you missed. NCEES doesn't release your exam questions or answers for review, and it doesn't manually verify computer-based exam answers.

How to set priorities: for each knowledge area, look at two things. How far below the passing average are you? How many questions does the area have? Start where both are large. A small gap in a heavy area can be worth more than a big gap in a light one. NCEES's own sample report reasons the same way. It gives extra emphasis to a group totaling 27 questions, compared with a weaker but smaller group totaling 12 (sample diagnostic explanation, p. 21).

Illustration with made-up numbers: Area A has 12 questions and you're a little below the passing average. Area B has 5 questions and you're far below. Those facts alone don't establish which area should come first; weigh both the performance gap and the number of questions rather than ignoring Area B because it is smaller. You can't turn these bars into a number of correct answers, so treat them as direction, not a score.

First-time and repeat takers are graded to the same standard (NCEES exam scoring). A retake isn't graded harder or easier.

Quick answers

Can I switch to a different FE or PE discipline for my retake? NCEES allows a registration's discipline to be changed by canceling and re-registering, using the cancellation and refund rules above (Examinee Guide, p. 4). Your board must still accept the new discipline for your application. The guide's testing-opportunities passage does not explain how a discipline change affects attempt counting, so ask NCEES before you plan two disciplines in one quarter. Don't assume switching disciplines resets a limit.

Can I register again before my result comes out? The guide does not establish an advance retake-registration option while your result is pending. Results usually arrive in 7–10 days, except PE Structural depth results, which take 10–13 weeks. Waiting lets you study from your diagnostic report. Use the instructions in your result and MyNCEES rather than assuming another registration can be booked before the result (Examinee Guide, p. 14; PE Structural results).

Can I appeal a failing score? The guide's appeal procedure is for invalidated results, not an ordinary failing score. It requires a written appeal within 30 days of the invalidation decision. NCEES doesn't do manual verification of computer-based exam answers (Examinee Guide, pp. 13–14).

Sources

Last verified: October 5, 2026. We checked the current NCEES Examinee Guide (May 2026 edition), NCEES's exam, PE Structural, scoring, computer-based testing and rescheduling pages, and the Maryland, Florida, South Carolina and California board and legal sources listed here. We didn't check individual eligibility, logged-in MyNCEES behavior or seat availability.

• NCEES Examinee Guide landing page and May 2026 PDF: registration and fees (pp. 2–4), testing windows and attempt limits (p. 5), rescheduling and cancellation (pp. 6–7), invalidation appeals (p. 13), results and scoring (p. 14), exam dates (p. 16), sample diagnostic report and explanation (pp. 20–22)
• NCEES PE Structural: fees, passing requirements, testing dates, results timing
• NCEES FE exam, FS exam, PS exam, PE exam
• NCEES computer-based testing: year-round and single-day exams
• NCEES exam scoring
• NCEES CBT rescheduling, cancellations and refunds (updated August 14, 2026)
• NCEES member licensing board directory
• Maryland Board for Professional Engineers licensing FAQs
• Florida Admin. Code R. 61G15-21.007, rule record, full rule text, p. 56, Florida Statutes § 471.013(1)(e) and Florida Board of Professional Engineers exam page
• South Carolina Code § 40-22-230
• California BPELSG re-examination information

Written by the Castleport Test Prep Editorial Team. Read how we work in our methodology and editorial standards.

AI tools assisted drafting and source checking. This is not a credentialed professional review.

Castleport Test Prep is an independent exam prep publisher. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by or approved by the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES), Pearson or any state licensing board. Exam names are used to identify their subjects; trademarks belong to their respective owners. The examples on this page explain the published rules. They are not official eligibility decisions. NCEES and your licensing board decide what applies to your registration.