NCEES PE Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Exam

The NCEES PE Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Exam is a professional engineering licensure exam for engineers working in metallurgy and materials engineering. It assesses whether candidates can apply engineering judgment to problems involving materials, processes, and performance; it is not an employment or academic admissions test. Candidates generally pursue the PE after meeting applicable education and experience requirements. State and territorial licensing boards set their own eligibility and application rules, so confirm your requirements with the board where you plan to seek licensure.

Exam topics include materials structure, crystallography, phase diagrams, thermodynamics and kinetics, physical metallurgy, alloy design, and metal solidification, casting, and foundry processes. Preparation means reviewing the current NCEES exam specifications, then practicing how to connect material behavior with processing choices and engineering outcomes. Candidates should be ready to interpret technical information and solve applied problems, not just recall definitions. The current specifications are the best guide to topic coverage and exam structure; they may be updated, so check them when planning for the 2027–2028 cycle.