I've got my F-01 coming up next week and I'm starting to feel the pressure. I've been going through the FDNY study materials for about 3 weeks, maybe an hour a day, and I feel pretty good on the fire prevention basics and the suppression system overview. The stuff I keep getting wrong is anything related to specific notification procedures and who you're supposed to contact in which order during an emergency.
The emergency action plan questions are confusing me because some of the older practice material I found online seems to have outdated information about the chain of notification. Does the current exam still follow the same sequence? I'm going back and forth between two different sources and they're not matching up on the warden communication details.
I also started using a f01 practice test this week to get a feel for the question format, which has been helpful for the multiple-choice timing at least. I'm scoring around 75–78% on those, which I think is enough buffer to pass, but I'm not fully confident on the situational questions where two answers look almost identical.
I took it two months ago. The hardest part for me was the warden communication stuff — who covers which floors, what a fire warden is responsible for versus the fire safety director. Know those distinctions cold before you walk in.
75–78% is enough to pass. The passing score is 70% and most people I know cleared it in that range. Don't overthink the situational stuff — go with the most by-the-book answer, not what you'd actually do in a chaotic real situation.
You'll be fine by Thursday.
The suppression system questions on my exam were mostly about when alarms activate and what triggers automatic shutdowns. Pretty surface-level, nothing about maintenance specs or engineering details. Your current prep sounds right for that section.
The notification sequence questions are always on there and they're phrased really specifically. Make sure you know whether you call the fire department first or notify the building's fire safety director first — the order matters and it's a common trap.
The wrong answers are the whole game on F-01, honestly. What clicked for me was going back after every missed question and figuring out why each wrong choice was wrong, not just why the right one was right. Like, if you can articulate "this answer's wrong because it describes a wet pipe system and the question's about a pre-action setup," that distinction sticks way harder than just circling C and moving on.
For the sections that hit hardest, anything around occupancy classifications and suppression system triggers tends to be where people drop points. It's not that the concepts are complicated, it's that the questions are written to catch you if you haven't thought through the edge cases. Spend time on the scenarios where two answers look almost identical and train yourself to slow down on those. You've already got three weeks in, so you're not starting from zero. Just shift from "do I know this" to "can I explain why the other options are wrong" and you'll feel a lot more solid by Thursday.
I failed my first attempt and honestly the building systems section destroyed me. I thought I understood it but the questions go way deeper than the overview, especially HVAC interactions and how suppression systems connect to alarms. What changed for me the second time was drilling the specific code requirements instead of just reading through them. I also spent a lot of time on the flashcards which helped me memorize the stuff I kept blanking on under pressure.
For your situation I'd focus hard on anything involving system integration this week. Don't skip the occupant notification requirements either, that caught me off guard on my first try. You've got a week which is actually enough time if you're targeted about it. Good luck Thursday.
I failed my first attempt and honestly it wasn't even close. The sections that got me were fire guard duties during an emergency and the specific notification procedures -- I kept mixing up who you call and in what order. What helped the second time was drilling those scenarios until they felt automatic, and I spent a ton of time on the flashcards which really locked in the terminology. Don't sleep on the impairment procedures either, those questions showed up more than I expected.
Three weeks at an hour a day is solid prep but make sure you're not just reading -- you've got to actually test yourself on the stuff you keep getting wrong. I'd pull every question you missed and go back to the source material for that specific rule. That's what flipped it for me on the second try.