Opinion please...

[GTE_273]

Sincere apologies if I am spamming this board. But I would like to have EB members' opinion in the following matter.

We are exploring the idea of providing online training coursework for FE exam where a user will be charged monthly subscription fees.

The existing resources force a person either to join a class at a University with a hefty fee or join some webinars (again for a hefty fee). Typical fees are in the range of $700-$1000.

The proposed subscription fees of the site will be around $100 per month.

The training coursework will include:

1. Notes,

2. Video lectures,

3. Solved examples and

4. Self graded-timed quizzes.

I passed FE in my first attempt 11 years ago with a score of 91 from University of Toledo, Ohio from where I did my MS in Mechanical Engineering. I tutored a then 46-year old Civil Engineer in 2003 and he passed with a score of 75. I taught at University and Community College level Math, Probability, Mechanics, Strength of Materials.

Is there any market need for such a website? I can direct users to the skeleton work we have done. It's available free as of now as the contents are not fully uploaded yet.

Kindly share your thoughts.

 

[oilsands]

Hello,

At present I prepare for the October FE exam (DS pm) after 18 years out of school. I got TONS of materials: books, web-site subscription, free resources. Many say "do as many problems as possible", which now, after four months of preparation, I say is not useful for everything. I find this is true to strengthen your strong areas, but this is totally counter-productive for very weak areas. What I need for weak areas - is to get several basic ideas and then yes, do a lot of problems but on the same basic ideas, without lengthy solutions and so on. The problem with lots of resources in my weak area is that I can not judge properly if the problem is easy, difficult, representative or not.

As s person preparing now for the exam, I would not subscribe to one more training (even for free!) as there are TOO many resources nowadays BUT what I would love to find - is (sorry, engineers!, this sounds really awful) - smth like "Engineering topics for dummies" to practice few of my weak areas which now I need to relearn only to pass the exam. That would be great if someone told me that these are the most important basics, they are not enough to get good scoring at the exam (but at least not just 25% from guessing), then give 5 problems on the same basic idea wording differently. This is totally wrong from the professional viewpoint, but on the other hand I do not like spending dozens of hours on absolutely irrelevant topics when I could do so much useful work in my own area.

Another approach would be to assign "difficulty" and "importance" signs to each problem but make sure you put this info into advertisement.

All the best and good luck!

 

[gte636i]

I personally would not have signed up for the class. $100 a month is expensive for your market. Many potential FE's will be college students and fresh grads. Now if you were going to charge a flat fee of maybe even $200 and a guarantee of access until you pass I might have considered it.

I and a lot of people I know all bought the same resource, the FE review manual published by PPI, it's the only resource we used and comes with a guarantee of passing. I believe it's still less than $100. That's probably your stiffest competition.

 

[Wael]

I personally would not sign up for such an expensive fee. Besides, What I really think would be considerable is to have classes/ notes and materials for After noon Discipline Majors (like Civil, Mechanical, Environmental, and Electrical.). this would be really helpful for those graduated long time ago (like myself) and they suffer finding one dedicated source that covers the such afternoon Topics.

However, bear in mind that most of FE exam takers are not working and $100 is a bit expensive to spend for FE preparation while other cheaper and credible resources are available.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

I never would have signed up for an EIT prep class...

May be a market for people that have been out of school for a long time and are taking it, but even then.