Current Quality of ME PE Review Courses and Materialls

[Scraps 66]

I had started re-prepping for the ME Machine Design exam back around January.  Then this COVID stuff hit and I stopped.  At that time I was using the PPI online prep kit.  Not a course, but quiz problems and additional problems available online.  PPI seems to suggest doing problems in every chapter of the MERM, all the way back to general math problems.  This will be my second go at the exam.  So back in Jan/Feb I did some problems and I got a little concerned/irritated that I was finding many incorrectly solved problems and none of my questions sent to PPI were ever answered. A couple weeks ago I stopped on the PPI site and saw some apologies about the poor quality of the review materials and that PPI would work to make it better.

First time for the paper exam I used Dr. Tom's as did a lot of colleagues.  Most ended up passing with the course.  I'm just wondering, now a few months forward, is there more information on which review classes are best for the CBT exams. 

 

[Tiger15]

I have no idea how things have changed since the transition to CBT, but I got the impression that Dr. Tom's course was much better than PPI's back in the paper days. I took Dr. Tom's course in 2018, and I really got a lot out of it. I've heard complaints about both PPI and TestMasters, but I don't have any direct experience with them.

But with the updates to CBT, I've lost track on who's ahead.

 

[Scraps 66]

What I've seen and experienced with PPI was disappointing.  A little concerning when prepping for a big exam.  For the paper exam I felt Dr. Tom concentrated an awful lot on making the binders and during the exam I felt I had too much ref material.  Could have been that my material was not well organized enough and I wasn't used to using my own material enough.  So that fear may be eliminated with the CBT exam and Dr. Tom's course.  No doubt the material and his presentation was top notch.

 

[Tiger15]

What I've seen and experienced with PPI was disappointing.  A little concerning when prepping for a big exam.  For the paper exam I felt Dr. Tom concentrated an awful lot on making the binders and during the exam I felt I had too much ref material.  Could have been that my material was not well organized enough and I wasn't used to using my own material enough.  So that fear may be eliminated with the CBT exam and Dr. Tom's course.  No doubt the material and his presentation was top notch.

Interesting point. I really love my Dr. Tom binders. I still reference them. But I had gotten really comfortable with them, to the point that I had almost memorized where stuff was.

But you're right a big part of Dr. Tom's class was building those binders. Now that you can't bring external sources I wonder how that focus has changed.

 

[Scraps 66]

Interesting point. I really love my Dr. Tom binders. I still reference them. But I had gotten really comfortable with them, to the point that I had almost memorized where stuff was.

Clearly an error in my planning and prep was not leaving enough time at the end to do a lot of problems and doing a mock exam with nothing but the reference material compiled.  I didn't know my way around my own material well enough for test day.    

 

[monty01]

I think I was in jean15's session with Dr. Tom back in 2018.  I'd be interested to know how things are done now that CBT has taken the place of pencil/paper.  I put a fair amount of work in on Dr. Tom's lessons and I may have referenced my binders 4 times during the entire test.  After his 20 week deal, my edge was pretty sharp.