Dr.Tom's Classroom for MDM CBT exam

[naonao]

I'm taking the mechanical MDM CBT exam in Sep. I'm currently using Dr.Tom's classroom and NCEES practice exam for the test. I have finished the 20 weeks review and I am reworking the practice problems. The class is very well structured but the assessment quiz and challenge problems don't seem to be close enough to the actual difficulty level, some problems are easier than the NCEES practice exam. I have one month left to prepare for the test and I wonder if I should enroll the PPI learning hub for 1 month to get more practice problems. 

• Has any one here taken Dr. Tom's Classroom as prep for MDM CBT? Did you pass?
  
• If so, did you only use DTC or did you use practice problems from other resources?
  

Thanks in advance.

 

[Audi Driver P.E.]

I've only ever seen a few of the Dr. Tom vids he's posted to youtube explaining some of the NCEES exam practice problems (ones I personally needed help with), so I can't really comment on difficulty of his other materials, but he does a really good job explaining things. Could it be that you're just getting good at the problems?  Test questions really aren't going to deviate in difficulty much from the NCEES example problem set. It will just be questions from different angles of attack around similar concepts/principles, and possibly different areas in the same breadth of material.

 

[Tiger15]

I took Dr. Tom's MDM course before everything switch to CBT. I thought it was really good and prepared me well for the exam. I did find that many of the exam questions were very similar to the Dr. Tom problems, but with an extra wrinkle thrown in. But I was prepared enough to figure them out. I actually wrote up a full review of my experience taking Dr. Tom's MDM class, but I don't know how much things have changed with the transition to CBT. Check it out if you want.

 

[gregp]

I did Dr. Toms Classroom and it helped me prepare for what type of questions were on the CBT exam. I would recommend also doing some additional problems through PPI or a textbook (Shigley's Mechanical Engineering Design) to help prepare for the difficulty of the exam. The difficulty of the exam is harder than Dr. Toms problems but it is easier than the PPI problems. I'm going to have to take the CBT exam again but Dr. Toms Classroom is still a good resource to have.

 

[martiansoldier]

I took the TFS CBT exam in July and passed with no preparation other than DTC. As you go through his 20 week course, you may notice in his weekly emails that he doesn't recommend any additional preparation and will often state that you don't need to make a 100. In my experience, that was 100% correct but I will tell you that the actual test itself is a bit more difficult than the problems in his coursework and the NCEES practice exam. Right after the exam, I was optimistic but I felt that additional preparation would have helped. That said, based on my experience and another person who recently took the TFS exam and passed, if you can work all of the DTC problems with ease, I think you will be okay, but do what you think is correct for you.

 

[baublitz]

I did Dr. Toms Classroom and it helped me prepare for what type of questions were on the CBT exam. I would recommend also doing some additional problems through PPI or a textbook (Shigley's Mechanical Engineering Design) to help prepare for the difficulty of the exam. The difficulty of the exam is harder than Dr. Toms problems but it is easier than the PPI problems. I'm going to have to take the CBT exam again but Dr. Toms Classroom is still a good resource to have.

Just wanted to piggyback on this. I failed and used DTC as my sole resource. After walking out of the exam I felt somewhat underprepared as if I didn't even get to use half of what his course prepared me for. I think I was in the "luck of the draw" category as to which concentration of questions I got. As you mentioned, there was a whiff of MERM and references to other sources during his lessons, but by no means did DTC encourage spending large amounts of time on anything other than the course. He strictly warns not to deviate from the course materials, so I did not. I found the real exam to be much more challenging than DTC materials which gave me a false sense of confidence going in.

According to my diagnostic, I was just shy of passing and just a few more hours in other resources would've served me well. So I will carry on, persevere. I will go through DTC materials again in areas where I feel weak, and will supplement with Shigley's and Eng Pro Guides as I've heard great things about Justin's material and practice exams.