NC State DVDS. Are they worth the investment?

[daywalker]

Hey all,

I've only been a member here a little while, but I have found this forum very resourceful. I really wish this had existed back when I took the FE exam 7 years ago. Anyhow, I appreciate all of the advice that I have received so far.

Recently, going through many of the post on in the Environmental PE Exam section of this forum, I have seen numerous references to the NC state DVDs. After some research on what you guys and gals refer to as the "other board", I saw that they are a review course. I thought that they were quite expensive at 500 bucks. I was able to track down a set of once used DVDS on ebay for 150$. So I purchased them to study for the October 2010 exam.

Throughout the posts on the site, I have seen sporadic references to members purchasing and studying from these DVDS, but no real in-depth review of them. First, Are they worth the money, or did I make a mistake buying them; second, are any of the subjects on the test covered in these DVD, or do they stray away from the exam format; and lastly, are the companion manuals hold any value? or are they just good guidance manuals during the course.

Finally, how would one approach incorporating this information into studying for this exam.

Thanks again for your advice!

 

[FLBuff PE]

Hey all,
I've only been a member here a little while, but I have found this forum very resourceful. I really wish this had existed back when I took the FE exam 7 years ago. Anyhow, I appreciate all of the advice that I have received so far.

Recently, going through many of the post on in the Environmental PE Exam section of this forum, I have seen numerous references to the NC state DVDs. After some research on what you guys and gals refer to as the "other board", I saw that they are a review course. I thought that they were quite expensive at 500 bucks. I was able to track down a set of once used DVDS on ebay for 150$. So I purchased them to study for the October 2010 exam.

Throughout the posts on the site, I have seen sporadic references to members purchasing and studying from these DVDS, but no real in-depth review of them. First, Are they worth the money, or did I make a mistake buying them; second, are any of the subjects on the test covered in these DVD, or do they stray away from the exam format; and lastly, are the companion manuals hold any value? or are they just good guidance manuals during the course.

Finally, how would one approach incorporating this information into studying for this exam.

Thanks again for your advice!

After my second failure, I was determined to do anything and everything that I needed to do to pass. This included these DVDs. I found them to be immensley useful. They helped me focus my studying on the subjects that would be on the exam, as well as learn a few shortcut tricks. I watched them at the beginning of my studying (before doing any problems), then would watch the appropriate one as I was beginning a new subject (water/wastewater, air, etc.), and finally, I watched them all again the weekend before the exam. While this worked for me, results may vary. As far as the companion books, there are a lot of practice problems in there, as well as note summaries of the classes. I took them with me into the exam, and cracked them a few times. Good luck!

 

[VGAC]

Hey all,
I've only been a member here a little while, but I have found this forum very resourceful. I really wish this had existed back when I took the FE exam 7 years ago. Anyhow, I appreciate all of the advice that I have received so far.

Recently, going through many of the post on in the Environmental PE Exam section of this forum, I have seen numerous references to the NC state DVDs. After some research on what you guys and gals refer to as the "other board", I saw that they are a review course. I thought that they were quite expensive at 500 bucks. I was able to track down a set of once used DVDS on ebay for 150$. So I purchased them to study for the October 2010 exam.

Throughout the posts on the site, I have seen sporadic references to members purchasing and studying from these DVDS, but no real in-depth review of them. First, Are they worth the money, or did I make a mistake buying them; second, are any of the subjects on the test covered in these DVD, or do they stray away from the exam format; and lastly, are the companion manuals hold any value? or are they just good guidance manuals during the course.

Finally, how would one approach incorporating this information into studying for this exam.

Thanks again for your advice!

A friend gave me the DVDs when I was preparing for my exam. To be honest, I did not find them useful at all. The material barely scratched the surface as far as useful topics. Obviously, you cannot interact with anyone or ask questions. Very boring material. The students on the DVD looked as confused/ dissappointed with the material as I was watching it.

At best, its something to use when you hit the wall with your Lindberg and other materials.

 

[Keatingiv]

Yeah, they suck. I watched the Air pollution course.

First, not only did the students looked confused, but the trainer looked pretty much uninterested too. He looked at his watch half a dozen times during the videos and seemed to rush through a lot of the sections to get to break time. '

It was a typical review course. Lots of general information that may or may not be on the test, but no meat. When I took my Waste water operators exam, a friend gave me a set of review videos for a course held at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. It was awesome. The trainer actually did the problems out on an overhead projector real time to show the different steps done out for a variety of scenarios. This helped me to learn how to do sludge problems. That is the way to teach a review course. Not just having the problems done out and quickly and briefly explained.

Lastly, the trainer had some sort of overhead projector which he was utilizing to explain his notes. The only problem was that the camera guy never focused in on the overhead projectors in the class to show the markups the trainer was making. The camera was just focused in on the trainers lecture. From time to time, it appeared that the camera guy would throw up a tile of which the trainer was explaining but it was in real time. I thought it was useless to have a course focused on a lecture but not being able to see any markups. Definaltey not worth 500.00 glad I bought it used on eBay. For a 150.00. Kind of bummed. Thought it would be better for the money. Oh well back to the books

Oh year the notes suck too. they really dont correspond to the lectures.

Hey all,
I've only been a member here a little while, but I have found this forum very resourceful. I really wish this had existed back when I took the FE exam 7 years ago. Anyhow, I appreciate all of the advice that I have received so far.

Recently, going through many of the post on in the Environmental PE Exam section of this forum, I have seen numerous references to the NC state DVDs. After some research on what you guys and gals refer to as the "other board", I saw that they are a review course. I thought that they were quite expensive at 500 bucks. I was able to track down a set of once used DVDS on ebay for 150$. So I purchased them to study for the October 2010 exam.

Throughout the posts on the site, I have seen sporadic references to members purchasing and studying from these DVDS, but no real in-depth review of them. First, Are they worth the money, or did I make a mistake buying them; second, are any of the subjects on the test covered in these DVD, or do they stray away from the exam format; and lastly, are the companion manuals hold any value? or are they just good guidance manuals during the course.

Finally, how would one approach incorporating this information into studying for this exam.

Thanks again for your advice!

A friend gave me the DVDs when I was preparing for my exam. To be honest, I did not find them useful at all. The material barely scratched the surface as far as useful topics. Obviously, you cannot interact with anyone or ask questions. Very boring material. The students on the DVD looked as confused/ dissappointed with the material as I was watching it.

At best, its something to use when you hit the wall with your Lindberg and other materials.