Dude,
Here is a PM I sent to another member re: DTC. I took the 10-week fast-track course for the machine design depth last cycle (October 2016 test). With that "old" structure, I used ALL of the 10 weeks to accomplish the studying. I'm a bit skeptical of a one-month class, but have no firsthand knowledge and with the new structure, maybe that's really doable.
I would highly recommend Dr. Tom's course. I couldn't really find any feedback on his 10-week course, and I kinda just signed up on a whim, but was really happy with it.
Firstly, I just think he's a good teacher...good at breaking things down and walking the student through in a manner that made sense to me, and kept it simple. The course was structured very well and the materials were top-notch.
Which leads me to my next point: a substantial amount of the time spent during this course is related to keeping yourself, notes, practice problems, and reference materials organized. At the beginning of the class, I was a bit irritated with it, but I do think it's really important. One of the best resources is the "Exam Day Companion" you'll get from Tom, and that has such a good summary of info, and it's organized very well so all the info is easy to find and is presented how it was in the classes, so you'll be familiar with it. Honestly, I think I used the Exam Day Companion and MERM for all problems except for maybe one or two, where I used a machine design book.
Another real benefit to Tom's class, is that he points you in the right direction. He'll tell you things that are not likely to be on the test, and tells you things that have a high probability of being on the test.
Overall, I felt very well prepped for the test, and felt pretty good coming out of the test. There were several things I studied hard, that weren't on the test at all, and a couple things that I didn't study that WERE on the test, but I think that's inevitable.
The 10-week structure is a little daunting, and you really have to commit, but it's doable. I have 3-year-old triplets and my own business and managed to get it done. I averaged about 3 hours a night studying, every night. Once and a while I would take a night off to hang with friends in town, or whatever, but for the most part you'll have to study every night. It's not like the 20-week class, where you have designated nights off. If you have the luxury of putting in a lot of study time on the weekend, like 6-8 hours on Saturday and Sunday, that'd be sweet. Otherwise, I'd plan on 3-4 hours a night 6-7 days a week. Concentrated torture. If you can do the hard weekends, I bet you can take a night, or even two, off during the week.
BTW, Tom encourages all of his students to go TFS, and I'm sure he'd prep you well for that if you can put in the time. I'd say I had about 230 hours into studying, including taking a full practice NCEES exam (8 hours).
One caveat, I had already read most sections of the MERM before taking his class...because I thought I was going to take the test on another cycle, but didn't due to political BS. So, that probably sped up my progress a bit, but not a ton, as I re-read MOST of the stuffy anyway, in accordance with Tom's schedule.
Anyway, if you're sure you can commit the time...do it and don't look back. I'm a Dr. Tom fan...especially now that I passed.
