u/Classic-Quail6985

I was trail running and was a few feet away from inadvertently stepping on it before noticing it. It was my first time encountering one after trail running in the Bonneville Shoreline trail for 3 or so years.

Disclaimer: Studied for 6 months and first attempt.

*Updated another resource (Shigleys) on 5/14*

Resources Used (In order of most helpful/relevant to least helpful/relevant):

• NCEES Practice Exam (Price: $60):
  • Straight from the source, cannot get any more relevant questions to the test. There were atleast a couple practice questions that were almost identical to actual questions. I should have studied this alot more and did more practice runs but ended up only doing one simulated 8hr practice run with this 2 days before the actual exam and got a 70% on the dot.
• PPI Mechanical Eng Practice Problems (Price: $120):
  • A great resource to study for its amount of practice problems. Problems were much more difficult than the actual exam but helped prepare you for the worst case scenario. I highly recommend this as it seems like the greatest advice to increasing your chances is to study as much practice problems as possible. My biggest complaint (and this is me nitpicking) is that it has questions on topics not included on the exam itself and I wish it had more questions pertaining to actual exam topics.
• Shigley's Mechanical Engineering Design 11th Edition (Price: $200 softcover or $90 digital)
  • I added this resource in as 3rd most relevant resource. The reasoning behind it is that many of the tables and formulas from the PE Reference Handbook are directly derived from this textbook. Many former students may remember this from undergrad and how much material is encompassed within it. This resource has a great number of practice problems at the end of each chapter. I recommend this resource strongly as even Dr Tom (next resource) abides that Shigleys material encompasses the majority of the MDM exam. If you cannot afford DTC then this is the next best option along with Tim Kennedy's book. I would regard this as the "textbook version" of DTC MDM exam review.
• Dr Toms Classroom PE MDM Exam Review (Price: ~$1200):
  • This one is sort of a toss-up for recommendation. I had been out of university for the past couple of years and my knowledge was lacking so I decided to do the pay-as-you go option and stop a couple of modules before the final exam (saving me about $400). The way the material is presented is easy to follow and cement into your mind however the questions and practice exam content was ALOT easier than the actual exam. I recommend this if you like a online lecture type of instruction and have forgotten alot from undergrad.
• Tim Kennedy's Mechanical PE Exam Review (Price: $30):
  • Another decent resource, great for learning concepts but does not really contain any practice problems to go through. If you cant afford DTC then go for this and supplement it with the Mechanical Engineering Reference Manual (MERM).
• Mechanical Engineering Reference Manual/MERM (Price: $280):
  • The holy grail of all info needed for the PE Mechanical. It will contain practically everything including potential conceptual questions that might appear on the exam. With that being said I dont think its a hard requirement to succeed for this exam. Im going to try and return or sell this once I find a buyer at a discounted price. I think a majority of people would be okay with just getting the NCEES practice exam and PPI practice problems without this resource.

Test Day:

• Woke up at 6am and got a small breakfast and an energy drink to start the day. Got to the testing center about 30 minutes before my appointment time. Got signed in and ready to go rather quickly.
• First Section: Got through the first 15-20 questions or so quickly but got halted at around question 22 and slowed then on until my final question (#45) of the first half. I flagged atleast 8-9 questions and went back through with making 50/50 attempts at atleast 4 questions and 5 complete guesses. I know I probably made atleast 10 or so mistakes on the first half.
• Second Half: Started at question 46 and was still slow until about #56 when I got in the zone and answered the rest confidently. I would say I flagged another 8 questions on the second half and made about 5 or so complete guesses before finishing the test. I thought I had made atleast 10 mistakes in this section as well.
• Aftermath: Honestly afterwards I felt at rock bottom and immediately figured I failed and thought I could retake it again later on. I think realistically I was just tired after an 8hr exam which felt more like 3 hours because of how focused I was and how often I was behind on the timer.

Results Day:

• Woke up with an email from NCEES at around 7am mountain time. Was extremely anxious to open and nervous but when I read the green 'Passed' banner I was shocked and relieved of a great burden. It feels so amazing and free to not have to study anymore and having done so since December 2025.

If anybody wants any of my study material let me know or PM me for any questions on the PE MDM and I am happy to help!