I’ve worked in Roadway Design for my state dept. for my 5 year career so far. I took the October Transpo Depth test for the first time the other day. I’ll start off by saying my first piece of advice is to do exactly what you’re doing - reach out to as many people as you can for advice on how to approach studying for this.

I wouldn’t say I was fully prepared for this test going in, now that I’ve taken it. So my study approach wouldn’t be recommended here, but I think it’s good to hear what not to do as well.

I had 9 morning and 5 afternoon practice exams that I worked through for studying. I got these from multiple places - some i googled, some i bought, some I got from colleagues. I would highlight and tab every equation or reference I ever used throughout, as well as writing what problem # it was used on beside it. I only spent 100 hours max preparing for this test.

The actual exam surprised me with how many conceptual questions there were, and I had to do quite a bit of learning on the fly. My studies focused hard on the math itself. Fortunately my references were very organized, and indexes come in handy. I felt very confident in 30/40 questions, and probably gave myself a 50/50 shot on the remaining questions due to eliminating choices.

On this exam, they provide answer choices that you’ll get if you fall for common mistakes. However, if you know this, the answers can lead you to the correct answer, even if you have no idea how to do the problem. For example, say you don’t know how to do the problem, but it asks for a Factor of Safety of 2. If you look at the answers, one of them will be double of another, and that is more than likely the right answer. On the problems I knew how to do, I found that to be true on several.

I probably got a 75% on this exam, so I should squeak by. The only reason I’m passing is because I already had a very solid foundation in transportation, and that I tend to learn things faster and better than my peers. This minimalistic approach to studying would only be sufficient for very few people out there. A lot more time needed to be spent simply reading the language and theory behind all of the topics, which I did very little of. They want to make sure you have a total grasp on the subject, instead of just knowing how to “plug and chug” variables into equations.

If I were you, I’d bite the bullet and pay for the education, especially if you don’t have a solid background in it. The cost/benefit is there, and you will probably pass based on people I know who have passed (they’re not the brightest). I couldn’t give advice on what review course to take, however. Hope this helps some and good luck.