I have a lot of experience in PM, just not using the PMBOK so this was all new to me. I started this process in August by reading the PMBOK and highlighting everything I didn't know, which was a lot. After that I made flashcards of all the terms in the glossary so I could learn the lexicon. I was only retaining the basic info and not really progressing.
I had to do some extensive work travel and started PrepCast mid September. I took extensive notes on every module so I could reference it all later. I took the end of mod quizzes and averaged in the 70's. I finished the classes towards the end of Oct and took the first exam to see where I was. I scored 80%. I then took an exam every Sunday and used the flashcards and PMBOK to work on my weak areas. I found my scores fluctuating in the initiating, executing, and closing process groups so I started using the PMI exam guide to help figure that out. I joined a Facebook group that had some files that helped plug these gaps. I didn't memorize the ITTOs, only studied what the terms meant and how they would be applied.
After the 6th test I was averaging 82% and said to heck with it and moved up my test date. I'm pretty good at taking tests as I don't get nervous as it's too late to learn anything when it's time to take it. I took the exam at 1:15 AM local as the internet here isn't reliable during the day. I pushed through pretty quickly so as to minimize the risk of the internet going out later in the morning. I finished the test in 3 hours and only took about 5 minutes of the break. No issues with the online exam. While the proctor was setting up my computer I asked in the chat if I could have water, and he was good with it as long as I drank while my face was on the screen. I saw some other posts about people getting warned about hands on face, excessive movement, etc., so I practiced all that during the PrepCast exams.
The test questions were very close to the PrepCast simulator, though the answers were not as obvious. I guess I lucked out in that I didn't have to use the calculator at all. I went with my gut on a lot of questions and picked what I thought would be the most common sense. I had a couple of critical path questions that I thought were a bit excessive for a timed online exam, but once I found the notepad it was easy. I practiced not building complete boxes and only writing letters and numbers, which saved a lot of time.
Hope this helps others as previous posts here helped me. Thank you PrepCast, and I'll see you soon for the PMI-ACP training.
