It took me a bit over 2.5 months to study and take the exam after being made redundant.
I only read the PMBOK and did the PMPrepcast course and test simulator
Now after the experience I can tell you for sure that doing the test worked very well for me.
I have read PMBOK several times along the years, I have 5 years project management experience in the automotive industry and I found it useful for work, but not as useful for passing the test.
Looking back I would do the tests from PMPrepcast simulator and take the exam, I would have most likely passed the exam with the same result. (AT/AT/AT/T/AT)
I was getting the same results from the simulator 6 weeks before taking the real exam, I was just too afraid to take the exam so I spent too much studying and ultimately I lost 6 weeks of job search.
After passing the exam I definitely saw an improvement in being invited to interviews. Before I wasn't getting too many interviews, 4 companies, where after I got interviews with 15 companies over the same period of 2 months.
I hope this helps. I
f you have experience and know the PMBOK spend more time with the simulator and schedule the real exam ASAP.
