I was never able to make it more than a third of the way through the prepcast lessons, or read more than the initiating portion of the PMBOK. I have twins that turned 1 year old on the day my application was accepted, so my free time to study was extremely limited. I took the test on January 4th knowing that I had not prepared, but thought it would be a good baseline to see where I was at. I ended up getting one proficient and one moderately proficient on the first attempt. But I did learn a lot about the test, specifically how the questions are worded. I scheduled my second attempt for February 22nd, which would allow me another month or so to study. Again though, time was limited. The extent of my studying was using the exam simulator quizzes to focus on my weak areas. I would select an answer, and review the correct answer immediately. I did this for a total of about 4 to 5 hours in the final week before my test. The second test was much different from the first. The first test required memorization of many formulas. The second test had almost zero questions that required math. Almost every question was situational. I am bad at memorizing, but good at understanding how things work. So the second test seemed much easier to me. The most difficult part was picking apart the question to determine what was actually being asked. I took my time, and completed the test in about 2.5 hours. I went back through and reviewed about 30% of my questions for another 45 minutes. Even though I still did not study as much as I would have preferred, I was more confident after using the exam simulator quizzes to focus in on my problem areas.

I have been a full time project manager for about 4 years, and trying to answer the exam questions correctly according to PMI and not according to how my company conducts business was a challenge, but apparently not one that could be overcome. Even though I did not complete all the lessons, I do attribute much of my success to the exam simulator, and for that assistance I am grateful.