I passed with 4AT and 1T with an overall AT rating. Here are what I used to prep myself, in this order:
1 - Set a study schedule that I stuck to. The schedule listed what I planned to do (which chapters I would cover) every day. My goal was to complete everything (from the first reading to exam) in under 2 months. I wasn't working at the time so I had the afternoons to study as well.
2 - Went through all the Prepcast videos while taking very good notes - about 2 notebooks. The videos took a long time for me.
3 - Read Rita's M's book chapter by chapter. After reading a chapter, I would read the corresponding PMBOK chapter, then complete the questions in both Rita and Prepcast.
4 - Read Rita chapters again and went through all the Prepcast questions again.
5 - Went through my Prepcast notes.
6 - I was at a level that I was confident enough to handle simulated exams. By then, I was able to memorize 1) all the formulas, 2) the 47 processes 3) all the outputs. I had some trouble remembering some inputs so I let that go. It wasn't worth the stress. I found it helpful to memorize the key outputs.
7 - Took a few mock exams (not Prepcast ones yet) scoring between 68% - 92%.
8 - Ran through all of Rita's questions again.
9 - Took 5 Prepcast Simulator exams - one each day - scoring between 85% and 92%.
10 - I had 2 more days before my exam. I ran through the processes in my head each day so that I didn't start to forget things.
It was a stressful exam for me. I "dumped" out my formulas and processes in the 15 mins but found that I kept referring to them during the exam (something that I did not need to do during my practice exams). Just because it was there, I felt like I had to refer to "something" to be more confident. I found the questions to be very tricky and marked many of them - which stressed me out even more. I didn't mark any during my practice exams. I felt that PMI worded their questions carefully - but that made me have to read between the lines to come to a decent answer choice. If I didn't read between the lines, most of the questions would have many good answers. I took the entire 4 hours to complete and I did not even get through all my marked questions. The practice exams took me 3 hours.
I am happy to have passed. It was a lot of work. I took 7 weeks to pass.
