I wanted to get my foot into management without getting an MBA (I'm currently working towards an MS in Data Science, so another Masters wasn't too economical). My fiance studied and passed the PMP earlier this year. It really helped expedite him into a PM role, and I figured it would be a great course of action for my future career. We moved to a different state to accommodate his new job. This meant I was in a position to change up my career a bit and have some time off (which gave me the perfect opportunity to prepare for the PMP test). I applied around late June, but didn't start studying until early September. I passed my test today, first attempt, and have to thank this prepcast and exam simulator for assisting me in my journey.

I did about 3-4 hours a day going through all of the prepcast videos while taking detailed notes. To tie everything together, I coupled it with "PMP Exam Prep Simplified" (a pretty basic book that helps you tie all the processes together and gives you high-level ITTOs to focus on). I spent the last week before the exam doing a practice exam on the simulator each day. I took notes on everything I missed and re-read the prepcast notes every night before I went to bed. I scored between 75-87% on the practice exams and felt prepared walking into the test this morning.

To me, the simulators were great preparation for the types of questions the exam posed. I'm not sure if it was nerves, or actual increased difficulty, but the first half of the PMP exam was a challenge to get through. Once I found my groove, it was smooth sailing from there.

TL;DR: Take it seriously. Study hard. Learn how the processes work with each other. Take practice exams!