TOPIC: PMI-ACP Exam passed 04.2014 with Prometric issue

Hi there,

I passed the PMI-ACP Exam last week and would like to share my lessons learned:

Preperation:

1. I watched the Agile PrepCast and did all of the exercises from the Prepcast Student Workbook
2. I watched the videos about SCRUM; LEAN etc. on Youtube and visited the agile websites (Agile Manifesto etc.)
3. With this knowledge it was now possible to understand and read the book from Mike Griffiths which I bought for Exam Prep and I really recommend this book!
4. I joined a ACP study group on LINKEDIN which is really usefull to discuss everything around the agile topics
5. I did all the exercises in the book and also the test at the end
6. Now I created a braindump for myself with the agile Maifesto & 12 principles, LEAN principles, SCRUM pillars, XP priciples & values and eraned value management formulas
7. At this ponit I felt good prepeared and bought the exam test simulator at RMC as it links you back to the sites of the book
8. I started with 75% correct answered questions and improved it quick and constant to 85%. !
   I did a exam simulation and studied, than I did another exam and studied again the weak areas and so on..
9. After 4 exams with 85% I scheduled the exam date at Prometrics and did the exam the week after scheduling it

I arrived fully preperad at day X at the Prometric test center and.... The site was down due to technical issues with the server!
The employee told me that he was wondering that Prometric hasn't informed me about that.
I showed him my confimation from Prometric but that does not change the picture of course
So as a project manager I told him to call Prometrics to clarify this. He said
Prometric should know that the site is down.. but I convinced him to call the help desk.
Hmm, he came back with a telephone number from Prometric Candidate Care which I should call personally... thats it.
No exam, no reall clarification, nothing ... it was like running into a wall

At home I called the center and the lady asked me for the incident or ticked number for this issue.
And here is my learning : Don't leave the test center in this case without this number. (The best is in written)
otherwise you have nothing on hand to clarify this on the phone !
I had luck and the lady found something in the system about the site, but not my particular issue...

I thought OK now they could bring this to an end, but she told me that I should clarify now with PMI and explain the issue...
and get a new eligibility ID to reschedule the exam.
Please remember PMI needs to clarify this issue with Prometric, but you need to make sure Prometric is prepared!

But at the end it was not so dramatic as PMI was really quick and professional!
Please remember:
Click the website www.pmi.org and the sheet "contact" than you can find out a local PMI telephone number where the staff is able to speak your mother tongue!!
In my case it was Europe : www.pmi.org/en/About-Us/Customer-Care/EMEA.aspx
I gave PMI my address and current Eligibility ID and the Prometric ticket numer and that's it.
PMI answered me the same day and provided me a new Eligibility ID.

I rescheduled the exam in a different test center in the same week and passed it!

The time for the exam is really sufficient but rather than saying: Ohhh there is so much time, much more as on PMP exam, unfair to PMP...just use this time for breaks during the exam ( 2 breaks each 10 Minutes) and for checking the marked questions while beeing relaxed!

The questions came mainly from the areas LEAN,XP SCRUM, Agile Maifesto.
I personally had more problems to understand the content of some questions because there is no language aid for other counties..
But the difficulty of the question itself is fair for a practitioner exam.

So I wish you all good luck and a working eligibility ID

Was this helpfull for you? Please let me know.

Kind Regards
Sven

Hi,
Thanks for the lessons learned.i think its a good strategy . I bought the Mike Griffiths book from RMC couple of days ago..waiting for delivery. I am studying the agile prepcast at the moment for recertification purposes , thinking of getting the certification but my challenge is Agile specific experience. My projects have been not really used these principles/methods, what wa your approach ?

thanks