For the ACP certification, it is mentioned that we can ignore the 2000 hours of general project management experience if we already have the PMP. So, I listed just the 1500 hours of agile experience even though I have more than 4000 hours of agile experience. I got audited (random, lucky me). Had to bother my ex-manager to sign the audit forms. PMI rejected my audit materials because I combined all the projects and two roles into one entry for work experience. Furthermore, I was not very descriptive especially in Agile terms. Oddly enough, the audit rejection email had all the details about the PMP certification, but the guidelines in the email helped me resubmit the application with the exact details they are looking for. To be sure, I included more than 1500 hours Agile experience plus more than 2000 hours project management experience. I made sure to include only the experience under my ex-manager(s) who are reachable and can vouch for me. As soon as I paid the fees, I received the audit notification again (I think, once you get audited, you need to go thru it successfully). Had to bother my ex-manager again who was kind enough to sign and include his contact information for each project (there is separate set of forms for each item on your work experience). Cleared the audit this time.
I got my ACP certification on the first attempt with about six weeks of preparation. I used the following two resources exclusively:
1. Podcast: Agile Prepcast by Cornelius Fitchner. There is so much of material included which covers both the breadth and depth of each domain. Definitely a lot more than what you might need for the exam, but helps a great deal in developing the agile mindset especially to be prepared for the exam. Even if you have prior experience in Agile/Scrum, etc, the material discussed in these podcasts helps you reinforce your understanding and calibrate it towards the exam and avoids getting caught up with the trick questions and narrow down between two or more almost correct answers or even narrow down among all the seemingly imperfect answers.
2. Book: The PMI-ACP Exam: How To Pass On Your First Try. This book has two practice exams of 100 questions each and a code for a free one week trial to their website (velociteach) which includes an online exam simulator with 100 more sample questions.
I went thru a lot of free resources for sample questions on-line and exam simulators. Didn't purchase any - limited to the free stuff only. Most of the sample questions that I came across are straight forward and directly tests the study material.
I felt like the exam contained at least 90% of scenario based questions with about half of them had at least two closely correct answers. If you read the question carefully and analyze the key words, it helps narrow down the answer. In my opinion, some agile experience combined with the above resources would be sufficient to get the ACP certification. You may feel like hours and hours of time spent on certain agile methodologies were totally useless from the exam point of view but may find helpful if you have a broad mind of learning about all the in-roads of agile (not just for the exam).
