First and foremost, I'd like to thank Cornelius and team for assembling an AWESOME test simulator! The simulator was a key part of my strategy to get exam ready. As written in several other posts, the questions in the simulator are very close (but much harder!) to what you'll see in the exam. Here's my timeline and strategy:
Aug 15 - Aug 25 - First full reading of the PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Second Edition, by Mike Griffiths (the only book I used to study for the exam)
Aug 31 - Took first full exam simulator test, scored 68%
Sept 1 - 3 - Reviewed all exam questions from the first test, cross-referencing the PMI-ACP Exam Prep book. Again, kudos to Cornelius and team for including the feature that allows to review previous test results in detail, and including such rich content and insight in the review!
Sept 5 - Sept 14 - Second reading of the PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Second Edition, by Mike Griffiths. I think this helped me quite a bit as I picked up a few things I completely missed in the first reading
Sept 15 - Scheduled the exam for October 8th
Sept 21 - Took second full exam simulator test, scored 78.3%
Sept 22 - Sept 25 - Reviewed all exam questions from the second test, cross-referencing the PMI-ACP Exam Prep book
Sept 26 - Took third full exam simulator test, scored 73.3%...had me a little worried as I regressed from the previous test but in hindsight I knew I wasn't totally focused and committed the night I took the test...too many things in my head from work.
Sept 22 - Sept 25 - Reviewed all exam questions from the third test, cross-referencing the PMI-ACP Exam Prep book
Sept 28 - Took fourth full exam simulator test, scored 78.3%
Sept 29 - Oct 1 - Went on a camping fishing trip for a little R&R
Oct 1 - That evening reviewed all exam questions from the third test, cross-referencing the PMI-ACP Exam Prep book
Oct 2 - Oct 6 - I reviewed items in the PMI-ACP Exam Prep book that I didn't do well on in the simulator tests.
Oct 7 - Unplugged...no studying.
Oct 8 - Took the test @ 7am CST and passed!
I also purchased the PMI-ACP Study Notes and Exam Cheat Sheet from 360PMO. I wouldn't recommend it. Total waste of money...it's poorly written and it has the same content as the ACP Exam Prep book by Mike Griffiths.
Observations from the exam:
-Not a single reference to Crystal nor DSDM...not a single word.
-I'd say there were 15+ questions specific to either Kanaban, Scrum or XP, and maybe 1 or 2 on Lean...you gotta know these in and out because the questions are very tricky.
-Two questions specific to burndown charts, where they provided a chart and asked what the practitioner would do and the other was determine if the project was on track
-I recall a strange question regarding disaster recovery and what action the team lead would take in preparation for DR. The exam simulator had a very similar question.
-As with the simulator, there were many situational based questions, specifically 2 or 3 around stakeholder mgt and communication. For example, what would you do if a highly critical feature had to be brought into the iteration at the last minute. Or, what if a stakeholder is asking for status on the project or iteration.
-About four questions centered around Information Radiators
-Several situational questions about retrospectives. Nothing specific to the process or techniques, but more about how, why and when a retrospective is used.
-I had memorized the Agile Manifesto Values and Principles but not a single question was asked about any of the values. Instead, as Mike Griffiths explains in his book, the questions were more about full understanding of the "Agile Mindset"
-One situational question each on Value Stream Mapping and Story Mapping
-Two situational questions about Story Workshops
A little info about myself...I've been in the IT field for over 17 years. I was Scrum Master certified back in 2005 and have been a Scrum Master since. Although I have a lot of experience in Scrum, I didn't have the complete picture on Agile. Mike Griffiths' book help me tie it all together.
