Hello Everyone,
I passed my PMI ACP exam two weeks back(late in writing the review). Here are few lessons learned -
The exam questions were tougher than what I expected and having a tougher simulator will surely help. In this regard, the simulator in Agile prepcast was very helpful
It is important to get into the Agile mindset instead of blindly understanding all concepts and forgetting them later. There will be scenario based questions and it is the right mindset of agility which will help in narrowing down choices to find the right answer
The golden rule is to find the 'best answer'. All 4 choices may be correct but one of them suits the best
In a lot of scenarios, answer options having strong emphasis words like 'must', 'never', 'always', can be ruled out. Dont follow it blindly though
There are many tools and techniques and listing down all along with respective details to understand small differences will be helpful. For example it is important to know the difference between multiple prioritization techniques and which one takes customer's views into consideration !!
I did not use the Agile prepcast as the only resource for my preparation, also bought Mike Griffiths's book. I went through the simulator videos repeatedly and did not try to memorize anything. Cornelius does an excellent job of highlighting the concepts and if you are paying a little attention, understanding becomes easy. Remember, it maybe tad difficult to concentrate in the beginning but eventually you will get the hang of it. Repeatedly watching the videos is the trick
Dont waste too much time understanding in depth the questions regarding FDD, Crystal and DSDM. There was not a single question on these methodologies and they are explained in depth in the videos. Once you have covered other topics and have time in had, come back for learning them thoroughly.
Finally I will say that completing this exam has been an enriching experience, I am more knowledgeable, have complete understanding of Agile processes and can guide a team towards correct implementation of Agile. Goodluck folks !!
