The Preparation
1. I started preparing for the exam on last week of October 2020, was initially planning for 2020 exam. I finished udemy video of philips and was reading Rita 10th edition.
2. By Dec 20th I realized I am not ready yet and need more time, but had only 2 weeks before the exam pattern changes, so instead of killing myself studying too hard I just took a break and enjoyed the holidays.
3. Resumed study again on Feb 2021, meanwhile was checking different videos and forums to understand more about the new exam pattern.
4. Finished the Rita and reviewed it twice mostly the confusing parts, gone through the PMBOK on high level along with Head First PMP.
5. Then starts the fun part..taking prepcast exams.
6. Started with prepcast small quizes, 10-20 questions each time, and carefully reading the explanation of wrong answers.
7. As I have 15 month old son and live in small apartment it is impossible to take test from home, virtually there is no quite environment, so selected the center, (Lake Forest/OC) which luckily was only a mile from home.
8. Then I started taking full exam and after taking the first prepcast full exam I got only 33%, I was able to answer only 100 questions out of 180 in 230 mnts. That told me how unprepared I was, both material and time management wise.
9. Rescheduled the exam for last week of May.
10. Next one month I took several quizes and full exams and was gradually making better scores and last exam I finished 20 minutes before the time was up with 75%. All together attended around 1000+ questions.
11. I made a 30 question milestone, so I marked how much time should be left for each 30 questions answered (30,60,90,120,150), that helped a lot in keeping time in control.
The Exam
The actual exam was nerve wrecking to say the least, there was not a single question that I felt comfortable with my answer. Each questions were worded in a very dry professional raw terms, some question after reading 2 times I was thinking WTH does this even mean. Felt like questions were structured to give the examinee a nervous breakdown, after answering first 10-15 questions I almost gave up and felt like I am not gonna make it. But I walked too far to give up at this point and continued with exam with as much concentration possible. No mathematical questions and lot of column match questions which takes longer to answer. After the last question I almost left the chair thinking I will fail when I saw the message 'Congratulation...' lol.
So what basically helped me is due to spending around 6 months reading and taking quizes again and again I was subconsciously started thinking in PMI way and automatically my eyes were catching the right answers ignoring the wrong ones which eventually helped me pass with 3 AT, it wouldn't have been possible without the structured practice environment of the PrepCast simulator.
Thanks every one in the PrepCast team and best wishes for future aspirants!
