Wanted to follow others and share what worked for me since reading other people's posts was SO helpful throughout this entire process.
Taking the exam online: I was really worried about taking the exam online after reading so many horror stories on here with people getting their exams revoked over the smallest reasons, but I didn't want to pay the $70 to reschedule my exam within 30 days and wanted to get it over with. I had 2 different proctors and I know this because I specifically asked if I can leave the room and go to the bathroom for each break to not chance anything and because I was having issues with my computer. The test software kept picking up background applications that were running and had to be closed out. It also picked up a few that weren't actually running, so I'd have to retest and each time go back into the exam. Thankfully this didn't disqualify me and I was able to go back in each time. This probably happened 4 or 5 different times. I think next time I'd definitely take the exam at the center in person because this added another layer of stress. I also made sure my room was free of anything that wasn't allowed and was able to have my tower fan in here! It was out of arm's reach and the proctor didn't mention anything about it in the photos.
Exam: I flew through the first two sections and didn't find the questions too bad, but once I got to the third section I didn't think that I would pass. I believe the mix was 75% agile or hybrid and the rest predictive. I only had 3 drag and drop questions. Some of the wording on the questions was difficult and I thought that the answers were worded pretty weirdly which threw me off, so watch out for that. Like many others have said, you can pretty much use the process of elimination to find the right answer. No calculation questions.
Preparation: I have been studying since end of August using the following:
- Andrew's PMP Simplified Book (I actually have the old version, which I used for my CAPM a few years ago, but this helped me avoid reading the PMBOK)
- Agile Practice Guide - definitely read this a few times if you aren't familiar with Agile
- Andrew's Udemy Course - mainly for the mindset videos and ECO videos, rewatched these the day before my exam
- Prepcast exam simulator - this tool and this forum has been invaluable and was a HUGE HUGE help in me actually understanding the concepts and why answers were right or wrong. The explanations are worth their weight in gold. I took all 4 practice exams and scored 65, 71, 73, 84.
- Andrew's Weekly Youtube QA videos for practice questions & answers explanations - I felt like this and the next youtube videos really helped me understand how to break the questions down and use process of elimination to find the right answer
- EDUHUBSPOT Youtube QA for practice questions & answers explanations
- Studyhall - I would say Studyhall's practice quiz vagueness in the questions is similar to the exam format, but don't use this to get an understanding of concepts. There's many many errors and I wouldn't trust this program to actually learn the concepts. Maybe use it before your exam when you're more comfortable with the concepts and doing the process of elimination, but don't pay too much attention to the scores. Mine were much worse on there than on here.
