Hi Everyone,
After months of studying (5 months as I originally planned to do the 5th edition exam but missed the cut off so I started over again), I passed the exam on my first attempt. I scored above target in 3 out of the 5 sections (specifically initiate, Execute & Monitor and control). I do work as a project manager but I work on much smaller projects and we barely use any processes identified on the PMBOK. This process has been an eye-opening experience.
The reason why I'm writing this post is first to say thank you to all the contributors to the message board (i've been quietly reading and learning from all the posts) and to share my personal tale with the exam simulator. First, it is probably the best simulator out on the market. Cornelius and his team have done a fantastic job. Doing the exam simulator over and over again really prepares you for the actual exam. The exam questions themselves are much shorter than the exam simulator questions, so if you can build up your stamina doing a 4 hours exam on the simulator, you'll do well in terms of stamina. Another aspect is that I did 4 exams in the simulator and my average score was between 58-65%. Clearly, this was not enough and it made me panic as I got closer to exam day. I started doing the quizzes and ramped up from 20 questions all the way to 100 questions. I realized my problem was the length of the exam and that my performance markedly decreased the more tired I got. As I ramped up my stamina, my scores improved and I was also able to learn a lot doing the quizzes in short bursts of 50 questions at a time.
So for anyone doing the exam, my personal advice is the following:
1) Do the exam simulator (especially the quizzes) as many times as possible and build up that stamina. If your exam scores aren't above 75% on the exam simulator don't be discouraged. Every time I saw the word "failed" at the end of the exam simulator I got immediately discouraged. All I can say is don't give up and keep at it and you just have to power through it.
2) There were maybe 3-4 formula questions and a whole lot of monitor & Control and Execution. So definitely brush up on all the sections but pay attention to those particular domains.
3) its a 4-hour exam (there was someone doing a 9-hour exam beside me, which I can't even fathom!) so pace yourself and you'll need to pace your thoughts and ability to recall. It's a marathon so plan accordingly.
4) I didn't do a brain dump. I was all ready to do so but when the moment the exam started my brain when into automatic exam mode and I started answering questions. I wrote a few formulas as the questions came up. everyone is different, so do what works for you.
Good luck guys! and if your testing center offers noise-canceling headphones (like the one i've seen construction crews wear) definitely use them. They came in handy as I was able to block out all the noises that would have been distracting.
