I passed my exam yesterday (5th Aug 2020) and got the confirmation email from PMI this morning. My overall experience was very very bad. I opted for online Proctored exam and the system failed about 7-8 times when exam was ongoing. The very first time I freaked out but eventually got a call from Proctor indicating their server problem and to bear with the downtime. The motivation kept on going during such failures but eventually momentum was regained.
I finished my exam successfully but while I was 3hours and 47mins down; the last break down took place. There was a rude proctor who chatted with me for a while and sent me a link to "Reschedule" my exam. I was very furious and didn't accept what she was trying to tell me. Eventually I got a call from Head Manager or Proctor and she was very helpful, polite and sweet in helping me out. They backtracked my exam by 15mins and I attemped some questions again.
TIP: Don't panic if such things happen, they are common. Most importantly, trust your abilities.
Journey:
Enrolled PMPrepcast: 20th May 2020
Finished Video lessons: 18th June 2020 (read PMBOK topics side by side)
Break: for about a week (celebrating birthday)
Reading PMBOK 2time time: 28th June 2020
Exam 1 and 2 from Simulator: 10th July to 13th July (review incorrect answers is very important)
Read PMBOK 3rd time: 15th July 2020
Creating experience excel sheet (side by side) and also contacted past managers/colleagues
Submitted my PMI application: 21 July 2020
No audit and paid fees: 25th July 2020
Gave exams 3, 4 and 5 from Exam Simulator: 26Jul - 2Aug 2020
Revised weak areas from PMBOK: 3rd and 4th Aug 2020
Overall Study material recommendations:
1. PMPrepcast: Helpful
2. PMBOK: Very Helpful
3. Exam Simulator and incorrect answers review: Most helpful
4. Ricardo video on Youtube: Very Helpful
There are videos on Youtube that give fair idea about process, application, experience and PMBOK topic guidance. Have a look at videos with most views (>50k atleast).
