Hi everyone, I am here to share with you in the Xmas morning that I just received my certification!
I started to study in mid September and took the exam on December 23rd. My plan was to have it done before Xmas. I read the whole PMBOK, and watched all the Prepcast videos and did every review exercises at the end of each chapter. After finish all the materials I did the pre-assessment exam, got 64%. I reviewed all questions and then started to take the Prepcast Simulator, I did the 4 hours to get test stamina and on the first exam I got 77%. Then I reviewed all the wrongly answered questions and went to the exam 7 in the simulator, it was harder then the exam 1 and I got 67% I wasn't 100% confident for the test but it was already scheduled so I had to take it and had a backup plan to keep studying and take somewhere around Dec 30th in case of fail.
At the exam day, I checked in, the process is pretty straight forward and simple. Try to have your desk as clean as possible. I started my check in exactly at 11:45am (half hour before the test start). They asked to take the pictures of the place and then submit along with your ID pictures. Once you make the check in you start to be recorded and have to stay with you face in the camera for their assessment and exam starting process. My exam should start at 12:15pm but they experienced some internal problems at their side, and the wait was longer then I expected, I started to be worried, then they entered in the chat and ask to contact on the phone. I froze, and started to think what I did wrong? I pick up the phone and then they ask questions about the room where I was and I explained that I set up a meeting room at my office for the exam. They ask if I could be interrupted by any chance because that could bring problems. I said no, that I had the room for the whole exam period only for me. Then they started the exam about 30min later than planned.
The exam was overall easier than the Precast simulator, but again, time is a problem, specially when you get used with the prepcast interface which in my opinion is better than the exam interface. A tip, avoid use any of their exam resources, strikethrough lines or highlight lines for example. I think they took more of your time during each question compared with the prepcast simulator, they are not user friendly. My break was at question 89 and I was behind schedule so I had to catchup throughout the second half. I had 30sec to finish the last question I marked and suddenly the end the screen just showed the congratulations screen but I was so tired that I could process that well and realized that I passed. Only when I exit the room and went to the car that I googled the final pass exam screen and then I was sure that I passed!
I would like to thank the Prepcast team and Cornelius for the whole support and quality of the material offered! This was the best Xmas ever and the whole Prepcast team were the Xmas Elfs that made the magic happen! Happy holidays for everyone and a great new year!
