Firstly one thing you need the most for passing the exam is building mental endurance for 4 hours. So practice as many simulator full mocks as possible so you prepare mentally to concentrate for 4 hours.
For preparation, I would suggest read the PMBOK first, then attend the formal training or Udemy course for 35 PDUs. Then go back to reading PMBOK again. I was not able to relate Knowledge areas and domains when I took the classes before reading PMBOK. People say PMBOK is dry but I liked PMBOK better than Rita's because it was straight to the poin. Ricardo vargas processes explained is a must watch to understand the 5 process areas. I took 5 full length mock tests and was able to score 80. Once you finish the mocks, even if you score less the most important thing to do is go through all your correct and incorrect answers. See if your understanding and logic is correct. I love how the prepcast simulator not only explains which is the correct answer but why the other 3 are incorrect. MOck tests definitely help you revise your topics. Then I reread PMBOK and took KA wise 30 to 40 questions quizzes.
Coming to the exam, oh boy it was tough to comprehend questions and find the correct answers for 4 hours under stress. Be mentally prepared. I felt the mock test questions were more structured and easy to relate to process groups but the exam questions were a little vague and less easy to comprehend under anxiety. All were situational questions with What to do next or what is the best course of action. Not a single ITTO or math questions.
It was a mix of agile, hybrid and predictive. All agile questions were simple and straight forward. So be thorough in your agile scrum concepts so you can get all those Agile questions right to improve your passing chance.
Lots of employee competency and training questions. First 20 questions were tough and there were few where i felt all 4 were incorrect answers and I was not certain of the answers I chose. Even though I am not sure of most answers I am sure the preparation and mocks must have influenced the answers I chose. Last 60 questions were easy.
Noise cancelling headsets were so uncomfortable and heavy so i preferred to not used them. So i had to get distracted by people going in and out , the coughing sounds so I had to read the questions more than twice. So keep a watch on your time. It is divided in to 3 sections. You get to take a 10 min break after every 60 questions. I would highly suggest to take the breaks so you can relax and pull yourself back together. Than the difficulty of questions, your brain should not give up to comprehend the questions for 230 minutes.
I finished all of my mocks in less than 3 hours but the real exam i finished bang on time. I had no time for review at all. I thought i will end up not answering 10+ questions but the last section was easy to finish under 60 minutes. soon as I answered the last question, the screen timed out and congratulations popped out.
Hardwork never fails. It is not an easy exam to pass but not a tough one either with enough preparation and practice . Wish everyone good luck!!
