Thanks Cornelius. I can't say enough much this package is worth the price!
Been studying for hours a day for three months straight. Being hard to find a solid 4 hours to take a full practice exam I finally did two nights ago. Seeing "FAIL" with a 79% made me sick to my stomach since there was no backing out of my exam today.
I can tell you that the real exam feels easier. I say feels because I think the difference between the PM Prepcast and the real exam is that there are a LOT of "trick" question on the PM Prepcast that force you to think and prepare you for the real exam. Once you get to the real thing, you know what to look for. This makes it seem easier. I can tell you it's not. Adding the stress, atmosphere, time limit, etc balances the two out. Clicking the "end" button is a hold your breath moment.
Okay.. so what I learned.
I've posted this before. But run the PM Prepcast videos and follow along with the PMBOK. I jotted notes in the margins. It really helped make the PMBOK make "real world" sensible.
BUY the exam simulator. It's almost the same exact setup and worded the closest to the real thing over any other website exams I found.It really prepares you.
I did a ton of learning quizzes so I could instantly find out if I got a question right or not and stop and learn the topic.
I only did the one full time exam to experience the time limit, no bathroom breaks, etc.
I did NOT memorize the ITTOS. in fact I only had one "the missing output of this is..." type questions. When Cornelius says learn the concepts, he's not kidding. That's what I got tested on.
Know the formulas. My brain dump was the formulas. When i got a question with a formula. I didn't have to think which one i needed. I looked at my brain dump and re-copied the formula to a new page and filled in the numbers they gave me to answer it. This worked well because they would mix up the formula. I.e. X=Y+Z and you had to solve for Y instead of X.
Know both forming, storming, norming and the types of risks (accept, mitigate, transfer).
Other than that, the only other piece I can give is that about 2 weeks ago something just clicked. All of a sudden everything I studied just made sense. I can't explain it, but I felt I could grasp the concepts deeper than just "studying them". At that point I knew I was ready. I used the exam links on this website and tried many other exams. None of them seemed to have the depth of PM Prepcast, but I still recommend checking them out. They give you different viewpoints on the same concepts.
I did read the Rita book. It was okay. I got more out of the prepcast videos/PMBOK follow along technique.
Good luck!
Scott Gillard, PMP
