TOPIC: My PMP Exam Prep and Experience

Hi All,
I would like to first of all thank the entire team of Prep Cast for bringing to us such a wonderful Exam simulator. I cleared my PMP exam (first attempt) today with 4 Proficient scores and 1 Moderately Proficient score in Initiating. One of my friends had highly recommended this to me and I trusted her when I purchased it. I don't really want to share the points that has been repeatedly written in forums. Here are UNIQUE (or perhaps few contrasts to common beliefs) experiences of my journey (word of caution - please use this at your own discretion .)

1. I started studying for PMP a year back as my company had nominated me to take up this exam. I had only weekends to study since I was promoted and my new position was very demanding. I felt that studying for a year long was actually beneficial because I went really slow to learn the concepts thoroughly. Stopped and researched the topics until I really understood every term ! I don't really prefer weekdays for studying as there are lot of interruptions. Weekends are more preaceful for me !
2. I pre-poned my exam ONLY after I scored 80% in 6 mock tests of Prep Cast. This helped me avoid the rescheduling fee ( had I realised that I was not ready for the exam after taking the mocks). Also, I did not get the confidence even after scoring 85% + in my first two mocks. I realised that I was taking these mocks in an ideal environment @ home. I tried to simulate the scenarios that may be impediments in my real exam environment in mock exams 3,4,5 - one exam when I was feeling very sleepy at night ( in case you fall sick on exam day), one when I was hungry/thirsty (did not take a single break) and the last one admist all disturbances from my family (left the door open...exam center also has people coming in and going out). Sounds funny ..isn't it ? My scores dropped to 80%. This actually gave me confidence that it was not bringing down my performance drastically.
3. Exam was really very tough for me and I kind of went blank the first half an hour as the first 25 questions were really tough.
4. I really enjoyed taking up more mocks to bridge my gaps than going through PMBok the second time. Attempted nearly 3000 + mock questions. I was always hungry for more questions. Attempting marathon mocks boosted my confidence. I had scored 70% + in full length mocks when I was half done with PM Bok.... I was sure about scoring above 80% when I am fully done.
5. I did Integration, Scope and Time mgnt chapters with atmost attention as I observed most of the mocks had maximum questions from there. (I may be wrong) I am not saying other KAs are less important.... All are equally important to PASS the exam !

Few suggestions to Prep cast team for the simulator...I am not sure if these features are already there and I have not explored... Please pardon me for my ignorance.
1. It will be great if you can provide an option to review all marked answers together ( click next to go to the next marked question) and all incomplete answers together.
2. Real exam allows us to highlight the text with mouse as we read it. It kind of helped me !!
3. 25 Random Qs can be eliminated from the score. This actually helps us not to get too overconfident with our scores.
4. Quiz questions should be different from the Mock tests. I was not doing so good in Communication and HR KAs but when I took the quiz I found most of them were repeated from mock tests and did not complete it.
5. Network diagram and float calc questions were very less in number. I had the maximum number of these type of questions appearing today.

Not to forget...this was one of the BEST Simulators that I came across. Thanks once again !!

Congratulations ... I have seen the efforts that you have put through ....its your dedication and continuous commitment over the last one year that has paid off

Congratulations and thank you for the update.

You are correct in that in the real exam, there are numerous questions in Network diagrams, determining Critical path as well as problems to solve related to Contract types and fees. It would be nice if the updated Prepcast simulator questions are enhanced to encompass what comes up in the real exam.