I did about 900 questions out of the available 1800 and kept an average of about 75-78 % overall. I purchased Achieve PMP but did not even read it. But, I made extensive notes as I went along and this helped me clarify my thinking.
A few days before the exam I gave up on the idea of memorizing the ITTOs. I reviewed them frequently, but could not memorize them. There are patterns and it is mostly logical though. Instead, I focused on the purpose of the processes and trying to distinguish between the concepts which seem similar.
I drove down to the testing center the day before to take a look around. I am glad I did because there was no parking at all. So I decided to UBER.
I got there about an hour early and as they had an empty chair, they let me start early.
I took two quick breaks through the exam period. Drank a protein / energy shake.
Initiation – Moderately Proficient
Planning - Proficient
Executing - Proficient
Controlling – Moderately Proficient
Closing – Moderately Proficient
Approach: For each question I took a quick look at the answers to see if they were words or numbers. Then I would read the question at the end of the paragraph. Following that I would read the text of the question while paying attention to the adjectives and modifiers such as always, not and except. Out of the four options I crossed off the two which were obviously incorrect. The other two would seem like a 50-50 guess to the uninitiated. I debated which would be the best answer and why. I marked about 40 of the questions. At the end I had 15 minutes to review and looked over maybe 15 of the marked questions and changed a few of them. Then time was up.
Honestly, by the time I had answered about 50 of the 200 questions I was sure that I was not going to pass.
The questions were harder than the questions in the PrepCast simulator. But, they were not as wordy and the language seemed more direct. There were not very many questions which asked about ITTOs directly and most of the questions were situational and asked how I would respond to a specific situation. Overall, the simulator is a reasonable approximation of the exam. Except the simulator has more direct from memory ITTO questions. The importance of going through change control and recording lessons learned seemed to be highlighted.
I found that the exam simulator was my most valuable tool. I would not have succeeded without it. I did not typically do more than 10 questions at once, and I usually only was in learning mode, not timed mode. I stopped to review and study each wrong answer. This was slow, but it pointed out where I was lacking. The greatest benefit of the simulator was that it taught me how to read carefully. It is easy to speed through the question and not understand the question and then pick the wrong answer. As I was going through the simulator I was developing a best practice to understand the question and pick the correct answer.
I am thankful for this group and everyone in the forum and on staff who assisted me by answering my questions.
Stephen
