Thanks to the PM Prepcast team for building their materials and coursework.
The entire process took me 8 months
2 months: reading the PIMBOK guide and the various PMI websites
4 months: Taking the PM Prepcast class
2 months: Studying, reading Rita Mulcahy's book and using the PM Prepcast exam simulator.
In that time I took 5 total sample exams from the PM prepcast, scoring 80%-86% on them.
I found the Exam Simulator incredibly useful. It allows you to go back and see what you got wrong and WHY. It also summarizes (across each exam and all exams) where your strongest and weakest knowledge areas are. The simulator also shows you how important each knowledge area is - so I could focus on more important knowledge areas as opposed to just the ones I was weakest in.
Lessons Learned:
1. I've seen this one before, but check out your testing site ahead of time. I went to mine two weeks in advance. There were no issues, but it was comforting knowing when to check in, where to park, etc.
2. Some questions really made me do a double-take. When I ran across a hard one, I guessed and Marked it. I kept telling myself that "25 questions don't count, that really weird one is probably one of them".
3. It felt like certain topics were questioned more than others - not sure if that was just my bias though (and I shouldn't comment what ones they were).
4. Practice exams in the simulator were the best study tool. If you review every question you get wrong (even with 80% correct, I had to review 40 questions!) is the best studying. This way you are studying what you most need to know.
5. I did re-read the final two chapters in Rita's book right before the exam (in the parking lot!), and had re-read the integration chapter the week before. I think these are important (certainly the integration knowledge area featured prominently in the exam simulator).
Best of luck to all of you. I passed the exam on the first try, but it was a lot of work along the way. I had moderate in 3 areas and proficient in 2 areas - so I feel I did as good on the exam as I was doing on the exam simulator.
