I decided to take the test at the end of January and wanted to complete the exam prior to the change on 3/26. Initially was scheduled to take the exam on 3/7 but was than rescheduled due to prometric sites being closed for bad weather on two occasions. Finally had to drive 4 hours to take the exam in NYC on 3/23 as it was the only available test prior to the change - overall it was well worth the drive as I passed overall above target.
My preparation consisted of the following. I spent an entire week just listening to all the PMP Pod casts, I found the hints at the end to be very beneficial. Once I was completed and then started by taking the first full simulator test which I only achieved a 60% score which confirmed that I needed more review for me to fully inderstand the concepts. I purchased the Rita Mulcahyl's Exam prep book and spent another week reading it cover to cover and testing my self with the practice questions. I never cracked the PMBOK book as it seemed like it woud be very dry material. I found what finally made all the information click for me was taking all 9 full- length exams with the simulator. I would complete one every 3-4 days and in between would review the categories that I scored the lowest in. My scores by week 3 were in the low 70s and by week five I was in the low 80s. I worked hard over week 3-4 to drastically reduce the amount of time it was taking to complete the exam, I found the easiest way was to skip all the long questions and mark all the formulas ones. This allowed me at the end of the first pass to look at all the formulas ones together and then wrap it up with the rather lengthy questions. This technique allowed me to finished the full length exam in 2-2.5 hours and built my confidence up. One the day of the formal exam I was prepped although still nervous, I found the questions to be more vague than in the simulator which resulted in my time to complete the exam by an hour. Completed the exam in 3.5 hours with an overall above target score. I would have never been able to pass in such a short window without the access the simulator tool, money well spent.
