Passed with 4 AT's and 1 T (Closing) on first attempt. Here are some tips and info on stuff I was looking for on this forum before I took the exam:
- My prepcast simulator first attempt average was 81%. Never took a 200 question mock exam, solved 10-20 question quizzes.
- 20-25% of the questions were much easier then prepcast(easier than most of the questions that you may find online) 10-15% of the questions was much harder, more on that in a second. The rest is pretty much similar to prepcast, there are tricky questions, elimination is your best friend, prepcast does a good job in teaching you how to eliminate answers with their explanations.
- Do NOT attempt to memorize every ITTO, it will not be a good investment. Just understand the logic behind the main inputs and outputs.
- If you have little time left for your exam, at least learn the tools and techniques well enough to differentiate between them, the ones on quality are important! Use the list and the index on the link:
www.acethepmpexam.com/ppe/tools%20and%20techniques.html
- The exam is a psychological battle, after answering the first 30 questions, I was sure I was going to fail. I had 90 questions flagged for review when I answered all the questions! Do NOT panic and get demoralized and focus on the next question.
- As I mentioned, 10-15% of questions are close to impossible! I hate to say this but it felt like one has to be lucky to get them right, eliminate 1 option, 2 options if you are lucky, and hope for the best. You might stumble upon these monster questions early on, do not get demoralized! It will get easier, just continue doing your thing. The purpose of those questions is to break you down psychologically. Stand tall, flag the question for review and move on. Most probably you will get those questions wrong, but it is okay, most probably you will not need them to pass anyway.
- Do NOT make the mistake of trying to answer every question with your ITTO glasses, that might make some questions even harder, just relax and use logic when you are stuck.
- Change management and risk management was a big part of my exam. Make sure you know when you need change requests and when you do not. ( Do NOT forget to analyze the situation before submitting a change request if it is one of the options.)
- When in doubt, go check the management plans (you might be presented with questions with two logical options and an option to check the management plan)
- You will be doing probably much better than you think you are during the exam. I was close to being sure that I failed when I pressed submit.
- Do NOT go crazy and overstudy, it is not worth it. No need to spend 200+ hours, it will not be worth it since most of that knowledge/memorization will be useless during the exam.
- Do NOT fight with the questions, yes, you are not alone, sometimes it really does not make sense and its illogical! And you are not the first one to find out! Just play their game.
Good luck everyone!
