1st attempt:
Did my first attempt in last year in the month of May. While preparing for the exam, I came across too many study materials such as Kim heldman, Andy Crow, Rita Mulchay, some online material, PMBOK and study material from my local PMI chapter, etc.. After checking for almost a month, decided to follow Rita, Local chapter study material and PMBOK.
Mistakes that I did:
1. Scheduled the exam even before I started the preparation. Became too optimistic about my studies, hence not even rescheduled it.
2. Wasted time in selecting the right study material.
3. Took the online free simulator just a day before my exam. (Not PM Prepcast)
4. Studied very hard and not smart.
5. Didn't practiced for numerical at all. (what a fool I was)
Result was clear, I failed miserably. Couldn't able to understand the questions in the exam, answering them was a way too far. Took almost 4-5 months to recover from this frustration, as I had never tasted the failure before. This failure even affected my routine works as I couldn't focus properly in any works.
2nd attempt:
I wasn't sure if I'll be attempting again for the exam. But PMI kept reminding me about my remaining two attempts, in one of the mails they even reminded me that now I've left with only 3months to take the 2nd attempt otherwise I'll have to reapply, as my one year application validity was getting expired in 3 months. So, one fine day, I took the deep breath, closed my eyes and convince myself to apply for 2nd attempt. This time I was assigned for a project which allowed me very less time for any of my personal works. So, somehow I could manage to get only 1hr in the morning and 1 hr in the evening. Followed below steps to make things right this time-
1. Written down the lessons learned from my previous exam experience.
2. Took the PMPrepcast lessons package, and watched the lessons avg 2hrs per day. (Kept my choice clear)
3. After watching the prepcast lessons, reviewed the local chapter study material and checked PMBOK only for glossary. (only reviewed in brief and not in detail)
4. Though all lessons from prepcast were not completed, I stopped checking any of the material and started with the exam simulator almost 10 days prior to exam.
5. Since I could get almost 2hrs a day, I was unable to take full exams. So, I started with time & learning quizzes. Did all types of quizzes from 10 questions to 100 questions. The results were ranging from 53% to 90%. Took only one full exam and scored 80%.
6. AND THAT WAS THE BANG!!! The learning from these questions were amazing. I could able to understand the thought process behind every question that is being asked.
7. I checked the explanation of all the wrong questions and then could able to relate what is being asked. This helped me gain confidence. I was so happy that at least now I was able to understand the questions and could able to figure out the best possible answer.
8. Prepared for all the possible numerical and memorized the necessary formulas. Solved avg 5 numerical per formula. (What an easy task it was!)
9. After taking almost 500 questions from the simulator, now I was confident enough that I can pass the exam with at least T's in all areas.
And this worked, the actual exam questions seemed very easy and I finished my exam with almost 20min left. And not even T but secured AT in all areas.
Thanks to PM Prepcast.
Last word. EXAM SIMULATOR IS A MUST. DON'T MISS IT AT ANY COST.
