Passed! AT/AT/AT
I think you guys saved me. First attempt AT/AT/AT.
Pearson Vue. Highlight and strikethrough keyboard shortcut was my method as I get fatigued. It was kind of hard to get used to highlighting the text to strike. I had my left hand on the keyboard the whole time on the ALT + J or W I think that was the shortcut, it'll tell you.
Tried the Master of Project masterofproject.com course, I did NOT get the PMBOK guide. Gave myself 2 months to hammer through the course videos and 2 weeks to study for the exam. When I got to the practice exam, I got 57%-60%. I decided to purchased their 9 practice exam simulator for $67 from Master of Project. As I was running out of time.
Some of the answers were wrong on the practice exam. On each test there would be mistakes. I would answer A it would highlight B as correct, and give me reasons why C is the correct answer. I wonder how often I even caught their mistakes. I emailed them and they gave me a free simulator test for a different cert I was interested in, which was nice. But at this point can I even trust their simulators?
Although the simulator made me less confident, I did get into a flow to complete 180 questions in 230 minutes. Or figure out what the question is even asking. But a big key factor in why I wish I didn't do their simulator is 95% of the simulator questions were not even on my test. Maybe that was an anomaly.
I did so bad on their test, with all 9 exams lasting 4 hrs long stuck in one place. You can't pause, and another 2-3 hrs to review each exam to figure out why 80 questions were wrong on each test. My anxiety went through the roof I was out of time, I was not improving. I did not want to be studying and retaking this test again.
The test was the next morning, and I turned to Reddit for some tips.
Here's what helped me:
- There was a drag and drop questions I wish I had studied this Reddit post harder.
Student Syndrome | Dropped Baton | Sandbagging | Parkinsons Law | Self-Protection - This link is the rabbit hole that helped me and has a few more tips. TheColdTrueNorth story
- I recommend a different simulator other than Master of Projects.
- Every single question on my test was, "What should the PM do next?" type of question. Which always has 2 viable good answers. I would strike 2 to help me not re-read a bad answer.
- No Formulas, not a lot of process questions like which docs should you update. No graphs, or "which input contains these items?", No ITTO questions, they seemed to be all scenario focused. "Schedule is behind what should we do?" Maybe other people will get ITTO types of questions, and I just got a batch of scenario's. Not sure how that works.
- If it mentions agile or predictive highlight it.
This guy is great for figuring out what answers they are looking for. I found him on youtube and listened to his tips on the way driving to Pearson Vue. (I had 1.5 hour drive)
Alvin the PM Exam Prep tips
Exam Tips:
- Never choose answers that escalate to upper management.
- Always try to train the team or get a discussion meeting put together and resolve the issue.
- Try to choose the servant leader answers, and choose the very first thing you would do next.
Memorizing the process and knowledge areas. For about 5 days straight I would wake up and draw this matrix 2 or 3 times throughout the day. It was actually fun. After Day 5 I didn't have to draw it anymore, as for every question I knew where I was. Since I didn't get the PMBOK guide, this helped. How to memorize 49 processes
Honestly just drawing it sloppy on a notepad everyday I would improve slowly, it gave me confidence. Hardest process group to memorize is Planning so I would start there. Her tips on memorizing planning were helpful the rest you can memorize on your own.
That's my take away. Good luck ya'll!