Hi,

Passing along my experience since reading on PMZilla about other people's exam prep and results helped me out.

Here's what I did: 

1. through my employer, I took a 4 month course through SkillSoft, which consisted of 6 Live Learning sessions (online) and about 30 CBTs


2. Exam scores for SkillSoft 200 question exam prep:  76, 85, 93


3. Read the PMBOK


4. Read Rita's book


5. Averaged around 80-85% on Rita's quizzes


6. Received a 69% on the PreparePM 200 question exam


7. Received a 78% on the PMStudy Exam 2 (200 questions)


8. Averaged around 80% for the Head Start tests

During the tutorial at the beginning of the actual exam, I wrote down all of the formulas (EVM, PERT, etc.) and the Process/Knowledge Area table.  Both of these were a big help and I recommend doing the same.  Leading up to the exam, I would write this information down every morning until I had it memorized.

Regarding actual exam difficulty, it seemed to be of similar difficulty to the PreparePM and PMStudy exams.  I finished my first pass in about 2 hours.  I then reviewed the questions I had marked for the next hour and finished up after a little more than 3 hours total.  When I clicked the End Exam button, I honestly had no idea if had passed or not.  Fortunately, I did fairly well:

• Initiation:  Moderately Proficient


• Planning:  Proficient


• Executing:  Proficient


• Monitoring & Controlling:  Porficient


• Closing:  Modertately Proficient


• Professional & Social Responsibility:  Proficient

Final recommendations: 

• Don't cram - spread the studying out


• Memorize the formulas and process chart and write down at beginning of test


• Get a good night's sleep the night before


• Eat a good breakfast that morning


• During the first pass, don't spend too much time on any single question - pick an answer and mark the question for review


• The more practice exams you take, the better you'll get an idea of how prepared you are and what areas you still need to focus on

A few last bits of info on the testing center (at least the one I used):

• They give you a locker and you must put all items in the locker - even your watch


• I even had to leave my eyeglass case outside the testing area


• They provided noise blocking headphones


• The calculator on the computer sucked - very slow to respond and you had to be careful about making sure each number typed actually showed on the display

I think that's about it.  I'm definitely relieved that it's over.  Best of luck to all that are in the midst of studying.

Ted