Several of you have inquired about the PMI exam and I agreed to send out a quick note recounting my experiences. I would like to thank both Michael Kahn and Helen Gregorio (who I have never met), whose advice filled notes I read as carefully as one would read a letter of endearment -- word by word, over and over again to understand every nuance! They were extremely helpful, encouraging and 100% correct. I would like to add a few observations:
Ÿ The good news: the questions are actually very straightforward and so are the answers, so if you know the material you will do well on the test. I found some of the practice exam questions to be grammatically awkward and overly hard. The PMI exam had simply stated questions and answers.
Ÿ The other good news: if you know the PMBoK, you will do very, very well. I was really stressed because some of the study materials referenced 5-10 text books, some of which were 1000 pages. I only studied the PMBoK, the IBM web page self study guides, and the materials from ESI supplied during the IBM PMI Exam Prep. class. So relax and focus on these materials and if you know these materials you will do fine.
Ÿ You don't have to memorize all the lists in the PMBoK, such as the all of the inputs, tools and techniques and outputs. I memorized the list on page 7 and think that it was unnecessary. There are a few items that the ESI materials will encourage you to know for *key* items/deliverables (e.g., WBS, Charter, Project Plan), but the exam I suffered through had no questions about obscure/trivial minutia regarding the myriad of tables. Once again, I had the feeling during the test that it was both valid and fair.
Ÿ It seemed as if about a third of the questions had very obvious answers (i.e., you would know these without studying at all), about a third were obvious if you studied the materials, and about a third were hard -- that is, 2 or 3 good answers, so you had to pick the most correct or the most "rah-rah" answer, which is not always easy.
Ÿ The first 25 questions seemed much easier, which may have been pure chance, but it may have been intentional (to build confidence).
Ÿ I arrived at Sylvan 30 minutes early and had to wait more than an hour, so bring something to do, or something to read.
Ÿ The exam time doesn't start until you click on the 'start' icon, so take a few deep breaths, compose yourself and scribble down a few formulas first.
Ÿ When complete, you will be provided the opportunity to review any question via a select box type list, so you don't need to 'mark' any/every question where you have some doubt. In review mode you can 'page through' every question, or press 'Esc' and return to the summary list.
Ÿ Since you can not bring anything into the exam area (other than a simple calculator) and this center served nothing other than water, you may wish to bring a thermos of joe or tea or juice and keep it in your locker, which you can access during your clock-still-ticking breaks.
Ÿ I recently received a copy of a Lotus Notes DB/App with self study questions which I did not find very helpful, so I didn't use it.
Ÿ Attend the PMI prep exam about 2-3 months before you will take the exam, since the main focus of the class is to help focus areas of interest, and not to instruct facts.
Ÿ I began 2-3 months ago by studying the PMBoK, the ESI binder (not the flash cards) and the IBM study guide notes. Then I took a mini exam (10-20 questions) from the ESI materials, graded it and *then* studied the PMBoK chapter. After recording my scores I focused on the areas I did poorly on. Then I repeated the process for all 40 questions: chapter exam, study the chapter, next exam, next chapter, etc. I repeated this using the IBM study guide questions. Finally, I repeated this entire process, again, section by section.
Ÿ To summarize, I believe the exam questions were straight forward, the time allotted more than enough, and the difficulty not nearly as hard as I feared. Know these 3 sources, and you will do fine.
  
Regards,
Brian

Brian Mell
IBM Global Services, Project Office Manager @ Chiron bmell@us.ibm.com
4560 Horton Street / L-511A / Emeryville, CA 94608
Phone: 510-923-3081 FAX 510-923-6486