PMI-ACP Exam Prep : A Course in a Book for Passing the PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) Exam (Updated Second Edition) Updated Second Edition

I passed my exam a week ago. The exam was tricky and the questions were different to what’s on the practice tests. However, I passed all sections with above target. I think the way Mike explained in the book to get into the agile mindset is really the key - so you can apply the concepts to figure out the answers.I purchased the on demand course and it came with the practice exams. I wasn’t able to retain information from the pdf version of the book so I purchased the paper copy as well. I read the book twice, then I took the practice exam. I got 68%. I re-read most of the book while reviewing the questions I got wrong and I took notes. I also re-did the chapter tests in the book and in the cloud subscription. The second time I got 83% on the practice exam. I followed Mike’s advice and stopped studying at that point and only reviewed my notes. I also scheduled my exam then for 2 days later.I got the on demand course because I needed the PDU’s to qualify for the exam. But, if you don’t need PDU’s then the book and the cloud subscription would be sufficient. The course only goes through the same thing in the book. But, if you get the cloud subscription only register when you’re ready to use it because the clock starts when you register. I made that mistake and had to ask them for an additional day to do the second practice exam. Good luck - it wasn’t easy but definitely worth it!

There is no reason to write why this book is great.. all RMC series are well written and provide great content for anyone who is willing to sit on a PMI exam

easily the best book for preparing for the PMI ACP Exam. its a bit of an uphill struggle to get through the first reading of all chapters. But going through this book more than once helps a lot. The amount of info crammed in these pages are unbelievably useful. the first aspect of preparing for the exam is internalizing the concepts shared here. but to be able to do it at first reading is tough. the more we read this book, the more we get out of it and by the end we are "thinking and talking" in agile way in all the work we do. Wasn't enjoyable or rather it was outright painful to finish reading it the first time and I gave up after three chapters. But then picked it up after few weeks and somehow it all started to click in place. This was just like how mike describes in chapter 1, an empirical process that is iterative (in reducing pain of reading the material) and incremental (in providing an in-depth understanding). And I just gave my PMI-ACP exam today and was able to pass with Above Target across all levels. Also should add I did purchase his ACP Workbook because the questions there are even more situational and it helps to hammer down and hits home the concepts this book describes. Don't think twice to get this book. THIS IS ESSENTIALLY THE BE ALL AND END ALL of PMI-ACP Exam Prep. The odds of passing this exam is always in your favor should you choose to make this book your new best friend. Good Luck with your prep!!

As the headline states, I'd like to use this review for both the book itself and the entire RMC study materials. I was able to pass the exam, Above Target in 4 areas, Target in 2, and Needs Improvement in 1, with only 3 weeks of studying (probably about 80-100 hours studying total).Background:- Education: Bachelors in Electrical Engineering, no other PM certifications- 28 year old Technical Project Manager, working at a Top 25 Forbes employer working in the App development division- 3.5 years experience in 3 QA roles, from entry level tester working up to leading internal QA efforts for the PMO office of app development- Most recent 1.5 years working as Project Manager for release management of our biggest digital product out of the PMO office- Our rather traditional company adheres to many hybrid traditional-agile practices; I've previously never had any formal Agile training, but was familiar with a lot of Agile, Scrum, and Kanban terminologyBook Review:As the author states, the book has more information than is needed to pass the PMI-ACP exam, but I found that kind of immersion not only critical to adopting a true Agile mindset ("being Agile vs doing Agile"), but also critical to actually learning the content in a way that will stick with me throughout my career. The exercises and examples provided were tangible, and I could very easily picture how I would utilize them in my current role - I likely will refer back to this book if I want a refresher on how to better do my job.As recommended by the author, I first went through the entire book without doing any of the chapter review questions (two weeks of very active learning, but no note taking). After the first pass through, I took all 7 chapter review questions in one sitting, and got about 80% of the questions right (some sections worse than others). I took notes of which areas I needed work on (mostly sections with specific practices or models that needed a bit of memorization on names, reason for use, process steps, e.g. Kano analysis, Wideband Delphi, etc. Then I did a second pass of the book; at this point, things were clicking a lot more solidly than my first pass, and any topic that I didnt quite 100% understand, I made sure to either completely learn before proceeding or take note for further review. This second pass took 3 days total.After this review, I took one of the FastTrack exams (extra $90 for 3 month subscription), and scored a 89% - so I was ready to take the exam. I know for sure that at this point I had adopted the Agile mindset, which is what you truly need to pass the exam.Criticisms of the Book and the rest of the RMC Materials:- The book tries to make it sound like you have a bunch of extras included, including a "Practice Quiz", but these are just the same questions from the Chapter review, in a goofy looking online UI. You will already have these chapter review questions memorized, so this additional "Quiz" does absolutely nothing. You will need to get extra practice exams to quiz yourself in an actual exam format (120 questions, 3 hours), so prepare to potentially dish out another $90 for these RMC "FastTrack" materials. The rest of the "extras" were a bunch of nothing.- Neither the book questions nor the FastTrack exam questions are in the same format as the actual exam. Mike's questions ask about the situational decisions of the Product Owner, Sponsor, Development Team, and Scrum Master. It becomes easy to answer "What should the Product Owner do?" when you have a very defined set of responsibilities for each position. However, the exam often asked these questions from different points of view (e.g. what should "Practitioner" or "Project Manager" do). It rattled me a bit to unexpectedly see the different format, which almost psyched me out (had to take a break and splash water on my face), but I was able to recover by re-focusing on the content of the questions, not wording. It would've been great to, at the very least, have a disclaimer that the format of the questions could be completely different on the exam, if not change the format of the test questions themselves. Having me feel unprepared and doubt my study materials mid-exam is the reason I'm giving this 4 stars, not 5.- I would give the rest of the RMC materials 2 to 3 stars out of 5. The practice exams were tough questions, great for studying with, but they referenced a bank of 500 questions and don't have any way to omit previously used questions in subsequent exams/quizzes. On my second practice exam, 28 of the 120 questions I had seen in the first exam, so getting a guaranteed ~25% questions right was not a good way to gauge my actual potential exam performance. They should really improve their online system to allow you to properly omit questions from the total bank. I also found the flash cards to be mostly useless; terms sometimes had incomplete definitions and were not reworded from the book, to give a different perspective or actually help memorization. After going through 2 chapters worth of the cards, I stopped using them. You're better off making your own flashcards.Conclusion:I would 100% recommend this book, just be weary of the "extra" resources included with the book, and know that the goal of the material is to give you the Agile mindset so that the format of the questions on the exam has no affect on your ability to answer them. Be prepared to purchase the extra $90 practice exams from RMC if you feel its necessary. If you know to expect all of this - you'll pass the PMI-ACP with flying colors.As for the purchased FastTrack materials, I'll be returning the Flash Cards and asking for at least a partial refund on the exam questions. I felt that the practice exams were of less value after the first exam, and that overall all of the RMC website extras were very much oversold, which is my biggest qualm with them.At the end of the day, the ~ $250 I spent on everything is nothing compared to the value of passing the exam. So don't overthink the benefit of the materials, and do what you need to in order to pass. Good Luck and happy studying!