TOPIC: WHAT I DID RIGHT.....WHAT I DID WRONG

Hello Everybody,
I would like to share my experience in particular to tell you what I think I did right or wrong.

I decided to enroll myself on May 2020 but I started in a very disorganized way:
• I selected the first available course from my company’s library (provided by Bizlibrary) just to tick the 35hrs requirement and it was very much ITTO oriented
• I tried to learn as much as possible by heart from the PMBOK
• I didn’t take questions till I finished to read the PMBOK and I didn’t use simulators at all
• I never read Forums and found out other people’s experience
So, after 3 months of erratic study, I gave up. I would NOT do again anything i did last year to get ready.

I started again with the right mindset 2 months ago using:
• Andy Crowe Book 6th edition (read 2 times)
• PMBOK 6th Edition (read 2 times)
• Vargas’ You Tube ()
• Udemy joseph phillips 9,5hr including 135 questions
• EduHubSpot free videos
• Agile Guide (3 times)
• But above all I used the Prepcast Simulator, took 1200 questions in total including the 4 exam simulations (71% - 79% - 77% - 82%)

I found Joseph Phillips’ Agile session extremely clear, it has to be watched before reading the Agile Guide.
Same way the PMBOK, in my opinion should be read after reading (at least chapter by chapter) a book like Andy C or Rita M.

I passed the exam this week (AT/AT/AT) and I am pretty sure I wouldn’t have done that without the Simulator, I can’t believe I lost so much time last year trying to memorize ITTO’s.
The last 2 months I spent at least 6 hours a day studying during the week and 10 during weekends, I would never thank enough my partner for her understanding and support

EXAM days (online)
My desk was sparkling, I made sure there was nothing they could ask to remove or complain about it.
I wore very comfortable clothes and I big transparent bottle of water. I learnt not to mumble while practicing on the simulator.
The proctor was really nice, when he understood I am Italian he asked about football. In a few minutes we were done and I actually started earlier than planned
Questions were vague (as everybody says), I ended the first 60 questions in 85 minutes but I recovered on the second 60. I had a chance to review a few questions only at the very end. I strongly believe anyway that it is better to spend a few more secs to carefully read the question from the very beginning
There were many questions about what would you do as PM but also as vendor or PJ Coordinator, a few questions about EVA (I used the calculator one but mainly because I wanted to cross-check my understanding), a lot of questions about Hybrid scenarios, 6/7 questions about combining columns’ element, ¾ question about understanding graphs.
Be very careful you understand what they are asking and if it is about the “next”, the “least” or the “best” action.
Most of the times there were at least 2 questions which sound just right, follow the Prepcast simulator mindset or….ultimately….your gut
The Proctor changed during my exam and all of the sudden the chat popped up, he asked me to remove my bracelet despite the previous guys already checked it. It made me nervous……well…more nervous.
Some questions were very basic, it helped to calm down and gain confidence but at the end I was not sure about the final outcome.
I can’t express what I felt when I saw the “congratulations” message, it is an unbelievable joy.

You will never be 100% ready for the PMP exam but the more questions you should take the better, and of course spend a lot of time to review them ALL, not only the wrong ones. Read why the other ones were wrong.
Follow Vargas’ suggestion, print the processes and play with it on a whiteboard. Or Joseph’s suggestion, to write the process name from one side and the relevant definition from the other side (test yourself).

It is very important to mentally repeat the connections among processes and knowledge areas

All in all it was a very rewarding experience, nobody asked me to do it, actually my execs said there was no need, I did it for myself, and I am happy about it.

Thanks to the Prepcast Team and to all of you for sharing your tips.

Good luck with your studies.

Dan

Hello Dan
Congratulations! It sounds like you were well prepared for the virtual proctor experience

Now you can enjoy the feeling of being certified, and thanks for coming back and letting us know how you got on.

Congratulations and thanks for the advice!

Congratulations!

Congratulation!