A few months ago I passed my PMP exam scoring AT at all 3 domains so finally, I’m sitting down to summarize my lessons learned my preparation and exam day.
PREPARATION:
• Firstly I passed the needed course for 35 PDUs. Because I wanted the course to be in my local language I choose a Logical operation provider. The course took 5 full days and was provided online.
• Then I set a plan for studying with a fixed end exam date. The plan was hard to be followed because I was very busy at work so I needed to change it several times by increasing the weekly planned learning hours.
• I started my self-preparation by studying carefully the training book from the course.
• When I was ready I switched to PMBOK GUIDE 6th edition. After the training book, PMBOK seemed more familiar and was easy to be followed and understand.
• Then I read Agile practice guide – 2 times.
• Prepared the Project description form and applied for exam approval.
• I read the 2020 Scrum guide – 2 times.
• During all that time I was regularly reviewing Cornelius Fechтner lessons learned - they helped me a lot to understand more about the exam content, 2020 new changes but also to set a strategy for the big day.
• I passed all of the tests in the training book after each chapter but still they were not enough for preparation because there were not more than 500 questions in total so
• purchased Prepcast exam simulator. This tool helped me a lot for my final preparation and I regretted that I purchased it at the end of my preparation after I passed all materials because I released that it could have helped me a lot while I was still in the learning process with all its learning options.
One more time I was forced by some reasons to shrink the period of my final preparation, rescheduling the exam to а closeр day so I managed to pass only 3 full exams scoring as the following - 1st - 66%, 2nd- 71%, 3rd – 73%.
I was not able to review all answer explanations because of the time limitation I had so reviewed only the wrong ones and also those ones which I marked that I am not sure about.
EXAM DAY
I decided to take it at a test center not online because I didn’t want to put my exam at risk because of possible PC technical issues, internet ones, etc. Fortunately, by that time this was possible and the only pandemic restriction was wearing a Covid mask during the exam. At the test center, there were other people taking other exams and because their exams were shorter and set at different time slots there were a lot of distractions from them going in and out. This problem we discussed in advance with the test center and I followed their advice to wear a professional headset, provided by them. The headset was very good limiting the sound distractions to 0.
During the exam
I was feeling that I’m running out of time during the whole exam and there were some moments when I panicked and was not able to concentrate and understand question text so I needed to read them several times but that was just for some moments which I managed to get over with positive thoughts following the Cornelius Fechner’s advice about that. I missed some minutes after passing the first part of the questions because I was misled by the person in the exam center that it would stop automatically for a break until I realized that this was not the way it happened and I should stop it by myself.
The exam was hard. For most of the questions, 2 answer options could be quickly eliminated but there was some thinking in the rest 2. The hardest part for me turned out to be all people-related questions although during my preparation this was my most favorite one. That was because on those questions for the 2 possible options after eliminating the other 2 I was not sure at all which the right one is.
LESSONS LEARNED
• Set a plan for studying. Only in this way, you will know where you are and where you are going and most important what you need to update if the plan is not going on track.
• Do not underestimate the time needed for project description preparation. It took me really long time to prepare it and to be happy with its final version. I passed this from the first attempt but still, it was really time-consuming.
• Run at least 3 full exams at Prepcast exam simulator and as you see the score should be >70+
• Plan a strict timing for the exam itself - different sections, review time, etc.
• Take your exam breaks.
• If you are at a test center wear headset.
Good luck to everybody!
