I would like to first thank Cornelius Fichtner for the PM PrepCast and PM exam simulator. It is the most economical way of preparing for the PMP exam with no sacrifice on the quality.
You will hear in many places that it will take three months of serious study to prepare for PMP exam and I would agree with it. Though it was my goal for to follow that but was not successful. I got the prepcast 5 months before the exam but was only hearing the classes in the back ground. I only got serious after booking the exam date. I had exactly six weeks to prepare from them.
I spent 3-4 hours daily (8pm to 12am) daily on the weekdays and 8-10 hours on the weekends (Sat-Sun). so finally in the end
- Finished the PM prepcast (all the videos) Took lot of notes.
- Read Rita’s PMP book once. Took lots of notes
- Read the PMBOK guide once. (Was easy as I had done the above two already)
- ITTO: Only memorized the processes, Inputs and Outputs.
Last week I took one exam daily from the PM Exam simulator. Least score was 68% and highest I got was 76%.
I was worried as it was recommended that I get 80%-85% to be considered ready for the exam, I read somewhere that if I get 50% correct in Oliver Lehman 75 set questions then I may be doing pretty good. I got 49% so that sure gave me a boost of confidence.
Wrote the exam had marked about 60 questions. I had only 15 mins left to review them in the end. Could only review about 35 of them and time ran out…I was relieved when I saw Pass on the screen. As my preparation was not the best my result was Moderately Proficient in all the 5 process groups. I sure wished I had two more weeks to prepare so that I would have been more confident.
Few tips on the day of exam
- Visit the place before hand and go to that place on the same time you will do on the day of the exam to gauge for traffic conditions
- Though the place may have parking, always know alternate parking places nearby. My centers’ parking was full and I had to scramble around looking for parking nearby. I finally found paid parking in a nearby Hotel.
- Bottle of Water
Hope this helps, All the Best for your PMP
