TOPIC: Passed PMP on first try!!

Hi All,

Just gave the exam and passed PMP with AT for all except one for BT (not sure what happened there).

I am so happy and really thankful to prepcast and the moderators here for helping and guiding me through this journey. I will post my experience this week. But yes, I can say..the exam is not easy..it will make you scratch your head. However, I can proudly say that PMBOK and prep cast helped me the most.

Thank you!!

Geeta

P.s. attached is pic of lunch I had after my exam...was super hungry and excited.

Congratulations Geeta!!

How is the difficulty level of the exam compared to Prepcast simulator?

Congrats and well-done! Your hard work paid off!

Congratulations Geeta!

Hi Omar,

I'd say exam was similar difficulty like prepcast.. infact few questions were easy but most of them will make you read question again as your will find atleast 2 answers right. But as everyone suggests.. you have to select the best.

One should get a solid understanding of PMBOK and do prep cast questions.. and i think that's enough. Prep cast questions are well designed to cover a lot of scenarios and helps you understand the topics well. The explanations to answers and reference in pmbok helped me a lot.

Hope this helps!

I will write my journey and lessons learned soon.. so you can get more tips from there.

Thanks!

Finally I am writing my PMP journey..

It all started back in 2019 when I registered for PMP in Mar 2019. Got approved within 5 days. But I couldn't give my exam sooner as my daughter arrived few weeks early . Days went by and I couldn't prepare as I planned earlier, so finally in Jan 2020 I decided to start my studies again and scheduled the exam for May 1. But, again due to unforeseen circumstances, I had to reschedule my exam in mid June and finally gave it in mid of COVID. Fortunately, the exam centres here were not closed as the COVID affect is not that much. So I was lucky to give the exam in centre as it wouldn't have been possible for me to give it online at home.

Study material: I started off with PMBOK but got bored very soon. Then I bought RMC and loved how easy to read it was. Everything was explained so well. I read it 2 times and was doing online free tests. I found, I have some gap which is not letting me think the PMP way...so I decided to give a call to my PMP mentor and he guided me to read PMBOK 1st part and also ANDY Crowe (if I found PMBOK too boring). I bought both and also the Q&A bank for the PMBOK. I read the PMBOK despite of it being boring and not too interesting like RMC. But only after 1 study I found that my concepts cleared way more than I expected, I decided to give another read and did the Q&A bank. And voila..I scored 80% overall. I just loved PMBOK since then. Tried Andy Crowe but didn't like it and just skipped it completely. So all the way till end, PMBOK was my guide and RMC a supplementary, which I read one more time (quick pass). I read PMBOK (1st part only) 3 times and did Q&A bank 2 times.

Simulator exams: Previously, I was just relying on RMC question bank, Q&A bank of PMBOK and online free exams and questions. But I realised I need proper full mock exams. Did some research and found prep cast. I am so glad I selected Prepcast. I did all 7 exams and scored in between 74%-82.5% in first try. Since I had a baby with me, I woke up at 3.30 a,m for my mock exams and managed to do all of them before kids woke up. I so much loved doing mock exam in morning, that I re-did 5 exams again to solidify my preparation and scored 90% and above. In addition to this, I kept doing timed and learning quizzes during the day, whenever I had some time. I completely agree with everyone that Prepcast is the best and it really helped me prepare for the exam.
When I finished my exams, I reviewed my answers on mobile as it wasn't possible for me to sit on laptop again during the day (coz of kids..of course). I was finding it difficult to make notes on notepad as I reviewed, so I started putting it in my notes app on phone. This really helped me, as now I can review my notes anywhere, anytime. I had majority of my notes on phone and it helped me prepare anytime.

I also did PMI exam, which I found very difficult..scored 76% in first time but redid it again as advised by everyone and scored 83%.

Other questions/exams I tried was Oliver Lehman, Simplilearn, PMI and few other free questions online.

Real exam: I was very nervous before the exam as I couldn't sleep all night because of my baby. Anyway, I woke up with confidence and took deep breath. Went to exam centre early to get familiar to the place and relax a bit before the exam. Once my exam started, I was marking almost every question, then I remembered one of the tips from a member that its better to spend more time reading questions at first then marking all of them, as I won't get time at the end. I managed to finish the 89 questions in 75 minutes, but somehow I thought that first break will appear at 120 min. so I started reviewing my questions, once it was 120 min, the clock kept going and I got nervous and took break immediately. SO THE BREAK IS NOT AT @ 120 MIN, ITS ONCE YOU COMPLETE 89 QUESTIONS.
I took a bathroom and water break. Relaxed and took a deep breath as I had only 120 min for 111 questions. I went back and started doing questions and had only 10 min left at end to review the questions. Once time finished, I went blank and closed my eyes, and within seconds the Congratulations message appeared. YAY!!! I shouted (in whisper of course ) I finished survey and went out to get the results. Found that I scored AT in all except once, but I was so relieved and happy that it didn't matter.

Prepcast questions VS Real exam questions: I found that the real exam questions were not too worded but rather most of them were 2-3 lines long. I had 2-3 EV questions, few long wordy questions, and 1-2 critical path question. I found most questions had very similar wordings like prepcast questions but a lot of them made me think again as atleast 2 answers were very close to being correct. Few questions had vague wordings but since I practiced Prep cast again and again, it helped me answer those questions. So I can say that Prep cast questions really help you prepare for the exam.

In addition to prepcast, I thank the moderators and other candidates who provided guidance and answered my questions. Also, thanks to everyone who post their experience and study tips as it really helps other candidates. THANK YOU EVERYONE!!

I hope you find this helpful and good luck to all those appearing for the exam.

Thanks,
Geeta

Congratulations Geeta!!

Your story is very inspiring and you should be proud of this achievement!!

I enjoyed reading your recap. Really like the use of a Mentor and certainly recommend folks to have one not only for the exam but as you continue your PM journey.

Best of luck in putting the training into your work and related life approaches.

Regards

Chan

Hi Geeta,

Congratulation on this great achievement! You really achieved an outstanding score!

Thanks for sharing your tips with our PMP aspirants.

Now, it's time to celebrate this remarkable certification.

Regards,