TOPIC: PASSED PMP - FIRST ATTEMPT

Hello Everyone!

I'm extremely happy to say that I've passed my PMP exam last week on the first attempt thanks to PrepCast! Here's my process:

Study and Timeline:
The entire process took me 9 months from the time I started my studies in January through my exam on September 25th. As a full time PM with young kids, I focused on studying in the evenings (2-3 hours a day) and weekends.
My study materials included the PMBOK 6th edition, PrepCast and YouTube (looking up areas that were hard to grasp, or for help on ITTOS). PMP with Ray helped quiz me on my ITTOS and Ricardo Vargas' video for making sense of the 49 process groups helped ()


Some tips and advice:
First - the PMBOK and PMP exam is based on an "idealistic" project management process. There will be processes that you don't practice in real life (but should) so it is important to know that and study the PMBOK along with the PrepCast videos as it teaches the ideal way in order to correctly answer questions on the exam.

Second - use the PrepCast Exam Simulator! This really helped me to learn how to answer the exam questions and cater my learning to areas where I felt challenged. Be sure to spend time reviewing your questions (both correct and incorrect so you know which questions you really understand versus which was a good guess/incorrect).

Third - if you're having trouble with the ITTOS - map them out! I took advice from the forum and typed out all of them according to knowledge areas and incorporated that document into my study plan. I would read them out loud and provide explanations for each input, tools/techniques and outputs to help me understand the concept.

Online Exam:
Like many, I chose to take my exam online because testing centers were not open. The first half of the exam was really challenging for me as I felt the questions were really vague. I had at least 3 calculation (ETC, EAC) questions where were phrased weird so I wasn't sure what I was supposed to calculate (this contributed to a Below Target score for Executing results). I thought I was going to fail the exam if the questions continued like this, but was very happy to see the questions in the second half "normalize" to what I was used to seeing in the simulation exams. During the exam I was asked to NOT whisper (read the questions a loud) by the proctor so be aware of that!

After the 89th question, I was prompted for my scheduled 10 min break (which does not count against your allotted test taking time). I took a restroom break and came back and resumed my test. Also - be sure to pace yourself and set pre-determined check points so you have time to review at the end. Unlike the PrepCast exam timer (counts down by hours, the real one counts down from 240 minutes so to avoid doing calculations, I made sure to finish the first part of the exam by 150 minutes (give or take 5-10 minutes). This would allow me to still have sufficient time to answer the remaining 110 questions for the second half with review time. I would also advise to mark questions that you are unsure of and return to them at the end because it allowed me to have a "fresh" set of eyes and re-select the correct answers.

I finished with 25 minutes to review and was ecstatic to see the "Congratulations!" at the end written in small font. I was asked to take a survey and told that my results will be sent to my email. You won't receive any other confirmation until then (I know, a little nerve racking). I received my confirmation email the next day with the full report. I passed with 4 areas Above Target and 1 at Below Target.

Hope this helps and I wish you all the best of luck in your PMP exams!

Congratulation on your certificate approval.

I have been studying and I would like to ask you, if you don't mind. How were on average your score on the practice tests on the PrepCast?

Thank you

Thank you, Paul!

After completing all of the PrepCast lessons and reading through the PMBOK, I took my first simulation exam and scored a 76%. My second exam was 77% and last one was 80%. I took several 20 - 50 questions in between and tried to score around 80% consistently. At that point I felt comfortable with proceeding with the real exam. Good luck!

Thank you, Paul!

After completing all of the PrepCast lessons and reading through the PMBOK, I took my first simulation exam and scored a 76%. My second exam was 77% and last one was 80%. I took several 20 - 50 questions in between and tried to score around 80% consistently. At that point I felt comfortable with proceeding with the real exam. Good luck!

This is my sorry too but I didn't pass:-(
Did you pass?

Hi Martina,
I'm so sorry to hear that. Don't give up! Remember to review your simulation exam questions to find your "weak" areas. Yes I passed the PMP exam on the first attempt, but thought I was going to fail.

thank you:-)