TOPIC: Passed PMP Exam on first of advent Online

Hi all,

I yesterday passed my exam. I am really relieved to see this finally be done. I started with my preperations January this year.

I procured the PMBOK Guide Sixth Edition and the PMP Exam Prep Ninth Edition (Rita Mulchy), had additionally the Prep Cast and the Exam Prep and trainer sessions with Gonder Consulting.

As I prepared myself in parallel to my regular work I had difficulties to follow along the trainer sessions. For me the change with having this version of the PMBOK Guide until the end of the year was good, as I took two vacations later this year to learn for the exam without having time conflicts with my work. However having regular content from the trainer sessions, the possibility to ask questions with the trainer and other people from that session really helped me with my application for the exam (having someone review my application).

Regarding the learning phases I now know that the first time I read and worked through the PMBOK Guide I did not have the same understanding of the first chapters and how exactly inputs, tools & processes and outputs work until I took the Exam Prep. I would therefor recommend to read and follow the Prep Cast until the first knowledge areas (scope-quality) and then do one exam. To me having done my first exam (while I only had 65% and was not yet done with all topics from the PMBOK Guide) really gave me focus on how to continue to prepare. So do your first demo exam and then continue learning until you covered everything and then continue with your next exam in the exam prep. Then after this exam check what you did wrong, the exam prep can filter your wrong answers and gives you very good explanations and even cites the PMBOK Guide with the exact page reference. You will need more or less the same time for correcting and understand what you did wrong as you need for answering a question (~1 minute for me). When you did this don't bother re-taking an already taken exam. I just did a check for me with the Exam Prep Timed Learning with only previously answered wrong answers and I got immediately 100 %. I knew that I have to prepare myself for an previously unseen exam of which I did 4 in the exam prep.

I also had some brief looks into the Rita. I can recommend this if you are a complete offline, reading bases person. It also also gives you spaces to answer questions, however I did not see this as effective as what you could do with the Prep Cast. I downloaded all lessons as audio files to my phone and heard the sessions of the prep cast while walking through the neighborhood. This was really pleasant and helps when after hours of clicking multiple choice questions or reading in a bible-size-book. Also be aware that you will probably not be aware of doing more than one exam a day.

For the exam itself I can say I enjoyed the exam online. I took it from my couch as I did with previous other proctored exams too. Major difference of cause are the 4 hours of the exam. I trained myself before having a Exam Prep Exam at the same time a day before and noted that I would need a break too early with my current drinking / eating habits. I also noted that as my exam was from 14:00 - 18:00 CET that the sun goes down during the exam and that I would need to have the lights on already at 14:00 to later not be without light in my room. So as Cornelius recommends you to maybe visit the Exam Site a day before I can definitely recommend you to simulate the Exam from home too before.
What helped me in the exam itself was the possibility to mark words and questions in a colour. I noted that by this I could mark the information at which time related to the project (process, process group) the question is situated and if the question asks you "next" or "best" You will also see those key words in the exam prep, but having them marked in a color helped me when I checked the answers below and check quickly in the question.

To close my lessons learnt thanks again for the prep cast and the exam prep and I really enjoyed following Cornelius along with his sessions not only explaining me how to pass the exam but with style

Max

Congratulations, Max! Thanks for coming back and telling us about your experience.