TOPIC: Passed PMP on First Attempt- 5AT

I gained much information on this forum to help guide me on my test preparation that I wanted to reciprocate! I took my exam online on Dec. 8. I am a Senior Project Mgr in my current job with well over 10 years of formal PM experience to lend some context. Being a PMP is not necessary within my organization so I never made it a priority but with Covid, I decided to leverage my extra time at home. Below is quick recap of my preparation.

Study Plan
July 2020: I watched the PMP Training Course on LinkedIn Learning. I did not take the PM PrepCast course so I cannot compare the 2 courses. I found the LinkedIn learning course good but it did not help me connect the dots. I supplemented with the PMBOK but stopped around Chapter 4 in the PMBOK. The light bulb did not go on and I almost gave up.

August 2020: I submitted my application (which was no problem with the years of PM experience and using the 35 credit hours from the LinkedIn learning course). I watched the entire LinkedIn learning course again and did terrible at sample practice questions and didn't do much for awhile. The lightbulb still didn't turn on for me.

September 2020: I dabbled in some research but still was not committed to taking the test as I just didn't feel confident I could pass as I wasn't going to invest in a boot camp and needed to learn this on my own.

October 2020: After researching to find the best PM Prep book, I decided to purchase Andy Crowe's book over Rita's. I cannot compare the two books but my interest was renewed once I received the book and immediately after reading the first chapter, it started to connect the dots a bit more for me and raised my confidence. At this point, I had only ready through Chapter 4 of the PMBOK. I started to research whether or not I had to read the PMBOK to pass and came upon mixed reviews (more on that later). Upon my research, I came upon this resource that was a game/confidence changer for me. Ricardo Vargus is a genius. ricardo-vargas.com/pmbok6-processes-flow/ . The 50 minutes I spent watching this video was like I had just struck gold. It all made sense now! After watching that video I was committed to this and dedicated 1-2 hours per day reading Andy Crowe but not the PMBOK (yet).

November 2020: In the very early part of November I finished my first read through Andy Crowe's book and as soon as I finished, I read through it again this time taking notes. That took me about a week's time. After that, I took the PM Prepcast free test that consists of 125 questions and scored mid-60%. Nov. 11, I signed up for my exam to take on Dec. 8. It was go time. I purchased the PM Prepcast Exam Simulator and was scoring in the 70% marks initially. I found there were several questions on those tests that was related to terms/concepts I never saw. I decided to high-level read through the sections of the PMBOK in the order that Ricardo Vargus mentions in his videos but didn't painstakingly read through it. I printed out his flowcharts and made notes on it. I found the abbreviated version better to work with and I was able to reference in my mind the sections when taking the tests. I had added the outputs on that chart so I could remember them easily. I took a full exam shortly thereafter and got an 84%! For the remainder of November, I dedicated the vast majority of my time using the Exam Simulator and reviewing my questions. I would take 20 questions timed or learning quizzes mostly. I had already proven to myself that I could complete 200 questions so that wasn't my concern. Over the course of several weeks, I consistently scored in the 80s and occasionally would get mid-70s. I also found this on PMI's site, that was helpful. www.pmi.org/-/media/pmi/documents/public...nal-exam-outline.pdf Slightly outdated (June 2015) but helps.

December 2020: In the final days before my exam, I read through Andy Crowe's book again and read through the glossary of the PMBOK. I made notes on some of this areas that I felt fuzzy and used those the morning of my exam. When it was all said and done, I took over 1200 practice questions on the simulator and did other sites free ones and probably took more than 1600 questions over the course of my studies. That was the most valuable of all. It pointed out the areas I needed help on. The purchase of the exam simulator was worth every penny.

Exam: My online experience was seamless. Check-in went smooth; I only had to show her my flat screen tv on the wall was unplugged. I started my exam a few minutes early and was never bothered by the proctor. Very little stress. I have read conflicting reviews on here regarding the difficulty of the questions. In my test experience, the PMP test questions were much easier than the PM PrepCast. I had that nervous energy when I started my test and after the first 5 questions, it was gone because I KNEW I had adequately prepared and did not have to second guess myself. Taking so many tests trained me to understand how the questions are framed and how to look at the important parts of the questions. Unfortunately, I have no idea what questions I got wrong but they were definitely less complicated than the questions I trained on. It was like I trained for a marathon but only had to run a half.

I hope this helps anyone who is on the fence or just cannot get a good study plan going. Also, if you can....cram it in before Jan. 2!

Thanks for sharing your success and congratulations!