Hello everyone,
I passed my PMP exam on 12/15/2020 with 5 AT in all domains on the 2nd attempt and I wish to share my lesson learned.
I bought the PMP Prepcast Learning management around September 2020, I made sure I had the simulator, videos, and formula sheet package. I also bought the PMBOK 6th edition. I am changing careers and new to the field.
I did the first 114 question assessment and I made 49.1%. That really showed me where I was with this new material so I decided to start listening to the videos which can be overwhelming if you don't have a plan.
Ok so I planned to move to 4hrs/day study session 3 days a week and I started by watching videos for the first two hours and will then take an hour break and use the remaining 2 hours to practice timed quiz-50 questions from the exam simulator. I progressed to taking the full 200 questions on the simulator till I got to Exam seven. I was constantly averaging 75 and 74 in the full exam
I will review all the questions both the ones I missed and the ones I got correctly, by a review I mean I will read every explanation as to why this is the best answer and read why the other answers were wrong. Occasionally I will watch PMPwithRay on youtube to practice more questions outside of the stimulator.
I studied on this plan till November 19th when I took the first attempt. I felt I was ready and on the exam day I can boldly tell you OVER CONFIDENCE was what made me fail. I rushed through the exam questions and answers and once I see a good answer I did not go to the remaining choices to check why they are not the best answer, at the end of the exam I had 50 minutes left, and instead of going back to review I hit the submit button and alas it was "sorry you failed". I never thought I could fail and was so depressed and when my exam analysis came in I had 3T, (Initiation, Executing, and closing), 1 BT (Monitoring and controlling), and 1 NI (Planning). I knew my fault and I took a week break from studying and after that, I scheduled my exam a week out 12/15/2020. This time around I was relaxed and not in haste when I see a probable answer, I took my time to read and understand why each answer choice should be struck out. long story short after 200 questions I had only 5 minutes left and I use that to review to the last seconds and when I hit the submit button I PASSED. It was a great relief for me and when my exam analysis came the next day it was 5-AT all domains.
My advice is to take your time to review all the choices on the exam and reject the options after you have a reason to strike it out and focus your attention on the remaining choices.
Good luck everyone!!
Richard Idowu
