I am so excited and relieved I passed my exam yesterday. It feels like I ran few marathons. Definitely a challenge to the mental endurance.
I decided in October to take up PMP exam. Roughly 10 weeks of studying. This lessons learned forum helped me a lot and I want to give it back to the community.
I was full of doubts when I decided to take up the exam as I had only 10- 12 weeks before the exam changes., but I went for it.
I bought the PmBOK, Rita and prep cast class and simulator. I started listening to Cornelius videos. I tried to stay focused but 60 hrs of listening was a challenge. I focused on knowing the extent of content in PMP. As I was listening to the videos, I tried to read the PmBOK guide. Then I jumped to Rita, I read half the book. I realized I was not retaining any information though reading was easy and content was interesting and easy.
I took the first Prepcast exam in Nov. I got only 64%. I started looking into other youtube videos (Aileen, pmc lounge) to understand some of the areas. I continued to take the exam simulator and the explanation of the answers helped me a lot. On average I was only getting 65%, so I was really nervous and was going through exam anxiety. But I was feeling confident about the concept rather than memorizing. Knowing all the outputs and ITTOs definitely helps but dont need to memorize. I was even thinking of rescheduling because I was nervous and scared but I wanted to be done with this exam anxiety.
Exam day: Everything went smoothly. I took the exam online. I did the system check few times before to make sure everything was ok. I had to wait for 30 minutes for them to launch the exam. I waited patiently looking at my face lol. I got 10 minutes break after 89 Qs. Qs were not too long. 2-3 sentences. From what I remember it was all situational. The key is time management and focusing on every Q. Exam simulator really prepares you mentally for this 4 hrs, being focused and not rushing through all the answers.
Dont doubt yourself, if you have put in the effort and understand the concept, you can clear this exam!! Wishing you good luck!!
