What a journey! I started studying about a month ago and now that it's over and I've gotten the highest possible performance ratings (5xAT), I'm wondering if I overestimated the exam. It is certainly a difficult exam and there is a lot of content to cover. But considering the exam today, I felt I was overprepared. I'll quickly review how I learned the content, followed by the practice routine and pre- and post-exam experience and why I felt it was easy in retrospect.
My Background and Prep Initiation: As someone hailing from the non-profit sector, I felt extremely underqualified at the PMI crash course offered by the local chapter here and could barely keep up with the sessions. Projects in the non-profit sector seldom worry about quality or even following processes; it's a weaker than weak matrix structure and compliance is done to tick boxes, haphazardly if needed. So I just skipped through the course to fulfill the 35 PDUs and learned absolutely nothing.
Preparation: This was followed by thoroughly reading Head First PMP which really clarified how processes and ITTOs worked; their questions and practice exams are far too easy but I feel they do give that much needed preliminary boost of confidence. I took notes, reviewed them thoroughly and it made a little sense. Vargas' video really helped bring it all together and I then skimmed through Andy Crowe's book to fill in knowledge gaps and get a more bite-sized understanding of the content. At this point, I felt quite ready and in retrospect, I really was. I just didn't have the confidence because I came across a lot of online posts of people claiming to have failed despite having studied so much.
Practice: That's when I decided to purchase PM PrepCast and things became so much clearer. I'd always felt that like all standardized tests, the PMP must measure your ability to take the PMP test rather than demonstrate knowledge. Every book, especially Rita's (which I tossed after page 17 because she seemed to keep insisting that I wasn't going to pass the exam), suggests that it's about PMBOK knowledge and related PM best practices. After Prepcast and practicing some of Aileen's questions, however, I learned how to interpret, decompose and answer questions. I summoned the courage to take the first practice exam and scored 85%, then 82.5% on the second. After that, I took the PMI Practice Test, scored 65% and my confidence went down again. Luckily, this forum had tons of people claiming how they'd scored less than 60% in it yet passed the next day with at least 2 ATs. So I decided to move my date ahead because I had reached a point of diminishing returns. In the last 2 days, I only read the PMBOK and suddenly, all the gaps, the finer details and seemingly irrelevant texts all started popping out of the pages.
Not knowing that I was already ready: The night before the exam, I dreamt that I was on a plane that was crashing and the pilot was asking me if we should record this in the issue log or submit a change request. Horrified, I said we need to get out. But then his co-pilot screamed "No, we need to inform the stakeholders". Yelling back in a higher pitch, I agreed with the co-pilot. So naturally, I woke up tired and anxious. I had decided to take the test at a test center which turned out to be a great decision. There was 1 other examinee also taking the test who was far too confident and that made me feel worse.
During the exam: The most frustrating aspects of the exam, as I'm sure those of you who've taken the PMI Practice Exam would know, is how similar some answers can be, how you have to read questions at least thrice to really understand what's being asked and, most notably, how questions jump from extremely difficult to annoyingly easy which makes you spend 2 minutes on questions that you could've answered in 10 seconds. Once the exam was complete, I felt horrible. I felt like every response I'd given was probably incorrect. I'd marked at least 70 questions for review and had only been able to go through 30 of them when my time ended. When I saw the word congratulations, I was convinced that I'd just marginally made it and was grateful for that. Relieved and content. But when the examiner came with my performance certificate, I couldn't believe it was 5AT. So here's my advice to people taking it this week:
1. If you've taken PrepCast exams, irrespective of how well you scored, you know how to interpret questions and answer. Use your fundamental knowledge of the content AND question deconstruction.
2. If you've taken PrepCast exams, you'll know that once you're going through questions, being successful becomes more about stamina, confidence and time management rather than your knowledge.
3. People say the PMBOK guide is too dry. But if you've studied preparatory books and taken simulation exams, PMBOK needs to be studied thoroughly. I'm not sure why they have this notion that the exam goes beyond the guide; it does, but if you have already acquired the tacit knowledge from studying, reviewing its explicit information can really fill in the gaps.
4. The exam is easy! I know this may not be a popular comment but if you've put in the work, have scored decently on PrepCast exams and studied the PMBOK guide thoroughly, you are NOT in the category of people who'll find it difficult. So I'll say it again, and apologies to those who didn't pass, but the exam is easy so don't overestimate it IF you've put in the work already.
All in all, I'll really miss this journey because not only did I actually learn a unique and structured way to look at projects but also gained confidence in my abilities ... professionally and personally. Good luck to everyone sitting for it. Know that you will pass because the exam IS easy!
