Hello all,
I just passed the PMP with all three domains AT.
I had a self-imposed time limit of 30 days to study for and pass the exam as I was recently a victim of a reorg/downsizing initiative. While I did not achieve that goal, I did manage to pass the exam on my first attempt towards the end of the 5th week. I referenced the lessons learned on this forum for guidance on how best to apply my limited budget to train for and pass this exam as expeditiously as possible.
Like many others here, I followed the Rita's/PM Prepcast PMP Exam Simulator path for study while utilizing a Udemy course for the required PDUs due to cost limitations. My experience was similar to other's and my best practices mirror theirs - take as many quizzes as you can, try to get through all of the provided questions, take equal time to review the results of those quizzes (even where you answered the question correctly), reference the PMBOK sections/pages provided by the simulator, take the practice exams once you are consistently scoring high enough on the quizzes, and be aware of and practice to improve the time it takes for you to critically review the question and the answers provided.
I am relieved that I spent a good bit of effort working on the time it took me to answer practice questions as my experience with the Pearson VUE online exam proved that it was a sound study strategy. I started the exam following my predefined process of striking through the answers I knew to be incorrect, selecting what I thought was the best answer and only marking those questions where I felt that I needed to spend more time reviewing the answer options. The first 60-question segment went great - after going through and answering the questions, I ended up slightly ahead of my schedule and reviewed the questions I had marked. Starting the 2nd 60-question section, everything was going fine but with 30 questions left in the section and 112 minutes total on the clock, the exam froze and kicked me out to a screen that asked me to reconnect. I reconnected immediately, and was presented with a screen that indicated I was #22 in queue to be readmitted. I had assumed that the exam timer would stop, as I was disconnected from the exam. It turns out, it does not. After 20 minutes or so of waiting (staying in my seat, within view of the camera, following exam protocol), I was reconnected and looked at the clock realizing that I only had roughly 90 minutes to answer 90 questions.
My strategy had to change immediately - either I took the time now to open the chat and ask about my options while the clock ticked down, or I could continue with the 2nd round of 60 questions and ask about it during the 10 minute break. I chose to continue the section (though I inadvertently verbalized my discontent, leading to a warning from the proctor), deciding to avoid taking the time to strikethrough/mark questions and rely on my training. At the end of the section, I went into the break with under 60 minutes left for the last 60 questions. During the break, I opened the chat and asked about my options, assuming that I would fail the exam due to lost time. I did not receive a coherent response within the break time limit, so continued on with the last 60 questions fully expecting to have to request a redo of the exam at the end.
Although I was presented with a 'You passed!' screen at the end, I was untrusting of the whole experience so I called Pearson to confirm/ask what happened. The representative told me that there may have been a problem with the proctor and/or their network (they had shut down the website for an update on Sunday, March 14) but there was 'nothing to follow up on since I passed and they had already submitted the results to PMI.' She did not provide me an answer on whether the clock should continue to count down while disconnected from the exam.
For those folks out there reading this forum looking for some insight on how to pass your PMP, as I was a month or so ago, I have some advice. Trust your training - if you're prepared, you're prepared. Be willing to be flexible with your exam strategy and try not to get flustered if things go awry. Spend time working on your question comprehension and identifying the correct answer quickly - for me, I wanted to be able to read, comprehend and identify the correct answer in one minute. It appears that preparation is what got me through.
Best of luck!
