I took my exam Dec 30th and received notification I passed with above target in all domains. So what's the secret sauce to passing.... Is there an ingredient X - sadly there is no magic ingredient, no secret elixir, its mindset, mindset, mindset, 1000's of questions and study. Having been a PM for a long time, I spent 5 months prepping for the exam - the first 3 months were getting out of old habits (that secret sauce mentality of taking shortcuts in everyday working conditions). This was my process to get to the end result: I took a refresher course (great to re-engage with the foundational elements), I then utilized Rita Mulcahy's pmp prep book - again good for foundational aspect. The real change came about with utilizing the PM PrepCast (I was recommended this by my instructor (Ammar from Indemia)) - this is where things began to align. The questions are deep enough and broad enough to cover all the touch points within a PM's domain. With prep cast in hand, I started a study group, and over lunch times we would work our way through questions, explaining our answers, understanding how we got to formulate our answer and reading through the written answers from Prep Cast - all the time fortifying our foundational knowledge and understanding the key elements: Assess, Review, Act - be proactive, understand where you are in process, understand who has authority. As everyone knows the PMP exam can be ambiguous in its questioning - it takes focus. Overall, without the PMP prep Cast (I found their questions harder than the actual exam) I breezed through the exam. The following is a quick outline of MY path (we are all different): 1) Take a foundational course. (develop your own notes even if they have cover notes - it helps with the understanding) 2) read a PMP prep book 3) create a CHEAT sheet (very important) you are looking not to book learn and memorize but to understand concepts - make sure you get into that mindset 3) get PMP Prep Cast - my process for building up to the exam was - ten daily Q&A questions in a study group (focus on knowledge areas) - review answers - understand answer - for the first month. Take a full timed PMP exam and look at weak areas in process - revise weak areas, repeat focus tests. - Begin CHEAT SHEET creation. 4) last month increase Q&A's in a timed environment to 90/day - review answers and weaknesses - update Cheat sheet with 'tips' Take another PMP exam. 5) Take PMP exam.
