Hi all,
First, I would like to thank the PrepCast for creating the podcast. It is the cheapest yet most beneficial thing a PM can have to help them on the way to a professional certification.
To me the podcast is my Course, Cornelius is my lecturer, the PMBOK guide is my textbook and Rita M's book is my revision book. I normally will read a Chapter in the PMBOK Guide, and only after I finish the whole chapter, I will watch the video podcasts of the related chapter which I find that it was able to help me understand better.
Only after I finish the PMBOK and the PodCasts, I will read Rita M's book. I never sign up for any physical courses, went through the PMBOK Guide once, Rita M's book once and listen to the PodCast twice. While I was studying, I made my own notes, so I just went over them 2 days before the exam.
My journey to become a PMP began 3 months ago and I spend the last 2 weeks doing full 200 hundred questions Mock Exam which I purchased from Techfaq, there were 6 Mock Exam and Exam on Knowledge Area as well as Process Group but some questions were repeating. I did Rita FastTrack SuperPMP Mock Exam, PMStudy Sample 200 Ques, Passing all the Chapter test from PMChampion Member Page and Oliver Lehman 175 Question. I think I did more than 3000 questions to prepare for the PMP and I was scoring between 70 and 90.
Personally, I would say that even if you had the PMBOK guide in your hands, it's ain't easy. The PMP exam is not about how well you memorize the details in the PMBOK guide, or how well you memorize the ITTO. It is about how well you
know them to apply them in real scenario. The exam was not as tough as I thought it would be and for sure it's easier than Rita PM FASTrack exams. If you can get 70% above for the FastTrack then you are in good shape.
For me,
practicing on full 200 question mock exam helped me a lot. It help me familiarize how lengthy scenario based question look like and how to spot the question within the question. While I was preparing for the exam, I notice that I was scoring better on paper exam. I was because I like to underline the important details and
eliminate those noise in the questions. Luckily, for the real PMP exam, I can also
highlight the important details by holding the mouse and that works for me. Some question can really get you off track by having too many words.
There weren't many calculation in my PMP exam, I think less than 5 so was quite disappointed. 80% of the questions are scenario asking you how would a PM react in given situation. Here you need to understand what the current situation is, which knowledge area are they currently in and what process are they performing, etc...
Please refer to one of my replies in the forum for the ITTO notes because that help me a lot. For the exam, I know the 9 KA, 42 Processes and 5 Process Group by heart because I understand how they integrate. Ask yourself some questions and try to answer them...
Example :
1) Collect Requirement
- Where can I find the high level requirement?
- Who shall I meet to get them?
- How do I collect those requirments?
- What do I can obtain from doing these?
2) Define Activities
- Where can I find the work details and scope?
- How to I break it down further?
- What do I need to do?
- What can I obtain by doing this?
This help me understand the ITTO better and I didn't even need to memorize.
Furthermore the PMP exam was a bit similar to the method I use above. It WAS NOT asking question like "What are the Input to Collect Requirement?" or "What are the Output of Define Activities?", so memorization will not work.
If you want to practice more on free sample questions.
You can get it from :
1)
pmstudy.com/
2)
www.techfaq360.com/pmpmockexam.jsp
3)
www.pmhub.net/pmsuccess/Menu.htm
4)
www.pmtarget.com/Resources.aspx
(This is tough)
For me, practice makes perfect, do as many Mock Exam as you can. Try all Rita's Chapter test, PM FastTrack (it in the CD provided with the Rita M's Book).
I'm glad it's all over for me, whats a relieve... While I click the End Exam button, the system was taking so long to response and my heart nearly fell out. When the word Congratulation pop up, I nearly fainted. My ratings were between Moderate Proficient and Proficient, still curious on how it was calculated. Does anyone knows?
I think that's all for now, wish all of you good luck in your PMP exam...
Good Night...
Melinda Yeow ,PMP
