I am happy to report that I passed the PMP, my second attempt on February 23, 2012.
My company allowed me to take a distance-learning course PMP in March of 2010. The texts for this course were,"A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) — Fourth Edition" and "PMP Exam Prep: Rita's Course in a Book for Passing the PMP Exam /6th edition.. In addition, I purchased “Andy Crowe’s PMP Exam: How to Pass on Your First Try”. Immediately after completing the course in March, of 2010, I applied to take the PMP exam.
There were many personal emergencies, the death of my father, and serious illnesses, during this time in my life. However, I persevered because the PMP Certification was extremely important to me.
I finally took the exam for the first time in the summer of 2011, and failed!
Searching the internet and reading all of the blogs, I decided to purchase Cornelius Fichtner’s PM Prepcast. This was the best financial investment that I have made!!! I wish that I made this decision earlier. The episodes of the Prepcast were easy to follow and provided the explanations that were missing from Rita’s Course in a Book, and the PMBOK, Guide to Project Management Body of Knowledge. The Prepcast provided the ability to identify the most generally accepted practices within the PM discipline, and gave me the confidence to take the exam for the second time.
I listened to the Prepcast episodes and followed along in Rita’s, Course in a Book and the PMBOK. The episodes on Advanced Earned Value Management, and Network Diagram, were extremely well done, and provided explanations that were easy to follow. Because the webcast is an audio-visual course, I listened repeatedly to episodes that covered the material of concepts that were difficult for me to understand.
Here is a list of the materials that I used to pass the exam. The most beneficial materials were the PM Prepcast and “The PMP® Exam Formula Study Guide”.
1. I read both the PMBOK guide and Rita Mulcahy’s book at least twice, and skimmed through both of the books a third time, re-reading passages that I underlined.
2. I read “Andy Crowe’s PMP Exam: How to Pass on Your First Try”.
3. Utilized “The PMP® Exam Formula Study Guide”, and took the 105- question exam it contained.
4. I took notes on the PM Prepcast episodes.
5. I began to understand the PMBOK process so it was not necessary to memorize all of the ITTO’s.
6. I did memorize the ITTO’s for most of the Planning and Executing processes.
7. I memorized all of the formulas.
8. Listen carefully to the sample questions at the end of each of the PM Prepcast episode. These sample questions are terrific for gaining insight into PMI’s thought processes.
9. I read portions of the Head First PMP 2ed. and took some of the sample tests provided at the end of each chapter.
10. PMP Exam Cram: Project Management Professional, Fourth Edition by Michael Solomon This book contained many sample questions and a CD
11. I prepared a Brain Dump which consisted of all 42 processes, on page 43 of the PMBOK , the formulas, steps to problem resolution, diagram of Impact of Variable based on Project Time, (page 17 of the PMBOK)
12. I took two complete 200-question exams, and reviewed the correct answer for each question that was marked incorrect. I took probably 500 sample questions from various resources.
13. Answered all of the questions in Rita’s book
I hope this helps and encourages others to take the PMP Exam and achieve their certification.
