TOPIC: Passed PMP with 4/5 proficients! Simple Study Plan

Woohoo!

I will try to keep this description short and sweet since my study plan was also pretty straightforward.

What I did:
1. Mid Feb through Mid March: I listened and watched the entire PM PrepCast. This was an awesome tool!
I had to rewind a few times on the tougher concepts.

2. Mid March through Mid April: I read the PMBOK Guide 4th Edition chapter 1 through chapter 12. I read this only ONCE. However, I took my time reading it. Some chapters would take me 4-5 hours to read. This is because I made sure I understood all the concepts and how the processes related to each other, and also because I would fall asleep after about an hour of reading so I had to take some coffee breaks

3. After reading the PMBOK guide, I took two full tests from the PM Exam Simulator. Scored 82.5% and 81%. Yeah, my score went down a little the second time . I then read the explanations for all the questions I answered incorrectly. If it still didn't make sense to me or raised additional questions to mind, I would read the referenced paragraph in the PMBOK Guide again. This is where I reinforced everything I had already read.

4. I took the Exam on April 25th, 2013 and passed with 4/5 proficients!


Notes and Tips:
I did NOT use any other exam prep book materials. I'm sure they are good resources though.

I took Cornelius's word for it that if you can score 80% on the practice exams, then you are ready for the real exam.

I found the real exam to be about the same difficulty or possibly a little easier than the PM Exam Simulator exams.

On my brain dump sheet, I just drew the Process Group/Knowledge Area table shown in the PMBOK Guide. I recommend this because it gives you a visual reminder of where in the entire process system your question resides in.

On the actual PMP exam, there was only 1 question that asked about a concept I did not read or hear about in the PMBOK Guide or Prepcast. 25% chance I got it right!

I suggest you get a good night's rest the night before the exam. No matter how much you may want to cram the day before, it is best to accept that you will never fully memorize EVERYTHING written in the PMBOK Guide. The biggest indicator for me that I was ready was when I scored above 80% on the PM Exam Simulators.

Read the PMBOK Guide carefully. The book is filled with all kinds of lists such as techniques to perform an activity or the contents in a certain type of document. I suggest you don't gloss over these, but I also don't believe you need to memorize them. Understanding what they are and why that particular item is listed there is what is important. That way, if you are asked a question on that particular item, you will be able to think and remember why it makes sense for that item to belong in that list.

When you read about a certain input in the PMBOK Guide, try to remember what previous process it came from as an output and try to figure out why this makes sense.

Take the full 200 question practice exams straight through. This will help you learn how to pace yourself on the real exam.

Thank you Cornelius, PM PrepCast, and PM Simulator teams! You developed a high quality (and grade ) product at an affordable price to prepare aspiring PMPs for the exam. I would recommend these to anyone.