TOPIC: PMP certification at first try

Hello Everyone,

I am happy to inform that I become a PMP last October
I don’t remember how proficient exactly I was, but I did ok!

About my experience:
I put about 2 months of hard studying for the PMP exams. With 8 or more hours a day dedicated exclusively for the PMP exam.
I started to read the PMBOK 5th edition. It was very boring. But a necessary step to understand the magnitude of what I had to learn. After that I watch every chapter of the PrepCast. With each chapter watched I read the same chapter on the Rita Mulcahy Book. And I also did parallel chapter tests after each chapter.

After 1 month and 1 week of studying, I did my first exam. I had about 73%, I wasn’t happy, because I needed about 85% to be sure I was going to pass the exam at the first try. I examined my results and I noticed that my problems were related to the processes and ITTO´s.

So I decided to memorize a cheat sheet with all the formulas and a process scheme. The formulas were a necessary evil, it was simple that way. The process scheme, was necessary to memorize and truly understand how each process related to each other and what ITTO could be associated.

I had a simple A4 sheet with all the processes organized by groups and areas. And I had a giant sheet made with glued A4 sheets with a draw of all the processes organized by groups and areas and with all the ITTO’s. This helped me to see the “Big Picture”, to find a pattern of ITTO’s and to find my answers easily. I had this giant sheet always in my office wall. And I still due, nowadays.
After the memorization process, I decided to do my second exam. 81%. Not bad. From that moment I decided to do two things. The first was to book the PMP exam as I felt that I was going to be prepared to do it. I book the test so that could have about two week to do practice tests. That was enough. The second thing was to do more tests from the Exam Simulator and others tests that I could find online. I did about one test for 4 hours a day while still reading from various sources to learn more.

I used PMzilla has a source of good PMP information and I did other online tests like on Oliver Lehman.

The exam day:
I took two days off studying and I just rested and relaxed. This is very important. Don’t to the exam if you are tired or stressed.
There is only one Prometric center in Lisbon and it is on a University. So it is easily accessed. I arrived there 30 minutes early and I relaxed a bit. Got through their process registration, put everything on a locker etc… and I started the Exam. The computers there and the software used for the Exam are very bad. Be very careful, I don’t know why but sometimes I had to click two times in an answer for it to be marked. I only noticed this in the end. So when I was reviewing my answer I noticed that I had unanswered questions. Because of that I totally stressed out. In the end I passed, so no worries 

The challenging part of the PMP exam is that it lasts for 4 hours. You really need to concentrate and have a lot of patience. The exam is not a sprint is a marathon. Practice and you will succeed.

Best Regards,
Alexandre Gonçalves, PMP

Congratulations!