Thank you PM PrepCast and How To Pass The PMP on Your First Try (book). I started the PMP journey in April and completed 23 Aug 2014. It is imperative to get a study guide along with the PMBOK guide. After doing the PrepCast two or three times, I ordered the book How To Pass The PMP On Your First Try. That was a god-send as it was written in plain English and made infinitely more sense than the PMBOK. Then, after a few emails from Cornelius' team, I discovered the 10-Day Model. I had more than 10-days to get through it so I did it at least twice for every chapter and three times for other chapters. The 10-Day Model says to Read-Watch-Read. Since I had two books, I read the PMBOK-watched the prep-cast-read the How To Pass The PMP On Your First Try. This way I had a thorough knowledge of the PMBOK vocabulary and a thorough knowledge of what to expect on the exam. I watched and re-watched some of the videos that I just couldn't grasp - which helped tremendously. Other videos I skipped through on the third and fourth time through.
I took all 9 PM Simulator. I took a few free online tests. The SIMs were the BEST thing to get me through the real exam. I was flying through SIMs #8 and 9 at 2.5 hours, but the actual test took me 3.5 hours. The test is full of prepositional phrases and convoluted wording (no one really talks like that). But, since I knew I had plenty of time, I read very slowly and took my time. Some questions took me over 5 minutes, and some questions took less than 10 seconds due to the mass amount of studying I did.
Passing the PMP is a great and difficult journey. I'm thrilled to be part of this exclusive club.
