I passed my PMP with 5 Ps! I can't do this without the help of PrepCast and Exam Simulator. Thank you, Cornelius!
Here is my journey and lessons learned:
I started to study last Sep but failed to keep it together and stopped in mid-Oct. I restarted my study in Feb and passed the exam on the 1st week of Apr - in 10 weeks.
Reason of failure for the 1st study:
- A too ambitious study plan.
- I planned my study far out with 2-4 hrs study/day. But after a few weeks, it seems that I was always behind and it was too much for me so I gave up.
Resolution:
- Plan only a week's study. 6 days a week. If you are behind a little bit, you can catch up on the break day. In my case, I actually study harder, so that I can have my break day really study FREE.
My study materials:
- PM Prepcast - listen to the main course twice. The additional info once. I used VLC media player with 1.5 speed play to save some time.
- PMBOK - read thoroughly after finishing the 1st round Prepcast once. scan once more.
- PMP Exam Prep by Rita Mulcahy - read once after I finished the PMBOK. Mainly use for its questions after every chapter.
- PM Exam Simulator - I started the 1st exam after I finished my thorough PMBOK reading. I finished all 9 exams before my real exam.
L/L:
- I hand wrote notes while watching the Prepcast for the terms or concept that I wasn't familiar in my own reorganized phrase. It helped me remember them better.
- PMBOK appendix A1 and Glossary are helpful. Don't skip them.
- PM Exam Simulator is so helpful. My first try on the simulator took much longer than I expected. But after practices, I got to finish my real exam in 3hrs (in a slower pace than I usually conducted with simulator) and reviewed the questions for the rest of my time.
- I adjusted my study focus accordingly to my simulator results to enhance the areas that I wasn't good enough.
- I feel Rita's book confused me a little. That's why I didn't search more FREE questions out there. I felt that if the information wasn't constructed in the right way, more info may only confuse you.
- Eletronic PMBOK is really convenient when you need to look up certain terms and review specific information
- I actually borrowed both the PMBOK and Exam Prep from the city library. Really no need to buy the books for yourself unless you need to use a highlighter when you study.
- Don't worry about the knowledge outside of the PBMOK too much. I only browsed some current project mgmt news once a week and that was enough for me.
My Exam:
- I actually had quite a few questions for the initiating process group. Much more than I expected.
- Real exam questions averagely seemed a little bit shorter than the simulator ones.
- I used the calculator on the computer quite frequently.
- Some of the questions just didn't seem right. I just treated them as the pretest questions and don't let them bother me.
- I was hungry by the end of the exam. In my test center, I can't access the locker during the breaks so I didn't get to eat my snack.
Well, that's it. Hope you found these information helpful and good luck to everyone studying hard! You can do it!
