TOPIC: Passed 06 AUG 15 on 1st try!

I had a non traditional path to PMP success.
I will start after application acceptance in order to focus on the specifics of the journey.
After the application was accepted; I scheduled my exam date 3 months out to make sure I had enough time to plan. Prior to application acceptance; I took a course through Syracuse University to obtain the 35 credit hours but I knew this exposure was not enough for the exam but it did give me an introduction to the terminology. I started the true exam prep on June 01 2015. I created a plan in MS project that involved using the Prepcast followed by reading Ritas book, Headfirst pmp and then the corresponding chapter in PMBOK. I continued that routine everyday 7 days a week until I was complete with all resources
.I finished after July 4th weekend. At that time, I started Prepcast Simulator and at the same time I started reading Andy Crowes book just to confirm I understood the terms completely. There were some areas that I had trouble (ie Time Management) but it made sense. After passing the first 3 simulated exams; I rescheduled the real exam from 21 Aug to 6 Aug on 19 JUL because I did not want to pay the 70 dollar reschedule fee and if I felt ready I told myself I would reschedule. I took 5 full length exams from the simulator , Andy crowes full exam and Head First full exam for a total of 7. I scored 80 or above on 5 of them and in the 70 percentile for the other 2. The final week I continued to write my brain dump and review.

I was scheduled to take the exam at 530pm but when I went there at 8am they said I could come in anytime I wanted, so I went at 1200pm. I was fortunate because the room was packed and the admin decided to put me in a room alone it was the only room they had and it was probably rare for that to happen so I would say dont plan on it- it just worked out for me.

Finally, please don't forget to read the questions all the way. I spent 10-15 mins creating a complex network diagram to only find out at the end the question asked for the float of the critical path which is zero. That was time that I could have used to review at the end.

I only had 5 mins to review my questions and I marked several for review. In the end I had 3 Ps for I,E,MC - MP for P and BP for C. I was surprised because I thought I understood Closing very well. In the end I am happy its over and grateful to everyone that helped. I hope this help someone else.
Stay focused and resilient and it can happen for you.

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