TOPIC: Passed PMP Exam on September 15th 2015 with 5P

I passed the PMP Exam today on my 1st attempt .

Study Time:
2 Months

Primary Study Material:
Rita Mulcahy's PMP Prep Exam, 8th Edition
PMBOK, 5th Edition

Exam Simulators:
PM PrepCast PM Exam Simulator
Rita Mulcahy's PM FASTrack, Version 8

Exam Scores:
1st - 68% (Rita Mulcahy's PM FASTrack)
1st - 74% (PMP PrepCast PM Exam Simulator)
2nd - 77% (Rita Mulcahy's PM FASTrack)
2nd - 77% (PMP PrepCast PM Exam Simulator)
3rd - 76.5% (PMP PrepCast PM Exam Simulator)
3rd - 75% (Rita Mulcahy's PM FASTrack)
85.5% (PMP PrepCast PM Exam Simulator)

Exam Product Evaluations:
* Rita Mulcahy's PMP Prep Exam, 8th Edition got me in test taking mode and prepared me for the dry material in PMBOK. Her excercises and chapter exams were similar to the exam
* PM PrepCast Videos were never used and when I did listen to them, it wasn't for very long
* Rita Mulcahy's PM FASTtrack, Version 8, similar to the exam (maybe harder) but I was disappointed because after you take the 1st Mock exam, you will see a lot of the same questions again in future Mock exams
* PMP PrepCast PM Exam Simulator, was extremely helpful because it let's you know your gaps in PMBOK knowledge since it is so heavily tied to PMBOK and you rarely see the same questions over again
* PMBOK, 5th Edition, what can be said? You have to read this book and after some time, I started to prefer this book over Rita Mulcahy's book
* Overall, I felt like I needed all of the study material I used

Study Strategy Overview:
1st - Read Rita Mulcahy's PMP Prep Exam, 8th Edition 1 time (Did all Exercises and Chapter Exams)
2nd - Started doing Brain Dumps every single day to help with certain areas I needed to memorize (Acronyms for Process Groups, Rita's Planning Steps. Also, all equations and writing all 47 Processes)
3rd - Read PMBOK, 5th Edition 1 time
4th - Started taking Mock Exams
5th - Started doing a 2nd Brain Dumps on Alternate Days (Theories, Estimate Types/Percentages, 4 PMI Code of Conduct and Sigma/Percents/Number of Errors)
6th - Scheduled Exam for 10/01/2015
7th - After getting 75% on the last PM FASTrack Mock Exam, I decided to literally re-read PMBOK in 2 days and noticed that I had forgotten a lot of material
8th - Took final Mock Exam on 09/13/2015 and opted to push my real exam date up to 09/15/2015

Tips:
* Do not try to memorize ITTOs, it is a waste of time. I just literally took the exam and if you would have allowed me to have them during the exam, it would not have mattered
* Don't memorize your study material, learn it and understand what it is PMI is trying to accomplish
* Take as many Mock exams as you can so you can see questions presented in different ways
* Try to take Mock exams from multiple sources, so you see questions presented in different ways
* Many people have stated on varies forums that the exams is going to take longer than Mock exams and this is true. I had about 30 minutes let on Mock exams but only had about 14 minutes left on the real exam
* Read PMBOK as many times as you think necessary, it is a must to pass the exam
* Know the Tools, Techniques, when you would use them and what they look like
* Learn how to manage your time while tacking Mock and Real exam
* After you answer each question on the exam, move on to the next questions and forget about the previous one
* Do not overstudy. This is the main reason I pushed my date up because I had peaked and was starting to burn out, so I had to strike while the iron was hot

Exam Overview:
* Lots of Contract Type questions
* Lots of Network Diagrams
* Lots of EVM questions
* And of course, tons of situational questions
* I didn't use the 15 minute exam instruction period do a brain dump because I did brain dumps literally everyday, so there was no need
* I felt the test was difficult and from start to finish, it doesn't let up, you get situation after situation after situation for 4 hours, be ready for it

Similar to the Mock exams, I could never really guess how I was doing until I actually saw my scores and the real exam was no different. After I ended the real exam, I was all ready to see my score and a survey pops up. And after I took the survey, I was a nervous wreck and of course, I got the "Congratulations" message and Proficiency on all 5 Process Groups. Finally, re-reading PMBOK over again a few days before the test really put me over the top.

Good luck !

Congrats!

* Do not try to memorize ITTOs, it is a waste of time. I
* Don't memorize your study material, learn it and understand what it is PMI is trying to accomplish

Both of these go hand in hand and truly the key to success! If you get the concepts down, the answers just make sense.

Great points!

Hello Michael,

first of all, thank u so much for ur wonderful tips and explaination on how u study for ur PMP exam.
I have only one question, how long it takes from u to read the Rita book and PMBOK ? and how long in general it takes from u to study and prepare this plan ?

Thank u so much in advance

Ramy

Reading PMBOK and Rita's is a relative question regarding time. It all depends on how much you can understand directly and retain what you have read in PMBOK. When you begin to do situational questions, only then you will know how much you have grasped of the concepts in PMBOK. At least, that is the way, I am approaching the exam.

Ramy wrote: Hello Michael,

first of all, thank u so much for ur wonderful tips and explaination on how u study for ur PMP exam.
I have only one question, how long it takes from u to read the Rita book and PMBOK ? and how long in general it takes from u to study and prepare this plan ?

Thank u so much in advance

Hi Ramy, sorry for the extremely late response. It really depends on a lot of factors. I literally started studying for the exam on July 14th and took the exam on September 15th but I had a few things going for me:
1) I am single
2) I have no kids

Those are huge advantages as far as preparing for a test like the PMP, especially #2. It all depends on how fast you can grasp the concepts. Just glancing over the journal I created to log all my study time, I think I probably averaged about 3 hours a day, which is a lot when you have a full time job and I have to travel occasionally. One of the main reasons I pushed my test date up was because I was going to have to go to San Francisco for a week and then come back and take the exam and I felt I needed to get it over with before I had to travel.

Rita took longer because I did all the exercises and end of chapter exams. Once I read Rita, I felt PMBOK was a lot easier to understand.

Just focus on finishing both books and plan on re-visiting both, especially PMBOK on several occasions as you take Mock Exams. The Mock Exams are going to show you where you gaps are and you will use those 2 books to close those gaps because it is like Rita jokingly says, "Find your knowledge gaps before they find you during the exam".

I actually wrote a more in-depth blog about preparing for the exam:
blog.greensharesthoughts.com/how-to-pass...-your-first-attempt/