Passed PMP exam on June 30th. Sorry for posting this late.
Here is my two cents on my preparation.
Books studied.
1. PMBOK Guide 5th Edition
2. Rita Mulcahy's PMP Exam Prep 8th Edition
For 35 contact Hours and Exam Simulator
- Used the PM PrepCast & PM Exam Simulator (90-Day Access) Bundle. by Cornelius Fichtner
Study Plan
- 12 weeks - tried to study 3-4 hours on weekdays, 5-7 hours weekends.
- Started with the PM Prepcast videos and read PMBOK book on the side.
- Read Rita and PMBOK guide two times and skimmed through the 3rd time a week before the exam. Marked everything I felt was difficult to remember and read only these points during the 3rd run along with the PMBOK glossary.
- Submitted PMP application online about 2 months into the preparation. Scheduled the exam a month out after the application was accepted.
- Used the linkedin group 'I want to be PMP' for lessons learned from others.
Practice exams
- Started taking practice tests 3 weeks before the exam.
- Took 6 full length simulation exams from PM PrepCast - Consistently scored between 80-85%
- Took one full length exam on PMstudy . I feel this was closest to the actual exam - scored 78%
- Mock tests by Oliver Lehmann - 75 and 175 questions (Free online)
- Did some practice questions from Examcentral
From my personal experience I would say that it was really helpful to prepare with a friend who was on the same timeline as me. Even though we were at different locations, it helped to keep the motivation going by touching base on the progress regularly.
As long as you put in the hours there won't be too many blind spots during the actual exam. All the best to everyone.
