Team Prepcast -
I cleared the test this week and I am glad that I was associated with pmprepcast for my preparation. The following were the ingredients -
1. PMBOK 5th edition book
2. RITA Exam Prep book
3. PMprepcast 9 tests and the set of free tests
4. Head first though i didnt read the book in full but certainly helped
5. Another REPs online material and set of questions
6. Another training sites questions set that i bought over 2000 questions.
6. Free tests from almost 6 sites on the web
Preparation method -
For over 2.5 months daily 2-3 hours of prep. At times i used to break this rule but i tried my best to keep up to this requirement for myself
First go thru all bootcamp material from another author.
Completed one full round of read of PMBOK guide
In Parellel completed one full around of RITAs book
Take a test pretty much everyday towarrds the last 25 days of the test
After a month into the training i read on twitter about the 120 set of questions from prepcast. I believe this is where my preparation or test taking went to a whole new level. More than anything i started to feel more confident and feel more ready for the actual test. Thank you for your high quality exam questions and explanations for incorrect answers. I took these all 8 tests first time and then in round 2 took until exam 5. In both rounds there was the % difference was 5-8% which boosted my confidence
I also got the formula guide, ITTO memory jogger and other material which were also very helpful
To me, I didnt memorize the ITTOs. I gave more emphasis on ITTOs related to Planning and Execution since that is where i read more questions would come from
Overall across test materials (free and bought) i answered close to 6000 questions. In all tests my avg score was around 80%. This is my success factor as i read somewhere that "take a ton of questions to get into a rhythm" and i took it very seriously
On the test day
I only spent about 2 mins for tutorial and immediately got to Question 1. That is where i spent few mins to write up all formulas and imp notes like a brain dump
Set a target for me saying should spent only 1 hour for each 50 questions. first set i couldnt do it then got onto some speed and then almost saved 10-15 mins by the time completed 150 questions. Took a 2 minute break and then complete all 200 questions in 3 hrs and 35 mins. I had marked about 12 questions which i reviewed in the last 20 mins and then completed the test with 5 mins left. Like anyone, was a little nervous and clicked the button - closed my eyes and opened. Thats it I made it. I am PMP now. I dont know precisely but I believe there are only around 600,000 pmps on a 7 billion population on this planet, Proud to join them and serve the community.
I am only hoping from my above notes there is some learning for my fellow would be PMPs. All the best for your studies and good luck for the test and Prepcast team - THANK YOU SO MUCH!
Pavan Tipparaju, PMP
