TOPIC: I passed the PMP exam on my 2nd attempt

Hi Future PMP Certified Project Managers

I am glad to announce that I DID IT. I did it after 17-week study. It was not easy but I was able to cleare the PMP exam on my 2nd attempt.
I am originaly from Poland, and I have been in the US and learing English for about 3 years. I am from tranlstion business and my expierience is from my country, only, not from the US. I thought, I could not even dream of the PMP Certification. I sent an email to the PMI and asked if my Polish translation business is enough to apply for the certification. Since the PMP credentials are internationally recognized, the answer was "Yes, Izabela, you can apply for the PMP Certification".
It took me about 7 days to prepare the application. I put 12 projects together as it is really difficult to have long term projects in the translation field. My application was accepted and it did not get audited.
After that, I started studying for the exam, 1st attempt, that was on December 14th. I studied for about 3 weeks by reading Rita's book and the PMBOK Guide. I did not take any mock exam, at that time. There were so many things, I only got exhausted and failed the first attempt.
After Christmas 2016, I statrted studying again, on January 21st, 2017. This time, I did not register for the exam in the beginnig of my study. Instead, I signed up for a preparation program by Markus Klein called: "let me be your PMP guide". I waited about 3 weeks until I got the first advice. Then I regurarly received one email with the information what I should study the given week. Step by step: read this, then this, then listen to this On February 16th, I set up my exam appointment at Prometrics. The exam was on April 10th, 2017.
Preparation for the 2nd attempt = 14 weeks
1. "Let me be your PMP guide" by Markus Klein with advices how to plan the path to the PMP success.
2. Every week, I studied just one section: Project Scope Mgmt - 1 week, Project Time Mgmt - 1 week etc.
3. Each section was planned exactly the same way: I read Head First, compared it to the PMBOK Guide and I listened to PrepCast lessons. While Listening to the PrepCast lessons, I took notes. I created 2 note books with important information. (I did not read Rita's book this time as I did it for the first attempt; though, I refer to it last week of my preparation just to check if I missed something).
4. I started taking mock exams immediately after I received the first email from Markus Klein. Every Saturday from 9:00am - 1:00pm, I spent in the library that has similar rooms to those ones at Prometric. I took full 7 PM-Exam Simulator tests created by Cornelius Fichtner (great source, about 50% of them exactly the same as on the real exam).
5. My scores on PM-Exam Simulator were: 74%, 75%, 76%, 82%, 80%, 80%, 77% (the last one, I took after a very bad day and could not concentrate at all)
6. I also took one PMaspire test: 82% (it is good as well, just keep in mind that this tests include a few errors as well as answers like "none of them above" or "A and C are correct", such answers do not apear on the real exam)
7. I took about 800 random questions, I used PMFastTrack by Rita Mulcahy for that (good quality, force you to think and apply the right resolution in a given situation, but these questions are very far from the real exam). My score on these rendom questions varied from 55% in the beginning - 95% at the end of my stady
The real exam, my 2nd attempt on April 10th, 2017
1. Prometric staff is very helpful, you only need your picture ID and self-confidence, that is it.
2. I got 4 empty pieces of paper and 2 pencils. I could write, once the tutorial finished and the first questions appeared.
3. I did not create any braindump sheet. I love formula questions, know all formulas by heart and was expecting 10 of them, at least. Unfortunately, I did not get that many.
4. Questions on my exam:
a) I only got 2 formula questions, very straightforward, one of them with BAC, EAC, EV and CPI, and I had to figure out AC where BAC and EAC were just distractors, the other one was a little bit more diffcult because I had to figure out BAC from the formula EAC=BAC/CPI, EAC and CPI were given. Other math questions (about 4 of them) did not need any calculation: over budget, behind schedule etc, where EV and other numbers were given, and I could figure out the missing one without calculation.
b) I got a bunch of risk questions, or I just thought there were about risk. I did not get EVM questions this time, but I remember I got this question on my first attempt. It was exactly the same as in the PMBOK guide. Anyway, one thing is sure: I got about 10 questions on risk responses. Take a look at PM Exam Simulator, the questions on it are similar to the real exam.
c) I got a bunch of questions on change management. These questions are actually straightforward, as well, but I rarely found "change request" or "request a change order". Instead of that, there were "proceed through the Integreated Change Control" or "perform the Integrated Change Control Process" etc.
d) I got a few quality questions, also very straightforward.
e) I got a few HR questions, some of them tricky, some of them difficult, and I had to guess.
f) There were also a few communication channel questions, very straightforward.
f) And I also had a few questions that I call "NO CLUE what they want from me"-questions. There were short questions but .... uffff ... really no clue.
g) It took me 3h50minutes to finish the exam. I was able to go back to all marked questions (about 10) and correct 3 of them because I had 3 questions where answers were hidden in other questions. To do it, I just put a note on paper: question #, a few words what was it about or what to look for in other questions.
h) Questions on the real exam are not wordy. The longest question I got had 3.5 lines. The longest answers I got had 2 lines. All questions were understandable but I had to read some of them three times. They were tricky!!! The question looks easy but just one word can change everything there
My advice
NOT OVERSTUDY. PrepCast + PMBOK are enough. Head First is an easy book and helps understand the processes. Rita is popular but ... to be honest, I do not like her style: "You will have a hard time on the exam", "Some students without experience will not be able to apply the right process", "Quality is a diffcult topic for those who never ..." and so on. I read her book once, and it was enough for me. I might also work with you.

If a Polish native who does not speak English perfectly, did it, you can do it, as well.

Best of Luck,
Izabela

Nicely done! Glad you stuck with it. Congratulations!

Congrats!!!! and thanks for all the info!!