TOPIC: Passed PMP with 6 months of prep.

Phew... it is done now.
I am glad that I passed it and completed a huge milestone.

How did I do it?

• Feb 2017: Started with Head First PMP to understand the concept
• March 2017: Read each Rita's chapter and tried to hit 80% on all chapters and created flash card
• April 2017: Business Trip, I literally did not do any....
• May 2017: Started PMPrepCast video + chapter test + created flash card. I mostly got high 70s. Completed 35hrs of PDU with Prepcast.
• June 2017: Month of PMBOK. reviewed twice. First time, scan through each chapter. Second time, highlight stuffs that I need to memorize
• June 2017: Month of ITTO and Rita. Found excel file from online and filter ITTO that are used only once, twice, three, etc. Focused on ITTO that were used only ONCE and TWICE. Prepcast ITTO simulation score that I got was 74.5% - I though that is good enough. Review Rita chapters once again - focused on hightlighted areas.
• July 2017: Redo Prepcast simulation and received low 90s. Also, reviewed graphics on PMBOOK, and areas where I highlighted.
• July 25, 2017: Passed PMP with 1P and 4MP

Lessons Learned:

• Real PMP exam was not like Prepcast and Rita simulations. Prepcast simulation questions are very long but real exam questions were short. Also real exam only covered information on PMBOK unlike Prepcast that covered outside of PMBOK, such as WBC principle 1/2. On the other hands, Rita simulation was tricky and I felt real exam was tricky too. Rita also covered areas outside of PMBOK. If you ask, I would like to say stick with Prepcast and PMBOK.
• Take a time and read exam well and understand it well.
• Don't worry too much about EVM calculation. I got very simple ones - about CPI/SPI only. I think around 5 questions.
• Never worry about ITTO, in my opinion. but know where each ITTO belong to. excel file that I found from online was the best. Don't memorize ITTO but just understand where they belong to. There was only one or two questions and they were easy ones.
• Use stringthrough (right mouse click) and mark feature well. they will help you to eliminate choice and review them later.

So this was my journey of getting PMP. I am getting an electric bicycle for me to congratulate myself for six months of effort. Remembrer? Reward is the one of good motivational technique?

Joon.

Dear Joon Ho Lee,

Congratulations on passing your exam!

Thank you for sharing your success and lessons learned. We appreciate your valuable inputs regarding our products.

Good luck in all your future endeavors.

Joon - Can you share the excel file that you used for ITTO?

Hi Joon ,

Congratulations!

I have a question: you wrote that the real exam is not like the PM Prepcast PMP Exam Simulator. Can you please tell something about the real one (without violating the PMI code of ethics of course). For example, I see that many people say that most of the questions are situational and that the questions ask what should you do first/next/etc? Do the questions really ask "What should YOU do?" or are they worded in 3rd person, like "What should the PROJECT MANAGER do?" Also, I see that many questions in the PM Prepcast simulator have main characters with names, like "Mary is a project manager of the construction project. Blah-blah-blah. ... What should SHE do next?" I'm just trying to see how to better prepare myself mentally to the questions. Shall I impersonalize myself with the main character of the question and answer the question as if I was the project manager? Or, shall I treat the questions as a sort of an "outsider" who watches the situation from above, like a PMI, and then recommends the best course of action based on the PMBOK?

Thanks in advance and enjoy your new electric bicycle!
Alex

Hello Joon,

Thanks for the feedback. Where can I download the ITTO excel sheet from?

Thanks,

Arash

Hi Seyedd,

You can find it from h t t p://pmzilla.com/i-created-itto-5th-ed-spreadsheet.
Please be aware that you have to work on this a bit more to be useful for you because there are dup ones.
For example, there are change 'request change' and 'request changes' as a different item, but they should be the same.

Thanks,

Most questions were like, he/she did this and that, what is the best answer type of questions.
Prepcast simulation is good for preparation. The only difference was real exam questions were short (two/three sentences max).

Copy/Paste URL does not work here.
Goggle 'ITTO Excel'. you can find it from PM Zilla site.