HI All,
I passed the PMP exam on Saturday Feb 24th. Few lessons learnt about the preparation and comments about the actual exam.
Exam results: All domains was above target. I was able to complete the example in 3 hours 40 minutes. I used the last 20 minutes to review the marked ones.
I would recommend PM Prepcast to all specially because it has more stress on the important points (which the PMBOK guide does not)
The preparation was little easier for me because I already did the APICS CSCP and Six Sigma certification (hence cost management and quality management was a breeze for me).
I started studying beginning of the year (Jan 2017). Two hours a day and 4 hours on weekends.
I gave all the 8 practice tests in last two weeks.
Experience about the preparation:
- I read the PMBOK two times and heard the PM Prepcast 2 times.
- I heard the PM Prepcast as a revision within the last 2 weeks
- Gave simulator tests while I was revising
- Make my own notes while I was revising
- Printed out the page 61 (table 3.1) and table 7.1 (EVM formulas) and practiced them
- When I did the second round of preparation with PM Prepcast, I paid more attention to the stress points
- I did not used any other books (other than PMBOK guide and PM Prepcast lessons)
Experience about the actual exam:
- It will take longer in actual exam than in simulation test exams. ( I did 8 simulator exams of 4 hours each using the PM Prepcast simulator). So be prepared. Generally, I use to complete my exams in 3 hours, but in real exam it took me almost 4 hours.
- I had 2 question repeated exactly same. So 4 questions, but actually 2. One out of them was exact same to the word. Other one had different words
- Few questions did not had the right answer (maybe they were survey questions). Example, one of them was about EVM - BAC= 60, AC= 25 and EV = 25. Question was for CPI. The answer for 1 was not there. Had option for 1.25 and 0.8.
- I felt that the PMP exam was easier than the PM Prepcast simulator
- The questions were short (not as lengthy as they are in PM Prepcast
- 4/5 Math questions, 4-5 a small paragraph questions. And rest all 1 line questions.
- Many questions had remarks like "What would the project Manager do next FIRST?"
- I thought the survey questions in middle were the ones which threw me off and scratch my head.
I would suggest to keep focus while preparing for the exam and fix the exam dates to motivate yourself (I know it is hard to do while working).
Samir
