Last weekend I passed my PMP exam on my third try. I know that sounds bad, but I will share my lessons learned here so others can learn from them. I scheduled my first exam in the spring of last year while I was completing Command & General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth Kansas. Not only was I enrolled in a graduate level military officer school, I was also completing my master's thesis in electrical engineering at the same time. As a result, I did not allocate enough study time for my first PMP exam and did not pass. Even though I may have been close, close only counts in horse shoes! For study materials, I was using the PMBOK guide and a PMP exam prep kit titled "How to Pass your PMP exam on the First Try" by Andy Crowe. As far as study time goes, I only studied for a few weeks so needless to say I had underestimated the difficulty. That takes my to my second attempt. Since I am in the military, I had to move to my current duty station last year. Because of this, I wasn't able to schedule an exam retake until December of 2017. I used the same study materials, but as luck would have it, the hurricane season was disastrous last year. As a result of the hurricane situation in Porto Rico, my military job required my to work 12 hour shifts for 53 days straight. Needless to say, I wasn't able to study as well as I should have and ended up failing again. Realizing that I needed to take a different approach to preparation this time, I started reviewing online PMP exam forums to find some best practices from other students. I stumbled upon this post and I can honestly say it helped me to build an effective study plan:
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www.project-management-prepcast.com/kune...-pmp-lessons-learned
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I purchased access to the PM PrepCast site and also purchased the exam simulator. I studied pretty much every day for 3 months. I went through each tutorial of the PM PrepCast taking notes in OneNote as I went. I'm old school that way, I feel it is important to hear, write, and later read the information. It really sticks in your brain better. I know everyone one says not to memorize the ITTOs, but there are some that you just have to know period. Once you have reviewed the material enough, patterns will start to emerge. I also utilized a ITTO spreadsheet I found online. As far as the exam simulator goes, I did the small exams as I went through the tutorials, but I also took the full 200 question exam like a dozen times or so. I got to the point where I was comfortable sitting for 4 hours taking an exam. That was a level of comfort I did not have on my first 2 exam attempts. I'm happy to say I crushed the exam, scoring above target in 4 or 5 areas. All in all, it is critical that you establish a daily study plan for the length of time you plan to study and stick to it! Don't try to tackle too much at once like I did. Good luck!
