TOPIC: Use these 4 tips, they will increase your chance to pass the exam.

Hi everyone,

Just walked out of the exam room with a happy grin )) I want to share what went well and what I didn't do so well in my journey, so you can walk into the exam room with greater confidence!

1) Know who you are
I have always been a C student. Last exam I did was 10 years ago. When I first started I met some of my peers who can study the PMBOK in 8-12 weeks and ace the exam. I know I am not one of those people so I gave myself extra time (7 months) to prepare.

2) Sequence Activities
You don't have to wait until your PMP application to be approved first then start studying! Totally a discretionary dependency haha. I first made sure I am eligible to pass the application requirement (4500 hrs, contact my reference, etc) -> start studying -> get a sense of my readiness after 2 months -> apply -> book the exam date. Much less stress for me this way.

3) Triangulation Method
Ever wonder why you read the whole chapter, then during the exam you just forgot a specific concept or terms? You only recognized in, but you didn't memorize in your brain.
For this to work you need 3 sources. I used 1) PMBOK + Prepcast videos 2)Rita V9 3) Youtube videos. They compliment each other and you can 1) fill more knowledge gaps and 2) Remember the content better
Eg. Lets say you are studying chapter 5 Scope Management. Watch the Prepcast video + PMBOK first to get a top level understanding, then read the same chapter in Rita again to fill up the remaining details. For harder to understand concepts (like Delphi method, for example), watch for a demonstration on youtube

4) Mock Exams
Do all the Prepcast exam simulator (1-8, thanks Prepcast team for the timely update), I'd say they're the key to my exam success. Also do other mocks like, PMStudy, OliverLehman, and Rita's.
In actual exam, I'd say it is different from the Prepcast exam. Like Ty Weston said, both the questions and answers are a little bit more ambiguous. When you are in the exam room you need to adjust to this questioning style QUICK (I got pretty frustrated in the first 100 questions). Actual exam questions are a bit shorter (more 1-2 lines questions/1-2 word answers), I spent less time answering the actual exam (had 30 min left) than Prepcast (usually had 5-15 min left).

Here's a comparison. The last 4 Prepcast, I received 76%, 73%, 73.5%, and 74%. OliverLehman 65%. PMStudy 66%. Rita v9 book exercises around 70-80%
in actual exam I got 4AT 1T.

Bonus: ITTOs
Should you memorize it? Let's say you did and in the exam you will guarantee get 15% of the question right. However, is it a good use of your time? I'd rather spend the time on mastering Initiating, Closing and Execution groups, they account for almost 50% of the score. I'd still study the ITTO though, just more strategically. I Start off with typing out the entire ITTO in Excel (took 2-3 hours), by then you've gain a sense of some major trends (ex. Proj Chtr mostly used as input in Mgmt Plans). Then learn the outputs coming from each processes, and its interaction with other prcoesses (ex Approved Change Requests are output from ICC and input to only DirMgWrk/CQual/ContProc). After that study the major trends (ex. Expert Judgement used in almost every processes, or Decision Tree is only used in QuantRisk). Overall I didn't spend much time on this regard, maybe 5-7 hours total, but I felt confident in answering most of the ITTO in the exam.

Best of luck guys, now I am off to celebrate.

Dear Joe,

Congratulations on passing your exam!

Thank you for sharing your success and lessons learned. I remember the valuable inputs that you submitted through our simulator’s Live Feedback™ support feature. We are glad to hear that our products helped you prepare for and pass your exam.

We highly value your genuine feedback. Insights like yours help us improve our products for all our customers. The PMP exam is evolving over time. So do the questions in our PM Exam Simulator. For example, based on the inputs from various sources, such as the posts in this and other forums as well as the tickets submitted via our unique Live Feedback™ feature embedded within the simulator, we have already shortened hundreds of the simulator’s questions to mimic the real exam better. Additionally, as part of our continuous improvement efforts, we systematically update our questions’ database to provide our customers with the top-quality products and the highest value available.

Thank you again and good luck in all your future endeavors.

Was in a rush to leave home yesterday, I would also like to add:

I feel like out of the 200 questions I completed yesterday, they were compiled by 3 very different types of people:

1) People who wrote the questions like Prepcast Simulator. Majority of them are like that, clear description of the scenario, although I feel the answer choices are a bit harder to choose from (Prepcast tends to include 2 very wrong choices, but for actual exam I couldn't eliminate choices as easily). Overall I had no problem answering these questions - If you know the topic and read the questions carefully you'll be able to finish them in minimal time, and without much flagging for later revision.

2) PMStudy type of question: Ambiguous questions, open up for a lot of interpretation. I had to read the questions/answers multiple times to come up with a confident answer. I marked alot of these questions. Changed my answers for quite a number of those in my revision as well.
Tip: Think about ITTO, use about PMIism, think about the order things are done (ex. assess impact of the change -> change request)
Quite a number of these questions in the exam.

3) Oliver Lehmann camp: Ever turned so pale after running into an unexpected crisis? Like coming late to an interview AND found out the interviewer is the guy you used to bully in kindergarten type of pale? Repeat 15-20 times in that 4 hours. These questions are made to confuse you, make you lose morale, and you will spend triple to quadruple the time to solve them. Questions involve at least 2 process groups, situations that are bizarre, all 4 answer choice have very little differences, solving a number that requires 3 equations, lots of extraneous info to throw you off.
Just do a lot of tough practice questions to prepare, and keep a clear mind during the exam.

In conclusion I still think Prepcast simulator is still the industry leading product, because I learned the most by doing their mock exams. I'd like to suggest a few things for improvement though:
1) Can you guys add the highlight function that lets people mark important info on the questions, I did not find out about this function until the actual exam and it really helped me during my revision.
2) During my exam preparations I wouldn't mind doing a 9th and 10th Prepcast Mock exam, you guys should think about releasing additional standalone mock exams for people who wish to do 1 or 2 more mock for $20-30 a piece