I passed the PMP exam yesterday (30-Oct-2018) and wanted to express my thanks to everyone who has participated in this forum as many of the comments were helpful in my own preparation for the exam.
Here is a breakdown of my results:
Overall: Above Target
Initiating: Below Target
Planning: Target
Execution: Above Target
Monitoring and Control: Above Target
Closing: Target
Preparation: Andy Crowe Exam Prep Book (I liked it, but has just enough information to get you through exam prep and not much more. I liked it because that’s all I wanted as I was planning to use other materials.)
PrepCast Mock Exam Scores: 78.5%, 78%, 83%, 80.5%, 84%, 75% (Note: I recommend to do at least 4 or more exams in your preparation (more or all, if you have time) – Including thorough reviews of the answer explanations included in your scoring analysis – I spent much more time reviewing answer explanations – including both the ones your got write and wrong. This is not wasted time and you will pick up valuable insight as you read these. I spent 8-12 hours after each exam doing this review. It is one of the most valuable activities that I did.)
Before Exam: Was a bit nervous, especially the week before. The night before the exam is important to get a good night’s sleep. I can’t emphasize this enough. Even if you are nervous, you need to figure out a way (ideally, with minimal to no alcohol involve). Exercise helps calm nerves and did for me but probably isn’t good to do too late. Get at least 7-8 hours sleep if you can. Try to eat light starting midday, the day before the exam.
Brain Dump: I can confirm from my overseas testing location that no “pre-brain dump” was allowed during the tutorial. Meaning that you can still do a brain dump, but it will eat into your testing time. For me, although other people like or need them, I am not a big fan of the brain dumps as they can eat up 10 minutes of valuable test time. I didn’t use a brain dump during my exam and didn’t need one. I do recommend that if you’re not going use a brain dump you need to know your information cold. I did brain dumps (49 processes and EVM formulas) every day the week before the exam so that I could be confident that I could recall any part or formula very quickly, even under pressure. If you think you will be pressed for time during the exam, try to experiment without using one during mock exams to see how you fare.
Exam Day: Get to your exam location very early so you don’t have to stress out about anything on the way. It takes time to check everyone through the inspection protocols so you want to be ahead of time for these formalities. I seemed to have a mix of very simple and more complex/vague questions than what I experienced on the mock exams. For the seemingly simple questions, just make sure you carefully read what they’re asking for before answering and moving on. Very few EVM and Schedule (critical path, float, diagramming) questions, nothing on Agile. I had tricky initiating domain questions so didn’t do as well as for other domain areas. Be prepared for business case and benefit analysis related questions. I finished my exam about five minutes before time expiry with one 3-minute bathroom break. I only had time to go through a few marked questions before time expired.
Main points:
1. Getting a good night’s sleep the night before. I can’t emphasize this enough.
2. If you prepare well, trust your instincts as you try to answer seemingly vague questions. I thought I was doing much more poorly than I actually was.
3. If you think you will be pressed for time, try to eliminate the brain dump (but be sure that you can recall information quickly under pressure and won’t need it).
4. The most vital part of my preparation was the pre-cast exams, both the experiences of taking them under the 4-hour time period and the education of the answer explanations.
5. I personally didn’t bother with taking the same exam multiple times as I think doing a thorough review of answer explanations is much more worthwhile. A test score for the second time you take the same test is meaningless as you will likely have memorized the answers anyway. Better to use that time on studying the explanations in detail and taking new tests.
Good luck everyone, have confidence in yourself. If you prepare thoroughly and can get your high quality mock exam scores in the 70-80% range, you stand a very good change of passing the exam. If you are scoring lower than 70%, you might consider spending more time in exam prep before taking the real exam.
