Dear, PMP Aspirants
I am delighted to share my good fortune with you in hopes that you are encouraged and empowered to press in and keep studying!
Without question, the most important tool in passing the exam was the PM PrepCast exam simulator. The questions were very tough and I only scored a 71% twice in any of the five full 4-hr mocks tests I took. But that is exactly what I needed to force me to dig in, stay focused, and not take the exam too lightly. The exam simulator kept me humble. Without question, the best part of the exam simulator are the explanations. The thoroughness and attention given to the concepts behind each question and explanations to both the right and wrong answers sets this simulator apart from of all others.
PREPATION:
My journey started on 12/3/18 with a six-week online course through PMTraining.com that met every Monday and Wednesday between 6:00 - 8:00 AM. The course gave me a solid foundation of the PMI approach and concepts as we navigated through the PMBOK Guide, 6th edition. I enjoyed the interaction of the classroom setting interacting with an instructor and several classmates. Aside from earning the 35 contacts hours, one of the key benefits of this course was having access to an instructor during class and via email during the rest of the week. Also, the PMTraining.com curriculum that instructor goes through week after week provided excellent study notes, highlighting the key concepts I needed to master. PMTraining.com also has a very good exam simulator consisting of 10 Knowledge area quizzes and 19 one-hour mock-lite tests consisting of 50 questions covering all process groups and knowledge areas. I completed all 19 mock-lite tests (950 questions) and started seeing my scores rise from (50% to 70%). Then I started taking them over and started scoring into the 70 - 80% range. But I still didn't feel quite ready to take a four-hour exam. I needed more exam formulas and ITTO questions and I need to know how to manage my time effectively during a four-hour exam. That is huge!!!! Unfortunately, the PMTraining.com simulator does not allow you to take a four-hour, non-stop exam--and that's when I started looking elsewhere.
I discovered PM PrepCast on an Internet search when I found the PM PrepCast Formula Guide that consisted of 115 formula-only questions. Good stuff! I learned some very cool tips on how to approach formula questions. Then I found the Mastering the ITTO article which was also a great help in understanding ITTO concepts and approach. Finally, I attended Cornelius' "10 Steps to Becoming a PMP" webinar and was there I discovered that PM PrepCast has an exam simulator with a total of eight 4-hr/200 question exams totaling 1600 unique questions. At first I signed up for the seven-day trial and took two exams and scored a 62% and a 54%. Needless to say I was a bit stunned and a little discouraged. That was it for me; I knew I need to take this course, so I signed up for The PM PrepCast Elite course which included access to the all PM PrepCast video lessons and the exam simulator on 2/16/19. I had already scheduled my exam date for 3/14/19, so I had less than a month to figure out how to best use the time I had. I did watch a few of the videos but my main focus was on taking as many full 200 question 4-hr exams as I could. I got five of them done. I also completed about 50-60 of the formula exam questions, too. Getting through this material was indeed the key to my success. It prepared me well.
I also created a ITTO spreadsheet that was very effective in getting me to recognize the various ITTO and to the 33 project documents. Time consuming but totally worth it.
TESTING STRATEGY:
Cornelius presents several approaches to actually taking the exam. I took one his recommendations and did not take any time answering any formula or PDM questions until I had answered all 200 questions. I looked at them briefly to see if I could answer them quickly, if not, I marked them and moved on. This strategy worked very well for me and kept me a head of the clock.
During one of the Lessoned Learned emails I received, one person mentioned how important it was to watch the clock. By the first hour you need to have answered 50 questions, 100 by the second hour, etc. This was critical for me and I practiced this during my five mock tests. I was not good at this at the beginning and got lured into formulas questions in the first few mocks, forcing me to race to answer every question at the end. Not good. By the time I completed the fourth and fifth mock exams, I was comfortable with this strategy.
I also conditioned myself to not take any breaks. It was a good thing I did. I competed the 200th question with about 5-10 ten minutes to spare which didn't leave me with a lot of time to review my marked questions. If you take a break during the test, it will easily take you 10-15 minutes to get back into the testing center due to the very strict screening process you must go through.
EXAM EXPERIENCE:
My first impression of the exam questions is that they were very fair. The PM PrepCast questions are much harder, which prepared me well. The questions were not overly wordy or confusing, but rather fairly straight forward. I only encountered about seven or eight formula questions and a couple network diagraming questions; these, too, were fairly straight forward. At least 90% were situational questions.
At the testing center I attended, I was given a locker to put my personal items in. It was forbidden for me to go into that locker for any reason during my test. They provided a water cooler but I was out of luck if I had brought snacks to eat. That is why is was so critical for me to condition myself to sit the full four hours without a break. The PM PrepCast exam simulator was absolutely the difference in my success. I also did a lot of praying!!! I give God all the glory in getting me through a very difficult, but totally worthwhile journey. Words cannot express the feeling you get when you see those words appear on the screen: Congratulations!!!!!
I wish you all the best in your journey,
Adrian Bogle, PMP
Congrats again!!