TOPIC: Passed my PMP in first attempt

After rescheduling the test 2 times due to commitments, I finally had today locked in to give my best first shot at PMP. I got 4 ATs and BT in closing. I was not expecting BT in closing! I thought I had it under control. Nevertheless, I am so glad the process is over for me.

Exam -

1. I had 2 calculation questions that’s all. One was to calculate CPI with EAC and BAC given. Another was beta distribution.
2. I thought I saw 1 agile question. I hadn’t read the Agile supplemental book that came with PMBOK 6. My current line of work deals primarily around agile. So, decided to give the book a skip.
3. Did a quick braindump of EAC formulas only. Did not write anything else.
4. Some questions were really easy on the exam and many were so vague and the terminologies used weren’t familiar to me. I took the process of elimination based on my interpretation of the question.
5. I was done all 200 questions with about 40 minutes to spare. I did not take any breaks even though I felt like it. I had about 30 questions or so marked for review. I quickly went through all of them and revised 4-5 answers. Submitted with 2 minutes to spare and got the ‘Congratulations…’ message.

Preparation

1. Read PMBOK guide once and a quick skim through of the entire book in about 6 hours. This book is all you need.
2. Read Rita Mulcahy completely and did the exercises at the end as well. This book explains concepts well but I don’t think is a must-have for PMP exam prep. However, I highly recommend her process chart game!
3. Bought Prepcast exam simulator and went through all the questions. Didn’t do any 200 question exams because I work as an independent consultant and taking time off means loss of revenue. ☹ Also have a toddler and a 7-year old. It was not easy for me to sit down for 4 hours. I did sets of 10, 20 and 50. I knew based on that time factor won’t be an issue for me on the exam. My score was closer to 80% towards the end. I started practicing only the questions where I had made mistakes and that brought my exam average down to 72%! I highly recommend going through only the incorrectly answered questions.
4. Signed up on FB PMP groups and answered questions posted there.
6. Practiced questions on pmexamforfree.com
7. Did not memorize ITTOs. I possibly could have answered 2-3 questions on the exam with certainly if I had memorized all of them. It's not worth memorizing in my opinion.
8. Started taking Oliver Lehman 200 questions exam. Felt way too easy and I left it after 50 questions. Started Head First (didn’t read the book) exam question as well but couldn’t complete.
PM Prepcast exam simulator certainly stood at the top for me in this journey. Questions on the exam appeared to have same complexity level. However, actual exam answers seemed to be more misleading than PM Prepcast.

Thanks PM Prepcast team!

Congratulations.
Can we still Flag questions and does PMI take those when we submit at the end of the exam?

Flagging is for yourself only. Answers selected on flagged questions will be graded still.

Congratulations for passing the pmp exam.

I would like to know what type of maths questions were asked like PV , NPV , FV depreciation , economic value add (EVA) etc for project selection. In quality , sigma , variance etc. In procurement
calculation of point of total assumptions, calculating seller's fee , profit , incentive & total cost for the buyer ?

Which unfamiliar terms you encountered in the exam ?

Questions related to ITTO were explicit like which plan , document or other is required as input or are the outputs, tools & technique OR which is not an input, output or tools & technique for XYZ process?