I passed my PMP exam in my first attempt. All four processes are above target and I got Target in Executing.
I started my journey at the beginning of this year but could not concentrate as I was also working on several sensitive projects. I took advantage of this opportunity to implement my learnings with the actual projects I am working on. So while reviewing the PMBOK guide or listening to Cornelius, I would often stop and look at my actual project charter, project approach, risks, strategy, etc.
I had back to back surgeries from April to May and working from home during recovery periods. As a real opportunist, I focused in preparing for my PMP exam during my bed rest! Then, I took few weeks off as I get closer to my exam date.
I listened to Cornelius podcast per chapter, some more than twice. Some people may find this counter productive, but I listened to Cornelius at the same time reviewing the PMBOK Guide. This gives me a perspective of the real connection of what I am learning from the podcast vs the PMBOK guide. It also kept me awake when reading the book…believe me i fell asleep many times, hence the strategy.
I took most of the prepcast simulator, compared my wrong answers to the explanations and reviews the pmbok guide. I agoogled, watched youtube.com, and look for other sources of information. Example, Ailleen Ellis is very good in explaining how to read the questions and interpret them, Priazion’s PMP mainline guide helped me understand more the workflow (although iterative) of the processes and how they interact with each other. Engineer4Free helped me understand more the critical path including how to crash a schedule. At the tailed of my preparation, I purchased the formula guide from Prepcast which helped me build confidence in answering formula questions.
I also tried other free simulators, although I must say Cornelius’s writing style helped me more prepare on the exam proper better. Two days before my exam, I just read few topics I was not very clear about.
During the exam, I didn’t do a brain dump but i know the formulas and the processes. I assessed in my practice tests that the brain dump will take away few minutes of my precious time. I finished the exam more than an hour left, so that gave me time to review all my marked answers.
Message to Cornelius and your team: Thank you for this experience. the podcast, simulator and formula guide helped me a lot in preparing for the PMP exam...and nailing it!!!
