A couple of days ago I passed my PMP exam on the first try with AT in all domains, so I’d like to share my lessons learned.
My main study resources were:
- Andy Crowe’s study guide ‘The PMP Exam – How to pass on your first try’
- PMBOK Guide 6th edition
- PM PrepCast Exam Simulator
I started my studies by watching the PM PrepCast video lessons but I soon noticed that studying with Andy’s book worked way better for me. I therefore read it thoroughly once, wrote plenty of index cards on the side, and then read it a second time to complement my understanding of the material. While studying this book I used the PMBOK Guide as a reference for clarifying things or looking up details I was interested in. Personally, I think it isn’t necessary to read the PMBOK Guide cover to cover but it is essential to have a copy at hand while you are studying.
My next step was to take mock exams. I started with the 200 question mock exam in Andy’s book and got 79%. You can often read in forums/reviews that the question in Andy’s book are supposed to be easy. However, personally I think the final exam in the study guide was the hardest I took for exam preparation. After that I took three 200 question mock exams from the PM PrepCast Exam Simulator. Here I got 87% in exam 1, 86.5% in exam 2 and 92% in exam 3. After every mock exam I carefully reviewed the answers for the questions I’d got wrong and for the questions I’d marked.
Regarding the real exam, I can confirm what many people have written here in the forum. Most of the questions are situational questions and the situation described as well as the answer choices provided are often pretty vague. The PM PrepCast Exam Simulator provides good preparation for this kind of questions though. There were no questions regarding agile in my exam but quite a lot targeted things like the business case and benefits management.
In summary, the combination of Andy’s book and the exam simulator worked extremely well for me and let me take the exam with confidence.
I wish you all the best!
