TOPIC: Passed PMP exam today! 1st attempt (AT/AT/AT/AT/T) - used only PMBOK & Prepcast

Hello!.

I'm very happy to let everyone know that I've passed the PMP exam today after four months of hard work! Thank you Prepcast team for the amazing products!

Study materials/products used: PMBOK guide 6th version, PM Prepcast online course, Prepcast Exam Simulator

Process I followed:
1) Read PMBOK guide once and took extensive notes; Answered questions at the end of chapter from the online course and reviewed lessons only on the topics that I was confused/not clear
2) Answered all the 114 Self Assessment Pre-Course questions - Module 00.9, and answered 72% correctly. (There are a lot of good questions that will test your knowledge so I would suggest PMP aspirants that have Prepcast's online course to answer these questions only after they read PMBOK at least once to know where they stand. It'll help them prepare better for the full-length simulator exams, score better on their first full-exam, and improve their confidence)
3) Read all the notes that I took to address gaps in understanding/improve content retention
4) Took five 4 hour full-length exams , one every weekend and reviewed answers to all questions (both correct and wrong by knowledge area). I also took a few 20 question timed quizzes in the areas that I needed improvement
5) Review the notes and PMBOK guide as necessary on weekdays to address knowledge gaps in areas

Prepcast simulator exam test results: Exam 1: 82% ; Exam 2: 83.5%; Exam 3: 85%; Exam 4: 80%; Exam 5: 88%

Lessons learned that may be helpful to the PMP aspirants:

1) Proactively check your PMP application status 3-4 business days after submission on the PMI website. In my case I didn't receive an email from PMI that my application was approved (I did receive other communications from PMI though). I also did not receive email after I paid the certification fee. (I was anxiously waiting for an email to check whether I'm being audited or whether I can schedule the test)
2) The questions and difficulty level of the questions on the real exam are so much similar to the questions and difficulty level of the questions on the Simulator so if you're doing well on the full-length Simulator tests, you will most likely do well on the real PMP exam
3) Don't memorize the ITTOs; Rather, know the purpose and contents of each document and subsidiary and project management plans, and understand how they are used in the processes. Also, understand the definitions and key benefits of each process.
4) While answering situational questions that suggest a problem, always check whether the answer you selected resolves/solves the problem implied in the question.
5) In questions that vaguely ask "What should the project manager do?", the questions are really asking "What should the project manager do first/next?". In such cases, the answer options will most likely provide you with sequence of steps performed to resolve an issue. You'd have to choose the first step in resolving the issue.
6) Review the close process group in the PMBOK guide/Prepcast lessons thoroughly even if you're doing well in that process group! Understand the subtle differences between accepting and confirming the deliverables. Even though I was doing well on the mock exams in this process group, the wording of the questions in this process group was so vague on the real exam that I had to change my answer multiple times between two options on some questions. Also, since the close process group will have least number of questions on the exam, your percentage answered correctly (and hence your result category for this process group) changes quickly if you get a 3-4 questions wrong.
7) While reviewing the results of your mock exams on the simulator by knowledge area, prioritize reading about/addressing gaps in the knowledge area by looking at the number of questions answered incorrectly rather than % answered correctly. Percentages along can be misleading. For example, if you answered 6 out of 9 questions correctly (66.67%) in Project Schedule Management and if you answered 19 out of 25 questions correctly in (76%) in Project Procure Management, address gaps in Project Procurement Management knowledge area first before your next mock exam. The ultimate goal is to minimize the number of questions answered incorrectly

Thank you for reading this long post! I hope this post will be helpful to the PMP aspirants. Good Luck!

Congratulations for passing the PMP exam. I have few queries

1. 1. How many questions came from Agile & did you read the entire Agile guide?
2. 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 ?
3. 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?