Here is my story of my PMP certification:
Before application
I am a public health dentist trainee and I have a rare position to manage projects in the past 10 years, mainly on health promotion and academic research projects. I spent months to compile documents on my training in public health, which requires over 6000 hours of project management experience. After successful completion to my specialist training, why not obtaining a project management qualification to further brush up my CV, with all the documents ready? I applied Udemy course and submitted all the relevant documents to complete the application process without audit.
After application
The application was successful in March but my public health exam in August. I quit my job and work half time for two months (September and October) and work full-time again in November. In early September I scheduled the exam in mid-October.
I read the Rita guide and think, wow, project management in PMP is so much different in health projects. Honestly, health projects in my country are usually poorly managed in the eye of the PMBOK guide! Anyway, I finished reading the Rita book and took some exam in PrepCast and...gosh... I got like 30% correct... I found that the Rita guide can only help you "get the feel" of PM but not enough for your exam , you need PMBOK guide anyway. So I read the guide from the beginning to the end to fill the knowledge gap. I have never done the 4-hour simulation test. I only did lots of 10-questions or 20-questions small quizzes. But mostly I score like 60%, only occasionally 70%.
Honestly I don't have confidence to pass it and I don't have any friends who can help me. I finally created a lessons learned register every time after a PrepCast quiz . This makes my "secret book of passing PMP". After like 10 quizzes I found something consistently appears - WBS, EV formulae and Change Management. I go back to the PMBOK guide to read words by words. This boost my scores to more likely 70% (but still sometimes 60%, a fail mark).
Before exam
No more PrepCast. Just "upload" the knowledge into my brain from my own LLR. Prepare the documents for the exam. Read Rita's book on the pre-exam tips and it is very useful. The most important point is to prepare for any distraction at the exam center. Yes, the center may not be ideal (noise and other distraction).
During the exam
I scheduled the exam 10am to 2pm so that I won't fall asleep after lunch, and it is not too early to deprive sleep from the previous night. I had an extremely full breakfast to avoid being hungry at the end of the exam.
The exam procedure is not difficult but arriving your centre 30 minutes is very reasonable. Do not miss this!!!
The exam interface is very similar to the PrepCast. The window cannot be resized, so I suggest you take all the exam with the windows maximized.
English reading is essential for passing the exam.
The questions are usually shorter than PrepCast exam, so if reading in PrepCast is not a problem, it is not a problem in the real exam.
Remember there were 25 "unreal" questions, more than 10%. If you found the question being very strange, don't waste too much time on it. Make a legitimate guess, and go on.
Using "30 minutes for 50 questions" is a good benchmark. If you found you are 5 minutes ahead of schedule in Q51 and 12 minutes in Q101, you can get your SPI and know you are doing well or not. =)
ITTO questions are rare, not more than 3.
After answering all 200 questions I have about 20 minutes to review the flagged ones. I used the last second to review the last question...
Tada...I passed!
4AT, but Needs Improvement in Monitoring and Controlling. I guess I know why. It's because I cannot decide "audit" should be in "Manage quality" or "control quality", which had been asked several times.
I would like to show my deepest appreciation and thankfulness to PrepCast for helping me prepare the tough exam of PMP. I was so happy after the exam, probably the happiest day in my past 10 years. I hope to contribute the healthcare sector with my PM knowledge and experience.
