Passed today (Friday November 22nd) with AT/T/AT/AT/BT
I started preparing on August 1st and took the exam today - a little over 3.5 months later. This was the first exam I prepared for in 23 years so needless to say I was reading all advice that I could. I found this forum a great resource to read of people mis-fortune in failing and all of those who passed. The fact that a certain proportion still fail even when they have decent exam simulator results was a motivating factor in me doing as much as I could to pass. The best advice I got from someone that I knew who had passed the exam previously was to come up with my own approach on how I was going to prepare, make a plan and stick to it. Your reason for doing the exam is a great driver also - I changed job 2 years ago having spent 9 years in my previous company, it was then that I realised so many PM Job Descriptions are calling for PMP certification as a minimum requirement. I needed this to allow for the flexibility that suits me - to move job where and when I want.
The approach I took was as follows:
1. Read the PMBOK guide cover to cover, not making notes, just familiarizing myself with the overall curriculum
2. Signed up to the Prepcast training to fulfill my 35 hours requirement. Used a speed of 1.75X to get through the content, I made notes on all the ITTOs and any other pertinent points that were stated during the training presentations.
3. Read Rita's book and did the end of chapter exercises.
4. Submitted my PMP application and gave myself 8 weeks from confirmation that my application was accepted.
5. Chose my exam date and commenced working with the PrepCast Exam Simulator
6. I did all 7 x 4 hour exams, one a week and in some weeks it was two. This was so helpful for me get me used to trying to concentrate for four hours, a big challenge. You don't get that same experience doing 20 question quiz's but I appreciate time is precious and 4 hours is a huge sacrifice to make.
7. I used other free questions sourced from the internet here and there throughout the entire study period
My exam simulator scores were as follows: 75%, 74%, 79%, 82%, 79%, 74%, 74%. I was very disappointed at exam 6 scoring 74% and found that exam very tough but the experience taught me a lot. In exam 7 I scored 74% again but I felt the real value of the sixth exam was to keep going and not give in to any negative thoughts and to have courage to continue (after I picked myself up off the ground that was!)
I felt my scores were borderline - I didn't feel overly confident going into the exam but I felt appropriately confident. I knew 88% of people with my scores pass the PMP exam but at the same time I knew I could easily be one of those 12%.
Now to the actual exam - Brutal is the best word I could use to describe the exam, similar to exams 6 and 7 of the exam simulator for me where there were answers that just seemed so close and to pick one felt like a shot in the dark rather than having real confidence in my choice. Plenty of questions were obvious though too, where I had confidence in the choices I was making. Like others have said - very few formula questions, maybe 3 calculations in total and a few extra interpreting CPI and SPI values. I had quite a few questions on the communications V stakeholder engagement overlaps and change management was splattered throughout aswell. As per all the mock exams for me - I was under time pressure, I possibly had 90 seconds to spare and that's the way it always was for me in the mock exams, I never had additional time to go back over questions so I made the best choice I could every time
Overall I'm incredibly relieved as I know I could easily have received the alternative message to the 'Congratulations....' message.
I wish any of you reading this who is preparing for the exam, to stay calm, do all that you can, sleep well, drink plenty of fluids and eat well in advance. So many marks are gained from being relaxed and being confident in reading and interpreting the questions.
Thanks also the PrepCast team for developing materials that helped get me over the line.
The very best of luck to you!
