I passed my PMP exam 3 hours ago, I cannot wait to share my experience to thank everyone for your help.
1. I started my PMP study from the end of August 2019, it totally took me about 3.5 months.
2. Materials I used:
a. PMprepcast Video lessons – I watched it only once but I realized I should spend more time on them(e.g. 2-3 times I will mention later). (If Cornelius can have a book to cover the video content, that will be very helpful)
b. PMBOK: this is the primary material I referred, I read it twice from cover to cover, and randomly read the third time for review before testing. It's not easy to understand, you have to refer video lessons, Rita's book or Google to understand some details.
c. PMPrecast simulator: This is the most important material I used, I’ve taken all 1600 questions, and 70% of them I took twice. The most helpful part is reading explanation. It is the explanation that makes me realize I should spend more time on Cornelius’ video lessons because a lot of points Cornelius mentioned in video appeared in questions but I just couldn’t understand on my first time watch.
In the last 2 weeks before my exam, I took 7 full exams in simulator and got scores 88-91%(yes the delta is just 3). This gave me experience how to control pace in real exam, and through these full length exams I also realized PMP exam also does physical test.
d. Rita’s book: I didn’t spend too much time on Rita’s book, I even haven’t thoroughly read once (because of time). I bought Rita’s book only after I finished first PMBOK reading. Rita’s book can help understand each knowledge area and relations.
If I could restart, I would use either Cornelius’ video(listening 2-3 times) or Rita’s book (read 1-2 times) to understand PMP knowledge area, then focus on PMBOK and Simulator.
Just a reminder: I noticed there some inconsistencies between PMBOK and Rita’s book, please be careful on them.
3. Today’s Exam:
I arrived test center ~7:20, it took me 50 mins to wait in line for enrollment.
The questions are very like Prepcast simulator. I did notice some questions or options are not covered by PMBOK 6th, they can be found either in Rita’s book&Cornelius’ video lessons, or in PMBOK previous edition. I want to mention this because I’ve had debate with Prepcast simulator support team(I forgot to mention, I love Prepcast Simulator livefeedback feature, there is a support team in backend to answer questions), I was told several times that PMBOK CANNOT cover all content that PMI would test you, THIS IS TRUE!
Another impression about today’s exam is, some questions are very ambiguous and I have to read 2-3 times to understand what I am asked. The ambiguity is not only on language, but also on logic. Sometimes I have to choose one answer although I think two answers are equally correct.
4. After congratulations page I didn’t take survey because I am exhausted. I didn’t take break during test although I planned one.
This is what I want to share with you, thank you for all your help and wish you best luck on PMP journey.
