So last night I partied hard after i came home from passing the PMP exam on my first try.
I received 3 above targets and 2 targets. Now let me explain how I studied and did all of this.
I did not even touch a book until i knew my application was approved.
-Once it was approved I read the book called "how to pass the PMP exam on the first try" by andy crowe
-(which BTW i just looked for it on amazon to find the authors name and sure as all get out its on sale for like half price... so mad.)
-I read that book front to back in order to get a base knowledge of what i was learning and his book is funny too so it really helps. But i didn't try to memorize his book TOO MUCH.-
-Once i was done reading the book i went straight to the exam simulator and HOLY CRAP did i learn more from that simulator than ANY OTHER tool out there.
-I never took a full practice test. instead i put it on learning mode/random/only unanswered questions and the only took a 30 question test at a time.
-With these 30 questions i would then stop read the reason why i was wrong, then cross reference it in the PMBOK/"first try book" and keep going.
**What helped me the most during this was creating my own lessons learned log from questions i got wrong on the tests. If i got one wrong I would write down what i learned from that question
so that i wouldn't forget what i learned!! That way i could go back 3 days later and be like "oh yeah! i forgot that was important."**
-Each 30 question test took me about 3 hours because i would really sit and study, but i only did one test a day.
-I kept doing this for about 3 weeks until every 30 question exam was at or above a passing score.
-I was cutting anywhere from 70% to 76% on each practice test.
-On the day of the exam i just reviewed my lessons learned sheet and practiced my brain dump for the test.
My brain dump included:
-Earned value formulas
-triangular and beta distribution formula
-standard deviation formula
-formulas for early/late start/finish
-formula for float
-formula for # of communications channels.
I am super excited to be done with this and proud to be able to put PMP next to my name.
Good luck to those of y'all aspiring to do this and May the Force Be With You.
