TOPIC: I passed my exam and here is what I did and what I learned

Hello everyone,

I took my exam on 03.17.2020 and passed the exam with with Above Target in all areas and here is what I did and I hope it helps you all out in your studies!

I warn you, I may have gone overboard to be honest but results may vary .

1. Study source materials (Books)

PMBOK

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I started with the PMBOK and I made notes of every chapter as I read it so that I do not have to back to the book. I did this because it's how I've studied for basically every exam since I can remember. I rarely go back to the original book once I've made my notes.

Rita's Exam Prep Book (V6)

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Then I moved onto Rita's book and did the exact same thing chapter by chapter. The benefit here is that Rita's book has chapter questions and answers for you to review. Furthermore, it explains to you why the answer is the answer. This was the best part of this entire book. It helps you understand the question and the answer.

Once I started reading my notes from the Rita book. I never looked at my PMP notes again (unless I had to for whatever reason).

Lastly, I got the PM Prepcast Simulator.

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My study method

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Your method may be similar or different! Use what works for you!

1. I would read the chapter notes from the Rita book and then I would do the chapter questions. I repeated this process for several weeks until I would do a chapter a day until I got to the final chapter. Then I would randomly select a chapter to do afterwards. Once I was satisfied I moved on to the tool itself.

PM Prepcast Tool

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To be honest I never touched any of the 8 exams that you could do nor did I do any of the ITTO questions. What I did instead was the following and repeated it for every process group.

1. I would select Initiating for example. I would then select 10 questions. (Yes I did only 10 questions at a time).

2. I would answer all 10 questions. Then see my results.

3. I would then go back and review all 10 questions by reading each question again and the answer to understand why the answer is the answer vs why I thought it was the answer.

4. I would make notes of key words and other things that I thought were important. (These notes allowed me to answer questions on the exam and the simulator just after seeing certain keywords very quickly).

5. I would then immediately do the questions I got wrong (even though I knew what the answer was because I just saw it in step 3). I would read it and understand why that answer was the answer.

6. Repeat steps 1 through 5 until all the questions for that process are complete.

Summary

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In the end I did end up doing all the questions for all process groups 10 questions at a time. It took me a while.

Lastly, I found the simulator to be harder than the actual exam. I guess I went so overboard because it was all self study. I didn't do any boot camps or anything either.

The best advice that I can give is the following:

1. Always think of the question from the PM perspective and not the real life perspective. I hope this makes sense.

2. Don't panic

3. Read the question carefully and select your answer (put the PM hat on)

4. If you are not sure what the answer may be then flag the question and come back to it at the end but make sure you select the answer you think is the right one because if you do run out of time at least you selected an answer.

5. Don't pay attention to the timer at all (this will only put unnecessary pressure on you)

Good luck everyone!

Hi Sanel,

Very well done, Congratulations!

Wow...you did great...Congratulations!

The information you provided is quite extensive, the materials listed seems easy to follow, and your path I hope to do and have the same results.

Please provide details on why you used R.M.’s version/edition 6 instead of 9, and explain which PM PrepCast you used for your studies. Was it the basic or elite cast?

Thank you much in advance!!!

Congrats.

Please provide more information like, have you covered Part 2 of PMBOK6 "Standards of Project Management" and Agile Practice Guide during studies?
Or going though Part 1 of PMBOK6 is sufficient.