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TOPIC: Passed PMP March 20 2021 - AT/AT/AT

Passed PMP March 20 2021 - AT/AT/AT 3 years 1 week ago #26774

  • Nappinai
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I passed my exam today and sharing some lessons learned and how the PrepCast simulator helped me in my preparation

PMP Exam Experience: This was in line with what other members have posted recently and key highlights are:
1. Questions were mostly 2-3 sentences long and I found very few of them to be vague or confusing.
2. I found the actual exam questions to be easier than PrepCast full length exams - highlighter/strikethrough tool really helps you break down a question and weed out incorrect answer choices and zero in on the best answer. It's a great feature that the exam provides you, please use it, however recognize that this will slow you down a bit.
3. I took the exam from home and the experience with check-in and the online Proctor was super smooth. However, I didn't realize that the first mandatory break after 60 questions doesn't automatically pop up on the screen around the 155 min mark, instead you need to time yourself and click 'end review for all' before the screen transitions to break and then the next set of 60 questions pop up. I confirmed this with the proctor and in the process lost around 10 mins. Because of this confusion, I ended up attempting my first 60 questions in 85 minutes, next 60 in 70 minutes and last 60 questions in 75 minutes. I didn't take any breaks as I was afraid the process to check in may eat into my exam time further

PrepCast Experience
:
1. Helps you identify the gap areas and refine your preparation. I spent around 4.5 weeks with PrepCast exams & quizzes for a total of 960 odd questions and 20 hours. On an average, I now think 2 weeks of studying followed by 3-4 weeks of taking mock exams and closing gaps in understanding is a good approach.
2. First week I gave quizzes (both timed & learning) by knowledge area to identify gaps. I followed this up by gradually increasing the #of random questions in timed quizzes (20->30->60) so as to be able to give a 4 hour exam. I attempted 3 full length exams between weeks 2 and 3 over the weekends(78%, 82%, 86%). I spent a good 4-5 hours analyzing and studying the weak areas after each exam. I did not give the 4th exam as I found the exams getting easier and deemed 86% was good enough. I did not give the ITTO based on recent feedback that this is not tested in the exam. Week 4 I just gave KA specific quizzes on the ones I was lagging behind.
3. I found PrepCast to be the closest to the actual exam, I did look at some other question banks, mostly those available for free, but they were not as good as PrepCast. The actual exam tests your application and expects you to apply PMBOK concepts within a PMI framework. Hence, practicing questions and going through the explanations is the best way to crack this exam. I also found EduHub's and Andrew Ramdayal's videos on how to approach the questions very useful in this context,
My closing thoughts on important areas of prep - stakeholder & communications management, Agile Mindset, Understanding who a Servant Leader is and her role, boundaries in scrum for roles vs artifacts vs events (Who owns the backlog? Who attends the review and so on), understanding the role of a PM as a problem solver/ facilitator, what does a self organizing team mean?, scrum master vs dev team in removing impediments. I don't have a strong Agile background, so my list may be skewed because of that.

Here's wishing everyone the very best and a big thanks to the PrepCast team.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Beauty Roy, Sharon S, Shruthi S
Last edit: by Nappinai.

Passed PMP March 20 2021 - AT/AT/AT 3 years 1 week ago #26775

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Did you think the exam was similar to Prepcast Exams or Prepcast Quizzes?

Passed PMP March 20 2021 - AT/AT/AT 3 years 1 week ago #26778

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I found the actual exam to be very similar to PrepCast full length Exams but a bit easier. Especially the drag and drop questions in the actual exam (there must have been around 7-10) were one of the easiest while I found the ones in the PrepCast exam to be more difficult. This also applies to the 2-3 EVM questions that needed no calculation. Other key difference is that the PrepCast exam has a few knowledge based questions, while the actual exam has only application/situational questions.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Sharon S

Passed PMP March 20 2021 - AT/AT/AT 3 years 1 week ago #26779

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Thank you. I took all 4 exams. I am reviewing each exam in detail to see why an answer was right and why answers were wrong. I sit on the 31st Mar. I plan to retake each of the exams or at least 2 of them before the real exam. Thanks again for sharing your experience. It will help me focus my last 2 weeks of studying.

Passed PMP March 20 2021 - AT/AT/AT 3 years 1 week ago #26787

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Nappinai,

Congratulations on passing your exam!

Thank you for sharing your success and lessons learned. We are glad to hear that our products helped you prepare for and pass your exam.

Good luck in all your future endeavors.
Regards,
Stan Po, MBA, PMP, PMI-ACP, CSM, CIPP
Product and Program Manager
OSP International LLC

Passed PMP March 20 2021 - AT/AT/AT 3 years 1 week ago #26789

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YAYY!!!!

I just passed my PMP exam this morning at 2:00am. Here are just a couple of lessons learned while I get over my excitement.

1. I took the online proctored exam and have some key notes: TRUST ME: THEY ARE WATCHING AND RECORDING EVERYTHING
a. Make sure your test area is absolutely sparse. Meaning nothing in the area but the computer you are testing on. I cleared out my dining room table and used the entire room.
b. Make sure your testing environment is absolutely quiet. Any noise, talking, tv will not only be a distraction, but will prompt the proctor to interfere and ask you to prove you are in the room alone.
c. Absolutely no talking is allowed. That means not even reading questions out loud. I received a couple or warnings about that.
d. Be back from your breaks at least 30 seconds early. There is a slight delay and you don't want to penalized for being late.
e. Do not wear a watch or any unnecessary jewelry or items on your person. You will be directed to remove them.
f. Have not food, waster, smokes, etc. anywhere near your testing are.
g. You must keep your face inside if the monitor window at all times. No reaching down out of camera. You will be penalized.

2., Test experience.
a. First 60 questions were tough until I got into a rhythm. After that I breezed through the remaining questions finishing right around the 3 hour mark. I didnt take the second break as I was on a roll.
b. Take advantage of the highlighting and review tools. they were a big help.

Recommendation: Take the exam late at night. I had faster internet service, no distractions and I was able to focus better.

Passed PMP March 20 2021 - AT/AT/AT 3 years 5 days ago #26850

  • Markus Kopko
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Congratulations Nappinai and welcome to the club!

Thanks for sharing your success and experience with the community; highly appreciated!

All the best for your career as a PMP.

Regards,
Markus
"Management is about doing the things right;
Leadership is about doing the right things!" (Peter Tucker)

Passed PMP March 20 2021 - AT/AT/AT 2 years 11 months ago #26931

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Nappinai, do you recommend to do short quizzes initially or dive into the full exams of the prepcast? Thanks.
Last edit: by Folu Obe.

Passed PMP March 20 2021 - AT/AT/AT 2 years 11 months ago #26932

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James Williams, great tips, thank you. What do you recommend for the prepcast approach, quizes first then exams or other way around or mix of both? Please advise, thank you.
Last edit: by Folu Obe.

Passed PMP March 20 2021 - AT/AT/AT 2 years 11 months ago #26978

  • Beauty Roy
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Hi Congratulations!!
Loved your exam approach!
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