TOPIC: PMP Passed - What I learned

I started studying for the exam at the end of Aug 2023 and wrote the exam on Oct 18 2023. Passed with AT in all 3 ECO's. Going into the exam I felt pretty calm. By the 3 hr mark, I was getting pretty twitchy! I barely marked any for review and I only remember changing 1 answer as on 2nd read, I realized I mistook the question. I started my study with watching the Agile training videos on Precast as I had no experience in Agile. I read both the Agile Practice Guide and the PMBOK 7th Edition (which is quite useless, if you ask me). I then started taking practice quizzes on the Prepcast exam simulator. After about 2 weeks of this, I took a full exam on the weekend. I rinsed and repeated this for about 4 weeks and then I got the PMI Study Hall and did all of the practice quizzes, some practice questions and both exams in 2 week (pretty hard on the head). Big difference with Study Hall in how the questions are worded and they were very vague. But I wanted to get a feel for that as I heard the exam was vague and I didn't want any surprises. In my opinion, Prepcast simulator provides you with the knowledge to understand the processes and methodologies. PMI Study prepares you with the vagueness you will experience during the exam. A few of the exam questions were so easy, I was like "is this a trick"!? Others, I literally had to take a wild guess, as the question was so vague, it was literally impossible to decipher what was being asked in the time you had. But overall, I felt good about it the whole way through. I had 1 question where I had to use the calculator. The only thing really surprised me was that I had to wait 5 business days for my pass/fail notification from PMI. I was expecting it as soon as I finished the exam.

Congratulations, Collene! An excellent result following what sounds like a good deal of well-targeted, hard work.

I fully agree with you on PMI Study Hall's value in providing experience in answering the very vague questions that also appear far too often in the real exam.

The recent change to delaying the result notification for a number of days must be frustrating. Did PMI not communicate to candidates about this clearly, beforehand? (I was fortunate to take my exam before that change.)

Huge Congratulations Collene! I am glad you got it done and you did it with flying colours! I recently listened to a PM PodCast episode by Cornelius where he goes into detail about the new security measures PMI is taking to ensure integrity and the highest possible standards for the PMP exam. The result of that is that now students have to wait 5 business days to get your pass/fail notification. Out of curiosity, did you take the exam online or at a test centre? Enjoy the PMP credential!

Cheers,