Hi All,
I wanted to share the great news that two days ago, I passed the PMP exam on the first try! After a lot of preparation and lurking this forum and reading people's advice, it feels great to be posting this. I also wanted to share what I did to prepare, in case it be of benefit to anyone.
My scores were:
Initiating: Above Target
Planning: Above Target
Executing: Above Target
Monitoring and Controlling: Above Target
Closing: Target
I studied between mid-February till end of June, while working full time, so most of my studying was done on weekends and weeknights.
I read the PMBOK Guide once. Found it extremely technical and couldn't really make the connections between the chapters.
Read Andrew Crow's How to Pass PMP on the First Try - This book really helped consolidate the information and make the right connections. I did the practice exam on the back of the book, twice.
Did the practice exam behind Andrew Ramadayal's book PMP Exam Prep. I can't comment on the book itself because I didn't read it, I just did the exam practice in the back, which was a good practice.
Then bought PM Prep Cast Exam Simulators. Did all of them except for ITTO. 4 of them I did properly, as in, I pretended it was the real exam and made sure to complete within the allotted timing. This really helped me get used to answering the questions quickly. I also made sure I looked over my wrong answers. I also re-did two exams.
I then re-read the PMBOK guide, and this time it all made sense.
Conclusion: 1. Read the PMBOK guide, but make sure you use another book to help connect the chapters together. 2. PM PrepCast Exam Simulators were definitely critical to my preparation as it literally trained me to answer the questions at the right pace and although I would say the real exam was still harder, the simulators were comparable to the real exam. Thank you PM PrepCast! 3. Once you see yourself scoring above 70% on the simulated exams, I'd say you're ready to do the real exam.
Hope this helps!
