I've just passed the PMP Exam this Thursday and I would like to share my journey to get the certification.
1) My learning style - PM Podcast, Only online PMBOK guide
In retrospect, my learning style was somewhat unique and heavily dependent on PM Prepcast (especially Podcast feature). I commute to work by train from Mon-Fri, taking about 70-90 min one-way. It was such a precious study time for me since I have a wife and two-year-old daughter and could not spend many hours on weekends. I decided to make the best use of PM Prepcast Podcast by taking notes lesson by lesson. My budget for the study was limited and could not afford to buy PMBOK guide, so I signed up for an annual membership of PMI and only referred to PMBOK online (secured pdf download). My notebooks have become original PMBOK note in the end, thanks to PM Prepcast Podcast, and they were very useful when I did several Simulator tests to examine my ability.
2) PDF-based PMBOK guide - only as a supplementary doc
It is probably vise versa to a lot of other PMP Cert holders, but to me, PDF-based PMBOK guide was not easily accessed, so PMBOK guide naturally became supplementary document. To be honest, I have not read through all the details of PMBOK guide. PM Prepcast contents and my own notebooks as described above were thorough enough to use PMBOK that way. Sometimes, the key elements to answer questions on PMP Exam Simulator were not included in the podcast, so when I had wrong answers on the simulator, I managed to read the appropriate parts of PMBOK guide as much as possible with limited time available.
I do not strongly recommend this, but it worked for me pretty well.
3) Practice through PMP Exam Simulator
I was first skeptical about the exam simulator since there were a lot of free sample tests available on the internet, but my first attempt certificate was not possible without the simulator. The PM Prepcast Simulator consisted of mostly simulation-based questions, which was aligned with the real exam. I used from Simulator 1 to 5 or 6 in the last four weeks to the actual exam date and it helped me a lot. Just before the exam, my correct answer ratio was around 70-75%, so I was not 100% confident on the exam date, but it was a comfortable stress.
4) Study period
I started listening to the podcast from mid-March of 2020 and took the exam in mid-August. It took about 5 months in total. My current job has become a little too busy and could not have enough study time for about 3 weeks. As I mentioned in 1) above, I used most of my time during my weekday commute for about 2-3 hours a day, so I would say the study pace was a bit slow. English is not my mother tongue, so that was another factor that I needed more secured pace than fast-tracking.
5) Small, but critical mistake on the exam date
Since April 2020, the exam was split by two parts. I assumed that the first half must be 100 questions, but it wasn't. I ended the first half without reviewing the marked, unconfident questions and leaving one answer blank by mistake. In the 10-min break, I tried to calm down myself and concentrated on the second half, trying to answer as correct as possible. Luckily, I had a lot of time to review after I answered all questions.
I am not sure how many people can read this article, but I hope it can be one lesson-learned for the PMP candidate who is seeking PMP Cert in the future.
