TOPIC: Passed PMP on the very first time - Mar 31

I made it on Mar 31...!

Preparation:

I studied by myself for almost 4 months - 8 hours per week. I scanned through PMBOK and Rita book around twice and listen to PMPrepcast several times on way to work everyday. It was really helpful - Thanks Cornelius.

I entered testing phase the last month of my study: went through some free test on PMstudy, simplilearn, etc...I didn't try any commercial test.

About a week before the exam, I did brain dump sheet and Rita process chart every morning about 15 minutes.

I took 2 days off work before exam just for relaxing...not study at all.

I didn't try to memorize anything except formulas throughout my study, instead I tried to learn and understand concepts, and see how that is applied in my real world project management. This is crucial.

Exam Day:

I finished my brain dump sheet during the first 15 minutes of tutorial, then start the exam. I didn't feel nervous. I took break every 50 questions.

The questions were really qualified questions. I didn't find any questions familiar to those I did in sample test. All situational questions were really challenge which made me think deeply for answer. I would have never been able to answer these question if I didn't study by understanding concepts and real world project management during my study!!!

I finished questions and reviewed marked one in 3.5 hours, took 10 minutes break, then clicked "End" button. After the computer was running for a while, I was too happy when seeing "Congratulations" word appearing on the screen.
My hard self-study got great return...

Something to share and good luck to those in coming PMP exams.

Again, thank you Cornelius for very useful PMP material.

All the best,
Dung