Well its my turn to write soemthing here, a very symbolic moment..Passed PMP today..
My Approach:
• Booked the exam date around 10-12 weeks in advance, did the exam on a Monday.
• Read Pmbok (Bible) and Ritas book(Good but sometimes too much info)
• Exercises in Ritas book – Too wordy at times but good answers explanations.
• Head first exam – Good
• Scordo PMP Exam – Very good, broken down in 20X50 question exams. This allowed me to keep the momentum by doing 50 exam a day(rather than 200 all at once). After each exam I revised the answers and made notes on problem concepts/erros (In a separate sheet) . This allowed me frequently revise problem areas. Bought the kindle version.
• Lehman’s exam – This exam actually confused me, I do not recommend it..And found it to be time consuming just to understand the question.
• Webexams – most webexam site I researched do not allow you to store exams, if you can’t refer or mark incorrect answers you can’t go back and revise. This is a huge disadvantage I believe.
• Deepfriedbrainpmp.com website has some very good resources and explanation on confusing concepts.
• PMPREP Cast good source of info and exam tips.
So in my opinion the key is to do many exam questions, make note of the concepts you struggle with eg Analogous estimating vs parametric etc in separate sheet..and repeat and repeat this concepts continuously. Every now and then I repeated 1or 2 chapters from pmbok or rita..focusing soley on pmbok the closer I came to the exam.
So basically do many question, refer to Pmbpk or ritas book..and repeat, repeat problem areas and important concepts and revise a chapter or so from pmbok every now and then. Stick to one or two books, enhance your understanding with bit of Internet research on difficult concepts. And be consistent.
I didn’t create a dump or memorized rita’s process chart, In my opinion attempting to memorize lot of info takes your focus and energy from actually understanding the concepts. I did however have a clear picture of the knowledge area table on p.43 of pmbok guide. There will be questions you will not be able answer.
Remember, every page, question, minute or second you spend studying brings you closer to become a PMP.
I didn’t find the exam that hard and nailed it 3 hours, I guess the preparation paid off (Im not Einstein). However I thought I was going to have a heart attack waiting for the results to pop up.
“Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.”