Hi All,
I’ve passed the PMP exam on the 23rd of November.
I’ve got 4P and 1MP.
I don’t really recommend what I did, If I would do it again I would shorten the study time, but maybe you will find some of the info useful.
Preparation
My journey with the PMP was a long one, and I truly believe that you can do it much faster.
I’ve started to read the PMBOK 3 years, ago when I had my first assignment as a Project Manager. Since then to today I’ve read the PMBOK once and the RITA book twice. There were weeks when I’ve study each day + the weekend, and then I’ve paused the study for even a couple of months. Also, I’ve took the tests from the RITA book.
I’ve tried to really learn and understand the processes, the formulas, and the things that are not in the PMBOK, but you may meet them in the exam.
I’ve also read cheat sheets as many times as possible. I had one from Joseph Phillips.
I’ve found the PMBOK hard to read, I think I would have understand better, if I would have started my reading with the RITA book.
A year and a half ago, I participated on a PMP prep workshop, it was organized by the company, that I am working for.
During the prep training, I started to better understand what I learnt before, things started to make sense.
In October 2016 I’ve completed my PMP application, and I’ve scheduled the exam. After that I’ve had 1 month and so, to do tests.
This last one month was the most intense study time that I’ve had in my preparation (each day between 1.5-3.5h/days + 6-8h / day during the weekend).
Test results
- I’ve done again all the tests from the RITA book.
- I’ve done all the process tests again from the prep training that I had previously.
- I’ve done my first 4 hours test with test questions from the prep training. 83%
- I’ve done all the tests from the Head First book.+ the 4 hours test from the end of the book ( the questions are really easy, you can do all the tests from the book in a weekend)- 85,5%
- I’ve took the Oliver Lehmann 75 test
- I’ve bought the project management prepcast, and I did all the 9 tests from there. Please see my results below:
1. 83%
2. 82%
3. 82%
4. 79%
5. 83%
6. 81%
7. 84%
8. 84%
9. ITTO 92%
The precast really helped me to solidify and structure my knowledge. After the the 9 tests that I’ve took I was much more confident in my knowledge.
- I’ve took the Oliver Lehmann 175 test - 74,28%
In the last two days, I’ve read my notes, and I’ve tried to better understand the ITTO, I’ve memorized them only on basic level.
Thinking back on my strategy, it was not the most efficient, I would recommend to start doing tests, much sooner. Try do do free tests in parallel with your learning. Do as many tests as you can. And when you have a good knowledge, I really recommend a good payed simulator, it helped me a lot.
On the exam day
- Starting with November, 2016, you cannot write anything on the draft papers during the tutorial. I’ve found out this only when I’ve got there, so it was a little bit of surprise. So, I’ve did the tutorial, and then I wrote down only a small part of my brain dump in 3 minutes, before I read the first exam question. I didn’t wanted to waste more time on this, so I’ve started the exam.
- I’ve asked for a hand held calculator which was easier to use.
- I’ve used the antiphonal headsets from the testing center, they really helped me to concentrate.
- The first 20 questions where like the same difficulty as the pm precast, then I had like 100 questions, which seemed more difficult and wordy than the ones from the prepcast. The last 50 and so questions were easier again ( same difficulty as from the prep-cast). If I finished the prepcast test in between 2h 20m and 3h 15m, the real exam took me 3h 20m before I answered all the questions. Then I’ve took a break of 5 minutes, and I’ve read again the marked questions.
- From difficulty point of view, the real exam seemed more difficult than the ones from the prepcast, but not as difficult as the Oliver Lehmann tests, it was somewhere it between. Even though the exam seemed more difficult, my results were better on the real exam, than the ones from the prepcast simulator. I think the the most difficult questions where those 25 ones that were not counted in the end. Another difference between the prepcast and the real exam, in the prepcast simulator, ITTO, processes, questions are more clear. You can easily make connections, in the real exam how the questions are formulated are not so clear, and you really need to understand all the processes, in order to answer them correctly.
- There were questions which were asking the same thing many times.
- There were only a few calculation related questions, and they were really basic ( not PTA, no TCPI, to EAC)
- There were some questions/ answers where I never even heard about them.
I would recommend to have a strategy and stick to it. I know it will be hard to balance your personal life, work life, and the study for this certification, but it is just for a while, and after that you will be a PMP.
It will require discipline that after 8-9 hours of hard work, to study a few more.
Don’t over study, if you answer well over 80% of new questions, you should be ready for your exam.
I wish you good luck with your certification and in your future projects.
Best,
Csilla Ambrus
