Hi folks,
I just wanted to share my story how I prepared for the PMP exam. I passed it with 4MP and 1P.
First I got 35 PDUs through a university. The course gave me a good understanding of the PMI framework. Then I read Rita Mulcahy's book once and PMBOK once. I re-read some parts of the Rita book where I felt I needed to refresh my knowledge and also memorized all formulas. I also created a table of all processes with ITTOs and referenced it as I was reading the PMBOK. I took several practice tests online but not too many. I scored 71% at Lehmann's 175 question exam. I felt like the real PMP exam was easier than Lehmann's test but difficult anyways.
The new policy does not allow to write on the paper before the exam begins but I felt that brain dump was not really necessary. So I didn't bother creating it in the beginning of the exam. I used only 1 page of the given sheets for drawing critical path and calculating EVM.
Visualizing the processes was very helpful for me. I printed out all ITTOs from the PMBOK, cut them out and glued onto a huge sheet of paper in the same way the processes are presented on page 61 of the PMBOK. The only difference between my table and table in the PMBOK was that mine contained all ITTOs, so I could analyze what feeds what as I was reading the book. It really helped me understand the ITTOs. I hope this helps.
Wishing everyone good luck on the exam!
