Confirm text replacement with template category text
All the text in the message will be deleted and replaced by text from category template.
Topic History of : My 120-day journey to 5 P's on the PMP exam
Max. showing the last 6 posts - (Last post first)
6 years 10 months ago #11003 | |
---|---|
Stan Po - Admin
|
Dear Tom,
Congratulations on passing your exam! Thank you for sharing your success and detailed lessons learned. We are glad to hear that our products helped you prepare and pass your exam. Good luck in all your future endeavors. |
6 years 10 months ago #11001 | |
---|---|
Tom Robbrecht
|
I passed the PMP exam today with 5 P's.
I thought I'd close this personal project by archiving my lessons learned. Pun intended. My journey began on January 2nd, when I signed on to a project management position at a large corporation. I had more than 15 years of experience doing project management jobs in various industries but one of the requisites for my new job was to pass the PMP exam within the first year. I was aware of what PMP certification was but had never really looked into it in any detail so I ramped up my efforts and started looking into the application process and contacted my former managers to get their pre-approval of the number of hours I would be declaring in my application. The thought of being audited bothered me considerably so I wasn’t taking any chances. I had never had any formal project management training that could be used for the required 35 contact hours so in February I decided to start attending weekly PMP study groups organized by my employer. I forecasted that I would reach the necessary 35 hour milestone by mid-April. My initial intention was to take the exam in September or October. Due to circumstances, around beginning of March, the study groups I was supposed to attend started getting cancelled one-by-one and I knew my plan to reach 35 hours by April was in jeopardy. That’s when I subscribed to the PM Prepcast and fast-track my plans: I took a few days off at work, I took a first pass through most of the PM Prepcast at 1,5x speed, skipping over intros and summaries. Just enough to pass the final exam on a 2nd try and download the certificate. I submitted my application to PMI on March 23rd, 4 weeks earlier than I had initially planned. A few days later I received word that my application had been accepted without further audit. My study plan I immediately booked the exam for June 23rd, which coincided with the end of my 2 teenage daughters’ final exams. This assured me the house would be calm & quiet during my final study week and gave me a deadline to plan against. At that point in time I had 12 weeks left to get prepared so I compiled a high-level study plan which basically came down to a weekly cycle per process group:
My job requires quite a lot of driving to customer sites so I was able to listen to the PM Prepcast while driving, which saved me a considerable amount of time. I allocated another 4 hours per week for the other study activities and taking the tests/exams. As I was not taking chances, I took off an entire week from work and I delved deeper into each chapter, making notes, researching things and generally building a picture of how it all fits together. At the end of each chapter I would take a 40 question quiz on that chapter, followed by a 40 question quiz from random knowledge areas to ensure I was progressing. After every quiz I would analyze the answers I got wrong. I didn’t take the time to complete any full-blown 200-question mock exams except for Oliver Lehmann’s 175-question free sample test, on which I scored 73%. On the last day before the exam I practiced making a brain dump (which I ultimately didn’t use), reviewed all process ITTO’s and read up on ethics. I spent the rest of the day taking timed quizzes in 50-question chunks. When my scores got into the 90’s I felt confident. Taking the exam At the exam center (this was in Brussels) there were several people waiting to take the PMP exam, as well as other exams. After having deposited all our belongings into a locker, we were herded into a small lounge where we waited to be called into security to be signed in one by one and shown to our cubicle for the test. I was handed 4 sheets of scratch paper, a calculator and 2 pencils. At the cubicle there was a choice of headphones or earplugs. The test starts with a tutorial which I skipped. I felt confident enough not to make a brain dump. I didn’t find the questions particularly difficult, the PMP Exam Simulator questions are pretty representative of what I encountered on the test. I did not encounter any direct ITTO questions. I needed to perform only one or two calculations, answers could generally be deducted from the numbers given in the question. Most questions could not be whittled down to one answer by elimination, very often two answers could not be eliminated and needed insight into which process/knowledge area you were in order to choose the right one. Maybe five or six questions on network analysis, one had no solution due to cyclic references. A considerable amount of questions were about the interrelation beteen stakeholder management, communications management, integrated change control and risk management. One question on quality assurance used the term median instead of mean, and tested to see if you know what a median is by presenting erronous data. I cannot recall any obvious ethics related questions. A few lessons learned
Some random thoughts
I could never have pulled this off without the PM Prepcast: a big THANK YOU to Cornelius & Co. |
OSP INTERNATIONAL LLC
OSP INTERNATIONAL LLC
Training for Project Management Professional (PMP)®, PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)®, and Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)®
Company Info
- Home
- PMP®
- PMI-ACP®
- CAPM®
- CIPP/E®
- PDUs
- AI
- Free
- Free PM PrepCast Training
- Free PM PrepCast Exam Simulator
- Free PMP® Practice Exam
- The Free PM PrepCast
- Free PMP® Exam Guides
- Free PMP® Exam Newsletter
- Free PMP® Webinars
- All Free PMP® Exam Resources...
- The Free Agile PrepCast
- Free PMI-ACP® Exam Newsletter
- All Free PMI-ACP® Exam Resources...
- Free CAPM® Exam Newsletter
- All Free PDU Resources...
- Corporate
- Articles
- PMP® Study Guide
- PMP® Certification Cost
- 35 Hours of Project Management Education
- Knowledge Areas & Process Groups
- How to Fill in the PMP Application
- PMP® Certification Exam
- How to get PMP Certification
- PMP® ITTO
- PMP® Exam Questions
- PMP® Certification Bangalore
- PMP® Formulas
- Failed PMP Exam
- PMI-ACP Certification Study Guide
- CAPM Certification Study Guide
- 12 Project Management Principles Explained by Experts
- Project Management Certifications Career Advancement
- PMP vs Certifications
- Project Management Organization Company Benefits
- Project Management Organizations Importance
- Reviews
- Forum