I passed on 12 Aug 2017 on my first attempt, with 1 Proficient on Initiating domain and MP on the rest of the domains.
Preparation:
1. I started the preparation by viewing the online courses on Lynda.com (Free from my company), this cleared my requirement for 35 hours of project management education. and allowed me to submit the application
2. My application did get audited, however, since all my previous supervisors still with the company it is pretty easy for me just walk to them and hand them the audit package. It also help that both of them are certified PMP so they know what was going on.
3. After clearing the audit process, I continued my preparation using Rita's book, however, I felt progress was slow so decided to register for Advanced Project management class from Colorado state university which was designed specially for people preparing for PMP exam. Unfortunately, I have to drop the class due to the need to travel internationally because of family death.
4. By this time I started receiving notification about the coming changes for the PMP exam in early 2018, and decided that I had to take the test before the end of the year end
5. After a litlle bit of online research I found several options, but based on several online reviews (and my traveling with limited internet acsess requirement) PM PrepCast seems to be the best one out there for me. I purchased the PM PrepCast + the PMP Exam simulation before I left, and I scheduled my test around 1 month after I return home.
6. around 3 weeks before the test, I started taking the exam simulation, interestingly my simulation tests looked pretty similar to my PMP exam result.
What I learned:
1. I learn during this process is that, my learning improved when I wrote down what I read or hear from the pod cast, but that could be just my style.
2. I think the Exam simulator was one of the best tool that I had during this preparation process. Not only that it is very realistic, is is also pretty close in predicting the probability of passing the real exam based on my score.
3. I believe scheduling the exam after creating m y preparation plan, forced me to stick to the plan and prevented me from procastinating.
Thanks Cornelius and the PrepCast team for a great product!
Setyo Nugroho
