fbpx

Reply: Passed PMP on First Try

Name
E-mail
Your e-mail address will never be displayed on the site.
Subject
Message

Topic History of : Passed PMP on First Try

Max. showing the last 6 posts - (Last post first)
6 years 3 months ago #12624

John Wingate

John Wingate's Avatar

Thanks for the info!!

That's my biggest concern on the real versus the simulator. I'm trying to time each individual question. I've heard this and that for question length of 4 sentences on average. This could be a big difference when practicing questions based on one sentence.
6 years 3 months ago #12620

Michael Sharo

Michael Sharo's Avatar

On the 4 hour simulated exam, I finished with 15-20 minutes to spare. I felt the questions on the real exam and the simulator were similar in length. The issue was that on the real exam, there were many instances where several answers could be true. Took more time than I had anticipated to pick the BEST answer.
6 years 3 months ago #12612

John Wingate

John Wingate's Avatar

Congrats!

How long did it take you to complete the exam on the simulator compared to the real exam? Were the questions similar in length?

Thanks!
6 years 3 months ago #12597

Michael Sharo

Michael Sharo's Avatar

I prepared off and on for the better part of 5 months. Although I have significant work experience as a functional manager of software developers, and a lot of what I did in that capacity doubled as project management, I didn't want to just rely on my "know how" when taking the PMP. I wanted to take the test just one time and do it right. So I purchased the PM Prepcast and watched many of the lessons to give me a broad sense of the PMI approach and what the test was going to cover.

For my subsequent studies, I used 3 resources: Andy Crowe's book (5th edition), Andy Crowe's accompanying "cheatsheet", and PMBOK edition 5 text book. My approach was to do a little bit of studying each day, no cramming, and to develop a few useful mnemonic devices to rehearse daily. I read through the Crowe book once (in detail) doing all of the tests and exercises. I also reviewed the cheatsheet daily. For the PMBOK, I only used it as a reference when I had a specific question. The mnemonics helped me remember the 10 KAs, 47 processes, 5 Process Groups as well as numerous formulas and quality tools. I would also highly recommend focusing on 2 areas: 1) understand the tracing of deliverables and how they evolve through the Integration Management area and 2) how Work Performance Data/Info/Reports morph through processes. These help you see how things fit together.

Finally, I made use of the PMP Exam Simulator as a way to get used to time pressure and get hit with questions from any of the knowledge areas randomly. I took 10 question quizzes almost every day, starting a month ahead of my test date. 2 days before my exam I sat for a complete 4-hour exam on the simulator. When I first began my journey I scored 52% on a 125-question practice exam. It was a shock to the system. Upon finishing my studies I took another long practice exam and was in the 85-90% range, so I knew I was ready.

On test day, I passed with high scores. But I was shocked that it took me almost the full 4 hours. I finished the exam with 60 seconds remaining and no time to check my work!

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)®

Login