TOPIC: Passed 1st Attempt! T/AT/AT/AT/AT

Hi, hello!!

This past Saturday I passed my PMP, first attempt! For reference I spent the beginning of March to middle of April hard studying, about 3-4 hours almost every day. I even moved part time workwise so I could focus on my preparations. I would consider myself a young PM and young to the field.

What I used and how:

1. Rita's book -- GREATLY helped understanding the material in an approachable way, read this all the way through once and annotated as I did, did all practice exams and exercises provided. Read it again over only what I pointed out. Took the chapter tests again to see how I improved, studied what I still felt unsure about.
2. PMBOK - - honestly, I didn't even crack this baby open until the last two weeks of my studying. I used it more to glance over the glossary and compare differences of Inputs/Outputs. Having read Rita's book, it was MUCH easier to digest.
3. Ricardo Vargas () -- AMAZING video on how to put it all together. I found myself not really seeing how the processes intertwined.
4. Memorizing processes () -- helped learn all 49 processes for my dump sheet
5. Flashcards -- I made these myself, going through Rita's book to write down anything I needed extra practice to understand. I did not "memorize" these, just reviewed every night to really familiarize myself with them. In my opinion, you are going to be hard pressed to memorize everything in the PMBOK. I only memorized formulas pointed out in Rita's book as well as a few that popped up in Test Simulator
6. This here test simulator -- Amazing, amazing, amazing. Even though I used it to take tests, it helped me learn more about agile and other things not covered in Rita's book. I think this is one of the biggest reasons I passed. I got familiar with the kinds of questions asked as well as the format of how the test actually looks (PRETTY spot on). The biggest thing is that I learned HOW to read the questions and what to look for in those tricky PMI questions. Then on the actual test, they aren't scary or disorienting. I averaged 76% on the 5 full tests I took. I only took a couple quizzes.

My biggest advice is to be honest with yourself on what you don't know -- even if you HATE a topic (*cough cough*, procurement, *cough cough*) you have to learn it. Don't focus on memorizing, focus on getting familiar and understanding the MEANING, how things flow. By time I took the test and had my brain dump, I barely looked at it because I practiced everything so much I knew it really well.

GOOD LUCK OUT THERE! You can do it. Don't underestimate the test OR yourself.

Hi,
Thank you for sharing, your inputs are definitely very useful in my preparation.

Just wanted to check which test simulator did u use?
I am thinking of selecting either of the below 2 options -
PM Master Prep
or
christopher scordo pmtraining
let me know if you have any recommendations.

Thanks

I can answer which one she used: Jaclyn is a customer of The PMP Exam Simulator that my company offers.

Hi There ,
Congratulations on passing the exam with flying colors !! This writeup provides a lot of positive motivation on preparing the exam. I had a question on Rita's Book and wanted to know as how can i get the same. Additionally , I'm not familiar with Flashcard concept , Request you to let me know as how can i start preparing flashcards.
Thanks in an advance.