TOPIC: Passed PMP first attempt (June 2019)

While I was studying for the PMP exam, I've navigated through a lot of forums trying to gather some lessons learned so I do not repeat some of the most frequent mistakes.

I hope that sharing my experience can help some of you guys:

1. Study - I've reviewed the PMBOK 2/3 times (writing while studying always worked for me);
2. Understand PMBOK - Have a clear vision of the interaction between the processes and remember: the processes are not static! You can (and should) iterate on them several times (Ricardo Vargas has a very good video on youtube explaining the structure of the PMBOK/its processses and process groups);
3. Buy a good test simulator - PrepCast exams are a very good option as the exams are very similar to the real PMP exam (not in terms of the questions itself of course, but the structure of the questions and the difficulty of them are quite similar);
4. After each test exam, please REVIEW all your answers! Make sure you really understand the questions you have answered incorrectly - I used to write a brief comment on the incorrect answers, completing with information from PMBOK if necessary;
5. Some of you buy alternative books for studying - I didn't bought one and honestly I didn't miss it
6. Time management is very important! - simulate a real test environment while making prep exams. Remember, the environment on the test day is very stressful. Make sure you can easily finish your test exams at home in the four hour period (including reviewing marked questions);
7. Do not try to memorize all ITTO - make sure you are familiar with all of them and understand why they must be applied on the different processes.

I’ve studying for about 5 months, a couple of hours a day after work, 4 days a week. My result was “Above Target”.

Hope it helps! Good luck!

Congratulations Filipa! Great job passing the exam with above target results!

Congrats on passing your PMP! And thank you for sharing your excellent tips. Well done!