I cleared PMP exam today. Many thanks to PrepCast and previous members who posted their LL, tips, questions.
Must do:
- Create a study plan (not optional)
- watch PrepCast videos
- Take PrepCast Mock exams AND review results (what you got wrong, why, why did you not select right answers, etc)
- Analyze your mock exam results after each test, strengthen your weak areas and review before next attempt. The results breakdown by knowledge area and process group is great to identify this. (I created a lessons learned repository of my own and reviewed it periodically)
- Despite popular belief, I treated "Pass PMP Exam" as a project and applied many concepts I was learning to my mini-project (for example: holidays was on my risk register, study materials were part of my budget, progress was my WPD)
- After my 2nd review of study materials, I created 3 dummy projects and simulated its execution through each process (was very helpful). For example: assume you've been assigned a project to build a house. Go from Intimating to closing.
- go beyond your study materials (aka: Google, YouTube specific concepts that are confusing to you. ie: change vs config mgmt, control quality vs manage)
- devil in the details. I personally found that one word in question changes the whole answer (for example: an issue was found and cr that was approved ....3 sentences of blah blah blah...what should you do next? You'll be very inclined to chose option such as evaluate impact , submit CR, etc which are all wrong)
- I knew the 49 process in 10 knowledge areas and 5 groups by heart with major plan/document out of each. I practiced this once a day till I could draw out the entire page in less than 10 mins.
- formulas and network diagrams are important but they are not the most important part
- 3 days before exam stop taking mock exams. Last 3 days I used study notes available on internet (I personally liked Edward and pmstudy notes for review)
For study plan:
Here's what I would do differently/better
- read through prep guide (Rita in my case) one time without taking any notes. Just note down things I didn't understand fully. This should be quick.
- read pmbok guide end to end.
- re-read the study guide in details. MAKE NOTES, draw charts/diagrams.
- follow Ricardo vargas's process flow and understand why project flows the way it does
above all:
- have confidence in yourself. PMP exam is only hard if you're not prepared or if there's confusion in your mind.
- manage your time on the exam. If you find yourself taking longer than 2 min answering the question then mark, move on and come back
Good luck to you on your journey!
