TOPIC: Passed PMP on the First Attempt- All AT's

I passed the PMP last week on my first try with ATs in all the process areas. It feels like a long time coming but I feel that all aspects of my studying paid off, without any time or materials wasted. Below are the study materials I used and the way I used them.

1. PMP PrepCast- I watched all the videos and took very detailed notes on all of the lessons. A lot of people used the lessons as supplemental learning, but I used them to provide a strong base for my PMP knowledge. This was a huge undertaking in terms of a time commitment and took me 5 months off/on to complete. However, it gave me a solid base and the rest of my studying was review instead of new learning.
2. Vargas Video- Everyone seems to mention this but after I learned the processes in detail, the Vargas video helped me put the pieces together in an order that made sense.
3. Andy Crowe's How to Pass the PMP on Your First Try- This was the perfect review book after going through the PrepCast videos. it was a quick and easy understanding of the processes and hit the high points of each process. while I used the videos for the details, I used Crowe's book for the high level overview and quick review of important ITTOs, formulas, and points of interest.
4. PrepCast Exam Simulator- Like everyone says, this will become your best friend. It took 5 exams, ranging from 75% to 82%. The questions were similar to the exam itself, although I would say the real exam is more difficult in when narrowing down to two of the best choices. Most important thing on the practice exams is to review all answers, correct and incorrect. You will learn just as much from the ones you got right as you will from the ones you got wrong. Read the descriptions of all the answer choices, even if you know they are wrong because you will likely learn something new.

The day before the exam I did some light review of high level subjects, practiced my brain dump once, and did a few practice questions to get ready for the test. To me, taking an exam is like running a race and you need some time for your brain to rest before you take the test. The day of the exam, I ate a solid breakfast and did some light stretching and walking before the test. During the test, I did my brian dump (wrote out EV formulas, communication channel formula, 3 pt estimating formulas, and the entire process chart), answered all 200 questions without a break, flagging those I was not sure about (about 50 or so), took a 10 minute bathroom/snack/water break, and went back and reviewed all of my flagged questions.

All and all the test was difficult, but it is important not to overthink. If you understand the processes and the PMI mentality you will be fine. Good luck!

Hi Spencer,

Congratulations on your excellent success!

Did you incorporate the PMBOK guide into your studies at all? Or did you just use the above mentioned study resources and that got you through?

Not much. After reading each chapter in the Andy Crowe book, I would skim the PMBOK for any discrepancies. There were very few so I did not review the PMBOK at all after skimming each chapter and I did not even look at the glossary. I felt I got enough of the vocabulary from the PrepCast lessons and Crowe's book and the glossary would have overwhelmed me and taken time away from learning the PMI concept as a whole.

Once you are in the testing room, is there any paper and pen issued to write down things ? This would be a brain dump of important formulas ?

James,

You're given a laminated sheet and a sharpie or dry erase marker. In my instance it was an almost clean laminated sheet and a well-worn mashed marker. I didn't bother with the "brain dump" but was able to scrawl the math problems on the sheet like a kindergartner using a "fatty" pencil writing their name for the first time.

Harry

I had a laminated book of about 8 pages of grid paper. I also had a fine tip marker so I was able to write everything down on one page just as easy as I could with a pen and paper. I think this can vary so just be aware of that. Also, they do no allow you to erase anything so you have to raise your hand to have the test monitor erase for you which would get annoying if you did no have the same setup as I did.