Hi everyone!
I wanted to share my lesson learnt and journey having passed the PMP on the first try.
I studied for a time period of 3 months, having read the PMBOK once only. I did find the PMBOK very dry therefore my main book that I studied from was Rita's Exam Prep, which I highly recommend as she really does provide some great tips and general summary of what needs to be covered in all areas.
Ricardo Vargas video on youtube was a great reference and understanding, which made everything make sense.
In terms of the prep cast simulator, I absolutely recommend everyone who's sitting for the PMP to purchase it as the questions were the most similar that I found to the real exam. The real exam definitely is more vague but if you practice the exams and go through your wrong answers it becomes very valuable. I was scoring between 70-80% in the 6 exam simulators that I took.
An important reference is the actual PMI Mock exam which I completed 3 days prior to my exam date, I only completed it once and scored 68% which I felt was kind of a surprise, however I went in with high confidence in the exam and scored the following: 2 Above Target, 2 Target, 1 Needs improvement (which was in the closing process group). I only found out about the PMI Mock exam on the same week that I was taking the exam but it helped me to mentally understand the vagueness of the questions that I would expect in the real exam.
Hope that my lesson learned is of some benefit to anyone preparing for the exam.
-Rania
