My advice: Dedicate 2-3 weeks of your time...it can be done

Submitted by IQ on Sat, 11/09/2013 - 16:08

 Hello everybody,

Yesterday I passed the PMP exam with 4 MP's (I was  a bit surprised I had not one single P ) 

Then again, when I hear about people taking 8 weeks or more and read PMBOK 4 times and Rita and others... 

I would limit the material you're going to use. Just try to get your hands on a sample of all of them and decide with what "style" you are comfortable. Rita can be very "odd" to some.

Personally I can recommend Cornelius Fichtner PM PrepCast and Exam Simulator. I was planning to do full exams but dind't get to it (!) They have 8 full exams - I just took Quizzes with 10, 20 ,sometimes 30 questions on specific KA and "random"  in the last couple of days.

Lessons Learned: 

They give a demo on how to select answers and scroll and stuff - I used that time to do my braindump

I would recommend to braindump

  • Formulas 
  • T&T of the major Knowledge Area Processes... (Planning , M&C)

I din't do the T&T because I had not trained on doing them as a braindump. I did do the table with the process groups, knowledge areas and processes. I personally did not use it

Questions recieved,

At least 4 questions on O,P, ML  (PERT calculation) - a number of questions on Storming, Forming, of course the EV calculations (what would you expect) - also drawing out the Network Diagram to find Critical Path.

Also what T&T to use in what kind of situation or "what would you as a program manager do next..." type of questions.

No direct question on "Code of Ethics"... possibly interwoven in the exam. 

Followed a 5 day course starting with no prior PMBOK reading - would recommend you read the PMBOK first and than take a course. Starting blank is more challenging though.

Then 2 weeks of study (4 hours a day in the first week- 8 hours a day in the last week)

A little too close looking back at it.. 3 weeks will IMO suffice if you can devote 6 hours a day on studying.

Do a lot of practice questions. Feeling comfortable on the exam because the "format" is recognisable is also important IMO

Good luck to anyone in here still studying.

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Stakeholder

Sat, 11/09/2013 - 20:17

Congrats IQ, done a great job and esp. the way yo uhave done it is quite impressive, I thought it takes several weeks rather months for the prep. I am also preparing and very scared about the complexity of their wy of questioning. You didn't mention how did you fare with the time. How ong did it take you to answer all those Qs.

You used terminology of IMO, what is that for. And did you use Rita at all?

Take care

 

IQ

Mon, 11/11/2013 - 10:07

Hello Stakeholder,

Here is my 3 week strategy

First week: 5 day instructor led course on PMBOK but come prepared. Speed-read the PMBOK first - Good training sessions also use exam simulators after each KA they cover.

If your budget is more limited find a good online video training course and exam simulator. I used PREPCAST

(http://www.project-management-prepcast.com/index.php/product/order-the-p...)

Don't do entire exams (yet) - just focus on the knowledge area(s) your are studying.

Start with Scope - Do Integration Management last.

Work Incrementally: After you do Time Management - Do several 20 questions sessions on both Scope & Time

Second Week: If you are using the video training option you should be halfway in the videos by now.  

Work your way up until Shakeholder Management and do Intergration Management last. Take some more quizzes and focus on areas where you have the lowest scores

Third Week: Now is the time to do some (3 or 4 should be enough) full exams (I dind't get to that point therefore I recommend 3 weeks instead of 2)

If you score 70+ % consistently on new questions you should be OK

However these results of course do not guarantee a pass. 

Some additional pointers

Don't learn all 500+ ITTO's - that's quite useless. Focus on Tools & Techniques and major inputs and outputs.

Braindump the formulas and Tools & Techniques of major Knowledge areas (certainly Risk Management but don't forget about Communication, Procurement and Stakeholder Management) 

Good Luck!

IQ

Mon, 11/11/2013 - 10:04

 

One more thing Stakeholder,

 

IMO = In my opinion - also common is IMHO= in my honest opinion - those are not things for the exam just abbreviations in english people use for instance in blog posts 

 

Stakeholder

Sat, 11/16/2013 - 14:49

Oh, its like the LMAO or LOL. Thanks for the info. I dont get to post much, and thanks to this PMP I have become a stakeholder... Anyway thanks for the detailed sharing of lessons that are valuable. Athough I am following much the same, but I'll see what happens that dreaded day. I a using PMBOK and Rita for studies and taken a week off for more concentration. I took a week of training class, but went unprepared and as you said, it felt like a waste of time. Anyway, I was able to get prep material from it so it was not all bad.

Take care!

Wearld

Sun, 11/10/2013 - 04:59

Closer to the exam it seems better to...spend more time as more info is accumulated and needs to be retained. In the later weeks there's lesser days to exam, so more focused hours of study seems better.

As you did, need to study smart but making sure without missing the pass screen.

IQ

Mon, 11/11/2013 - 10:02

 

Hello,

I believe immersing yourself in the material for a couple of weeks is better than a 3 month prep. Certainly if you are invloved in a lot of other stuff.

If getting the PMP credential is important to you at a certain point in your life you should dedicate most of your effort towards that goal

That means saying no to other things. don't spread it out too long so you can keep doing all of the other stuff as well.

Vishwanath

Mon, 11/11/2013 - 10:04

 Dear Friend,

          Congrats and thanks for sharing LL.

Regards,

Vishwanath