Passed PMP 12/21/13 - 2nd attempt...Merry Christmas to ME!
I finally passed my PMP exam. What I did...
1st attempt...
In March, took 4 day boot camp with ITSC...DO NOT RECOMMEND...FAILED....their class does not prepare you at all, it's like Cliff's notes.
2nd attempt...
November 18 - 21 - Took 4 day boot camp with Project Management Academy...EXCELLENT. After that, did the following:
Had access to PMSTAR.org via study group. Did their 14 day study plan. This consisted of about two chapters a day from the Pmbok, with a 10-25 question pre-quiz and 10-25 question post quiz.
Used Aileen Ellis's PMP Exam Simplified - 5th Edition as additional reference after the 14 days. The end of the section quizzes really helped.
Took several mock exams:
3 from Project Management Academy - scored 71, 77, & 82
1 (free) from PMStudy - scored 71
Oliver's 75 questions - scored 75
Scrodo lite Mock Exam 14 & 16 - scored 72 and 75
Used several iphone apps to study while passenger in car or waiting for appointments.
Days leading up to exam:
Did not do any mock exams for 48 hours before exam
Only studied notes and flash cards.
Did several critical path and EVM equations
Stopped studying at 5pm the evening before.
Day of exam
Reviewed notes & flashcards once
Practiced brain dump (47 processes and all the formulas - been writing them out every day for 1 month)
Ate a banana and some toast...stopped a juice bar on the way and got some "brain" juice.
Got to the testing center with no issues...checked in...did my brain dump...and got started.
The exam itself...was not easy, but definitely was not hard. The mock exam from PMStudy was EXTREMELY hard compared to the exam itself. I was pretty confident going through.
Plenty of questions on risk responses, conflict management, and quality. 2 critical chain questions and about 5 on EVM. Most of the questions were situations...what should the PM do "first", "next", etc...
I did NOT...I repeat...NOT memorize ITTOs. Instead, I immersed myself in the material and learned the "big picture". This mad it so much easier and the questions/answers made sense. My instructor said to read the last question of the paragraph first, read the answers, and then read the question from beginning to end. I must say, that was the best advice ever. It helps to weed out the extra garbage in the question.
My advice:
do as many practice questions as possible
learn, do not memorize
immerse yourself in the material
and...do not panic if you do not know 1 question, you'll know the next one.
Initiating - MP
Planning - MP
Executing -P
M/C - MP
Closing - P
Good luck...you can do it!!!


admin
Mon, 12/23/2013 - 10:48
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Congratulations on your PMP
Congratulations on your PMP
Vishwanath
Mon, 01/06/2014 - 06:10
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Congrats
Dear Friend,
Congrats and thanks for sharing LL.
Regards,
Vishwanath