Hello everyone,

I haven't posted here much (except once and no one replied to my question), but have been visiting the forum for a month to look up discussion on specific terms.

I am glad to report that I passed today - 4 Proficient & 1 Moderate Proficient (Closing Process Group).

Beak down of my preparation :

I want to start with the biggest issue that restricts some of us from passing (you are here coz either you are preparing or are retaking). The problem is sub-par online free mocks. These mock tests are either too tough with stupid explanations or way too easy. I would like to mention that I have taken a number of CATs (computer adaptive tests). PMP is straight forward because it isn't adapting to your standard. The exam picks 200 questions in the beginning and that is what you see. So back to the main issue - we get misguided by what we see on the web. A big chuck of our learning comes from reading the explanation of the questions banks. Bad quality mock tests, will result in bad learning.

I started my preparation about 6.5 weeks ago (to be exact). Did PMBOK once (took about 3 weeks). It is very dry material but you have t get through it once. Then Rita 6th edition, took 2 weeks. Then revised Rita in 5 days (while taking notes). For mock tests, I did starting looking online which I was still reading Rita first time and did notice that the quality varies drastically. I don't know what is good and what is not.

For the final 4 days - I took mocks. Only once I sat throught the complete 200 questions in one block on 4 hours. I use to typically do 100 questions in 2 hours.

I solved 2.5 Simplilearn Paid Mock. Scored 77% and 80% on the first two tests. Stopped after 100 question on the thrid one coz the questions started getting weird (did get 70% on these 100 questions). Then I switched to PmStudy - did 2 tests. Got 75% and 79%. I then did PMPforSure. They have a free set of 100 questions. Got 75% in that.

Finally, I decided to stop taking mock tests 1 days before the actual tests. I visited PM-exam-simulator. Founder is this guy named - Cornnelius. I must says - good stuff. I did their free stuff (hehehe). They have a free section, where you can literally test drive their system. I think it allows 10 questions in each Process Group plus 3 quizes with 30 questions each (the quizes do take some questions from the packets of 10 questions that were used for each process groups). I did not buy their paid package. EXCELLENT explanation for each question. I just took 2 of these 30 question quizes previous night. Took 25 mins each and I was getting 85 ~90%. Then on the morning of the exam - revised my hand written notes and took one more 30 question quiz.

For the mocks - like everyone on this forum has said - make sure you go through your mistakes again and understand why your choice was incorrect. Very Important. Without going back and realizing your mistakes, you can't pass the actual exam.

The test itself is decently hard, but some of the mocks take you in a total different direction. IMO, the problem is that we try to solve any and every question that is available on the web. The KEY - you can not simply go and start solving any free mock test that is available online. The bottom line - the pmp exam is testing your knowledge and 80% is pretty much from PMBOK - but rather then being a straight forward question like - what does blah blah mean ? It will put it in a scenario (a small story). So we have to recognize that is happening in that scenario. To me - the key to passing is understanding the material in PMBOK. Books like Rita just makes the same material easier to digest.

So don't focus too much on the online mocks in the beginning. Make sure you understand the material. I would recommend PMBOK plus one more book. I used PMBOK as a reference guide in the last 3 days. Anything that I didn't understand. Marked and read it from PMBOK. Rita tries to make things understandable and sometimes that can be harmful. You want to be able to think from PMBOKs prespective (not from Rita's).

Some people go through PMBOK and 3 other books (IMO, no need for that). Then, as personal recommendation, look at - PMStudy, PMforSure and Cornelius's website. Simplilearn is also decent. All these are close to the actual exam. I also had FastTrack, but did not use it at all.

Good luck to everyone !