Dear all, I can't believe that I passed the PMP exam with 5Ps.Thanks for PMzilla.

The LLs and the discussions in this forum really helped me a lot, I am not an active user though :).Now it is my turn to share my LL as closing the PMP test project. I started the PMP journey from Nov 2013,but got to stop as the Christmas season coming (distracted by all the parties  ), after frequent traveling in Jan and Feb. I restarted my study in March. I started with the PMBOK guide, but it is too dry and boring to read as a beginner. And English is not my native language, it makes it's tougher to understand what it is talking about. After more researches online, I ordered Rita's book. It is a must-have, makes the concepts much easy to understand.

I read the Rita and PMBOK once chapter by chapter, did all the Rita's chapter questions. Start doing practice test from Mid April. Practice test PMStudy 1-4 (paid) 71-79% , the web site said you should target for 85% , then you are well prepared. I felt so disappointing with my scores, and no confident at all. I took one exam per week during the weekend. It was really hard for me to be sitting there for 4 hours. I finished each exam in 3.5 hours and had no energy to review anything anymore just hit end exam. So I was worried about the real exam. Scordo Test (free for PMI member) Mock test 1-10 &18 80-90% - Highly recommend for clearing the knowledge gaps, I have not have a chance to finish test 11-17, but from others LL they said test 13-18 are must. I agree! This are really high quality questions not tough but cover all the knowledge areas.

I refer back to PMBOK while reviewing my wrong or marked questions. PMzilla tough free 30Q 50%- it has some typos in the questions text, and other people said it is way too tough. What I need is the confident to pass the exam, not the challenges to discourage myself. So I didn’t order the paid one. Oliver 75/ Oliver 175 (free) 67% or something I don’t remember- although other people said they are good questions. I don’t like the language they are using for the questions, I didn’t even bother to review my wrong questions from this two sets of questions. PMPforsure 100Q 68% Pass. I did this free test the two days before the exam, the website scored me “Pass”, P on initiating, MP on planning, M&C and closing, and BP on Executing.

They are good quality questions and give me a little confidence with that “Pass” score. I reviewed the ITTO of 47 process at least 3 times. Never end up with memorize them, just tried to understand all the inputs, T&Ts, and out puts. I wrote down each process ITTO in a piece of paper (1/2 of A4 size), review them by knowledge areas. Then in the next review, regroup them by the 5 groups. I believe these processes helps me to get the 5P score. Real Exam Unlike other people said the real exam is tougher than the mock test. I feel the opposite. Although there are some really trick questions, but they are not very tough as long as you understand the ITTOs. There are quite amount of calculation questions. I feel I am lucky as I am good at calculation questions, but they did give you lots of extra information. You need to read it carefully. Otherwise, there are also quite amount of straight forward questions which you will you the answer immediately. I finished my test with 10 min left. Just review a few of marked questions, then time out.

I kept my pace as 50 question per hour just with a little behind. Again English is not my native language, you might be faster than me on reading questions. I also found that a few questions are long and tricky, but if you read the last sentence. It just asks for a simple concept. So don’t be scared with the wordy questions. And there are really NOT many wordy questions. Most of questions are 2-3 lines. Also quite amount of questions are just 1 line. Actually I initially scheduled my exam in April 20, then I postponed to May 20, but with my busy project schedule at work, I pushed it again to Jun 2 and swore not to push it again. I really felt tired after 3 month study. So what I want to say, just book your exam date and go ahead for it. This is all I can think of right now. It’s great to share my happiness here. As a 3 year old boy’s mom, it is really tough to study more than 2 hours a day. But I MADE IT.

Thanks for my family’s great support! Good luck to you all!

Cheers, Lillian