Please Some Advice-Failed my first attempt

Submitted by wanttobepmp on Wed, 04/23/2014 - 20:25

Hi everyone, sorry to say that I just failed my 1st attempt a week ago and was hoping for some suggestions. I’ve been reading the forums for a little while now and wish I’d known about them sooner! When I took my mandatory 35 hour prep. class the instructor suggested everyone take the exam within 2-3 weeks of completing the course. Most of the material in Rita’s book that we rushed through during class was new to me, even though I’ve been in project management for a while. Good to see that I am not alone now, the material is foreign to a lot of people, despite their experience. I knew if I took the test in that short time frame I’d just be wasting my time and would fail miserably. So I went back and read through Rita again, page by page, much more thoroughly this time and really thought I knew it inside and out. Did pretty good on all the practice questions the 2nd time around compared to when I took the class…would say I averaged around 80% in all areas. Did around 400 more questions on the PMP Fastrack as well. After seeing how well prepared a lot of people were in here that passed, I realize how underprepared for the exam I was. Total amount of time from completion of prep. class to testing was around 1 & ½ months, so say approx. 100 hours. That’s including the audit..ughhh. That week I was on the fence as to whether or not I should study, in case I failed the audit, but I got through it and was thrilled just to be able to test. Wound up with 3MPs: Initiation, Planning and Executing and 2BPs: Monitoring & Controlling and Closing. I was hoping to get some advice as to which direction I should head from here. Maybe some input on what everyone thinks about the “cram it into your head and test right away” method as opposed to say knowing which materials I need to read & study and setting myself a goal of say….3 or 4 months from now or however long it takes. Some people seem to think you will forget/lose more information as time goes on. I’m afraid the materials I choose to study may or may not be a waste of time. Right now I am reading Headfirst PMP and was thinking maybe the PMBOK after that. Any thoughts or feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

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philstinnet

Wed, 04/23/2014 - 22:23

My 2 cents - 

Minimum Inputs -

1) 250-300 hours of study time with concentration,

2) Rita (at least 2 deep readings), PMBOK (at least 2 deep readings),

3) Sample problems from various websites (free or paid depends on your budget).

No matter what other people say (including me), you have to do your own risk analysis based on your weaknesses and strengths. You need to have your own risk plan to encounter the risk.

Just have these inputs before you sit for the exam next time. It looks like you have already covered 100-120 hours of study time.

Symptoms that you are 'ready for the exam' - You will start to see Knowledge Areas working lik 10 cylinder engine.

There is no need to feel sorry. There is no need to panic. Just have your ducks in a row...

 

 

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admin

Thu, 04/24/2014 - 04:18

Read this post 

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PMP Fighter

Thu, 04/24/2014 - 04:20

I saw many LL that someone pass with 3MP&2BP.

But one thing i believe is some get BP on Monitoring & Controlling.

 

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PMP Fighter

Thu, 04/24/2014 - 04:21

TYPO- don't get BP on Monitoring & Controlling.

wanttobepmp

Thu, 04/24/2014 - 17:53

Thank you all for your feedback, I'm going to study harder and check this site every day. I've learned a lot from it so far.

danielkoshy

Thu, 04/24/2014 - 20:36

Hello wanttobepmp

                                  I know everyone offers advice based on what worked for them, or what they think will help you. All I can tell you is my story and my recommendations.

Like you, I failed the first pmp too. A lot of people fail the first pmp...A lot..so first of all just realize that you are above average getting those scores. (3MPand 2BP). Pat yourself on the back.

I was devastated when I failed my first pmp. Coz I had just resigned, relocated to a new area and took one month off and thought that I could crack the pmp. Just by reading your post, I feel that we are very similar in the way we approached it. I am assuming that you didnt read the PMBOK..at all correct? Please excuse me if Im wrong, but thats what it seems from your post. Alas, if only life was that easy. Every single pmp aspirant or holder that I know hates..i repeat hates reading the PMP the first time. Its normal to hate reading a dry boring dictionary without any examples or prior knowledge. I summoned up the courage to go at it again. (It takes a lot of courage.. a lot of courage..) to get back into the game. Again be proud of yourself that you are a person who will never ever give up. 

First suggestion, change your screename to wanttobeapmp to pmpachieved. Okay, i know thats a lil too much, but my point is you have to believe in yourself that you will get the pmp no matter what it takes. I can tell you almost every day I thought it was out of reach for me. After studying and completing the tests, if i scored low i would feel devastated again. Please tell yourself over and over again that you will achieve the PMP.

Steps

a) Read the headfirst book. Excellent choice. Its actually the easiest book out there for the pmp. I can also tell you this, you will not pass the pmp just by that book. Read it, complete the fun exercises (i loved the graphics and tests in those). But its really easy compared to the actual test (dont believe what the textbook authors say). Get your feet wet, understand it, think about the concepts , try to apply it in real life (if you are working). Or imagine doing so. Believe me, it pays off big time. Make your own notes for revision.

b) Read the PMBOK. Tie yourself to the chair if you have to :) ..(just kidding). But this time around you will find it much more easier than if you have not read the headfirst. I can tell you from experience you will find things in the PMBOK that almost no PMP book has covered. Every nook and corner of the pmbok is a potential question. It might seem ridiculous that they would ask that question, but at the end of the day if you want the PMP, you have to read the PMBOK. Highlight sections and make it part of your revision. 

c) Congratulate yourself if you have completed that. The next step is DO AS MANY QUALITY QUESTIONS AS YOU CAN

d) I would suggest start with text book questions. you have rita fast track, thats good. any and every text book question you can get a hold of.

Free tests. (olive lehmann is a must..its tough but there were 2 questions on my pmp that asked his exact same question about lag and lead).

Paid tests: In the oliver lehmann site, they tell you all the list of exams, free and paid, my suggestion, attempt all the hard ones (marked H).

Scordo (Are you a pmi member? You probably know that you will save 100$ if you are, plus you will have access to scordo textbook in the ebooks section). I rushed through them a few days before my exam, dont know how i missed it, please make sure you go through them, they are not easy as it may seem. Im sure i saw a few similar questions on the pmp and actually kicked myself for not going through them a little more carefully. 

Revision: After every question bank or exam, make a note of questions you got wrong, and periodically revise them.

Make a table to register all the marks that you score in your exams. If you are scoring 80% and above on average, you are good. Some are super easy, like headfirst you'll score a 90% for sure..(yes you will..believe me). oliver lehmann maybe a 67%. But most of them  you will score 75% and above.

Just to sum up,

1) believe in yourself

2) headfirst pmp book, (read only one book thoroughly, dont go through the concepts of different pmp books, just the questions, the concepts are pretty much the same, maybe some books explain them better than others).

3) pmbok (dont forget to make your own notes and highlight pmbok , that should be part of your revision). Print out the pmbok chapter by chapter, its easier to read it than..have the whole fat book in your hand..just a suggestion.

4) Quality questions (books, free exams, paid exams (complete all H marked exams on the oilver lehmann website), exam simulators). Add or mark questions as part of the revision that you get wrong.

5) Are you scoring 80% and above? 75% and above is also good enough..then again, nobody can guarantee this. If you are scoring bad, pay more attention to your studies, revise more.

If you would like more advice or just to report your progress please drop me an email: daniel.koshy7@gmail.com

 

6) Believe in yourself.

wanttobepmp

Sun, 04/27/2014 - 17:25

Hi Daniel,

Thank you for taking the time to write such a helpful post.  I really appreciate the encouragement and your positive words, I too am a firm believer as well that if you stay focused, work hard and believe in yourself there is nothing you can’t accomplish. We definitely sound like we went about preparing for the exam the same way. Hopefully you now have your PMP along with a great job to go along with such a great accomplishment. 

Yes you are correct, I did not read the PMBOK.  I have no one to blame but myself for taking some advice that I am now realizing was not that good.  The 35 hour “wham bam thank you m’am” course claimed everyone could pass the exam without reading it.  The more I read on here, the more I realize that is just not true.  Thank you for your comments about the Headfirst.  The main reason I chose that one because it seemed like a little “lighter” read than Rita that I had been studying for what felt like forever.  I was kinda on the fence for a few days after failing the test about whether or not I should continue to pursue it.  Once I got done feeling sorry for myself, I realized how much more I want to get it now and could not waste all the time, effort and money I have invested so far.  From what I read about Headfirst it was right up there with explaining the concepts just like you said and so far I agree, the test questions are pretty easy!  Definitely not of the same difficulty of what I saw on the exam the first time around, wish they were that easy though but now I know better.   

Thank you for mentioning Scordo, I did see that mentioned on this forum somewhere before but didn’t know that it was available thru PMI.  I am a member and really do need to take advantage of what they have to offer there.  From what I have read, they even have some free exams there as well. 

So thank you again for your time and help, I now have a schedule planned out with goals set.  I’m not going to let someone else’s idea of when I am ready to overrule my gut and what I have learned and will continue to learn thanks to this site.

Frances Tessler

Sun, 08/10/2014 - 21:31

Do you still need help with this? If so please email me. frances.t@pmstudy.com