TLDR; truly understand the material, know your tools & techniques (YES!), the exam questions will challenge your knowledge

I recently found this site and I think it's wonderful that people are posting their experiences with the PMP exam to share with others who are still preparing. It's very PMI! I thought I would also post my "Lessons Learned" on passing the PMP exam.

I wrote the exam for the 5th edition PMBOK. I scheduled the exam 6 months before I began studying so that I would give myself a goal to work towards. I first started by reading PMBOK and taking a sample exam. I scored 61%! It was very disappointing because it meant I had a lot gaps in my knowledge and made all the wrong choices in the situation-type questions.

I decided to get an exam prep book. I purchased the Rita PMP Prep 8th Edition (which matches PMBOK 5th edition content). I tried following the book's guide. I read the entire book once without doing any practice questions. Then I went back to each chapter, did the practice questions and noted my score. If I got less than 80% on a knowledge area, I noted this is an area of weakness. For me, my areas of weakness were in Integration, Quality and Procurement. (Not surprising as Rita says these are hard topics). I read the book through a second time and really focused on areas that I knew I struggled. I did the practice questions again. I scored higher but this is expected because I already know some of the questions. Finally, I read the book through a third time as they suggest. And honestly, on the third read-through there were concepts that I was just starting to understand! You really need to go through the material multiple times.

After reading through Rita, I decided to try some more mock exams on the web. In particular, I recommend PMStudy (the free 175 question exam is excellent), and Oliver Lehmann sample exams. He has a 75 question online exam which is quite difficult, and a 175 PDF exam which is medium difficulty. After taking these, and consistently getting 80%, I felt prepared. The key is to expose yourself to as many sample questions as you can.

I also made sure to know the Rita PMP process chart. It's more detailed than the PMBOK process/knowledge area chart because it really tells you what a PM does in each knowledge area. Knowing the exact sequence during planning is especially important. In some situation type questions, you will be asked what the PM should do NEXT! For the other areas, I didn't memorize everything but I mentally noted that, yes, Close Project or Phase really means doing things like administrative closure, getting final & formal acceptance, recording lessons learned, or that Develop Project Charter also means determining measurable objectives, collecting high-level requirements, assumptions, risks, etc. Simply knowing Develop Project Charter is an initiating process is not enough.

Tools & Techniques? This is a contentious topic, as I have discovered from reading many forums. Rita PMP says not to memorize them. Many people say the same. DO NOT BE FOOLED! You NEED to understand Tools & Techniques. Do you realize the difference between understanding and memorizing? Don't just memorize and not understand why a tool or technique is used or not used for a particular process. PMI WILL TEST YOU! This is an area I ignored at the beginning and it was only until taking the PMStudy exam that I realized it is important. You could be asked to pick an answer demonstrating that you know when or why to use a particular tool/technique. You could be asked to choose between answers that contain lists of tools & techniques and you have to know which are the wrong ones. Trust me, if you don't study tools and techniques, you are just guessing. Unfortunately, it is difficult trying to remember the numerous tools and techniques, so you really need to know what each means and you should be able to figure out which process it belongs to.

The PMP exam is truly challenging. More so than I imagined. During my mock exam prep, I normally could finish 200 questions in 2.5 to 3 hours. So I thought I was in good shape and would have plenty of time. In reality, on the exam that actually counted, I used up all 4 hours and was not able to review all my answers. It was THAT hard.

The questions on PMP are similar style with the mock exams, but be prepared to see questions that you have never practiced before. For example, you expect the calculation type questions - see the numbers, plug them into the formula that you memorized, done. However, you may given a question where it requires interpreting the data first. This, I believe is a part of being a PM. Nobody is just going to give you numbers so easily in the real world. You really have to understand the data, and then figure out how to apply those formulas. On the whole, I have to say that the mock exam calculation questions are too easy. Be prepared for ones that really test your knowledge.

So, I spent 6 months preparing, mostly in the evenings and weekends. I spent a lot of time reading, making my own notes, and doing practice exams. Do not underestimate how challenging the exam will be. Don't just memorize things without understanding the concepts. If you plan and spend the time to study, be confident you can pass the exam too!