Passed PMP today 08/13/2015

Submitted by shasub21 on Fri, 08/14/2015 - 03:47
I passed PMP today. My sample test scores were the following. 
 
Oliver 175 - 82%
Head First - 80%
SimpliLearn - 80% (Oliver rates this hard)
PM Prep Simulator (Free) - 76%
PM Study (Free) - 86%
 
4 weeks studying + 2 weeks tests/closing gaps. I read PMBOK (most of the chapters) once, Rita once. I did take lot of sample questions (Rita, Scordo and ton referenced by Oliver on his website). Including full tests mentioned above - I might have taken around 2500+ questions. 
 
About my exam:
The questions level was very simple (actually ridiculously simple). It was nothing compared to Oliver or Simplilearn (which were nice and tougher). I have heard people mention PMP exam is similar to PMStudy. This was easier than PMStudy. I found even repetitive or questions with same answer (answer was Project Charter for 5 questions - not exaggerating - got a bit annoying seriously). One thing I was glad was I had only one ITTO question - glad I put no effort to memorize them. I finished the example in 3 hrs 40 minutes and reviewed the remaining time. 
 
The other thing I noticed was most of the questions had 3 unrelated absurd choices and it was very easy to spot the right one. At around 20-25 question mark, I thought may be tough questions are coming later. At around 100 questions, I knew I will pass. At 150+, I seriously got bored. I have seen very few posts where people say it was really simple test (or almost a joke). Most say it was tough and many questions had multiple answers and things like that. It may mean that I just got an easy sample set in my exam (or I may be I just took many sample questions that finding the right answer was not tough).
 
Well, at the end of the day - one thing off my checklist.
 
List of tips:
 
Do's and Dont's:
1. DO Understand the processes and concepts
2. DO NOT memorize ITTOs. I repeat - do not. Understand them - it is not required to know ITTOs completely. If you understand what is required, doing process of elimination is easy in the question.
3. DO Read first and then take tests. I finished reading Rita once. Then started taking tests and found my gaps. I studied only those in PMBoK. 
4. DO NOT buy or pay for any paid courses or exams - Unless you need motivation to sit and study - these may help but cost money. 
5. DO take a lot of sample tests. Once you finish tests, review incorrect ones and learn them. Also review correct ones. However, not all the correct ones. While taking tests on paper, mark that answer to be reviewed at the end. Sometimes, you might get it right with 50-50 guess - it is helpful to understand the right reason.  
6. DO NOT mark too many questions for review. The problem is you may end up with 50 odd questions to review and this may contain only a few that you really want to review. I would suggest marking questions that you absolutely want to review in the exam. If you have some that you want to revisit (but are almost confident of the answer) - mark them in your scratch paper. If you have time, you can visit them.
7. DO Use the 15 minutes of tutorial time. I used it up fully to relax and get my mind focused. Some use it for a brain dump - which could be useful. I used it for assimilating my thoughts about processes in general. Some write formula if one cannot remember them on the fly. 
 
Sorry - I did not have any notes made while studing because I did not make any. However, I used the following summary written by Edward 2 days before the exam - it was a good summary. 
 
Hope these help - All the very best. 
 
Thanks!
 

 

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PMP Exam Tips, Tricks and Lessons Learnt.
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yazzieabby

Fri, 08/14/2015 - 06:55

First of all congratulations to you, hope you have performed well and definitely score good grade. If you need any writing tricks just go through with cheapest essays writing blog you can get many tips from the professionals.

az.youbrand

Fri, 08/14/2015 - 21:05

Hey, fantastic - you are my hero!

but what was your final break down by how many Proficients did you get?

shasub21

Sat, 08/15/2015 - 03:17

Hey - Got 4Ps and 1MP (Executing)

Was pretty content with the result given the time window I had of 6 weeks exactly. Would have loved if PMI showed the % by Process Groups or at least should start mentioning what the P range, MP range and BP ranges are for the exam that I sat on (because I know it varies by exam difficulty). I used to score around 75-80 in my sample tests and it would have been good to relate that with main exam. 

May be they will some day :-)

Thanks.

 

Yaksha046

Sat, 08/15/2015 - 16:50

Hello I am preparing for PMP exam and I need a Study partner. I have found StudyPal a great platform where we can share notes and fix schedules to study . It is a free resource and highly user friendly . besides this there are StudyGurus who have cleared the exam and can guide us well in prrparation . Most of my friends are using it and they speak highly of it. Join me today on Studypal. Best Wishes.

Toxy

Sun, 08/16/2015 - 11:46

Please did you do a self study or attend a bootcamp?
Thanks

shasub21

Sun, 08/16/2015 - 14:21

Hi,

 
No, I did not attend any boot camps. It was self study and online reading. In 2013: I bought pmbok 4th edition. Studied 2 chapters (exactly) and found it too boring. It did not suit my style because of its ITTO based approach. I dropped it altogether at that point. 
 
Given my family was out for a bit, I wanted to pick it up again end of June. I had exactly 5-6 weeks to read and complete it. I read forums online and bought Rita based on that.
 
1. Studied on average of 50+ pages of Rita per day. Went through book in exactly 3 weeks. Did do their exercises (as Rita suggests) and did not do end of chapter questions immediately. Waited to finish reading the book once. This is what Rita suggests as well. 
 
2. Took chapter tests of Rita and saw my range. All were good 80%+ except Communication, Stakeholder, HR and Risk. In face comm and stakeholder were at 55%+. 
 
3. 4th/5th week: Took PMBOK. Became member of PMI and downloaded the PDF. Now I was able to appreciate PMBOK better. One  of most useful part of PMBOK was that it shows a diagram for every process as to where the inputs are coming from and to which process the outputs go to. This is more useful for understanding ITTOs. 
 
4. 5th/6th week: Took lot of mini tests and 2 full tests. Head first and Lehman 175. Once I had these two results, was a little confident. Booked the exam date one week out.
 
5. Took tons of mini tests and 4 full tests as I mentioned before. 
 
My takeaways - understand processes, be sincere, close your gaps by analyzing results. In my opinion practicing lot of questions is more important than taking full tests (a few are enough). I would have done close to 2500+ questions easily.
If you do not find anyone, create your own study plan. 
 
HTH. Good luck!

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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admin

Mon, 08/17/2015 - 04:25

Good post, congratulations. !