Hello Everyone,

I am happy to announce that I successfully passed my PMP exam on Dec. 1^st. Score was Prof. – Planning/Executing, Mod. Prof. – The rest.  

This could not have been achieved without the support of all of you who have provided great insight and support. I want to now give a little back by providing my lessons learned for the preparation and exam.

My total study time was roughly 4 months, first 2 months studied about 1-2 hours a day excluding weekends, and the last 2 months studied 2-3 hours a day including weekends. I did all self-studying and did not attend any test prep courses. Although, I was able to borrow a prep course work book provided by a colleague and that was from the “PM study” course which is PMI recognized. My other study materials included the PMBOK (read once and made sure to read through glossary terms), Abhishek's version of Rajesh Nair's notes, and also skimmed Rita and used some of her exams. I also leveraged some of the study materials included in the PMI website, (free for members) which were the 24 hour prep book and the questions/answers book, which were both really great study materials. My contact hours were achieved through the University of Irvine where I took the PM certification course (8 courses total).

A couple of key studying tips I would suggest that I feel made the difference:

-          Take several practice tests (probably took 2000+ test questions) Just look it up on google and on this site. I seemed to score on average 75-80% on all exams. Even uploaded apps on my Iphone that I could quickly practice on my down time.

-          Made sure to understand the ITTO’s, not so much memorize, but understand the reasoning behind each one.

Some things I would have done differently:

-          I did not take a 4-hour exam in one sitting while preparing, which I regret because the day of the exam it takes a toll on you both mentally/physically and is definitely in endurance challenge.

-          I also did not have a great breakfast the day of the exam and tested at 1pm which is a long time without food. Make sure to get a good meal in before the exam and also take plenty of snacks (fruit, granola, etc.) with you that you can take on your mini breaks.

-          I waited to submit my application until 3 weeks before my actual test date, which was not good because I wanted to take my exam this year and limited my choices for test locations and ended up testing at a location 45 minutes from home….

As far as the exam goes:

-          First of all, the exam is much more difficult than I expected and I was concerned throughout the first 25 questions but then after got into a rhythm and was able to gain confidence. I did not recognize any actual questions from any of the practice exams I had taken.

-          The exam is I would say 90% scenario ?s where they ask “What do you do next” or “Where do I refer to for that”

-          Actual formula questions are about 7-10 and are quite easy if you know your formulas (EAC, ETC, etc.)

-          A lot of ITTO related questions (this will help get you about 20% of the ?s correct)

-          I used up 3:15 for the test and then used the last 45 minutes for reviewing the marked questions where I changed about 6 of them.

Thanks again for everyone’s support and I hope my input provided some guidance in your test taking preparation!

Chris R.