Passed PMP Exam on first try on Dec 1st, 2012...thanks to Jesus my Lord and my family for the courage and support!

September 2012

I signed up to take the exam and purchased PMI's PMBOK Guide and Head First PMP books .  I quickly realized that the vast amount of knowledge required to be absorbed required a plan similar to what I was learning from the books.

October 2012

After being overwhelmed with the two 700 page books I had just purchased, I set milestones for myself to have the Head First PMP book read by the end of the month.

November 2012

After finishing the Head First PMP book and highlighting important areas, I went over it a second time creating a compilation of all of the important areas for each of the 42 processes in a Google Document along with a table of the inputs, tools, and outputs for each.  This served as my study guide.

Next, I planned my brain dump by memorizing the Process Table on page 42 of the PMBOK book as well as important formulas.  Having the table memorized helped me with reviewing my study materials due to knowing where each process goes in the table.

Lastly, I cracked open the PMBOK for the first time for each of the processes and skimmed the material.  The Head First PMP book did a nice job of covering the material in the PMBOK guide, and I used the PMBOK guide mainly for its process diagrams to visualize how each of the processes relate to each other.

PMP Practice Exam

I only took the practice exam in Head First PMP two days before the actual exam.  I scored an 85% on it.  This practice exam is much, much easier than the actual exam, but it did give me enough confidence to believe I could pass the actual exam.

Exam Day

Crammed a few last things into my brain before the test.  I went to the exam center 20 minutes early, and they had me start right away.  After they sat me down at my computer, I began the brain dump only to find a few minutes later that they started a 1 minute count down forcing me to begin the tutorial.  I flew through the tutorial that I'll title "How to Use a Computer Mouse" and used the rest of that time to finish the brain dump.

I finished the exam with 12 minutes remaining, and I really wasn't sure how I did.  The exam was much more difficult than the practice exam I took, but I knew I was comfortable with the majority of my answers.  I held my breath, submitted the test, and was relieved to see "Congratulations, you passed the PMP Exam".  

Resources Used

• Head First PMP
• PMBOK

Summary

• You can pass the exam on the first try with just 2 books and 1 practice test, BUT...you have to put in some serious hours to make sure you know those materials very, very well. I probably spent 200 hours studying for the PMP exam, but the benefit is I spent a minimum amount of money on resources.
• Too many PMP Resource Websites (about all of them) play off of your fear that you NEED their materials to pass the test.  If you have time to chip away at the knowledge with self-study...save the money and do it yourself.  

I'm a regular guy who passed the test...you can too.  It's hard, but it's worth it.