I Passed on Nov. 29 after 3 months of study

Hi, I passed the PMI-PMP Exam!


I first saw the PMP certification during a job search and thought that I should get it. That was about 5 months ago. I signed up at PMI and started reading about it and began inputting the dates of the various projects I had been involved with and more importantly had documented this time with my former employer. I already met education requirement with my MBA program. I was worried about an audit and just wanted to mitigate the risk of paying for the application, getting audited and then not being able to prove this experience. With that said, I talked to my direct manager about it and he was accommodating and the official records were available to me if I needed them. After that conversation, I went ahead and finished my application then turned it in. I still was nervous about the audit even though I did have documentation. Well, I received PMI e-mail with candidate number and was not audited. At this point, I decided to schedule my exam a little more than three months later after the Thanksgiving holiday. I started learning by watching as many u-tube video’s as I could find about PMP. I bought a PMBOK guide and Q & A’s by Frank T. Anbari. I knew I needed a learning program and decided on Instructing.com PMP Boot camp with Joe Phillips. This was the bread and butter of my PMP education. I watched it in its entirety at least six times taking in depth notes on the second run. This program included a full length exam that I waited a while to take. When I did take it, I did not do very well on it. So I purchased another program from David Litton.  This one is called PMP Primer.  I watched it at least three times and took his three 80 question quizzes. At this time I then purchased PM PrepCast PMP Formula Study Guide and 105 question Formula Exam as well as the PM Exam Simulator that included 9 full length Exams. The last exam was based solely on ITTO’s. So to recap my study material:


·         PMBOK Guide- read it at least once after one boot camp pass. It will make much more sense to you after you already understand the processes. I did for me anyhow.


·         Instructing.com PMP Boot camp with Joe Phillips


·         David Litton.  PMP Primer


·         PM PrepCast PMP Formula Study Guide


The practice exams I took:


·         Q & A’s by Frank T. Anbari- 200 questions with detailed explanations and PMBOK references.


·         Instructing.com PMP Boot camp with Joe Phillips- 200 questions


·         David Litton.  PMP Primer – Three 80 question quizzes


·         PM PrepCast PMP Formula exam – 105 formula questions


·         PM Exam Simulator 1800 questions


·         Oliver 75 question (free)


 


 


The 9 full length exams really prepared me to sit and concentrate for the real thing. I visited the Prometric center a few days before the exam as suggested and that is a real tension reliever so make sure you do that. I arrived for my exam about an hour early, read the testing requirements, signed in, and tried to relax. Even though I knew I prepared well I was shaking like a leaf in a hurricane. I wore my suit because I wanted to look professional and feel that way when I left. They scanned me, gave me a locker key and made me put everything in it. They encouraged starting the exam right off. This was at least 45 mins early, but I wanted to get it over with. I walked in, sat down started the tutorial and then brain dumped Pg. 43 and 12 formulas. I still had 4 mins to spare. My hand was shaking violently on the mouse. I started the exam. I did not feel that the first questions were the hardest like I had read many times. My hand stopped shaking after about 20 questions. Before I knew it, I had completed 95 questions and had to go to bathroom. I had only marked maybe 4 or 5 questions that I was unsure about. I got back and looked at the time to find I was still way ahead of planned progress. I got down to business and progressed all the way to question 195 before having to go to bathroom again…watch out for your coffee intake...I had at least 3 cups. I got back finished the last few questions and sat back to stretch then thought about submitting without checking my marked questions just to get out of there. I looked at the time and had at least another 35 mins to kill before the 4 hours were up so I checked my 6 marked questions. 2 of which were critical path presented in strange format for me to diagram on paper to determine float. The others were oddly worded with every answer being correct and I had to choose the best correct answer. Ok, unmarked an finished I click end…..I pray….I convince myself I did good….pooof…there it was the survey… ok done that now give me my result….I saw the first part of CONGRAT and an overwhelming feeling of relief came. I am now a Project Management Professional.


 

Oh, I forgot to mention about ITTO's. Memorizing them would be insane. However, understanding where inputs come from and where/why they are used again elsewhere is most important. I focused on Inputs and Outputs rather than the tools and techneques. There's something like 136 T and T's but alot of them are used in many processes. I have to say that after reading in this forum, and seeing that so many people were trying to memorize them I got a little worried. I will say this DONT DO IT. Why, you ask? Because it is not learning WHY they exist but rather only knowing they do. A great way to do this is examining the nice little pictures in the PMBOK. Its all in there. The diagrams show Where inputs come from and where they are going in a very simple to grasp flow. PLEASE USE the nice pictures in PMBOK.

 Congrats,

 

Regards,

Amit

admin's picture

Congratulations on your PMP.

What do you suggest pm primer or pm prep cast what is better?
I am a little inclined towards pm primer watching Dave litten's YouTube videos

The PMP is not only the nearly all supposed assignment organization certification; it is also one of the most excellent certifications to how to get a research paper done fast irrespective of your specialized environment and production.