Rebecca BraglioCommunity Engagement Specialist II| Project Management InstituteNewtown Square, Pa, United States
Have you taken the exam? Passed? Failed? Failed and then passed?
Help out a fellow project manager and post your tip on studying for and taking the exam. Here are some we''ve gathered from members so far:
J.l Laroche: Try not to try to absorb all the PMBOK content by heart, focus on the main stream of processes and knowledge, the tools and the results and you will be fine don''t worry. remember to get first through all questions, answering the evident ones and flagging the others and then get back to the flagged ones, and think of it, even if you''re unsure of the answer, always, always pick one, if you''re wrong you will not loose points and you have 1 on 4 chances to get it good...
M. Hartsough: When reviewing those questions you flagged, don''t start second-guessing yourself. IMO, in all probability your initial answer was correct. Don''t change your original answers unless you definitely found a better one. Remember to answer from the "PMI Perspective". The PMI Perspective isn''t necessarily how you or your organization manages projects.
F. McCaskell: take a break every 50 questions - no matter if you don''t think you need it. This will prevent you from being burned out at the end.
C.Tong: don''t think the exam is easy or you won''t prepare yourself well Saving Changes...
Jay GopalData Integration Manager| Alithya IncArlington, Va, United States
Dec 04, 2015 8:01 PM
Replying to Bala S Duvvuri
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Utilize the first 15 minutes which is given to get familiarized with the system to write down all the important formulas/things which you can''t remember for a long time on the paper so that you can free up your mind and concentrate on the questions.
PMI has moved away from allowing people to be able to do this. The papers cannot be used until the clock starts. You can still try and write down things that you think might forget. I did not and I did not think this would've been helpful as most of the questions were situational. I could say I got like 3 math questions which would've been the only things I might have jotted out in the paper. Please don't count on this when you appear for the exam. Try and understand the ITTOs and try and understand the question before answering. Saving Changes...
Diane GloorMarketing Project Manager/Project Manager| NoneRedondo Beach, Ca, United States
Oct 11, 2017 2:07 PM
Replying to Will Prible
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A PMP prep course, combined with a few practice exams (online or CD), treating your exam prep as a project (this was advice during the prep course), and by treating your prep as a project, providing a meaningful schedule that brings all the moving parts together--including your exam day. I'm not good at tests, but I passed on my first try thanks to this process.
Hey William - what prep course did you take? And did you take it at the beginning of your studying or closer to your exam date?
Thanks Saving Changes...
Anish AbrahamPrivacy Program Manager| University of WashingtonAuburn, Wa, United States
I prepared almost 3-4 months for the exam, started with PMBOK and then Rita's book. I also tried several mock exam online and also purchased mock exam from pmtraining.com. Even though I was getting only 65-75% for the mock exams (tried around 2000 questions), I went ahead and attempted the exam. The exam was not easy, but managed to pass, thank God for that. Saving Changes...
Very good tips for preparation.
From my side, those who have been preparing for a while basing on Guide to PMBOK 5th edition, hurry up you are running out of time. Exam is changing on 26th Mar 2018. Saving Changes...
Just earned 2 days ago!
For me it was:
- 3h per day x 5 days x 6 weeks
- PMBOK 5th edition twice + other few publications found on the web
- some webinars, podcasts, youtube prep.,
I've not insisted too much on anything as if you got the credentials it's already your daily life, so nothing really new. Just be honest with yourself and work on your weaknesses.
NB: enjoy these study time as it's breaking down the routine.
Happy Christmas to everyone and Happy 2018!
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1 reply by CHETHAN MANGALORE
Feb 08, 2018 4:23 AM
CHETHAN MANGALORE
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Hi, Just wanted to check, is PMBOK 5 sufficient? I am confused with so many second book suggestions and really it would be a task to study. I will however take the mock test and go through the question bank. Please clarify.
Hi Rebecca,
I passed my PMP exam this october on my first attempt. I used the following :
1) PMBOK guide - passed it 3 times
2) Rita's book - passed it 3 times
3) Took mock exams (Oliver Lehmann for example) untill I had 80% or more right answers
4) Took 35 hours of formal training
5) Watched videos and read articles related to PMP
Took me arround 4 months of preparation
You need to understand the material cold and not learn by heart. You need to prove not only that you have the required knowledge but also to demonstrate that you think like a PM. Saving Changes...
Pishon SMUTKOCHORNDeputy Project Team Manager| Samsung EngineeringBangkok, Bangkok, Thailand
I just pass the exam at my 1st attempt. I think my way is similar to many lads here.
1. Skim through PMBOK guide, concentrate on terminology, knowledge area allocation.
2. Take mock exam till get 75%-80% of 200question
3. Make sure have good sleep the night before exam, 4hours straight is intense. Saving Changes...
Janarthanan BalasubramanianSenior Business Analyst| Standard Chartered Global Business ServicesBangalore, Karnataka, India
Cleared my PMP exam on Dec 14, 2017 in first attempt with Above Target in all Domains.
Apart from PMBOK guide, I used the following text books:
Head First PMP by Andrew Stellman
PMP Certification All in One for Dummies by Cynthia Synder
Attempted more than 3200 questions.
And in mock exams my scores were in the range of 78 to 90%
5 mock tests from QAI, each of 200 questions
5 mock tests from Simplilearn, each of 200 questions.
Simplilearn Free Mock Test 200 questions
Head first PMP comes with a mock test of 200 questions
Purchased PM Study Circle PMP exam questions (2 sets)
Then the other sources included
a mobile app with more than 900 PMP questions,
Oliver F. Lehmann (75 + 175 questions),
Prepare PM (75 questions), Passionate PM (65 questions),
PM Prep cast Free Questions
Practice Test in PMP for Dummies had 100 questions + chapter end questions
Head First PMP chapter end and review questions 280 questions)
Spent quite some time making a map of all processes with inputs and outputs which really helped a lot. Again it is not an exercise to memorize ITTO, but to understand the interconnections between various processes. It helped in answering a lot of questions in my exam.
Brain dump is not allowed in PMI exams and I did not do any brain dump. It was not necessary. A handful of formulas can be easily understood; it is better to understand them than trying to memorize them.
First 15 minutes well spent understanding the examination interface helped a lot. I extensively used the highlighter feature and strike out option to nail down the right answer.
One of the exam tips I got was to do at least 3 pass through the questions (
Pass 1: attempt all easy ones and mark tough ones
Pass 2: come back for the marked ones
Pass 3: review the answers and make corrections if necessary (though it is not recommended)
Honestly I did not have time for 3 pass. I spent an average of 1 minute on each question to clearly understand the question, highlight the hints hidden in the question and strike out answers that did not make any sense. At the end of 2nd hour I took a break of just 5 minutes) and then got back to the hot seat. At the end of 3 hrs 30 minutes I am done with answering all the questions and also revisited few of (around 25) marked questions. Then another 30 minutes were there for reviewing the answers. I could review up to 120 questions in that time. I did not make much changes to any of those answers. Saving Changes...
Anonymous
Wish I would have passed my first try. Read/Studied the PMBOK5, PMP Simplified by Aileen Ellis, PMP Exam Simplified by Ramdayal, and even took a course and completed several practice exams by Prometric, which I successfully passed. However, the exam was presented in a much different format and style than ANY of the teachings/Exams. Any advise as to the materials needed to study for this exam from someone who has completed the exam within the last 6 months is appreciated.
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2 replies by Janarthanan Balasubramanian and Pamela Nandi
Jan 29, 2018 11:21 PM
Janarthanan Balasubramanian
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Please go through all the tips in this thread and make a list of resources based on these suggestions. You have limited time. Exam is changing on March 26, 2018. You need to hurry up if you want to write the exam based on PMBOK 5th Ed.
Plan: Create a plan for the next 1 month. Spend at least 4 hrs per day. Then for the next 10 days attend mock tests everyday.
Prepare: Start preparing. Keep improvising the plan based on the learning that emerge. Understand the ITTO. Though there are not many direct questions on ITTO, good understanding of ITTO is very important to answer a lot of questions (what comes next type, situation based questions etc).
Practice. Attend at least 3000 - 5000 good sample test questions. (read through the tips in this thread to identify good sources of sample test questions) - that is 15 - 20 mock tests and the chapter end questions in the books. See how it applies to the real life situation.
There is no short cut to passing the PMP exam. All the best.
Jan 30, 2018 11:09 AM
Pamela Nandi
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I cleared my PMP exam on 24-Jan. Let me tell you its not easy and there is no short-cut to pass this exam.
Skimmed through - PMBOK - 3 times, Rita - 3 times, (Practise all the exercises throughly until you are confident), HeadFirst - 2 times. Use highlighters that to make it more easy to remember the important terms/words.
Practised the 2 best PAID simmulators -
Amol Singha's PMZest
Cornelius Fichtner's PMPrepCast.
Put more focus on the explanation of the answers that goes wrong. This is VERY VERY IMPORTANT.
During practise, I have scored 60 to 70%, but my focus was on the wrong answers (i mean why it went wrong). This will help to clear the concepts as the explanations are very well articulated in paid simulators.
Tips - Free simulators are okay just for practice, but i would recommend not to blindly rely on them for exam purpose, as they are not up-to-date and sometimes misguiding too. The explanations are not properly documented.
Best way to memorize is to write down what you read, specially the challenging sections.
No need to mug up, as long as you understand the concept its fine for the exam.
Best way to speed up during the exam is to use the highlighter to mark the important words for the question and the scratch the wrong answers. This is very helpful. Please use this tool facility in exam. Have not seen this too in any paid or non paid simulators.
Finished 200 ques in 3hrs 30 mins without taking break. Last 30 mins revised 70 ques.
Since you have gone through Guide to PMBOK 5th edition and you still have time before exam shifts to 6th edition, I would say that you go through PMP exam prep book by Rita Mulcahy. For getting a feel of exam questions I found RMC fastrack to be the closest, which will give your mind a lot of practice to handle scenario based questions. PMP PrepCast is also a great source.
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1 reply by anonymous
Jan 29, 2018 9:24 PM
anonymous
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I appreciate your time and suggestions. Thank you so much!
