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...
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 hardly 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.
Saving Changes...
Kim HatchettPM I| AmedisysBaton Rouge, La, United States
I took it and passed last week. I found the PMTraining.com test simulator to be very helpful. I also used the Rita book to study from.
...
1 reply by Stéphane Parent
Jan 30, 2018 4:44 PM
Stéphane Parent
...
Congratulations, Kim! Just remember that acquiring the PMP is like a black belt in martial arts: that's when you really begin to learn.
Saving Changes...
Anish AbrahamPrivacy Program Manager| University of WashingtonAuburn, Wa, United States
Jan 30, 2018 1:39 PM
Replying to Irtaza Ghafoor
...
Can anyone guide best practice exam simulators.
PM Fast Track(Rita) or else.
Pamela NandiDelivery Project Manager| IBM India Pvt. Ltd.Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Jan 30, 2018 1:39 PM
Replying to Irtaza Ghafoor
...
Can anyone guide best practice exam simulators.
PM Fast Track(Rita) or else.
I passed the exam on 24-Jan.
Bought 2 very good PAID Simulators
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 hardly 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.
...
1 reply by Stéphane Parent
Jan 30, 2018 4:45 PM
Stéphane Parent
...
Congratulations, Pamela! It sounds like your focus on understanding your weak areas paid off!
Saving Changes...
Stéphane ParentSelf Employed / Semi-retired| Leader MakerPrince Edward Island, Canada
Jan 30, 2018 1:46 PM
Replying to Kim Hatchett
...
I took it and passed last week. I found the PMTraining.com test simulator to be very helpful. I also used the Rita book to study from.
Congratulations, Kim! Just remember that acquiring the PMP is like a black belt in martial arts: that's when you really begin to learn. Saving Changes...
Stéphane ParentSelf Employed / Semi-retired| Leader MakerPrince Edward Island, Canada
Jan 30, 2018 1:49 PM
Replying to Pamela Nandi
...
I passed the exam on 24-Jan.
Bought 2 very good PAID Simulators
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 hardly 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.
Congratulations, Pamela! It sounds like your focus on understanding your weak areas paid off!
...
1 reply by Pamela Nandi
Jan 31, 2018 2:42 PM
Pamela Nandi
...
Thank you so much Stephane...:-). You are absolutely right. My weakest area was Monitoring and Controlling and I scored 'Above Target'.
Saving Changes...
FAHIM SHEIKHPresident| 0947292 BC Ltd.Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
Hi Rebecca, you should not give up and should take the exam the forth time, I would highly recommend taking the exam before it changes to pmbok 6 in March this year. For success, you need to analyze the past 3 results, what were your weak areas, mostly it's planning, execution or monitoring and controlling. Take a week off from work if you have to and dedicate yourself to studying and taking MOC exams and pray for success. I hope and pray that you will be successful, amen.
Best of luck...!!! Saving Changes...
Christian LilloPM Specialist| Isban DE GmbH & Co. KGDuisburg, Germany
Jan 30, 2018 11:27 AM
Replying to Pamela Nandi
...
I passed the exam on 24-Jan.
Would advise you to buy some good simulators and join discussion forum in linkedin - 'I want to be PMP'.
Keep an eye on this forum. The tips from this site helped me a lot.
2 best paid simulators i practised
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 hardly 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.
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.
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 facility. Have not seen this too in any paid or non paid simulators.
Hello Pamela, thank you for your recommendation and tipps.
Well I have read the PMBok two times and Rita as well and I have work and answer on Rita´s question. I had the feeling that most of the questions and the according ansers were stupied meaning by reading the answers I thought every answer or no answer is correct.
Furthermore I was wondering about the sense....what is the question refereing to (do you know what I mean ?).
Well actually I am thinkning of if a fourth time makes sense.
Cheers
...
1 reply by Pamela Nandi
Jan 31, 2018 3:26 PM
Pamela Nandi
...
Hello Christian, coming to your points one by one
I had the feeling that most of the questions and the according answers were stupied meaning by reading the answers I thought every answer or no answer is correct.
You are correct, this is the trick of the exam. Each ques will make you think at least twice or even more during the exam.
Out of all the correct ones you have to select the BEST.
For the absurd answers in some of the open forum its documented that they do not add any marks to the exam. Its a pressure test to confuse the candidate more.
My recommendation if you can buy and practice one PAID simulator in case if you haven't done that yet. I am sure this will bring back your grip and confidence level over the exam. PMPrepCast is the MOST RATED simulator.
If you would like to buy any other simulator, please go through the reviews carefully before you buy them.
By reading the explanation for both incorrect and correct answers you will know what is wrong in your understanding. For every correct answer, I tried to do thorough search in PMBOK - you will get a catch how that BEST answer is hidden in some way or other as concept in PMBOK. This is very time consuming process and specially for situational questions.
Furthermore I was wondering about the sense....what is the question refereing to (do you know what I mean ?).
Sometimes the ques comes as a combo from 2 or 3 KAs of PMBOK which is very confusing whether its referring to RISK/PROCUREMENT. This type of quality questions i came accross in both PMZEST and PMPrepCast.
Honestly, I also practised lots of free sample ques but sorry to say they did not add much benefit to the exam.
In the last 5 months i only practised the above 2 simulators multiiple times and i stopped wasting anymore time looking into the free sample tests.
Did you make use of the tools for highlighting the ques and scratching the wrong answers during exam.
Since last 5 months, I regularly dumped all the best tips in a sheet and that is how i came with the plan.
Please let me know if you need any furthur info/help.
My suggestion would be not to give up, please go ahead and give the exam ONLY when you are ready.
Saving Changes...
Vijay SelvarajLead Engineer| W-IndustriesHouston TX, United States
I have passed my PMP (first attempt) on Dec 30 2017.
I completed my exams with almost an hour to spare. I marked only one question for review. I read questions more than once and gave a definitive answer. Importantly I didn't change any of my answers.
* Don't follow too many resources for study
* Study PMBOK glossary
* Understand the concepts of PMBOK (eg: Origination of change requests and its flow, change control systems etc..,)
* Practice as many as mock exams possible (I had never taken 200 questions mock exam once, I used to take 50 questions or 100 questions in a sitting)
* If you are not confident facing PMP exam first, try and take CAPM first and then proceed to PMP ( I took CAPM, Project+ and then PMP)
...
1 reply by CHETHAN MANGALORE
Feb 08, 2018 2:18 AM
CHETHAN MANGALORE
...
Vijay, So you are saying PMBOK is sufficient, I am confused with so many second book suggestions and really it would be a task to study. Please confirm
Saving Changes...
Pamela NandiDelivery Project Manager| IBM India Pvt. Ltd.Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Jan 30, 2018 4:45 PM
Replying to Stéphane Parent
...
Congratulations, Pamela! It sounds like your focus on understanding your weak areas paid off!
Thank you so much Stephane...:-). You are absolutely right. My weakest area was Monitoring and Controlling and I scored 'Above Target'. Saving Changes...
