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Greetings,

I wanted to share my experience in passing the PMP exam today.

I am a project manager in Chicago with 7 years experience. I took 2
exam prep courses. I took the first prep class with the Midwest
Chapter of PMI in June, and the second was RMC Project Management
about 10 days ago. I think they both met their objectives as I
passed the exam. After I took the first prep class, I got a major
project, and couldn't focus on studying, so I put it off (I know
there a tons of you out there doing the very same thing, my advice?
schedule the time in). My primary goal was to get better than a 137
on the exam. Given how little I studied, I am ecstatic with what I
scored.

Approach:
Studied on and off for about 5 months (more off than on), started
focusing on passing on the exam on the 2nd of November. I put about
4 hours of studying in every workday since the 25th of October, and
dedicated most of 2 weekends to the exam. I met with study group
once, and it helped to ease the tension.

I scheduled my exam for 11:30 AM because I knew I would be wired the
night before and would not get to sleep at a decent hour. I was
right, it was midnight and had drink some chamomile to get to sleep.
I scheduled in a 10-minute break during the exam, it helped to get
up, stretch, eat something, drink something, and get away from the
test.

Study materials:
- PMINotes v.5 (BEST FREE RESOURCE?from the files section of this
group)
- The 220 question sample exam (second best free resource?from the
files section of the newsgroup, it's good if you want practice with
what the questions might ask of you on the exam, though the questions
asked were different)
- PMP FASTrack by RMC Project Management. (Came in the PMP Exam Prep
course with Rita Mulcahy) The only reason I wanted it was so I would
know what to expect on the test. There are people at my company who
are wavering on getting this software or taking Rita's class because
they saw conflicting results on this newsgroup.
- PMBOK (use it as a reference- Came with the class I took with the
Midwest PMI Chapter; if the budget doesn't allow, go to PMINotes v.5)
- PMP Exam Prep by Rita Mulcahy (got the old version from the class
in June, got the new version in Rita's class a couple weeks ago)
- Binder of study materials supplied by the Midwest Chapter of PMI
(pretty good for review)

For the record, I took 2 full PMP simulations (in the last 4 days)
using PMP FASTrack before I went into the test today. I took the
second one yesterday. That means I have taken 3 PMP exams in the
last week. I must say that I was surprised with my ending score. On
the real exam I scored EXACTLY what I scored in yesterday's
simulation using PMP FASTrack. EXACTLY. Not one less, not one more?
but I expected heavy variation given the conflicting effectiveness
reports of the simulation software. (I had to print out my result
from the CD, my family thought I was pulling their leg). I did take
almost every second of the four hours allotted, to check over
questions where I had questions during the real exam. Using the
simulation CD, the recommendation was to score in the 90 percentile
before we go in to take the exam (hence the reason I took it
twice?. I was NOT scoring in that range, but I wanted this
experience to be over! I went in this morning hoping for the best,
expecting the worst. I took every second to check my answers. It
took over a minute to process my test, it felt like an hour. I
thought I was going to have heart failure. I was sure I failed the
test, I felt the stirrings of an anxiety attack coming on?what was I
going to tell my boss when I didn't make it?what about my family?
and everyone else who supported me in the last month? As my score
appeared, I couldn't believe it. I had passed, and had done better
than I thought.

Lessons Learned
The simulation CD helped, but it can't give you the ability to
analyze situations and select the best answer that impacts the
project the most, it takes some experience to understand that. Now
that I have taken the exam I would recommend simulation software or
using the test banks in the files section of the newsgroup if you
want to get a feel for what the questions would be like. I wanted
the simulation CD because I needed to know what it felt like to be
taking the exam before I actually took it. The test changes daily,
and someone else in my study group took the test today (congrats
Jack!). We had different experiences, he said it was harder than he
expected. I thought the test was just as hard as expected. The
situational questions hit me the hardest, as I was often wrong about
the underlying issue (communication vs. planning), and it made my
approach to answer irrelevant. I knew this was going to be an issue
going into the exam. I had seen the concern over inputs/outputs in
previous postings, so I wasn't surprised there.

Hope this helps in your quest for PMP. I want to thank every PMP who
came before me and posted to this newsgroup, I leaned heavily on your
advice and experiences with the exam.

Good luck to those preparing for the exam.

Best regards,

Florence Castro, PMP

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[ 本文发表于 2002年11月13日 10:52:03 ]