I have passed PMP exam on April-2013 according to PMP
handbook 4th edition and I would like to share the experience of
this study with everyone. The following is the recommended steps from my point
of view to prepare and pass the exam and the following is what I really did:
1- Attend PMP course
It is a must to have “35 contact hours of formal education” which is mandatory to exam registration on PMI , there are mainly two ways for this:
a- Attend formal course for PMP in your area, but usually it costs you too much, unless it is included within your company training schedule.
b- Distance learning by purchasing an online course, and at the end you get your certificate by passing an exam.
I prefer the first choice because it has interaction between you and the instructor and direct contact, it also will be helpful for non-English speaking students.
There are many authorized centers to
conduct PMP training around the world.
2- Becoming PMI.org member
When you start your preparation coarse and when you decide to proceeds with your plan so ,Please create a new account in PMI before applying for individual membership that will cost you 129 USD.
When u become PMI member you will have discount on everything
you do on PMI include exam and re-exam
fees , book prices and also you may download free version of PMBOK
.
You
will receive electronic copy of PMI NETWORK ,PMI today and PM Journal for free
3- Download PMBOK Guide 4th edition
On
the beginning of attendance preparation course and after your registration to
PMI you must have the latest version of PMBOK this may be free download from PMI.
This
book is the knowledge core for PMP and you must read and understand it , it is
not for remember everything on it but it is important to understand and feel
reach to the concepts.
4- Aids to be ready for the exam
There
are many preparation book you can read to understand more and more the base book
PMBOK and these books are very important to clearly understand the idea of PMP
and its related tasks, PMBOK is considered tenser and towards exam objectives,
I find myself try to understand or seeking more declaration about a subject in
preparation books if I can’t understand from PMBOK.
I find the most important book to help you on the preparation
stage is:
- Rita's Course in a Book for Passing the PMP Exam.
5-Stick to a study schedule
One of the biggest mistakes that you will do is that you get
the certification in relax mode, this may take months or even years. My advice
will be making a schedule for the preparation till the day of the exam
including solving exams. You can prepare your own schedule depending on your
working time but remember that “YOU MUST STUDY HARD”.
I prepare my study pattern as the following :
1-
Attend
training session.
2-
Read the
session from PMBOK.
3-
Read it again from Rita's Course.
4-
Solve Rita's
Course question on the end of the chapter.
5-
Solve fast
track questions for this chapter.
6-
When you
finish all this you must start solving complete Exam (200 question).
6- Online exams simulation
You need to solve many exams as you can before the real exam.
But don’t wait to see this question on your real exam it is only to train you ,
Following is list of available free websites :
https://www.pmi.org (Practice Exams and Quizzes, The PMP Exam Made
Easy: Your 24-Hour Study Guide to Passing)
7- Real Advices for Exam day
a- Language aid: If English is not your mother tongue language;
apply for free language aid in the exam, this sometimes help in some types of
questions.
b- Exam time is limited, you need to be fast: You have 4 hours to answer 200 questions, i.e. you have only 72 secs per question (1st hr --> you should have reached 50 questions, 2nd hr --> 100 questions, 3rd hr --> 150 questions) you should check these milestone in the exam in-order to keep moving as fast as you can.
c- Exam duration is 15 mins tutorial, 4 hours exam, 15 mins survey. The first 15 mins you will have complete tutorial on how to mark and review exam, and use of calculator before you finish this tutorial (As exam will start after this) take the remaining time for writing down all equations you know in a clear paper the testing center have provided you. This is really helpful as you might get distracted from long time in exam and will consume time trying to remember them.
d- Method of elimination is best used for exam, for tough questions, pick any answer from what you think are probably correct before marking the question for review; i.e. never leave a question without an answer.
c- Sometimes for long questions, it is better to start reading the last part sentence to know what it require, before reading a whole paragraph as it is giving stoo much unneeded information.
d- When a question is asking what you will use for a process, it is asking you to pick up input, tool, technique that’s part of the process.
e- Take your time answering “Which is not” question. I think the best way to eliminate confusion is to remove the word “NOT” in the phrase and write down your answers then convert it x --> √ & vise versa. This worked for me very well.
b- Exam time is limited, you need to be fast: You have 4 hours to answer 200 questions, i.e. you have only 72 secs per question (1st hr --> you should have reached 50 questions, 2nd hr --> 100 questions, 3rd hr --> 150 questions) you should check these milestone in the exam in-order to keep moving as fast as you can.
c- Exam duration is 15 mins tutorial, 4 hours exam, 15 mins survey. The first 15 mins you will have complete tutorial on how to mark and review exam, and use of calculator before you finish this tutorial (As exam will start after this) take the remaining time for writing down all equations you know in a clear paper the testing center have provided you. This is really helpful as you might get distracted from long time in exam and will consume time trying to remember them.
d- Method of elimination is best used for exam, for tough questions, pick any answer from what you think are probably correct before marking the question for review; i.e. never leave a question without an answer.
c- Sometimes for long questions, it is better to start reading the last part sentence to know what it require, before reading a whole paragraph as it is giving stoo much unneeded information.
d- When a question is asking what you will use for a process, it is asking you to pick up input, tool, technique that’s part of the process.
e- Take your time answering “Which is not” question. I think the best way to eliminate confusion is to remove the word “NOT” in the phrase and write down your answers then convert it x --> √ & vise versa. This worked for me very well.
