PMP Pass!
datacomboss
Member Posts: 304 ■■■□□□□□□□
I am so happy to have passed the PMP yesterday morning. I’ve never felt so unsure about a test. The Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) and VMware VCP were much easier for me because of the sheer volume of the information related to the 47 processes and related ITTOs.
My path was pretty straightforward based on the lessons learned from others on this and other forums.
1. Joined PMI. I’ve run many IT infrastructure projects, just never felt the need or the time to do it. I’m glad I did.
2. I assembled the documentation for my largest projects over the past three years and started to breakdown my hours in the five process groups. Rather than re-invent the wheel I used this spreadsheet from PM Prepcast. https://www.project-management-prepcast.com/worksheets/Contact_Hour_Worksheet.xls
3. Searched for best place to get the 35 contact hours needed for certification. I settled on Simplilearn (Online and Classroom Training for Professional Certification Courses). The experience was decent. Didn’t expect to learn too much just wanted to get the certificate to document the contact hours. Excellent customer service.
4. After getting the contact hours and documenting my 4500+ hours, I applied for and was approved to take the PMP exam. I didn’t do much after this in regards to PMP study as I had many other projects to lead and an IT dept. to run, so I waited 7 months before doing any more prep.
5. Once my examination time was getting short (they give you 1 year to take and pass the exam after approval) I started to buckle down starting with:
a. Subscribed to CBT Nuggets and listened (to and from work) to Steve Caseley’s PMP prep. Great insights and sample documents to boot. Recommended.
b. Subcribed to BrainBOK™ - PMP® and CAPM® Certification Exam Sample Questions, Exam Simulator, Flashcards, ITTOs and Quizzes. This was great. The ITTO explorer and flashcards really helped me to better understand the flow and ITTO of most of the processes. The practice exam was much harder than the actual exam, so if you can pass it you will blow away the actual exam IMHO. Highly recommended.
c. Subscribed to PM Exam Simulator (http://exam.pm-exam-simulator.com/). Nine exams with one dedicated to ITTOs. Great prep for the actual exams and were about the same level of difficulty of the actual exam. Highly recommended.
My strategy for the past month was to take and review a practice exam twice a week from Brainbok or PM Exam Simulator, which usually took me five hours each time. The other five days I would either do 15-20 formula questions or review flashcards from Brainbok.
In the end, I think I could have saved money by just buying the PM Prepcast complete package which includes the the 35 contact hours and the nine practice exams. Don't feel that reading the PMBOK was necessary either.
My path was pretty straightforward based on the lessons learned from others on this and other forums.
1. Joined PMI. I’ve run many IT infrastructure projects, just never felt the need or the time to do it. I’m glad I did.
2. I assembled the documentation for my largest projects over the past three years and started to breakdown my hours in the five process groups. Rather than re-invent the wheel I used this spreadsheet from PM Prepcast. https://www.project-management-prepcast.com/worksheets/Contact_Hour_Worksheet.xls
3. Searched for best place to get the 35 contact hours needed for certification. I settled on Simplilearn (Online and Classroom Training for Professional Certification Courses). The experience was decent. Didn’t expect to learn too much just wanted to get the certificate to document the contact hours. Excellent customer service.
4. After getting the contact hours and documenting my 4500+ hours, I applied for and was approved to take the PMP exam. I didn’t do much after this in regards to PMP study as I had many other projects to lead and an IT dept. to run, so I waited 7 months before doing any more prep.
5. Once my examination time was getting short (they give you 1 year to take and pass the exam after approval) I started to buckle down starting with:
a. Subscribed to CBT Nuggets and listened (to and from work) to Steve Caseley’s PMP prep. Great insights and sample documents to boot. Recommended.
b. Subcribed to BrainBOK™ - PMP® and CAPM® Certification Exam Sample Questions, Exam Simulator, Flashcards, ITTOs and Quizzes. This was great. The ITTO explorer and flashcards really helped me to better understand the flow and ITTO of most of the processes. The practice exam was much harder than the actual exam, so if you can pass it you will blow away the actual exam IMHO. Highly recommended.
c. Subscribed to PM Exam Simulator (http://exam.pm-exam-simulator.com/). Nine exams with one dedicated to ITTOs. Great prep for the actual exams and were about the same level of difficulty of the actual exam. Highly recommended.
My strategy for the past month was to take and review a practice exam twice a week from Brainbok or PM Exam Simulator, which usually took me five hours each time. The other five days I would either do 15-20 formula questions or review flashcards from Brainbok.
In the end, I think I could have saved money by just buying the PM Prepcast complete package which includes the the 35 contact hours and the nine practice exams. Don't feel that reading the PMBOK was necessary either.
"If I were to say, 'God, why me?' about the bad things, then I should have said, 'God, why me?' about the good things that happened in my life."
Arthur Ashe
Arthur Ashe
Comments
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hustlin_moe20
Member Posts: 225
Congrats. I guess it's my turn!On deck; PMP, C|EH
Web: http://cyberresearchgroup.com
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/cyberresearchgroup
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mauricemoore1 -
N2IT
Inactive Imported Users Posts: 7,483 ■■■■■■■■■■
Thanks for posting and nice work. I took this back in 2012 and failed not much. Took the RMP passed, so I am going to head back to this, in fact I have been reading Crowe's test prep book. It's interesting. -
datacomboss
Member Posts: 304 ■■■□□□□□□□
Thanks for posting and nice work. I took this back in 2012 and failed not much. Took the RMP passed, so I am going to head back to this, in fact I have been reading Crowe's test prep book. It's interesting.
What was the RMP like?"If I were to say, 'God, why me?' about the bad things, then I should have said, 'God, why me?' about the good things that happened in my life."
Arthur Ashe -
N2IT
Inactive Imported Users Posts: 7,483 ■■■■■■■■■■
It was almost the same as the PMP with a lot of focus on communication and risk. It was more expensive.
I took the PMP first and failed by a small margin. Took the CAPM blew it away and then took the RMP after additional studying and went through it quickly, I had about an hour left.
I think the PMP and RMP are about the same. On message boards most people seem to think that as well. -
vr2312
Member Posts: 12 ■■■□□□□□□□
Thanks for sharing and congrats. I did not know there was a nugget for this course. I will probably also use this along with my PMBOK guide and the handy book i received in my boot-camp session.
I am planning to give this within the next 2-6 months.Don't be complacent.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] -
SuperLT09
Member Posts: 31 ■□□□□□□□□□
Congrats my friend, I love the PM Prepcast as well....Taking my test on the 20th of March!!!!2018 Goals: CISSP (JUNE), MSCA Server 2016 (SEPTEMBER), CISM (DECEMBER), Need to learn Linux and Python
2019 Goals: OSCP, Transferring to the Army Cyber Branch -
AccountantCPA
Registered Users Posts: 1 ■□□□□□□□□□
Congrats! For anyone still considering the PM exam/still studying for it, I just recently passed the PM exam also. I thought this might be helpful info since it's been 4 years since this thread was started. I used Brain Sensei because it was the most complete and easy to digest across the whole exam. It's the most expensive, but you get what you pay for. They have some discounts going on right now which will help the cost substantially. Additionally, you can apply for a PM exam scholarship like this one.
Best of luck! Hope this helps.
