Passed PMP
Hello everyone. I've lurked on these forums for quite some time, so I thought I would register and provide you with what I did to pass the PMP, with the hope that it may help you on your journey. Below is what I did to pass the test, and my suggestions if I were to do it all over again. You choose what works best for you.
Before I go further - it must be said - this exam is a beast and you must fully commit to study time. Do not underestimate it. I failed my first attempt at the PMP. I truly believe my first attempt met with failure because of the corners I cut. This means dedicating yourself to months of hard study time, as well as ponying up the money needed for good, legitimate simulator exams. Then, you definitely need to study your answers to the simulators and fill any gaps in your knowledge.
TL;DR: 1) boot camps after you've studied a lot, 2) Rita & Heldman books, 3) 1200 simulator questions 4) make passing the test a priority and dedicate your extra time outside of family and work to the PMP, and ONLY the PMP.
Boot Camps
The first thing I did was submit my application and get it approved. Once that was accomplished, I started looking for boot camps. I found one through the Knowledge Academy which I attended in February. My first biggest mistake was leading off with a boot camp. Don't do this. I highly suggest you derive your base knowledge from other sources, and do the accelerated deep dive into PMP study using a boot camp when you're closer to exam time. After the boot camp, I took a simulated exam with the Knowledge Academy's simulator and scored poorly. I cannot give you a high recommendation for the Knowledge Academy, but I can tell you that it was under $1000 for the four-day class. I've seen other four-day boot camps sell for as high as $2700USD.
Study Materials
I purchased the Rita Mulcahy book, and was lent the Andy Crowe book. Over the course of the next 6 weeks I studied the Rita and Crowe books almost nightly. I read through each book once, then took the practice exams at the end of each chapter, then I studied the areas that were most challenging to me. I also wrote a 23-page study guide of the PMI project management process. The Rita book is amazing. If I were to do it all over again, I would have started with reading and soaking up everything out of the Rita book, then I would have started looking for boot camps once I knew I had a handle on all of the concepts. After I failed my first attempt, I was lent the Kim Heldman book. It is just as good as the Rita book in my humble opinion. The best thing the Heldman text has going for it is the real world examples. These were crucial to me fully understanding the concepts behind the vocabulary. All in all, I would have dropped the time spent on the Crowe book and stuck with Rita and Heldman.
Note: I also have a one-year-old at home, my wife and I are in the middle of buying a house and I coach little league baseball three nights a week, so you can imagine what kind of hectic life I have had lately. Don't do this. Make passing the PMP exam your #1 priority outside of family and work. Get rid of all the other competing priorities. I suggest a bare minimum of three months of study time with just the text materials you choose to purchase. Read them thoroughly. Study them. Know them.
Simulator Exams
Simulators make up the foremost method to passing the PMP in my opinion. Do not neglect simulating the full exam, (200 questions over 4 hours). Throughout my first attempt, I only took 50 and 100 question simulators due to time constraints. Don't let yourself do this. Also, I used free simulators I found on the net that ended up conflicting with the rationale of the Rita book. It made for a confusing and frustrating experience. Don't do this. Pay the money for the good simulators. I purchased a set of four simulators ($60USD) from PMStudy.com for my second attempt. It was the SILVER package. They were fantastic and I highly suggest them. I used the Rita and Heldman books for cross-referencing the simulator exam results. This is a must. If you get a question wrong on the simulator, you need to actually learn why your answer was incorrect and the rationale for the correct one. I spent more time studying why I got answers wrong than actually taking the exam. This is crucial.
All in all, I was getting mid to upper 60% on the first exams, and eventually scoring in the mid to upper 70% on the last two simulated exams. My suggestion is to go through a minimum of 1200 exam questions (that's six exams) before you sit for the real thing.
Best of luck to you future PMPs - you can do this. Do not start studying for this exam until you are ready and willing to let it take up the vast majority of your life for a number of months. You have to fully commit.
