PMP Pass!

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
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What was the RMP like?
Arthur Ashe
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.
I am planning to give this within the next 2-6 months.
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Best of luck! Hope this helps.