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It's been a week...

 It's been a week since...I passed my PMP!!!!


Hurray!


So, I actually made a "lessons learned" document so that I could post it on Reddit and Discord as those are the two communities that really helped me a lot. Actually, I discovered Discord through a Groupme chat, which I discovered from Reddit. So the Reddit community of r/pmp really helped me a lot on this.

And along the way, I inspired someone to just take the plunge and go for the exam! Hurray!

So I'm logging it here, what I posted:


I am not from the US, but I’m very thankful for this community for helping me pass the PMP! If not for this, I wouldn’t have known all the wonderful resources that would help me pass my PMP on my first try.


How I Prepared:

  • Took the Udemy course of Joseph Phillips for my contact hours, as well as learned about the PMP certification and the PMBOK. Used this for my application to sit on the exam.

  • Ricardo Vargas video on Youtube - I used this as my guide for reading the PMBOK. Super helpful!

  • As soon as I finished my Udemy course in September, I applied for the exam and I got approved with no audits. I wasn’t able to pay yet for the exam.

  • The PMBOK 6th edition - I was very diligent in taking down notes from the PMBOK, using the flow from the video of Ricardo Vargas. Well, I even wrote all of the ITTOs within the Planning stage

  • Prepcast Free PMP Practice tests - I took advantage of the free tests to validate what I’ve learned so far, and I was convinced that I could learn out of taking the practice tests

  • I had a mental breakdown sometime in October so my studying was halted for about a week, but after that...

  • PMI Practice Exam - to alleviate my mental breakdown, I joined PMI to be able to take the practice exam. Even after the break (and breakdown), I was still able to get a decent score: 65.5 %. I was telling myself, not bad as a baseline for the succeeding practice tests that I plan to take

  • Prepcast PM Exam Simulator (Paid) - finally I got the budget to have a paid Prepcast! Took quizzes, and took two practice exams...both exams were in the mid 70s

  • Paid for the PMP Exam. I was thinking whether I should take it in the testing center or here at home…

  • Retook the PMI Practice Exam - Initially I thought that when you press resume, you’d get back to where you left off. So I thought I made an attempt to do the exam again right after the first one, and I tried it again. I didn’t want to finish until 200 so I closed the window, and retried to take it after a few hours, only to find out it didn't work that way. So in effect, it seems that I’ve seen some of the questions there 3 times. In the end, my retake score was 78%. This happened on a Sunday night


Exam Day: dawn of Monday

So it was Sunday night, and Monday is a holiday in our country, I was thinking “I think I’m prepared to take the test”. I was afraid that I would relapse and have another mental breakdown and lose my momentum. I knew I had to seize the day. So I told myself that after I shower, I’m gonna look for the next available test time. I decided to take it at home. Luckily, I found one that was a few hours from when I was scheduling my test. With the retake of the PMI practice exam still fresh in my head, I knew I had to really take it. And so I did.


Check-in:

I checked in 30 minutes before my exam, took pictures of me and my area. My worry before was that my room was really messy. After I submitted the photos, I waited for around 15 minutes for the proctor to contact me. At that time, I turned off my phone and placed it somewhere far. Good thing even with the mess in my room, the proctor didn’t mind. I had a calculator on my desk though that he asked to be stowed away before I begin the test.


Actual Test:

The wordings are very similar to the PMI practice test, though the situations are reminiscent of both the PMI practice test and Prepcast. Honestly, most of the time I felt like my answers were off. But I’m happy to say that I’m really sure with some of the answers. :) There was a 10 minute break after question 89, but you can make it sure if you want to, or not even take it. :) At this point, I wanted to take it to stretch as sitting for the exam can be a bit taxing. 


Ending:

At the end of the exam, the message said “Congratulations! You passed the PMP exam!”. It didn’t feel real to me as I haven’t got any sleep yet, or maybe I even surprised myself that I would pass on my first try and scheduling it out of whim as well. I took the survey, and was mumbling as I was answering the survey, and one of the proctors told me to stop mumbling. I told him, I’m sorry I was just finishing the survey. 

I checked the Pearson Vue results, and I was even more surprised that I got 5 ATs! To think that during the exam I was already thinking on how to fund for my retake fee in case that I fail, and that I want to finish the exam the soonest because my bum was killing me hahaha.


So there you go, I hope this helps. :) I’m writing this a few hours after the exam so I haven’t got any sleep yet, but do let me know if you have any questions. :)


Resources:


  • Joseph Phillip’s Udemy Course (for the contact hours) - https://www.udemy.com/course/pmp-pmbok6-35-pdus/

  • Ricardo Vargas’ Youtube Video explaining the processes per domain - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC7pN8Mjot8

  • Prepcast PM Exam Simulator - https://www.pm-exam-simulator.com/

    • There’s a free trial for one week for 120 questions

    • The paid version contains 1600 questions, I only got to finish around 500 before the exam. This is accessible for 3 months, and if there’s a need to extend, there’s a premium on top of what you paid for. 

  • PMI (these are accessible online once you become a member)

    • PMBOK 6th edition

    • PMP Practice Exam

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