by Josh
Posted on behalf of Kevin in Michigan, who passed his PMP exam recently (based on the 4th edition of the PMBOK Guide)
Happy - by B Rosen via Flickr (this isn't Kevin in the photo! 
Josh: Congratulations on passing your PMP exam Kevin! Any tips for others who are preparing for it?
General
- I memorized 40+ formulas for my brain dump sheet. One key to success for me was to “logically” understand all of the ITTO.
- Having a solid understanding of the knowledge areas is beneficial.
- I had to know the best answer from the available list of answers. So for listed principles found in the PMBOK, I had to know each principle in the list and then which ones were better than each other.
Study Tips
Three essential preparation techniques for me (in addition to the helpful emails from Josh Nankivel) included attending a TrainingCamp class for PMP that was well-instructed by Douglas Boebinger, listening to the PM Prepcast by Cornelius Fichtner, and taking several practice exams with scenario based questions. When it comes to practice exams, scenario based questions required me to understand what the question was asking and then apply PMP principles. I had a lot of scenario based questions on my exam. Prepare using scenario based questions will help aspirants to learn how to determine what the exam question is really asking, then learn how to extract the important details while ignoring non-essential information, and then learn to apply their PMP knowledge. Also, a word of caution when it comes to sample exams: stay away from practice exams that are not PMBOK 4th edition complaint. I ran into some earlier version exam questions that would just confused me because some of the processes are completely different or in different order. To weed those out later, I specifically Googled for “PMP 4th edition exam questions”.
Below are two really good links for practice exams designed for the 4th edition of the PMBOK (they provide good explanations for understanding each question):
http://www.headfirstlabs.com/PMP/free_exam/
Also, I encourage aspirants who are familiar with computer testing to use the tutorial time for creating the brain dump sheet; that will save at least 15 minutes of exam time.
Hope that helps!
Kevin
9 Comments
Josh Nankivel November 03 2009 08:25 am
Here's the other broken record responding... :-)
First, the 61% is no longer true since August this year. (And you know I agree fully that if an exam is testing your knowledge of a standard, it should be more like 80-90%) I don't know what the % is now, PMI has gone incognito on that topic.
Second, the credential proves you know about the PMI standard, and certifies that you have some basic level of experience and knowledge about PM.
Third, congratulating someone for working their @ss off and succeeding at their goal is not even close to "borderline unethical" Bill.
You know I have a lot of respect for you Bill, even though you've libeled me so many times I lost count. I must be a glutton for punishment! I welcome your comments and challenges as always.
Cheers!
Derek HuetherNovember 3, 2009 10:53 am
I agree with Josh. You can not just walk in off the street and take the PMP exam. Kevin spent time and energy preparing for the exam and absolutely deserves his moment in the spotlight, unconditionally. Shame on anyone who tries to steal that moment. Though you may not agree with PMI, let him have his moment. I think Bill “Kanye West” Duncan is out of line and needs to find his own spotlight.
Bill Duncan November 03 2009 16:59 pm
First of all, I gave Kevin his props. Please re-read my post: "I’m happy for Kevin, and he should be proud of his accomplishment." My criticism was of Josh for a headline that makes it sound like Kevin has scaled the heights.
joapenNovember 3, 2009 5:22 pm
Congratulations and thank you for the tips,
Caroline MillerNovember 4, 2009 10:15 am
We need to be careful about dismissing an exam that is passed at any particular percentage. You can’t compare the passing grade of one exam to the passing grade of another exam, because of the difference in level of difficulty between the two.
The same is true of passing grades for comparible math classes — the exams most likely are not of the same level of difficulty. And there is no way for you to measure the difference, without having access to both. The difference may be a difference is question difficulty, or it may be a difference in content coverage.
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Bill DuncanNovember 3, 2009 7:05 am
One broken record responding to another … why is anyone so excited about passing a test that only requires you to get 61% correct? About obtaining a credential that proves nothing? While I’m happy for Kevin, and he should be proud of his accomplishment, pumping it up like this is borderline unethical on your part, Josh.