**I PASSED MY PMP EXAM**

Oh my GOD...it's over...it's finally OVER.

Since around APRIL i've been studying for my project management certification. My brain pretty much revolved around it. Hence also why I didn't blog much...i didn't have much to say 'cuase i felt like whatever was in my brain should have been PMP-related.

Geezus just applying for the test was hard (it took 2 weeks to fill out the application and fortunately, I didn't get audited...you have to meet certain criteria just to write the damn thing)...

Gonna go watch a Nip/Tuck DVD and relax, but to give you an idea of the hell i've been trhough the past few months here's a Lessons Learned i posted on a project management forum:

How to pass the poor man's way

I passed my exam today and I"m finally happy to be able to write my LL.
Took the exam in Southern California.
Going to try to avoid writing the usual stuff that everyone else does.

The plan: to write the exam in the shortest amount of time while spending the least amount of money.

The reality:

1. Applied for the exam (in May) and scheduled it for end of Summer.
2. Got to Chapter 6 in PMBOK and realized I'd need more time and more resources.
3. Purchased PMP In Depth: Project Management Professional Study Guide for PMP and CAPM Exams by Paul Sanghera.
4. Midway through summer realized summer is the worst time to study. Rescheduled my exam for Oct. Signed up for the PMI-NEIC (do a google search) online course. It's an 8 week online class where you read their notes along with the PMBOK, there's a teacher, forums, quizzes, and most importantly, it's $150. MUCH cheaper than the other classes out there.
4.5 read through their notes and the PMBOK while summarizing EVERYTHING in detail...because i had no desire to re-read the PMBOK unless i had to.
5. Rescheduled again....
6. At a PMI event, someone lent me their materials from when they took the "official" PMI class...which included Achieve PMP Exam Success PMBOK Guide (available on Amazon) and a ton of other notes.
7. Went through online sources (such as the PDFs available here)
8. Did the little tests you find online (like the HeadFirst one, which i don't recommend...their CPM method is messed up) or in the books I had.

Finally decided that the only way to do this is to just bite the bullet, cram over the thanksgiving holiday, and write it the following monday.

The Prometric Center:
1. They don't let you bring ANYTHING in there. There's little lockers (so i guess you can bring the key to the locker in...but if you have car keys, you have to lock the car keys and then take the locker key in with you). And when i mean ANYTHING...i couldn't even bring my chapstick in with me. I'm surprised they let me keep the hair elastic i had around my wrist. If you're wearing a cardigan, it has to stay on the entire time (you can't put it around the chair).

2. The "ear plugs" weren't plugs...i thought i'd get a cute little bag of little earplugs. Instead you get to use these huge construction-guy orange ear things. They work well, except I wore my glasses and the combination of the two really got annoying against my ears.

3. SPeaking of glasses, i recommend you wear them instead of contact lenses. Your eyes will start to pop out of your head otherwise.

4. Someone here mentioned in their LL that the sound of someone typing got annoying...it was AWFUL. I was right next to a girl who was typing an essay, and even through the earmuffs i could hear everything. Don't get me started on the constant banging of the door.

5. When you first sit down, there's a prompt to take the tutorial. So i started doing my brain dump before even starting the tutorial...after 2 minutes I got a warning that if I didn't start the tutorial, i would be closed out of the test. So...just a heads up...start the tutorial THEN do the brain dump.

6. I know this sounds insane, but writing a brain dump in lightening speed is MUCH harder with a regular wood pencil than with a mechanical pencil!

General topics (other than the ones that keep getting listed on the forum):
- order of magnitude (not to be confused with Rough order of magnitude)
- it felt like half of my questions were about contract types and how to calculate all sorts of formulas related to them (which irked me, i just quickly reviewed them and that's it...i didn't know the answers to any of them!)
- ALOT of delegation questions (thank you PMHub, without you i wouldn't have aced them!)
- no CPM math (maybe one float question at best)...i was so bummed i didn't get to create a network diagram

my score breakdown (they give you a printout, you don't have to memorize them or anything...each main section has a really detailed % breakdown which i'm not going to bother typing up):
Initiation 60%
Planning 78%
Executing 60%
Mon & Ctrl 62%
Closing 73% (lol i got 100% in everything except i got 0% in Archive/Retain Project Records that skewed that section)
Prof Responsibility: 80%

TIPS:
1. HIGHLY recommend taking the free test at PMSTUDY. If you can't get the free one, pay for one ($15 i believe). Best thing I could have done...i barely passed the online exam but it told me the exact areas I needed to beef up.

2. Scoping out the prometric place in advance is a must.

3. I didn't memorize all the ITTOs, but i did memorize the "main" chart of the 44 processes (KAs on one side, process groups on the top). This was invaluable...if not for direct questions but so many of the questions were situational, it helps to see where you are in the project (e.g. if they say "in contract administration blah blah", simply staring at the chart reminds you that anything related to say scope development was already done)...

4. I memorized 25 formulas and naturally the only ones I needed were either ones I had no idea or just the easy ones (CPI, CV, SPI)

5. What i did for the questions that were "iffy": i marked them, then as i went through them for review I created a chart of how many i had in A/B/C/D...then for the questions that I really just guessed, i used my little chart to tell me which ones I needed to beef up (I barely had any Cs and i think wayyy too many As)...figured maybe it would help to spread out my best guesses across all letters...

6. Do NOT get discouraged if you don't get the 80% score that everyone recommends you get on the practice exams...I did awful on them and just used that info to hone in on the sections that I needed to learn. Also, take note of your test time...if English is your first language, there is NO WAY you'll need 4 hours to get through the exam...

7. When in doubt, your answer should involve "informing" or "notifying" or "telling" someone whatever is going on.

8. When in doubt, analyze what to do next vs. rushing off and doing X action

Book Review:
Achieve PMP Exam Success PMBOK Guide: a little light, but definitely covered PMP-specific topics. If you need something to supplement your reading, this is great. Pretty decent CD that has tests.

PMP In Depth:goes from a process perspective, not a KA perspective. Good i guess if you read it before PMBOK..but i read it after so it didn't do me much good.

PMI-NEIC notes/online class: I'd give it a B+...it was nice to have something in plain english to read alongside the PMBOK, but it included alot of non-PMP things, which got a little annoying.

Somoene also lent me Rita's Flash Cards, which i looked at briefly and then realized that since i'll never be flat out asked for a definition (as opposed to having multiple options), i never used it.

I stayed away from Rita's books because i found them to be WAY overpriced, and the horrible reviews on Amazon told me to stay away.



Poor Kraig...he had to deal with me being bitchier than usual, which is pretty damn bitchy.