Abdallah El-Chal, PMP: PMP exam lessons learned

Greetings,

When I decided to take the PMP test last year, I thought it will be just like any other test I took. Someone recommended Head First to prepare for the test, so I borrowed it and read it in about a month.

I then realized that this test is different. It’s not about how much you study but how you study. There was a lot of material to go through and digest, and I knew that one book is not going to be enough.

I got “How to pass on your first try” for Andy Crowe, and I’m so glad I did. What is nice about the book is the way it’s written which makes studying fun. PmBok, at least to me, was very dry, and I think this is why many PMP aspirants hesitate to take the test. You need a book that helps you understand the material, yet provide some questions that are as close to the real exam as possible.

I also practiced from multiple websites that provide some  free mock exams, and that was very helpful as well.

I’m not writing to praise a book over another, but I’m trying to emphasize what I did to pass the exam.

As I said earlier, the PMP test is not about memorizing alone or real-life scenarios alone, it’s a unique combination of both. You might have a lot of real life scenario questions, but you need to know how PMBOK deals with each one. Practice is the key for this exam. I recommend choosing one good book and stick to it along the PMBOK itself(I know, it’s dry, but you will definitely need it), but practice as many questions as you possibly can. No, I didn’t say hundreds, I said thousands.

I went through Andy Crowe’s book twice which had great questions at the end of each chapter and full mock exam at the end of the book, and these were very close to the real exam. I also practiced around 2000 questions from differnt sources, like pmstudy.com, and ” Achive PMP Exam Success” which had excellent questions especially on procurement.

I took my time studying because I realized the only way to pass the test is to grasp the material and fully understand it, and I think that helped me pass on my first try.

Also, when I was studying, I created a document that helped me when I was taking the practice tests and as a last minute review. It basically summarized all the process groups and knowledge areas on couple of sheets. I will share this study tool with you, please download from here

My test was at 7:30am, but I was there a little early. There are many suggestions about how many questions to finish before taking the exam, I came up with mine. I decided to take the full exam first, take a break, and then come back and review it. The reason I decided to do that is because sometimes you see questions that will help you answer previous questions, and you also go through the entire test so you don’t go back from break and worry about more surprises.

I finished the test in about 3 hours, took a break, and then went back and reviewed what I had marked.

I don’t think the test was as hard as I expected, but I felt it covered the entire PMBOK and Code of Ethics, and it really focuses on real-life scenarios where you need to put the PMBOK knowledge you have stored for the last few weeks or months into work.

Good luck

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