Howdy,
Nice idea, nice site by the way, needs somehow more advertising and promotion.

Anyway let me share a bit of my PMP accreditations experience.

I remember the atmosphere during the PMP preparation classroom sessions, so intense so energetic, seemed at that time that passing the exam is piece of cake or at least one would need only a couple of weeks to recap and stuff.

After the classes were over the energy cooled down a bit and somehow it got consumed during the preparation of the required curricula for the exam admission. It was mid spring at that time.

Then there I was, looking at the email confirmation: I was found to be eligible to sit the PMP exam! But there was an issue: summer was already in… Hmmm… OK I have one year, 3 attempts to go…
I know what I’m going to do: I will enjoy the summer and after that I will fiercely engage the PMBOK and Rita’s (R.I.P.) book!

As all things came towards their end so was the summer but surprisingly I wasn’t as energetic and fierce about studying as planned; anyway I’m going to start with the PMBOK and learn it by heart, I said to myself.

Winter settled in and surprisingly the progress wasn’t that good as I thought it would be; still within the first 25% of the book and no real confidence that I’m doing the right thing or doing it the right way. The ambition to learn as much as possible by heart was slowly proving to be too much.

Then somewhere in mid winter I bumped into an old and experienced PMP who said to me: Grasshopper, you have to walk the path of the ancients; otherwise it’s easy to fail or to struggle much more than necessary. So he gave me his recipe:
– Get Rita’s PMP Exam Prep, get, PMBOK, get Rita’s FasTrack
– Start first iteration: Jump directly to Integration chapter in Rita’s book and start studying from there; do the exercises at the end of each chapter; have the PMBOK by for quick reference, further clarification and a different perspective
– Second iteration: do Rita’s book again but this time from the beginning; have the PMBOK by for quick reference
– Third iteration: do the PMBOK only and have Rita by for quick reference
– In each weekend during any of the iterations have a PMP test (200 questions) from the FasTrack CD
– Throughout the learning process you should also have a couple process group tests from the FasTrack and ideally you should do all the groups
– You need to set aside 2hrs/day for study and 4hrs in the weekend for PMP test
– No study during weekend, only a PMP test
– Gradually increase the stroke
– Report to me weekly
– You need to score constantly 80% to those tests in order to relatively get on the ‘safe’ side.

Whoa, I felt like I was in a military training camp but somehow comforted that I was doing it the right way.

Needless to say that I couldn’t always stick to the 2hrs/day part; job, kids, wife – all those add up you know.

Also because of that I couldn’t always sit 3-4 hrs continuously tied up to the chair doing the PMP test throughout the weekends. I found a magic that would stop the application’s countdown timer. Bad approach as it proved afterwards. It really helps a lot to go through and simulate exam condition; so take my piece of advice: just sit there and get out of the room only if in big need.

When doing tests just make sure you are able to focus enough; don’t just start a test and go loosely through it like I did. The test you’re taking now is the real exam you will be sitting tomorrow so get a grip. It’s tiring but there’s no other way.

And I did all that… Additionally I’ve summarized each knowledge area in 2-3 pages for easy learning and recap; the same with formulas. Get them memorized, even the ugliest ones like all those EAC variants, TCPI or PTA. So I spent the last couple of weeks recapping from my summary pages.

One thing I would do better if I were to sit again the exam is focus more on inputs, tools and outputs for each project management processes. This really makes a difference in the exam. Personally I didn’t put that much effort into it, I said to myself that PMP docs, EEF and OPA updates are kinda common outputs for all processes. But the exam tests your knowledge actually quite in detail in this respect.
It’s one thing to tick an answer at the first pass because you know it’s the right one and another thing to read the question a couple of times and try to figure out which is the correct answer by eliminating the ones that look wrong – time is quite tight.

When you feel that you are ‘about there’ but not yet entirely there, you should schedule the exam. Nevertheless the brave schedule their examination quite earlier. That’s a good motivation agent because you know that you have to be ready by then. Also is a good thing to leave enough time for a second examination if a disaster happens and you fail at first try. Usually you are not able to schedule an exam earlier that one month but that depends on the part of the year, you’d expect that in summer there is not much of a PMP certification rush and maybe you can find an empty slot within one or two weeks.

When sitting the exam you just have to focus and be in control; Rita’s book has a very useful set of recommendations on that. One may say that the degree of difficulty of Rita’s FasTrack is higher than the exam, other say vice versa.
Four hrs is not much so weight your time carefully; get out only in need, make sure you drink/eat enough (but not too much of course) before.

Bottom-line becoming a PMP is not an easy task; not a difficult one either; it just needs commitment and dedication. And yes, don’t slow down, keep the pace and as you approach the finish line increase the stroke. Your biggest enemy (and pretty much the only to be quite honest) is the loss of motivation and energy.

Ps
When I sit the exam, three (that’s including me) out of the five candidates were there because their eligibility would have expired soon. 3/5 just because I didn’t have a chance to chat with the other two, mind that!
So don’t waste your time, don’t lay back and lazy, get mad, get advices from pros (PMPs) and get it done.