[原创]PMP 考试感受 (入选推荐日志，加10币)

I passed the PMP yesterday, thank goodness.  I would like to thank everyone  contributing to this group, especially the people that reported their experiences after passing.  Here’s my contribution.

I studied for 5 months 1hr+/day (150hrs) and managed to get 179.  Some might argue that is a lot of study but I guess I’m no brain, plus I’m in it for the long haul and believe that too much study can only do your career good. My two big tips are:

1.    Spend some time working out exactly what to study (see below for the shortcut) and

2. Make study part of your daily routine over a decent period.  Cramming is for fakes not career professionals. I worry that short courses (1 week!) devalue the PMP qualification.  Studying over a long period helps cement knowledge for long term. 

Knowing WHAT to study is the trick as many new PMP candidates will attest. I spent ages working out what to study, downloading files and practice tests. I’m glad I did. After doing the test I don’t believe there is a single source that would allow you to get 95%+ on the exam but remember you only need around 70% (138/200) so that may not matter. 

Rita’s book would get you over this line but all its factual information seemed to be contained in PMINotes V4.doc from this PMPCert Group.  This file seems to have all the same straight facts as Rita’s book (and the others), plus about 15% that is not.  However Rita’s book contains lots of advice and explanations that make it worth getting. I recommend a combination of the two.  Yes, Rita’s book appears to have a number of typo’s and mistakes but nothing so bad it degrades the value.

Also I highly recommend Transdumper (exam simulator in PMPCert files section) but be warned, the PMPCert site has a severe lack of situational based questions which is just about every question in the exam. Use the '220' questions if you have to (see files section). Do NOT use the '683' questions, they are way too out of date. In summary, PMINotes V4.doc and transdumper will probably get you there if you give it enough time. In fact, the PMINotes could be the new defacto standard study tool if everyone worked at it. It is not like this PM information is proprietary.  Thinking about it, the advice provided in this forum could be regarded as (one of) the leading definitive source/s.  It is almost there now bar:

1. some decent (situational) example questions for transdumper. 
2. some summarised exam/study advice from this study group.

At the moment Rita’s book will make sure you get over the line but is not essential.  The questions in Rita’s book are much-much more in the style of the ones of the real exam. 

Try to imagine you are in the exam room (white walled office) when you are studying, this will help your memory flow more freely during the exam.

In the actual exam I made a few notes during tute but noted that you could even make them before starting tute and have virtually no time limit.  The tute is really for people that have not done a computer based multiple choice test before.

Inputs & Outputs: Based on my exam experience, learning all inputs, iutputs etc might get you around 4 or 5 more points than if you just learnt the ones Rita recommends. I feel that your time could be better spent elsewhere.  There is enough other stuff to learn.  I had two breaks … one at 100 questions and one at 200 before review.  In the breaks I had a bite to eat, drank plenty of water and stretched.  Your timer does not stop though so do not take too long.  The people at the test centre were great.

Even still, the exam was agony.  No matter how much prep you do you don’t know you have enough to pass until you do.  All that study and money down to four hours of work (sorry if I’m scaring you).  You have to try hard to focus.  If you can, practice blocking out all thoughts using Transdumper for four hours straight.  I finished in 3hours 30 minutes, had a break and revised about half the marked questions. Even with 179/200 I marked over 25 questions I was unsure of (more around the start but that may be because you are getting used to the style of questions, or used to being unsure).. and then there were some I had such little idea about I did not even bother to mark them.  Conversely I seemed to get one of the dead easy questions three times throughout the exam, re-worded?! Either it was a flaw in the test program or they decided it was an important subject.  You get tested a little bit on lots of areas so don’t skip sections or go to much in depth on subjects.

Some people said the exam was the hardest they have sat.  I disagree with that.  Once you have worked out what to study (the tricky part) you just do it methodically and you will get there. My biggest tip is make your study part of your daily routine over a long period. Skip  the cram and forget method. You miss most of the value of the process. I studied for 50mins on the way to and from work on the ferry, plus some on the weekend days.

I would like to see the PMI come out with an accurate curriculum and concentrate more on auditing the experience verification to weed out the fakes.  There are different project management methodologies out there and there could be good PM’s being discouraged from joining the PMI because they don’t want to have to spend 6 months trying to work out what particular brand of knowledge the PMI is testing on. 

Finally I would like to see the PMI allow testing in a few more locations. New Zealanders have to fly to another country to sit their exam.  I had to fly 1000Km from a state capital spending $500 and a day off work just to attend the exam plus the PMI fee for the exam itself. I have spoken to the PMI about this, as have many others, but it will no doubt require more discussion.

Good luck everyone.