PMP Exam Lessons Learned Posts All In One Test. Prep. Support. Blog. Good news if youre studying for the PMP exam. Did you know that literally hundreds of past test takers have posted their lessons learned online These posts include their study tips, the books they read, the practice tests they took, their test day experiences, and more. Things that can save you a lot of time and improve your chances of passing the exam. The only problem You dont have time to read all or even most of these posts. While you can read a few of them and hope they have the best study tips and resource recommendations, how can you know for sureGood news. We have addressed this problem in the post below. We searched the web for lessons learned posts. We saved one hundred of the highest quality posts. NhkzP6BR5ug/hqdefault.jpg' alt='5 Exam Fastrack Pm Pmp Simulation Software Version' title='5 Exam Fastrack Pm Pmp Simulation Software Version' />We kept a tally of all the specific resources used. We saved the best PMP exam tip in each post. We organized it all in one easy to digest format. Have you discovered the PMP test prep gold mine Read on and decide for yourself. Download the free trial version below to get started. Doubleclick the downloaded file to install the software. This course will help you prepare for the Project Management Institutes PMI Project Management Professional PMP Exam with the least amount of study. Offered in. You can study it, you can skim it, you can bookmark it and come back to different parts of the posts when they are most relevant. This post includes things like the most popular books and practice tests. It also includes tips on beginning of the process, right before the test, during the test, and everything in between. And of course it links to all the lessons learned posts so you can follow the most insightful quotes to their sources. Lets dive inPMP Resources Introduction. Deciding which PMP exam resources to use is a big deal, because you only have a finite amount of time and money. So while weve accumulate a lot of statistics on whats popular, weve also gathered opinions so you can get a feel what might work for you. In general, weve tried to pull quotes that are representative of a widely shared opinion. Although sometimes we put opposing quotes together to illustrate different schools of thought. Part of personal knowledge management has to do with understanding how you, as an individual, learn best, and the kind of learning that different situations require. New We have consolidated the resources, ratings and reviews for the major PMP test prep companies PMP Study Guide Books. Relatively few people prefer only the PMBOK, but the vast majority of people do use it. Typically, people get introduced to the topics using books they perceive as more user friendly, then circle back to the PMBOK. One thing that I did not know was that PMI members get a copy of latest PMBOK PDF. Dont rely solely on PMBOK. PMP but not the only. The PMBok lacks concrete examples thus making it difficult to understand. The PMI volunteers who ran the training course effectively state Forget PMBOK, read Rita emuu. People say the PMBOK is a dry book and acts as a sleeping pill, but I found it to be well written with good examples. Went through the PMBOK in the last week after my initial failure to go through even a single chapter. This time, the book made a lot more sense. For other books, many people started with Head First before moving to Rita, Andy or Kim. Ritas book appeared to be by far the most popular, although Andy and Kim have people who prefer their style, too. Start out your preparation with a book that is easy to understand like headfirst pmp. Head First was a great starting point. It is too easy and good for a warm up, but doesnt get close to the exam. While Head First is really good in terms of presenting the PMP contents, it does not delve too deep into the topics. It might be possible to pass the exam with this book, but after taking some free questions on the internet I did not feel content that it was sufficient. If a chaptertopic is very new to you, use Head. First, then follow it up with Rita. Head. First makes it easy, while Rita is very detailed to the point. Although Head First was very entertaining and Andy Crowes book written very simply, but the best value I did receive was from Rita Mulcahys PMP Exam Prep. Late Rita Mulcahy has quite patronizing way of talking to you through her book which is quite annoying, but it gets the job done. I chose Andy Crowe and it worked for me. Didnt like headfirst as there were too many pictorial representations and the fun way of reading was too distracting. Rita was too painful. There are a whole lot of processes. I tried to memorize them with repeated reading, but was never successful. Finally, I tried using the audio CDs that came with Heldmans book it actually helped a lot. Kims book, just read chapter end questions, but I wish I had time to read the whole book since I like the way it presents the knowledge in a natural process sequence instead of grouping by knowledge area jadefang. Though the no. of times of books read look daunting once you get into that groove youll lose count. Below is the percentage of people who used each book, out of a sample size of 1. PMP Boot Camp Classroom Training. Offline boot camps were used by 2. Interestingly, nearly half of the people did not mention the name of their boot camp. Compared to resources such as books and practices tests, where people went into great detail on what they used and why they did or didnt like it, there is much less information on offline courses. Considering the importance of this decision, perhaps this will be the subject of a follow up post. Joining a class will give you three important elements 1 access to instructors 2 fellow students 3 regular schedule 4squareviews. I took a 4 day classroom taught class and found it helpful but do think most of the boot camps are overpriced earthintegrate. I personally do not believe that a PMP boot camp course is necessary for passing the PMP exam All that being said, if youre the sort of person that learns best by taking courses in a classroom setting, you should certainly look into taking a PMP exam prep course. Opted for Knowledgewoods PMP training in Bangalore. After 4 days of training I did gain the required PDUs but was not very sure of any real addition to my certification preparedness. The only silver lining was meeting some great guys who were also preparing for the test. We all kept in touch and updated each other and still do the same. One of the most effective ways to study is a study group. This can help you to keep the pace of studying. If your company does not organize such groups, you can find them also on Linked. In groups and other sites. Courses that were mentioned are listed below. Unlike the book and practice tests sections above, this is a very small sample size and cannot be assumed to be representative. For further proof of this point, consider this list of PMP Boot Camps just in the Washington DC area. New We are added one stop event calendars for upcoming PMP Exam boot camp classes AZ, Phoenix. FL, Tampa. NC, Charlotte. TN, Memphis. CA, Los Angeles. GA, Atlanta. NC, Raleigh Durham. TN, Nashville. CA, Sacramento. IL, Chicago. NM, Albuquerque. TX, Austin. CA, San Diego. IN, Indianapolis. NV, Las Vegas. TX, Dallas Fort Worth. Sims 3 Late Night Patch 001 Game here. CA, San Francisco. LA, New Orleans. NY, New York. TX, Houston. CA, San Jose. MA, Boston. OH, Cincinnati. TX, San Antonio. CO, Denver. MD, Baltimore. OH, Cleveland. UT, Salt Lake City. CT, Hartford. MI, Detroit. OH, Columbus. VA, Richmond. DC, Washington. MI, Grand Rapids. OR, Portland. WA, Seattle. FL, Miami. MN, Minneapolis. PA, Philadelphia. WI, Madison. FL, Orlando. MO, Kansas City. PA, Pittsburgh. WI, Milwaukee. FL, Tallahassee. MO, St. Louis. If your city is not listed here, check the page with all the latest additions PMP Boot Camps. Online Resources. Compared to the books and practice tests, not as many people mentioned their online courses or audiovideo podcasts less than 3. PMP application accepted then was audited when I paid for exam. Hello everyone,I have not taken the PMP exam yet. So this thread will contain my future exam result. I started this thread as I wanted to share my recent PMP application audit experience. Some background, I began the PMP application process in January 2. I started acquiring the 3. I did not submit my application as I needed 2 months pass to in order to fulfill the experience requirements. Late March 2. 01. I finally submitted my application and received confirmation from PMI about 5 to 6 days later that the application was accepted. I was more than excited about the news but I also knew from reading this and other forums that an audit may occur at any time during the credentialing process. Now in April 2. 01. I decided it was time to pay and schedule the exam. As soon as I paid the examination fee on PMIs website, I was greeted with a worrisome message, Your application has been randomly selected for an audit. No matter how prepared I thought I was, i was bummed. I was really more upset and frustrated than anything because I felt the audit process would delay when I could take the exam by at least 3 to 4 weeks and I didnt want to continue studying far such a long time. Lessons learned 1. If you really want to be prepared for an audit, assume you will be audited. That way, youre mentally ready for the roadblock. Dont study really hard before paying for the exam. Submit your application,then pay. In the event you are audited, you can take care of the audit without disruption to your study regimen. After you pay, you may schedule the exam anytime up to a year after paying the examination fee. The next day after receiving notice of the audit, I printed the audit documents, education experience certificates, and photocopied my degree. Since my entire PM experience could be verified by another PM, I only included 1 identitysignature page for him to sign. He initialed and highlighted the other project verifcation pages. The experience verification pages was stuffed into a greeting card size envelope. He then sealed and signed the back of the envelope. I placed the sealed envelope, educational certificates and credential into a legal sized envelope then mailed 2 day via USPS with delivery confirmation. That was on a Friday. I received confirmation of delivery from USPS on Monday. Wednesday, PMI sent me confirmation emails letting me know the package arrived and that I passed the audit. Lessons learned Relax the audit can be quick if you follow their directions and submit the materials timely. For about a 2 weeka I neglected to study, but reviewed Ritas process guide daily before bed. She did a great job at summarizing PM process on a high level. I will sit for the exam in 2 to 3 weeks.