Yesterday, I passed the PMI’s Project Management Professional exam on the first attempt. Go me. I didn’t take any formal classes; I chose instead to study Rita Mulcahy’s PMP Exam Prep book, taking it two or three chapters at a time. I ran through it twice, taking all the test exams and burning through a couple highlighters along the way. Then I ran through the sample exam on the CD that came with Tony Johnson’s Certification Exam Manual, becoming aggravated with Johnson and myself at the way the exam questions were written; it turned out they were pretty close to what was on the real exam. Finally, I spent an afternoon memorizing all the PMBOK formulae.
The test took four hours and consisted of 200 multiple-choice questions. Many of the questions had two or even three answers that seemed correct– the test taker has to read each word carefully in order to determine the right answer. The best part was when my computer at the testing facility crashed at question 181. Fortunately, the people there were able to get me back to where I belonged.
I learned immediately afterwards that I’d passed. Another milestone in the career path!
Last night, Lisa and I had a celebratory dinner, and the guys at the office are expecting beer from me any time now. Well, today’s St. Pat’s, so maybe one will be coming their way.
And if anyone wants me to compute their Cost-Performance Index, drop me a line. 🙂