Hi Friends,

At last I did it. I have cleared my PMP exam in my first attempt. Wow!!! It’s a great feeling. After all that hard work I put into it...it feels great that at at last i acheived it.

Kindly find below my L&L for all of you who aspire to become PMP's. 

1. Read Rita Mulchay at least 2- 3 times. It’s a great & trusted resource for PMP. 

2. Go through PMBOK at least 2 times. Although it’s boring but PMBOK gives you a better understanding and perspective of the cohesiveness of all the PM processes. You can actually logically relate all the Inputs & Outputs after going through PMBOK.

3.  I would suggest don’t just read Rita & PMBOK but go ahead and also create your own notes for last minute revisions. I tried to accommodate all my notes in 4 A4 size papers back & forth so that I can carry it everywhere along with me for revision.

4. Make sure you practice all the problem solving topics Critical Path, Earned value, EMV analysis, Decision Tree etc     every 2-3 days till your final exam. I practiced all the problems from Rita Mulchay. 

5. Simulation exams are a must before you appear for your final PMP exam. Make sure you practice at least 3-4 Simulation exams (200 Questions) before you appear for final exam. I practiced the below exams

PMStudy.Simplileran, HeadFIrst, TechFaq360.

6. Rajesh Nair notes are an ideal resource for last minute revision, I would suggest go ahead and take a print out of this notes. Go through these notes daily.

8. On day prior to your final exam, make sure you relax yourselves and don’t over study. At least I did so.  Try to bring your mind in a correct frame of mind so that you are confident about yourselves. 

9 .On the last day try to reach the exam centre at least 1 hour earlier. My exam centre was in Andheri (Mumbai). I revised for half an hour earlier to the exam and then went for the exam...

10. During the exam, I felt that the difficulty level of actual exam questions was comparatively moderate as compared to the Simulation exam questions. 

11. The choices that I had for my questions were relatively easy to predict, I could easily eliminate 3 choices out of four to shortlist my final answer... I don’t know if I was lucky or it was my practice which was helping me.

12. I marked total 4 questions for review, out of which I changed the answers for 2 in my final review.

13. I completed my exam half an hour earlier and spent my last half hour reviewing my questions. I was actually able to review only first 50 questions in my last half hour and that's when I realized that I will pass my exam.

14. Finally I clicked “End Exam” button, completed the survey and Lo behold!!! the screen said CONGRATULATIONS. 

15. Last but not the least,  I would agree to with all my colleagues who mentioned that preparing for PMP exam was like a journey.  It took me 4 months to complete this journey (I have a small baby to take care of because of which my preparation took so long); otherwise it normally would take 2 to 2.5 months to prepare and practice exams.

 16 Finally I would wish BEST OF LUCK to all my friends and colleagues on PMZilla who are preparing for PMP.