Dear All

I had cleared my PMP exam on first trial and feel like completed a big project. Below are some of my lessons learned.

I started preparing 6 months ago, but initially i was slow in preparation and also lot many family & job related responsibilities were there. I had read only two books Rita's PMP prep book and PMBOK v4. I throughly read both books 3 times. But I admit that PMBOK is the real one which everyone has to throughly concentrate. Every line from PMBOK is a potential question. Glossary of PMBOK is excellent for last minute review.

For practical understanding of PMBOK topics RITA's book is very good. Every chapter Q&A of rita book throws real situations, which are good for real exams. For every line of PMBOK can be asked by n numbers of situations. While studying I was also guessing like if this topic is asked in exam then in how many ways/situations it can be presented on exam. This way it helped me a lot.

I prepared my own notes while i was studying for the questions which i got wrong and also for the questions which i got right. I noted down the correct reasoning concepts in my note book while i was giving my final mock test. 

I tried many mock test, which are free on net & got nearly around 80% in those tests. 

On the exam day, I got up early, prayed my God to take me through successfully. I reviewed all ITTO's & few important topics. I must accept that Rajesh Nair's notes are excellent for last 2 days preparation. Rajesh had taken lot of effort and hard work to make all the important things clear and concise for last day preparation. This is also enough to refer on last two days of exam. 

I started my exam exactly 12:30 noon. In the initial 15 min break(tutorial time) I got up and drank some water, to remove the phobia. Then for the next 4 hrs, I did not take any breaks. I got may situational questions initially and i was really worried that i may not be able to complete all 200 questions in 4 hours, tension started mounting on me, & at one time i felt that I am not going to pass. But i decided that what ever I will attempt, I will attempt by full intention, i will give my full thought to give right answer, even though it will take more that 1.5 min per questions. At last hour I was pending around 70-75 questions. So TCPI was very high, I knew it, But by God's grace next few questions came one or two liners, and simple one. So finally I was able to complete my 200 questions with 2 min remaining. I had marked around 25-30 questions, thinking that if I will get time for review then I will again come back and review. But I did not get any time for review. In the last hour. I was very thirsty in last one hour, my reading of questions and reaching of those to brain was lagging, but I decided that if will go for water then it will waste my time and I may not be able to complete. For understanding the situational questions some times i read the paragraph questions two times and all the options, this took lot of my time. I got many questions on network diagrams, calculations, EMV etc which were lengthy.

So over all the exam was not tough but at the same time was not easy. It require through preparation. I completed the exam with filling of last survey/opinion form and the screen became while blinking several times and at last it gave a message of CONGRATULATIONS ON PASSING PMP.  I got Proficient in Initiating, planning, executing, M&C and moderately proficient on closing.

I am thankful to my God, parents and my wife and daughter who during my preparation time had supported me a lot. I was not able to give my time to my family during last 6 months. Contributions from PMZILLA members had helped me alot. 

Regards,

Hemant Virkar