Passed PMP to day, 3/13/10

Glad to inform that I passed the PMP exam to day. Here is my LL summary:

Initiated: 5 months back (Oct. 09)

Study Materials:   PMP study guide by Joseph Phillips - 1 time

PMBOK 4 - 2 times

Great Forums participated/ followed religiously: PMZILLA.COM; PMHUB.NET; DEEPFRIEDBRAINPMP; OReily Head First PMP.  These keep your learning process constant and stimulating with their articles, LL, tips, study material.  I am thankful to these sites for their valuable resources that helped more than PMBOK4 and helped me get over the dryness of PMBOK and keep my focus on PMBOK4.

Free Mock up exams took:  PMZIlla; PMStudy, Head FirstPMP; Lehmann 175Q; Simplilearn;TechFaq360.  After taking 2 of these tests and scoring around 68%, I felt my preparation risky and to mitigate the risk I postponed the exam 1 time for another 3 weeks, went back to PMBOK and took the remaining in the above list and scored around 80% consistently and gave the exam to day and could clear it.

Day b4 exam: Revised ITTO; Went through Jim Owens's  pdf files summary of each KA - easy to read and well presented

About exam:  Not easy; Not too tough; Not wordy.  Could not do as much as I hoped to do but enough to avoid re doing.  Math related Qs- simple and straightforward- may be less than 10Qs.  About 10Qs marked for revisiting at the end. I expected 25 q's beyond the boundaries of PMBOK4 but found just a couple. Some Qs redundant in nature - asking the same thing but just changing the numerical values-Disadvantage of randomizing?  Advantage to us.  Free Bees that bail us out!

Succesfully closed this project: March 13, 2010

 

Chandra

 

 

Congrats Chandra. So among the free exams used which one you rate the most? I meant closer to real pmp exam

Thanks Preetam!  It is easy to say which one I did not like:

simplilearn.com - Reasons:  1) Answer choices ' Both of the above', ' None of the above' do not represent the PMP exam and take the challenge of the Qs 2) There is no 'Previous' Button available to go back and edit the just submitted answer.  3) I took a break while reviewing my submitted answers at the end of the test and the session is timed out w/o me fully going through the whole session to learn my mistakes.

TechFAQ360.com:  1) Again here also I found 'both of the above' type of choices 2) Q's too simple in challenege and length of wording is 1 or 2 sentences.  It puts you in a false sense of security zone.  I could finish the test in 2.5 hours - not simulating the real test - at least for me.  I think here is what the recently posted PV question with all 4 wrong choices is one of the exam q's.  If I make a mistake the damage is local. I don't excuse if these people publish mistakes and confuse many people who follow.  They should be 200% vigilant.

PMStudy- Good.  Got an e-mail analysis report.  Material close to the exam.  All the other ones are equally good.  Lehmann & Head First- just a pdf file so could not duplicate the 4 hour time constraint scenario, though quality of questions is good.

Chandra

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admin's picture

Chandra - Congratulations on this achievement. I see that you have been very active and contributing in this forum too. Secondly I think you have done a through study and practice which is very clearly coming out from your LL.

Thank you for recognizing PMZilla forums and the Tests. 

Finally I would say that once you get over the euphoria, keep in touch with PM networks, like join PMI keep reading the articles there. This is an amazing profession where you will learn new and exciting things and my experience is you always learn more by sharing. 

Regards

Admin

Hi Chandra

Congrats on passing the PMP exam on your first try! I plan to sit for the exam the end of May. I am going through Rita's book right now; I'm re-reading chapters that I didn't score well in (i.e., making lower then 70%). Procurement is one of the chapters;I actually reading it right now. I don't have alot of exerperience with dealing with contracts; I was wondering what you did to gain a better understanding of this chapter  (i.e., did you read a book that explained procurements well, or did you take a class)? Did you already have procuremnt knowledge? For some reason the concepts in Rita's book in regards to procurement management is not clicking in my mind.

 

Thanks for your help!

M.

Hi Joyner,

Thanks.  My suggestion, as posted earlier, is: Do Alternate Analysis.   If PMBOK4 & Rita are abstract to you, look for some sources which explain the concepts in a simpler way.  

1) Head First PMP:  The saying 'A picture is worth 1000 words' is implemented 100% here.  Since I can't concentrate well in home, I used to go to Barnes& Noble or Borders and sit there and study.  You don't have to buy if you are as thrift as I am.

2) JIMBOK:  Jim Owens articles on PMHUB.net illustrate each KA in not more than 10-11 pages.  You can download here:  http://linkbee.com/JIMBOK4

 3) DeepfriedbrianPMP.com.  You can find nice articles here.  e.g. Here is a link expalining contracts:

http://tips.deepfriedbrainproject.com/search/label/Contracts

Take advantages of these.  Initially PMBOK was Greek and Latin to me.  After going through some of the above resources first and then revisited PMBOK, then PMBOK4 appeared plain English to me.  So  you too can follow such type of learning technique but come back to Rita & PMBOK.  Every sentence, figure, glossary,Table in PMBOK is a potential question/answer.  Also 'Delegation'- not covered in PMBOK- you need to know.  Verma's delegation can be downloaded from PMHUB site.

Best wishes,

Chandra

 

 

Just passed on 3/12/2010 1st attempt.

As Chandra says, it is not too touch or too easy, and not wordy. I comfortably finished with 7 min left.

More importantly for me was planning. I didnot study till 1 month before the exam. Make sure you get the prometric date well in advance. I found it difficult getting the desirable dates and locations to schedule the exam.

My planning was like this: Initially read PMBOK guide quickly. Then attempt as many questions as possible. Then in last week, again go through PMBOK deeply, and of course forums like pmzilla etc. ITTOs for Risk and Quality are quite important.

 

 

Thank you for your help! I will look into this.

 

 

When you took the mock exams, what were you scoring before you took the test? Did you have a set percentage you went by to determine if you were ready or not? I think most people try to get a 75% or above consistently before taking the exam. I was just wondering what your approach was.

 

Thanks

M.

I see you waited until you scored 80% consistently; I should've re-read your post before asking you a question, I apologize.

Congratulations Chandra...

Have you got any questions on: PTA, RTY, EAC, Pert, communication channels,  CPM etc.

Thank you,

Raj 

 

 

 

 

Thanks Raj!  Nothing of the sort you mentioned.  Simple straightforward math - just basics - altogether not more than 10 I think.

 

Chandra

hi Chandra,


 


For the website like linkbee, do we have to pay for questions?

First of all I would like to congrats on your achievement.Those sites are really helpful to students and I also regularly visit those websites for better preparation for my Term Paper. Stuffs they are providing are very helpful and useful.

I must accept I have read only a handful of sotries as inspring as clarinet maintenance yours, Thanks for posting it.

Nathan

Did you already have procuremnt knowledge? visitor id
For some reason the concepts in Rita's book in regards to procurement management is not clicking in my mind.
 

Rita's book is however the best bet for Procurement Management. Not all the topics in that chapter are important, though.

This is a great article thanks for sharing this informative information. I will visit your blog regularly for some latest post.


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When you took the mock exams, what were you score before you took the test? Did you have a set percentage you went by beef jerky to settle on if you were ready or not? I think most public try to get a 75% or above again and again before taking the exam. I was just wondering what your approach was.

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This is an excellent article. I will visit your blog regularly for some latest post. thanks for sharing this informative information!