PMP Passed First Attempt

Submitted by Rebel on Mon, 08/27/2012 - 12:22

 Hello all,

I just found this forum a few days ago and was going through some of the Lessons learned topics from earlier users. 

I just passed the PMP. 

I just read Rita and PMBOK, and practiced some free online exams. Thats all.

It actually demotivated me going through this forum, and seeing people write all kinds of stuff about PMP. Some people, who can not even write a proper sentence(No offence) were throwing names of books that I never heard of or just scared the heck out of me.

 

All you need for PMP is PMBOK 4(as of 2012), and Rita Mulcahy PMP Exam Prep, to understand the concepts.

How do I know? I read just those, practiced a few exams online and guess what, I passed!

 

Just have a clear mind, focus and think about what you actually read. It's not brain surgery, and believe me, it is not at all difficult. I could complete it in 3 hours flat, after about 3.5 weeks,(yes, exactly 24 days) of preparation. Dont give in to all this hoopla about Reading 100 books. Just focus on the content and browse through various topics. Oh, also, that dude Chowdary, hats off to you my man, you are one gem of a person. Your excel sheet, is a great compilation of Rita and PMBOK!

 

 

Thanks and all the best!

Rebel

 

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PMP Exam Tips, Tricks and Lessons Learnt.
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krantikumar50

Mon, 08/27/2012 - 12:52

Hi Rebel,


 


Congrats on passing the "PMP".


 


More kudos on writing such an excellent LL. If I were to desribe your LL in one word, I would say, "No-holds-barred". Your style has an uncanny resemblance to my style of writing as well as the thought process. The solitary difference, however, is the success factor :)


 


Example, in the morning I read the LL of "Animated". I did not comment on it because I am still NOT sure if he/she was writing about his escapade with PMP exam or winning World War-3. The day this conundrum is solved, will surely write something on it. Beside, kudos to animated too.


 


I like the way you write. When you say 24 days to prepare, this cant be true to everyone as there are so many other factors that should also be considered. You also say about lot many books as well, well this largely stems from one's insecurity and the fear of clearing the exam, which is okay. This is person-centric, nonetheless. And when you say people writing when they can not even construct a sentence properly. Actually, I can not comment on it either since it might involve me as well. So allow me to skip this part :)


 


You please enjoy the moment. Do well.


 


Warmly, Kranti Kumar aka KK...

Rebel

Tue, 08/28/2012 - 04:23

 Thanks for your comments KK.

Below are my opinions alone and  are especially for those of you who want to manage Projects in countries where ENGLISH is the primary language of communication. Others, please ignore, stop right here, and go to another topic.

Disclaimer: I am yet to learn to write better English..

I have seen a lot of PMP's wonder why they are fired or why they dont get offered the job inspite of having a PMP. Well, here's what it is people. Forget if you have a degree from Stanford or Somalia, it does NOT matter. Project management is a science and an art in itself, that relies heavily on communication.

PMP is just a certification and a qualification. Its a good qualification. Its a wonderful certification.

BUT, it's not going to do miracles, if we dont invest in ourself FIRST. If one can NOT write a sentence that can be understood, he/she does NOT stand a chance at "a" job, forget managing a team. 

Communication Management: Per PMBOK 90% of a PM's time is spent in communication. And having worked as one, I spent 99% of that in communicating through email, i.e writing.

If a stakeholder(Especially Exec's) has to spend 90% of his time(yes, there IS a glass ceiling in Executive management, and yes there are very few her's in there. Sorry, deal with it.) in just trying to deciphering what the PM wrote, you can imagine the projects fate, without having me to REALLY state my opinion of it's future in a public forum.

Get PMP certified. But Invest in yourself first. You dont have to write Shake-spehere-errr whatever prose, just a sentence that everyone can understand.

I bet for folk like us, who can commit ourselves to getting a PMP, nothing is a challenge.

-R

 

 

anand2381

Tue, 08/28/2012 - 03:54

Hi,


Congrats on ur PMP.


You are correct. Fear is the factor which makes ppl over prepare. Also ppl who have mentioned that they have failed felt that I shud have prepared well.


Which are the mock exams taken and how much percentage you were getting in those?


I have been preparing for one month for now, have completed Rita and PMP reading once.


Want to decide when to take up the exam.


Pls email me to anand2381@gmail.com as well if possible.


Regards


Anand.S

anand2381

Tue, 08/28/2012 - 04:03

Hi Rebel,

I have seen an LL yesterday that the exams are getting tougher nowadays and these were the questions mentioned.

 

Did you get similar type of questions on exams?

How did u prepare for these?

 

The one part I thought I would do good on is the cost and critical path, and those I seemed to be completely confused.  The cost questions threw in all kinds of extraneous parts (at least I thought they were extraneous).  Like 'Company A had budgeted $50,000 for 1000 hours worked at $50 dollars per hour'.  There was one question that only seemed to have cost items in it, yet all the answers also had something about schedule in them, and I had no idea how to answer the question.  Another had a RACI chart and asked something like which Task was correct, or something like that.  I looked over everything dealing with RACI yesterday, in Rita's and the PMBOK, and still don't have a clue what they were getting at.

 

Then there was the critical path questions.  One was something like 'A took (X) weeks, B took (X) weeks, C took 6 weeks but had to start 3 weeks prior to C, and D took (X) weeks.  What is the relationship between C and D.  Answers: 3 weeks lead, 3 weeks lag, 6 weeks lead, 6 weeks lag.

 

 

Regards

Anand.S

Rebel

Tue, 08/28/2012 - 04:37

 Hi Anand,

I did get a lot of similar questions. There were some on Critical path and RACI chart, but most were straight forward. Many people believe that PMI purposely tries to trick us with such questions. But  their real mptive is to see if we are just getting the calculations right or have we actually understood any of the concepts. Thats where Rita M helped me.

 

As for the question you asked above, it does not matter if they budgeted the $50,000 for 1000 hours or 10,000 hours, you have the BAC=50,000.  All you need to know is how to calculate CV,PV,ETC,CPI,SPI. And no matter how lengthy the question was, they did have all the inputs we need to calculate what is being asked. Do not panic seeing all those extra wordings, its all part of the testing process.

 

And you are right about the critical path questions..know leads and lags. The way I retained that concept is by coming up with real life examples like building a car or a house etc. You can have a lead time of a month for carpeting while the roof is being buit! Or a lag of a month if it snows for a month before you can put on the roof.

 

Hope this helps, and yes, I will email you.

 

-R

xraymiller

Wed, 08/29/2012 - 00:37

I posted the same thing about the RACI.  I cannot remember exactly how it was worded, but I have looked at everything concerning the RACI chart in Rita's and the PMBOK.  I've even googled trying to figure out what the test was trying to get at and I still don't know.  I would love to hear from anyone who has the answer to this.

animated

Wed, 08/29/2012 - 17:11

hello xraymiller, as I have mentioned in my posts, I took the same exam and attempted this question regarding RACI. Although I passed the exam but i'm not sure if my answer to that RACI question was correct. However, I tried to use some common sense while attempting it. In the question the examiner had given four different combinations of these four letters with different arrangements like ARCIA, RICAC etc. In option D, there was this arrangement which went as: RACIR, I selected this option because it was showing the original sequence of RACI and then starting from R. This is just my assumption as I found no other logic in solving this question. Nowhere in books any explanation about letters is provided. Hope you agree with me.

Regards

xraymiller

Thu, 08/30/2012 - 23:16

I still have not found anything that would help me in the PMP books; HOWEVER, I saw something on wikipedia that could be the answer.  It says only one person can be 'accountable'.  If that's true, you got the answer right more out of luck becasue there is only one "A" in that line.

xraymiller

Thu, 08/30/2012 - 23:40

I could not find the answer anywhere in the PMP books, but wikipedia says that there can only be one person accountable.  Next time I will look for the only task that has one "A" in it. 

I am still very interested if someone can figure out the critical path relationship question. 

admin's picture

admin

Tue, 08/28/2012 - 04:24

Congratulations Rebel on your PMP


Regards

Rebel

Tue, 08/28/2012 - 04:40

 Thanks dude! 

Thanks for a great platform for sharing ideas.

 

-R

abbas_hir01

Thu, 08/30/2012 - 04:41

Congrats Rebel,

Can you share the excel file from Chowdary you are refering.

 

Thanks,

Abbas.Hirkani@gmail.com

Rebel

Tue, 09/04/2012 - 23:13

 Its in there right here on this website. Just search for Chowdary, you will find it

-R

hmukarram

Thu, 08/30/2012 - 10:19

 Nice Post. How did you complete your contact hours? 

Rebel

Tue, 09/04/2012 - 23:14

 Went to a business school, which happens to be an REP for PMI.

-R