I want to share the happy news that i passed the PMP with 1P(Executing) and 4 MP on 4th Oct in my first attempt . It was quite a journey for achieving the same.

Background :

The thought of taking the exam originated before 3 years ago and just that I took other things on priority and did not pay much attention to prepare for the test. In an attempt to write my exam some time in last Dec(2011), I bought all the necessary books and became a PMI member in last Sep/Oct(2011) and started preparing. I must have read 3 chapters and due to work pressure, I stopped the preparation and restarted again in this Aug 12 and I have to redo it again. This time I was so determined that I have to complete the test by Oct 2012 else, it is going to be delayed more than year/who knows when.

Acknowledgement :

Thanks to PMZilla and the members who have actively involved with zest to respond for the clarifications and providing valuable information. Pmzilla was my daily go to website and used to read all the LL's . Most of the times it was inspiring and some times makes you nervous, especially during the last 2 weeks of preparation (when I see people scoring more than 80% in the mock test like Oliver ).

Thanks to my husband and my kid for the support ,understanding throughout my preparation. Here I have to mention special thanks to the baby that I am having who is due for delivery within 2 weeks :):) . Last not the least , thanks to Almighty for guiding the path.

Preparation :

I started my preparation by early Aug and submitted the application in second week of Aug and got it approved from PMI at the same time. I also scheduled exam date as soon as I got my approval.

I mainly used PMBOK (read 2-3 times) and Rita 7(read 1 time) for preparation. I was not consistent in dedicating hrs due to my health and work. Sometimes it was 1-2 hrs and some times 4 Hrs/day and some times 0 Hrs/day. During the last week of preparation, I dedicated around 8-10 Hrs/day.

I took most of the mock test(All free) mentioned here in PMZilla. In the mock test , i was scoring more than 65%. I kept PMstudy test (free 200 Questions) for the last minute -one day before the exam( I will not recommend this strategy) and scored 77%. I was not sure, if i was prepared or not for the exam, but then I decided to go ahead as I was not sure if i will be able to take the test in near future (due to my pregnancy)

Exam:

The exam was neither difficult nor easy. There were lot of EVM questions and few CPM and one PERT question. Lot of questions on risk and conflict management .Some of the situational questions was very easy and many were confusing. There were few questions on ITTO and quite a few on the process(ess).

I started the test with marking the questions that i was doubtful and later to realize that i have marked lot of questions for reviewing(both answered and unanswered). As part of this, as soon as i saw math question(s), i marked it for doing it later(This was the strategy i was following during the mock test). I finished the test with 1.30 Hrs left and started solving the maths questions(unanswered). Though most of the maths questions was easy it took a long time to solve each one. And by the time i finished the math questions, I had only 15 mints left and had more than 60 questions marked for review(luckily there was no unanswered questions) and obviously i was not able to go over the entire marked questions and the test ended when i was reviewing 15th question or so. During the mock tests, I was able to finish the test within 2.45 Hrs, but in real exam it really took lot of time.

At this point of time when i clicked the next button, I was not sure whether I will pass the exam till I saw the final result. I was so relieved and happy when i saw the result as "PASS".

My Lessons Learned:

Don’t leave gap in studying, as getting back to studying will take a lot of effort and it will be like starting all over again.

Read PMBOK and one another supporting book to understand the concepts and take notes. Re-Read the book(s), till you get the concepts clear. Don’t get overwhelmed by suggestion of lot of books. I felt PMBOK was not so dry as people mentioned.

You don't need to memorize ITTO, but need to understand the flow and concept.

Do lot of Mock tests and don't worry about the scores. Real exam is way different from the ones I took, but mock test will prepare you for the exam. The closest mock test that i can relate to real exam (as many have pointed out) is PMstudy.

Do concentrate on EVM calculations. Refer to the reference book given by PMBOK to get more concepts on this. The questions was not straight forward and you need to understand and calculate.

In the exam, mark less questions as possible and make sure to attempt/solve math problems earlier, because in the last minute you will get nervous and will not be able to gather the thoughts to solve it.

You have to memorize Page 43 in PMBOK. That forms the basis

It is not impossible to achieve, just dedicate your time and read the materials till you are comfortable.

Thanks,

Sumathi