Hello everyone:

I gave my PMP exam today and passed with 5MPs. I passed it in just 4-5 days of prep.

Background: Around 8 years of experience in IT and Operations. I am an MBA in Supply Chain and work on lots of projects day in and out. I currently work in a management consulting firm. I would say I might be an outlier in terms of my background and my learning lessons may not serve everyone on the forum.

First, I am very grateful to this forum in providing information on the PMP. The PMP material section was truly amazing and is indeed a great resource. Here are few of my learning lessons:

1. I understood 2 BPs is a fail and tried to avoid those.

2. The initiating and closing section are small. If you cover those thoroughly, you have avoided 2BPs already

3. I completed PMBOK once and tried to understand the logic behind everything.

4. I did not memorize the ITTOs. Instead I tried to get used to the flow of information among the processes and there were hardly 3-4 questions in the exam on ITTO. I found brainbok.com very good but could not find time to practice on it.

5. I skipped the Communication and HR KAs - just read through identify stakeholders and conflict resolution

6. Memorized EVA and Procurement formulae. And dumped them on rough sheet before exam. There were 10-15 questions on these.

7. The top KAs were similar to others' experience - procurement, quality, risk

8. There were lots of questions on conflict resolution too

9. I did not take any mock tests

10. Finished 100 questions in 70-80 min, next 100 in same time. Reviewed the questions which were marked for 'Review' ~60-70 and found many mistakes. Started reviewing questions randomly in sets of 10-20 from beginning.

Finally I submitted the exam, skipped the survey and saw Congratulations displayed.

I thank all the PMPzilla members and wish you all the luck in your tests.

Raghav