I passed the PMP last week with 3 P and 2 MP. It was a better result than expected.I am posting my experiences and study plan.I hope this is helpful to some aspirants.

 

I used only Rita and PMBOK as basic reference material. You can you Headfirst if you have difficulty in understanding any specific area, it is an over simplified version of the PMBOK. I have read through it for a few KAs.

 

I attended the 35 hours class at a nearby institute. These classes are not much helpful, other than for the purpose of fulfilling the requisites. I completed the application process immediately after the classes ended, and started my preparations as soon as my application was accepted. I did not have a study group.

 

Now you have registered for the exam, and your application has been accepted. You can start your preparations in earnest.One thing I would like to mention is, do not let long breaks come in your preparations. Try to study something every day. Some days, you might be able to study only for 20 minutes, but still do it. I had a printout of page 43 of the PMBOK in my car.

 

Be prepared to make sacrifices on your social life during the period of preparation. It is hard, especially if you have kids , as they too will have to give a miss on many of their routine fun activities.

 

1. While preparing, for each KA,read the PMBOK first.

2. Now go thru Rita. Rita has given the PMBOK page numbers relevant to each topic being discussed, go to PMBOK and read the topic again. When I say read Rita, I mean go thru it page by page. Try to do all the exercises, however silly they might seem. Doing all those exercises really opens your mind.

 

Like for example, Rita may tell you to list all the things a PM does doing ABC process. Try to make the list, then compare with the list in the book. You will find that you have not thought of more than 25% of the things listed there.

 

3. Answer the questions after each chapter in Rita.

4. Prepare your own notes, with ITTOs for each process. Notes for each KA should not be more than 2-3 pages. Try to prepare a flowchart of how the IOs flow between the processes in each KA. Rather tham memorizing, try to understand what really happens. If you understand the flow of data, you would be able to draw the flowcharts any time, and that makes it far more easier than memorizing hundreds of IOs.

 

5. Search online if you have difficulty in understanding any issues. Sometimes you might find simpler explanations online (like for example, CPM in Time Management or the formulas in Cost Management). Read that and make notes, but come back to Rita, Rita is your base.

 

 

6. Repeat steps 1-5  for all KAs. I spent upto one week doing this for each KA, as I was working 10 hours a day. IT took me about 2-3 months to complete this cycle, as there were some interruptions in between.

 

7. Now you will find that you have forgotten what you had studied in the beginning. Go thru the notes you prepared and revise all the chapters. Do not spend more than 2-3 days doing this. You can have quick peeks into PMBOK or Rita, if you have doubts, or if you feel your notes are insufficient. You may also modify or update  your notes if you find gaps.

 

Now you have covered all the topics. 

 

8.Now try to answer as many questions as you can. Spend time searching online for questions. Keep on answering questions from as many sources as you can find, but be sure it is from the correct PMBOK version. This will fix the concepts firmly in your mind, and believe me, once you have done something like 1000-1500 questions, you will have gone over these topics so many times, that you will never forget these concepts again.

 

9.Now you have covered the theory, and you know what kind of questions to expect. At this point you should be able to answer 8/9 out of 10 questions that you encounter. If you find gaps in your knowledge,  go back to PMBOk,Rita or Google search and study again. Remember, if you do not find the gaps in your knwoledge now, they will find you on the exam day.

 

Keep on doing steps 8-9 until you gain enough knowledge, and confidence. I did this for about a month, answered thousands of questions, found so many gaps in my knowledge ,and went back and referred to PMBOK and Rita many times.

 

10. Now you can book the date for the exam. Before you actually appear for the real exam, you have to try out the full length tests available free in different sites like pmstudy, pmzilla, simplilearn etc. The objective is try to recreate a test centre like atmosphere with no disturbances,and also to get used to sitting 4 hours straight without losing concentration. Do not underestimate the physical strain of the exam. Try to do at least 4-5 full length mock tests, and you should be able to score between 75 to 80% in these.

 

I had to take 4 days off from work to do this, as I wanted to recreate a real test centre atmosphere , without any interruptions from spouse or kids.

 

11. Now go through the glossary in the PMBOK. Be sure that you are familiar with every word in the glossary, it will help you with more questions that you would expect. Now prepare your dumpsheet. The dumpsheet should contain all formulas and page 43 of the PMBOK. You should practice creating the dumpsheet , until you are able to write down the whole sheet in less than 10 minutes.

 

12. Spend the last 2 days before the exam going through your notes, and the IO `flowcharts which you made. You should become really familiar with your notes. In the gaps between reviewing the notes, search online and try to answer more and more questions.

 

13. Now the important thing to remember is, you have loaded your brain with lots of information. Now you have to give it time to index and process all this. Sleep well the day before the exam. Do not eat any food which might adversely affect you. Do not get drunk to relieve your tension, as it will affect your prefomace and slow down your brain. Do not do stuff like gulping down 5 cans of Redbull. If you are a smoker, have a smoke in the morning of the exam day ,if it relaxes you. The bottom line is, dont eat/drink/do anything which you normally do not, and which has a possibility to physically affect you.

 

What you have to do is relax your brain, as the PMP is not an exam which you can do using a brain which is in overexcited or panicked condition. Get 8 hours of sleep, if possible.

 

13. Go for the exam. You will be given 15 minutes for the tutorial. Use the first 10 minutes to dump all your stuff on the paper provided , then follow the tutorial. It is important that you should go through the tutorial, and it will not take more than 3-4 minutes. 

 

Now start the exam, and try to complete one full pass over all the questions first, and mark for review whatever you dont know. Try to roughly keep a rate of 1 question a minute. If you cannot get any idea of how to answer a question in 1 minute, mark it and move on. If you know how to solve it, and it is only the calculation which is taking time, go ahead and complete it.

 

Take a rest room break if required. Stand up and stretch yourself once in a while if required, my test centre guy did not object to that.

 

Tip 1: When you are doing rough work on the scratch paper, do not forget to put the question number. It will help you if you are marking this question for review, as you can come back and check the calculations easily. Otherwise it might not be easy to find out the calculations you have done for a particular question in the scratch paper later on.

 

Tip 2: Always remember that if you have 2 equally possible options,the option in which the PM is more proactive is the correct one.

 

14. You might finish the first pass in 3plus hours. Now you have at least 45 minutes to review the questions which you had marked. Keep working until the last minute, and end the exam. The result will be displayed in a few seconds.

 

15. I knew within answering the first 20-30 questions that I would pass. I got at least 30 questions which I was able to answer directly without any thinking , which surprised me. To be honest, I overestimated the PMP, and studied real hard.

 

Treat the whole process of passing the PMP as a project your are planning and executing. Now I have detailed out the phases/steps how to prepare for the exam at a minimum budget without suscribing to all these fancy sites, buying any dumps and without buying any additional books. Just follow these steps, put a whole hearted effort , and I guarantee you a pass - your project will be successful. And believe me when I tell you that the PMP is not as difficult as it is hyped up to be.