Dear PMP Aspirants,

I was silent reader of PMZilla site. I used to ask myself that can i also write my success experience for others here or not. I want to share my PMP Exam experience with you all like most of you guys do here. This really helps every one of us. I also find these experiences very valuable.

First of all guys, Today I cleared PMP exam with 3 MPS and 2 BPs yesterday .   Here is my experience.

1. Read PMBOK more than twice (I read it 4-5 times completely from top to bottom and vice versa) even though you are reading and following many other books, notes BUT READING PMBOK IS MUST FOR EVERY PMP ASPIRANT.  Also, I put some special focus on some important topics from PMBOK like Perform Project Charter, Project Management Plan, Integrated Change Control, Closing Project & Procurement, Report Performance, Risk Management and all numerical related topics like PERT CPM, Communication Channels etc. I personally feel PMBOK is written in very precise words and in a very interesting way, by these great PMBOK writers e.g. if the writers of PMBOK covered one definition say “Change Request” in 4^th chapter then it is same as in other chapters too which means standard definitions. If you remember it from 4^th Chapter then same you can recall in other chapters without any extra reading.
2. Read HeadFirst for numericals on CPM,PERT,Communication Channels etc. and also to get easy start to understand the topics. I personally feel there is no need to do questions and answers from this book as they are are easy. just read theory which should be enough.
3. Read Rita book at least 2 times (I read 2 times completely) and do all questions. (I did all questions and exercise although it was sometimes very tiring for me as Rita’s chapter are sometimes very long and lots of theory). I was able to do 1 chapter’s exercise only on 1 day due to my office time which was also hectic. But I continually reminded me multiple times that I have to do PMP by hook or crook so I made my mindset fix again and again whenever I feel tired and did next chapter’s exercise on next day and so on.
4. I did Kim Heldman PMP 5^th edition June 2009 for just doing exercises. It has some different questions which were not well covered in Rita e.g. Project Section numerical, NPV, IRR etc. I think you don’t need to read any theory from this book and just go and do exercise after each chapter. This will make your base stronger. I was able to cover this book’s exercise in 4-5 days with 4 hours per day after office time. I felt more confidence after this book.
5. I did all 18 tests of PMP Exam Prep: Questions, Answers, & Explanations, 2012 Edition available on http://pmi.books24x7.com/toc.aspx?bkid=45515 . I did practice all of these 18 tests 2 times from start to end.
6. After reading PMZilla, I also planned to do Oliver, PMPStudy, PMPSure online free tests,PMZilla tough 200 questions well in advance before exam but could not do any of them due to less time/days remaining hardly 1-3 days in last week before my exam.  My office guys sucked me in office work during last week of my exam preparation. I was really frightened whether I would be able to do these planned online tests or not. Even my office guys were not happy with me as I used to leave office by time and they were expecting me to sit there till 10-12 p.m. everyday which I denied. I mentally focused on PMP saying to myself that I must do PMP and rest things like doing office work is useless after office time that I can do on next day too during office time.
7. EXAM Day: As I am working in out of Delhi so could not get time to see my exam venue in advance. I came to Delhi one day before exam day in evening. I again read PMBOK ONLY. My wife asked me to go with me and I reached with her in exam venue. My exam time was 12:30 p.m. but we could not find the exam venue even till 1:10 p.m. Finally I reached there by 1: 10 p.m. and sat on my seat. I noted down all formulas, ITTOs on paper provided to me with pencil. Finally after 15 minutes, I started exam. I found during exam that questions were easy then what I was expecting. They were 2-5 lines maximum and not like 2-10 lines as what I was expecting. I got10-15 numerical on PERT CPM, channels, EVM etc. I could not answer 2-3 of them correctly so I guessed the answers. I remember , when I started exam , I marked 4-15 questions in total (but I answered them by guess when I took them in first ass itself assuming  I may not get time to review them in 2^nd pass which happened with me). I did not get to review any of them. I mean I did not get time for 2^nd pass.  Finally when I reached 200 questions, only 15 seconds were remaining which means I was not having further time to review my answers and marked ones too. And when I answered this last question no. 200, a window prompt pop up that “you are out of time” and I could not answer 200^th question. ONE IMPORTANT THING, I feel is that we should ALWAYS mark answer correctly and never make guess. Finally white screens appeared saying “Please wait…” I closed my eyes, I was frightened and lots of thoughts were running in my mind at that moment that  screen will show me “sorry..” or “congratulations….” Finally a survey came and I opened my eyes. , this survey asked me 8 questions and I replied them and then again I clicked on NEXT. Again a white screen came with “Please wait...” I closed my eyes again and I was able to hear some sound coming CPU like “Dhr……” … it was actually processing sound which increased during this moment. I was thinking that CPU might be processing and summing up my answers. My body was cold and fingers were shaking. Finally that voice stopped…Oh My god.. I slightly open one of my eyes and then saw 3 lines and in these 3 lines the first word was “Congratulations………” …. I was surprised and could not believe myself.   I stood up quickly and went out from that room and that guy sitting outside near computer smiled and gave me a printed sheet saying “Congratulations”... I was surprised and still could not believe. I called to my wife sitting in car by phone and she also got very happy and finally I came.  I am still not believing during writing this note that I am PMP now. Thanks to GOD and my wife to her encouragement she gave me my phone calls to fix my mind on PMP after office time.

A)    

Read PMBOK 4-5 Times EVEN IF you don’t read anything or not. If you can remember everything from PMBOK then I would say that you are 70% done with PMP exam’s questions.

B)     

Rest 30% questions can be answered using knowledge gained by other books like Rita, Heldman and online tests.

My personal experience after exam is that the exam ask and test just your basics. so this exam for me was easy and i found the questions were asking just definitions, small calculations etc. Theory of PMBOK is bible to pass this exam.

GOOD LUCK TO ALL OF YOU J.....