Hi friends,

I passed the PMP exam on 28^th July with 3 Proficient and 2 MP.

I could not share this good news early because I was piled up with lot of papers and urgent files when I resumed my duty after one week leave, which I took to prepare for the final day. I sincerely thanks to this forum members and specially  Mr. Patil for helping me and validating my study plan.

 I have few points as lesson learned which are as follows:

1-       PMBOK guide and Rita’s PMP Exam Prep System having a PMP Exam Prep textbook( Text and audio version), a copy of PM FASTrack Exam Simulation Software and one copy of Hot Topics Flashcards (audio ) were the basis of my study.

2-      I had to study 3 months  @ 4 hours minimum on regular days  and at least 12 to 14 hours on weekend.

3-      For almost last 2 months, I had to put all my social activities ON HOLD, which means no weekend outing/dinner with family or friends outside. Full time dedication from you and support from family is a MUST for success.  In that I am really thankful to my husband and two naughty kids who co-operated me a lot. Sometime when I was tired after long duty hours and was not willing to study, my little kids use to tease me by saying “ Mom you have to set a example for us to study hard in all circumstances.  

4-      I used to listen daily 1 chapter on audio CD of Rita guide inside car, when driving to office and coming back to home. By the way, I have to drive daily minimum 1 hour to reach the office and almost same time to reach back at home. This gave me brief idea about each chapter and same chapter I read in text guide for at least 3 days and next 2 days skimmed through PMBOK guide. I was even listening those audio  while cooking something on weekend and my family had no other choice but to listen that audio, because of high volume. You must be laughing but it is true, whenever I made mistake of putting less/more salt in food OR if food was not testy, my little kids used to tease me by saying, “ Mom we are not complaining  but  alerting you that, this dish is not perfect because either you did not select the right “ TOOLS & TECHNIQUE”  OR did not used right “INPUTS” it is OK to us BUT please don’t do this while taking exam( because they were also unintentionally listening those audio and got some idea of repeated words like “ INPUTS & TT). These words of my little ones really motivated me and helped sometime releasing the stress by giving a reason to laugh. My husband was also very co-operative and managed the weekend shopping alone with my childrens.

5-      A piece of advice: Please do not believe in numbers of mock questions/test, believe in quality questions. Some people said to me, I must do 5000 questions before taking the exam but believe me I hardly solved 2000 questions( approximately 1500 questions from PM FASTrack and 2 mock test, namely PMSTUDY 4^th test and PMZILLA set of hard questions.)

6-      A word of caution: Do not attempt PMZILLA question just 1 or 2 days before real exam because it may shake your confidence level( it happened to me). Try those at least 20 days before exam so that you have some time to fill the gaps in your knowledge. One /two day before try at least one full 4 hour mock test.  I suggest either from PMSTUDY OR Rita’s PMFASTrack, or both. I found these two very close to the level of real PMP questions. In PMZILLA, I scored only 55 %  and as result of it I lost all confidence prior to my real PMP but as author of that test says you are above average even if score 50-60%. So I decided to do, two mock test in remaining two days: Pmstudy 4^th test (75%) and Rita’s SUPER PMP(80%). It restored my confidence back to the required level to pass the exam. No matter, how many questions you practice before exam, none of those will get repeat in exam. So believe in quality not the quantity. Do not grab any PMP material which comes on your way, be focused on concepts and quality study materials.

I am sorry for putting this long story of my PMP but I think it will help someone somewhere!!

Thanks  and regards to all.

MONA