Hello everyone,

I am glad to tell you people that today I passed my PMP Exam. Mission accomplished!!

Well I managed to get 5 mp's only, but I can't complain more as I was not expecting this much either. Firstly because of my hurried and scurried preparation. All I did was to read once and did not even practice much. Well for the commom benefit of all, I will elaborate the LL's from my prep methodology and some of you might find this info valuable.

I initially got my case file and accepted from PMI in June 2013. Was all set to give the exam before july end as per PMBOK 4th edi. However, unfortunately due to my lathargic attitude and some other reasons I just could not meet the deadline and postponed my exam date to Oct 3rd 2013, which is btw my birthday too.

To be honest guys I started to really hammer my way to read and preview not before Sept. I realised that less time is left and as used to my way of taking pressure on the 11th hour I finally sat down to start my preview.

My study Plan:

First off I started with Rita Mulcahy 8th edi (latest) in line with PMBOK 5th edit. Yeah yeah, the all famous Rita, is my main course here. Initially I found this text a bit dry and boring with so many exercises to try yourself, but as I progressed my way further, it becomes better to read. I read from cover to cover thoroughly Rita once. Took me almost 20 days to complete this book. By sept 20 or so I finished Rita.

Then I decided to give PMBOK a reading too. Well its more a boring and complicated somewhat like an SOP or something. Guys be ready to find this book to put you to sleep. I just managed to give it a read as I tried to read the first few chapters with depth and concntration but later just resorted to read it as I was short on time. Just managed to complete it by Oct 1.

Day before Exam:

One day before the big day, yes my birthday and exam day as well. I was feeling nervous as I did not do any mock ups or practice exercises. Just a few questions here and there. I had a simulation of Prep cast old version from my friend who passed his PMP last year. But did not get time to even use that. So before the exam day I was thinking eitger to revise or do the practice test. Finally I decided to do the super PMP exam from the simulator. I just managed to do 120 or so que as it was really boring and I felt so sleepy too because of lack of sleep for the past few days to read the text book. I got only 63% corect from answered questions and I was worried now. But I had no time left to panick. I decided to go with the plan and just give my best.

On the day of Exam:

I woke up early around 6 am and prayed. Then I sat to just skim the contents and go through the formulas. I reached the prometric center just 15 min beofre 9 am. I drank water and then went inside the room to start my exam. Ah! either I thought I will go home exhilirated and happy or I would be sad and disappointed with myself. But ofcourse the former was the desired chioce.

I did a brain dump of all the formulas and also charted the grid of knowledge areas and process groups in the first 15 min tutuorial. Just so that I may refer to formulas with thinking much in exam. Next I started and my time alloted began.

After first hour or so I was lagging behind schedule to complete atleast 50 que. I just had done 25 or so by then as I was re reading all the questions and its option since in practice tests a few of what I attempted, wue were mostly scenario based and missing one important piece of info could get your ans wrong.

The first few que were of normal difficulty and after 2 hours I was just done with 70 or so que. Now my worries began and I decided to speed up my pace. But its hard to concentrate sometimes with too much irrelevant info given alongwith the facts.

The good thing is that I saw many numerical que (critical path, EVM, Comm channels, etc. type). These were staright fwd and easy. One I remember was about activities AC, % complete and budgeted cost. You had to calc SPI and CPI. CPM were mostly easy but you have to practice to make the network diagram to see the critical path and calc chg with activity durations etc. Activity relationships are also to be read.

Others inc scenario based, some about ITTO (2 to 4 que). Do read conflict resolution strategies, risk mitigation strategies, tuckman ladder model etc carefully. Chg request related que are a must and sometimes tricky. Project/phase closeout que, procurment contract types (4-5 que), etc.

These were simple type and then you may expect more of scenario based in which you need to make the best choice or the first choice or what is not going to be an input/output of such and such process. Risk mgt, scope mgt, WBS, work package, Project proc, quality mgt etc are very important.

At 1 min 11 sec left I finished my last que. Did not leave any incomlete que although marked a few for review. Did not review all. No time. With 11 sec remaining I decided to end test and see the result. I felt so exhausted. It said that if I would like to complete a survey of my experience with prometric. I skipped and went for the result. After a few most anxiusly awaited seconds of my life, it said cngragualtions you have passed and that was it for me.

LL's:

- I would reccomend you to start with Rita first then read PMBOK

- Give atleast 2  readings to Rita if you have time

- Practice a few questions from all knowledgwe areas

- If I can pass anyone can pass and become a PMP, the key is to work hard and enjoy your day

- I will not forget this day when I became a PMP as it was my birthday too

- Its a beautiful experience to pass this prestigous exam and be a ceritifed PM

- Good Luuck and God speed to all aspirants

In the end I would say that as my friend said and I quote, "If you fail people will never see the hard work you put in, they will just say you did not Pass. But when you pass everyone will rememeber that you worked hard for it"

So go and get it.. Earn yourself a PMP title.

Reagrds,

Umair Baig