Passed PMP on 3rd Dec 2013

1. Finally passed my PMP exam on the 3rd of Dec. I had never studied so hard in post 1996 after leaving my college :-).

2.Firstly it didnt feel so hard from the questions part but very hard from the endurance part. Sitting for 4 hours continously was the toughest part. Although the questions did look easy I ended up getting just one proficient(Initiation) and all others Moderate Proficient. So that means I just scraped through. But I felt comfortable throughout from the questions point of view.

3. My preparations started with post working time evening classes for getting my 35 classroom hours at Green International. That was three days a week and around a month. I wasnt very serious with the studies part during that point of time and did just brush through the PMBOK for a few chapters and do remember reading Risk Management pretty well. Did miss a few classes too . that was way back in August.

4. Didnt study much during Septemeber too. Started going through Rita as general reading, a casual approach. Found it much interesting than reading the PMBOK.

5. October was the month I decided that it was high time I start studying. I started reading Rita seriously . It got me getting into the groove. I started getting interested in studying . I was studying around 2 hours in the morning . Near the end of October I was much more clearer with concepts. I started reading PMBOK again. Now PMBOK felt different. The problem with PMBOK is that you cant miss a word :-) cos it is the bible of PMP.

4. It was Nov first week and I had to go on vacation to India in the second week of Dec. I decided that I had to give the exam before I go. I started studying with more vigour. Was thankful to my wife who kept my lovely little ones at bay engaged so that they wouldnt trouble my study schedule.I started studying 3 hours in the morning and three hours in the evening.Lucky that I could manage so much time as a major project was over and I had regular working hours

5. I had to take the date but was not very confident yet. Novemeber started with me reading Rita and PMBOK side by side. One chapter of PMBOK followed by thesame knowledge area in Rita. I was solving the excercises at the end of the chapter at the end of each knowledge are. At office if I could squeeze in time did some questions in the PMFASTRACK for the particular knowledge are. It helped me in finding the gaps I had.

6. The second week of Novemeber was over and I had to take the dates. I registered and finally got the dates confirmed for the exam for third of Dec. I was much better but then still was not able to remember the ITTOs. I had assumed that as my concepts were much clearer I would be able to pass the exam.Around 15 days before exam I had a conversation with one of my collegues who had cleared the exam last year. He told me to memorize the ITTOs and that it would help me.

7. I hit upon Mnemonics for the TTs on net . Modfied a few according to my convenience and started memorizing. And I repeated going through the same till the exam date. I was comfortable remembering within around 5 days. I realised my grey cells still have some juice left in them But my collegue told me that it would be better if I could remember Input output too. I was clear with concepts by now but still thought would give it a try. Got all the ITTOs pasted on my bedroom wall ( 6 A3 size sheets covered all ITTOs). Got the same from internet. I was spending around 1 hour everyday in the evening solely on chart. As the same was getting registered in my grey cell the flow was too getting imprinted clearer.
Remembering the ITTOs really helped me. Threre were quite a few very straightforward TT questions.

8. Besides I was making notes on a brainmapping software mindmiester(paid) . (I have all the brainmaps if someone needs it.It helps in just looking into a topic in a short time. It can be opened using freemind software which is free for use). These helped my in the final two three day revision.

9. I gave a few mock exams.
a)examcentral
b)pmstudy
c) oliver lehmann
d) Kim Heldman (I did only a few chapters)
I was able to score around 70 plus in most of them except Kim Heldman. I found some Kim Heldman chapter questions pretty tough. May be it was just me.
The doubts and questions raised on PMZILLA by the members and discussions on them was pretty helpful.

10. Exam day.
I had planned when I had taken exam date that I wouldnt study a day before the exam. But it was not to be. Due to some reason I couldnt stritcly follow that. I just brushed up my mindmaps and the ITTO chart. And in the morning just practiced the 47 processes and formulas. ( i was practicing writing them down almost everyday for last month)
I had gone and checked the exam center a day before. Reached by around 7:45 filled up form and completed formalities. As expected instructions came up. I just dumped the processes and formulas on the sheets although i dont remember looking at them at any stage.
I had decided to target first 25 question within half an hour and first 50 questions within 1 hour. I could manage to attempt the first 50 withn 50 mins (with a few mathemetical questions not attempted). My plan was complete 50 questions in one hour session by session Luckily could manage that. I could complete with around 20 minutes to spare. The last session of 50 questions took quite a bit of time. I couldnt review all the questions I had marked.

And then while I was reviewing I get the time over message. And then I have to fill the prometric feeback review form which seemed to take like ages. And the white screen was flashing for a few seconds which felt like hours to me. I could clearly hear my heart pounding. And then I saw congratulations and was pretty happy. I had expected a better score but am happy that I cleared(1P and 4MP).The questions were very simple and straightforward at times.
Quite a number of Tuckman ladder questions.
Quite a lot of conflict resolution question.
Did get quite a few questions on change control.
All an all I did feel easy answering. The calculation questions can be tricky. There were quite many EVM questions some of them had extranneous data. Reading the question is very important. As people have earlier mentioned some questions do have keyword to the answer. So please read the question carefully.

I do have the some of study material I used. Please do email me for the dropbox link.

Thanks for the support. God bless you all and best of luck

Congrats Rajesh..Good Luck..!!

 Congrats Rajesh for passing the exam and thanks for your lessons learned.

my exam is scheduled on Dec.17, could you please send me your brainmaps on my e mail 

ilhamn.faisal@gmail.com

Thanks in Advance

Ilham Faisal

Hi firstly congrats :)

Can you please share your brainmaps with me, will be really useful.

Cheers
Ami

Would need your email id to send the same.

Brgds

Rajesh

Hey Rajesh,

Sorry i forgot to mention my emailid it is amitforpmp@gmail.com if you can share the stuff will be really helpful.

Cheers
Amit

Hi Rajesh, Congrats,

Can you please send me the mind map to my id rajmuthukumar@gmail.com. I am having Mindjet MindManager. I will try to open that file. Thank you 

Hi rajesh

many congratulations for passing I am pssing from same situation as you.My exam is booked on 6 Jan 2014.

Would you be able to share brainmaps by sending on my email er.andu@gmail.com ?

Any help will be much appreciated.

Regards and congrats again

Hi Rajesh,
could you help me with the brain maps on the cordinate <>..thanks

Hi Rajesh, could you help me with the brain maps on the cordinate chikrohit@gmail.com
..thanks

Congrats Rajesh on your new success. can you please send me the map you mentioned at karunareddyp@gmail.com

Many Thanks

Congratulation on your clearing the exam. A very good, detailed LL on your prep. and experience as well. Rajech, I will appreciate if you could mail me the... ITTO pages that you had used and also the brain thingy that I wil use at a later stage. I appreciate your support.

Congratulation on your clearing the exam. A very good, detailed LL on your prep. and experience as well. Rajech, I will appreciate if you could mail me the... ITTO pages that you had used and also the brain thingy that I wil use at a later stage. I appreciate your support. Oops I forgot to write down my e-mail address that reminss me I do need to review the brain map thingy.. :-) and before I forget, my e-mail address that you can use is khanaftabs@hotmail.com Thanks & cheers!

Sent you the details.

Best of luck.

Rajesh

Got'em! Thanks much for your support great man!

Dear Rajesh

Since you have cleared the PMP exam recently, I was wondering if you can please share the brainmaps that might have used to prepare for your exam. Can you please send me the links to sreekanth76@yahoo.com

Congratulations on passing the PMP exam!

Can you pls e-mail me the study material and/or download link to: kinnumann1@gmail.com

Thanks!

Regards.

-KM

Hi Rajesh congrats on your PMP crededential.Please if you can send to dandybautista.casyao78@gmail.com your study materials.

Thanks in advance

Congrats Rajesh for passing the exam and thanks for sharing.
could you please send me your brainmaps on my e mail
kdeepi.friends@gmail.com
Thanks in Advance
Sona.

Hi Rajesh,
Congrats! Your hard work and persistence paid off. You are an inspiration for PMP aspirants like me. Any notes/mindmaps that you can pass on will be helpful. My email id is swamisub.mba@gmail.com.
Thank you again.
Regards,
SS

Hi ,
really congratulation :)
would you please send me brain-map and any questions bank ( mh_mirzaie@yahoo.com)

many thanks in advance

Congratulations on passing the exam, very well written LL. Can you please send me brainmaps on Mujawar@gmail.com Thanks.

Hi Rajesh,

Congrats for your well deserved PMP. Could you pls. share brainmaps and other relevant files to gen.rk79 at gmail

thanks.

Congrats.
Could you pls. notes and files to rkm2007@gmail.com
Thanks

Hi Rajesh,

First of all many many Congratulations for being the PMP certified NOW. I would be very thankful to you if you can provide me all the materials which you can share on my email id to help me out .

My email :avinashbandil@yahoo.com or avinashbandil@gmail.com

thank you
Avinash

Firstly I would like to congratulate you on your success, I'd really appreciate if you could send in the IITO's in A3 size along with mind mapping notes.
Take care
Sachin (sachinsinha3@gmail.com)

Congrats ans thanks for sharing your experience. My email id is vshinde1981@gmail.com

Would you please share your experience since I just started preparing for the PMP Exam
My email: nasreddine.n@gmail.com

Thanks

Hello Rajesh

Could u please share your study material with me? My mail id is itsdijk@gmail.com. Thanks.

Hi Rajesh,
First of all Congrats! Could you send me the material to
blueskyisnice@gmail.com

Hi Rajesh,

Congratulation on for successful PMP achievement. Could you please send the mindmape to my email id sac_tel@yahoo.co.in or drop it to
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3oadr8hkf9az2pk/mwRMuGSB_-

Hi Rajesh, Congrats. If possible if you have any cheat sheet can you please forward it to my email address raj.sap.doc@gmail.com
Thanks

Congrats man. Got fruit of your hard work. :)
Please share your mind map with me @ nav_kapoor@yahpp.com. Besides that I am pretty confused on number of ITTO question in exam. Some one said only 2 to 3 and other said 60. This is a huge difference hence I will appreciate if you will share the truth.

Thanks in advance
Naveen

Hi,
I can recollect at least 10 direct ITTO questions .

Hi Rajesh

Many thanks for your response. Just wondering for 10 question, is it worth to spend huge efforts in dumping in memory and precious time?

Please suggest

Thanks in advance
Naveen Kapoor

Sorry, I missed to mention. This is with regards to your response on ITTO questions in examp

Rajesh,
Kindly share your notes with me at my mail ID jain.varun1706@gmail.com
Or anybody else with whom Rajesh had shared the notes

Congrats Rajesh.Could you please send me those brain maps to my gmail rupinthiyagu@gmail.com
Thanks

Sent. Best of luck with your exams

Hi Rajesh, Congrats,

Can you please send me the mind map to my id pandian_meenakshi@yahoo.ca
Thank you
Meenakshi

Sent you the link

Thanks to everyone's good wishes. I have tried to send the study material link to all who requested. If someone didn't receive the same please do mail me .
Best of luck to all preparing for the certification.
God bless

Hi rajesh many congratulations for passing ...I am pssing from same situation as you.My exam is booked on 27 Jan 2014. Would you be able to share brainmaps by sending on my email ashish_sit@yahoo.co.in ? Any help will be much appreciated.

Best Regards
Ashish Sharma

Hi Rajesh Congrats for passing. Kindly send to dandybautista.casyao78@gmail.com the ITTO's notes and any material that yoy have.

Thank you

Hi,

Sent you the link. Best of luck with the exams.

Congrats and all the best rajesh..!
Pls send me those materials to maheshgonuguntla@gmail.com , I'm giving the exam in Jan 14

Thank Yoy

Hi,

Sent you the link. Best of luck with the exams.

 Hi Rajesh Congrats  for passing the exam and thanks a lot for the tricks and lessons learned.

my exam is scheduled on Jan.17, could you please send me your brainmaps and the study material you had used 

kghaloua@gmail.com

Thanks in Advance

Khalid Gh

Hi,

Sent you the link. Best of luck with the exams.

Congrats on passing. Please send me the link as well: tej1974@msn.com

Thank you so much!

Congrats Rajesh on your successful PMP.
Could you please share the study materials you used to lamxiprasath80@gmail.com.
Thanks in advance.

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