Hi All,

I have cleared PMP exam on 30th December in first attempt. Following are my LL, hope they will be useful to you all.....

About Exam booking and center
I have started preparing in Mid-October, and booked my Exam in Nov, that time i received confirmation mail for exam in borivali. And before 1 day of exam i received an email that exam is at Goregaon. So it was shock for me because i was almost ready to travel from Pune to Borivali , it was Saturday so all prometric centers were closed but later i came to know, they have online support on weekends between specific time which is really useful, i confirmed with them and gave my exam at goregaon center.
TIP - Please confirm your exam center and if you have any queries (and it is weekend when prometric centers are closed) you can contact them via online chat. https://www.prometric.com/en-us/contact-us/pages/default.aspx
Goregaon exam center is awesome, very co-operative staff, good systems, technically updated center.
Make sure carry 2 identity cards for safer side because I have seen some cases in which photos were not clear so they have to present another identity card.( must be rare cases)

Where to Stay? For people travelling from Pune.
IF you are travelling from Pune by Shivneri, bus will drop you at Goregaon (E)- Take an auto from there to station –Cross the bridge ( walking 10 minutes) – You will reach Goregaon(W) – from there you can go to Laxmi International hotel ( by auto)which is hardly 3-4 minutes of walk from exam center. – Rates are also reasonable and good to stay for 1 night.

Hey guys enough of talks about staying and center I know must be little boring for you … from here actual important topics starts

Study Time
•Created timetable topic wise with target dates. - Guys suggest you to create the same as per your time convenience and make sure you keep track of it.
•Total Preparation Time – 2.5 Months
•Daily – Morning 1.5 Hours (5:00AM to 6:30 AM) and Evening 1.5 Hours (7:30 PM to 9:00 PM)
•Weekends – Approximately 4 Hours (weekends were busy with personal works)

Exam Preparation (Books Followed)
•Andy Crowe 3 times - Very nice book - Based on PMBOK (For explanation of ITTO in simple language)
•Rita 2 times -Very nice book - in detail all knowledge areas- especially Time/Procurement/Cost/Scope - examples close to real world) – Not memorized Rita process chart or prepared exercises.
•Some areas from PMBOK
•YouTube videos http://www.youtube.com/user/PMBOK5?feature=watch – very good videos based on PMBOK
•YouTube Videos http://www.youtube.com/user/SirGanttalot?feature=watch – very good videos critical path

Mock Exams – I preferred to solve exams which are based on PMBOK. – Mock test helps you to prepare seating for 4 hours – solving or understanding situational questions and understanding your progress….solve as many as good ones only.
• Cristofer Scordo - Solved all 1 to 19 exams - Avg 80% - Recorded all my scores which helped me to know my progress.
• Head First -82%
• Questions from Rita Book - Avg 70-80%
• PMPForSure - Solved only free one, which i feel is one step above exam level in terms of difficulty 63%
• 175 Oliver Lehman - 75% (language and style, which i feel is close to real exam)

Daily Reads - (I have copy of all below, I can provide it)
•Writing down formulas - last 1 week – I have collected formulas from 2-3 websites.
•Tools & Techniques – mnemonics - last 1 week – I found this from pmzilla forum only, I have edited them as per my convenience, I will assure you can memorize it in 2 days maximum.
•Outputs – Only key outputs - last 1 week – Noted down only key outputs
•Inputs – Just read once on day of exam
•Some common inputs list like Risk Register, Charter etc.
•Common output list like Document update – Plan update and org Process update.

About Exam
•Exam was tough as well as simple, each questions will let you think and consider all options
•First 15 minutes tutorial which is very basic – I used that time in writing down formulas on rough paper– TIP- here I would like to tell you if you need additional rough paper in between exam, once you first paper is full, you have to submit first rough paper so you have to write down formulas again. After knowing this I used only 1 rough paper sheet as I don’t wanted to write down formulas again - Staff gives you rough paper sheet, pencil and if you request them they give you handy small calculator (on screen you have calculator as well) – I know very small things but I hope these tips will be useful.
•Almost 20-25 math’s questions with multiple calculations (CV, SV, BAC, CPI…etc.) Tip - make sure you understand formulas and be prepared for multiple calculations.
•Hardly questions on critical path
•Few questions of Quality
•Good amount of HR questions (a lot I must say)
•Good amount of initiating questions.
•Lot of Scope change and integrated change control questions.
•Lot of questions about closing (Here I felt I am lacking so please guys make sure you read whatever you get about closing)
•Few questions about stakeholders
•Some direct ITTO questions (if you know/understand ITTO the they are very easy)
•Almost 90% situational questions – I will say mock exams will help you in solving or studying situational questions but yes questions in Mock exams are not so close to real exams.

Till 100th questions I was thinking chances of passing is 50-50, by the time I reached 150th questions I started feeling I am going to fail, but then I took a break of 5 minutes and completed remaining 50 questions with full confidence.

So I have completed 200 questions in 3.5 Hrs. (Tip - I was solving 200 questions in 2.5 hrs. in mock tests, so you can imagine question quality level in real exam which took me 3.50 hrs.) then I went back to solve marked questions which were 5-6 questions, after that all of a sudden screen turned blank and it took me to survey about exam center, after completing that again screen turned blank and started calculating and I received message……… Congratulations…… with my levels. Immediately staff in prometric gave me printed copy of my result and told me I will get certificate in 4-6 weeks. Overall it was great experience.

I would like to thanks my family for support as well as PMZILLA for creating such useful forum…Lessons learned of passed as well as re-appearing candidates experience helped me a lot, basic from preparing till clearing exam….and happy to be part of it in contributing my LL with future candidates.

Incase of any doubt feel free to contact me.

Cheers
Amit