Hello everybody,

First of all, I would like to thank every single person who shared his LL or materials with us here, without you all I would never get the chance to be here now writing my LL.

Let me start quickly, I am Abdelrahman Elhwary, 26 M, Egypt working as localization PM since 2010.

Yesterday, I passed the PMP exam 2 P, 2 MP and 1 BP (I just wanted to taste all). I did take my decision on 1^st of Dec 2013 to be a PMP certified, then one of my best friends told me about this forum which gave me all information about how to prepare for the PMP Exam.

I used the PMBok and Rita which were mainly the only two sources I used for my study. I tried Headfirst also after finishing the 1^st round of reading PMbok and Rita but didn't have enough time to go through it. It is a very nice and simple book.

Here is a very important tip, I found that the Project management theories applies on how to study the PMP as well. Most people are gold plating during studying the PMP and adding to the scope, the development never ends. You will jump from test to test and from book to book but there is a cost for that, which is delays, more money and sometime this delay will cause that you didn't enter the exam at all. That was a critical decision for me, as long as 3 σ is enough to pass, I will not go for 6 σ (More details about that later). Some of you may disagree with me but believe me this is true. 1 P or 5 P's a PMP is still a PMP J

My plan was to go thru one chapter in Pmbok then go thru it in Rita and answer the questions, which I already did. My scores for Rita questions after each chapter was from 77 : 85 %. I was really satisfied as I heard as that as long as ur scores are above 75% you can pass the PMP. I used to study an average of 4 hours Max per day, many days I didn't study at all. I was planning to take my exam by Jan 14 or Max 1^st of Feb 14. During Jan, I noticed that I will not be able to take the test by the planned date so, I isolated myself from everything (Sports, Facebook and friends) till I pass the exam. I didn't want to fail in my goal and this was a big pressure on me. I am saying this so you know it requires sacrifice to do this. I finished the first round by 17^th of Feb2014. Then I decided to pay the PMI membership and the exam fees then I was trying to book the exam ASAP. When I contacted the testing center they told me that I have to book 2 months earlier but they advised me to check the website as I may find available slot. I was shocked which made me book the exam on 4^th of Mar 2014. I made a wrong assumption here that I could review 2 chapters per day (as my first score were 80%, I thought the revision will be easy but it ended up that I forgot all first chapters due to the long period!!!) and for the rest of time I will take some exams. I ended up entering the exam without solving a single PMP EXAM !!!

Sorry for the long topic, but I wanted to give u all my exp here as part of what u did for me. Now I will start with LL:

 Study Materials:              Pmbok and Rita (you can use headfirst also if you want, it is a very nice book)

Mock Exam:-                      FasTrack v8, I only answer 8 KA question. Didn’t solve PMP or Super PMP exam.

Quick sheets for review: Download all these attachment. It is more than AMAZING http://pmzilla.com/comprehensive-pmp-notes

Perfect learning videos on YouTube, I just figured it out when I was in chapter 10. I really wish, I could find it earlier. These videos reduced my study time significantly. If I take 4 hours to study 1 chapter, with these videos I could finish it with 2 hours only. http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTjXYpPs4vjOAodnWCGKfeA

During the 2^nd round of reviewing the Pmbok and Rita for the exam. My planned schedule for the revision was unrealistic and I barely could finish 1 chapter per day. Here was an important decision I apply another PM method to catch my delivery date which is "Crashing" my study after finishing ch5. I was focusing on 1 thing only, to pass. I dealt with it mathematically, started with initiate and close to avoid two BP, mastering planning and going fast thru executing and M&C to reduce the failing probability and  getting max 2 MP or 1 MP and 1 BP (Which happened somehow as planned J ). Sorry again for the detailed description, but I think this might help u planning ur study.

Then I found that I will not have enough time to store all itto's (as I am storing such things very slowly, I am better with numbers) so I toke another important decision to reduce the scope by disregarding the ITTOS, just going fast thru it. Noting that I already stored it during the 1^st round but while reviewing, I found that I totally forgot it!! One more thing, the last 3 chapters during my review (Quality, time and HR) I went thru it very fast two days before the exam. So, as you can see, things were not going as planned on my side before the exam. However I was sure somehow if my plan goes well, I will pass (Which – thanks to god – happened 90% as per the plan).

I will go fast about the last phase, the exam wasn't that hard as you heard a lot, but it also, wasn’t that easy. If I spent more time answering more mock exams, it would be easier for me and less worried during the exam. I was afraid to death be the end of the exam, I even thought for the while I will not make it. Before the exam, I used to answer 1 question per minute, which happened during the real exam as well. I toke one break only for 10 minutes (For prayer J ). I more mistake I did, is marking many question for review (about 60 !). So, I finished all questions after 3.5 hours. As you can guess, I didn’t get a chance to review all questions then while reviewing a question I got the message "Time is over". I will never be able to describe how I felt, like if they told me you FAIL. Then I answered the survey, hoping they will be nice to me and let me pass: D
Then, I clicked "end" and saw "Congratulations" I was going to dance, was very emotional by this point. I remembered the movie "Pursuit of happiness" when he got the job. As you can guess, by the last five minutes, I wished I didn’t study or entered the Exam, I am saying this so you can balance between perfect studying and crashing as this feeling the exam is horrible.

Finally, if I got the chance to re-start, here is what I gonna do:-

1.       http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTjXYpPs4vjOAodnWCGKfeA watch all videos for two times before touching any book. This will give you an overview so when you open the book your job will be very easy.

2.       Go thru Pmbok and Rita for once or twice, till your scores are above 80%

3.       Solve as many questions as you can, but don't add many items to your cart (Avoid gold plating). As you can see, I passed without even passing 1 full exam. BTW, I was trying to solve a super PMP by the exam night and after answering 60 question my score was 60%! I know you are surprised but I was very tired so, I didn’t continue the test.

I feels I wrote the longest LL, so I have to stop now but if you have any queries you can e-mail me on Elhwary.pm@gmail.com