Dear Friends,

My colleague and I appeared for the PMP exam today and cleared it successfully. I got Proficient in Planning and MP in the other areas.

I was lucky enough to have my colleague accompany me throughout the entire study process. If it wasn't for group studying, I wonder if I'd be able to get through this exam this fast. Hats off to individuals who study without having any sort of study group.

For aspiring PMP's, I'd say that it is best to form a group and study. That way you remain focussed and motivated all throughout.

We went through the 35 hours training last December, 2009 but did not find ample amount of time due to our workload. In October, 2010, we decided to give it a shot and prior to that, we sourced the PMBOK and Rita books for our preparation. Our target was to give the exam in December.

We spent around 4 to 5 hours daily on an average in October and November and around 8 to 9 hours over the weekends. In December, we intensified our approach and spent around 8 hours daily including weekends.

Initially, we read the PMBOK book end to end followed by Rita. We reenforced our learning by giving Rita's Fasttrack tests and we scored between 60 to 70 % on an average. In the next round, we read one chapter from PMBOK followed by the same chapter in Rita. We also gave knowledge area wise tests in Rita.

In the second week of December, we felt that our preparation wasn't adequate and hence we postponed the exam to the 07th of Jan, 2011. We reread PMBOK and Rita and subscribed for the PMSTUDY tests. We practiced all the tests and consistently scored between 70 to 80%. We found PMstudy tests to be much easier than the RITA SUPERPMP exams which were really tough and used complex logic.

One week prior to the exam, we thorughly read PMBOK end to end, line by line and this really helped us.

With regard to the practice tests, we liked PMstudy the best. We also gave other free tests from Headfirst and Oliver Lehmann.

All throughout we practiced writing all the formulas on a piece of paper along with the various processes. It's a good idea to write these down during the initial 15 mins that you get before the actual exam starts.

The exam was moderately difficult but if we have a very clear thought process about the various concepts, then applying that logic to various questions can be easier.

The mistake that I did was to mark questions for which I had even the slightest doubts but when it was time to review all the marked questions, I realized that I had marked around 50 questions with very little time to review. Many questions had atleast 2 options that could easily be the best answer, hence thoroughly understanding the PMBOK is of essence.

Finally, after submitting the survey, the 15 to 20 seconds wait time is something that I'll never forget.

Atlast, there it was.... The message that I was eagerly waiting to see.

                              " Congratulations, You have passed the PMP"

I'd like to sincerely thank all the members on this forum who have been so helpful and have posted valuable articles and LL's for all aspiring PMP's.

Thanks once again...

Regards

rahulraxx, PMP