Hello All,

With great joy and relief, I'm happy to announce that i successfully earned my PMP certification today. It was a long 5 month journey but I'm glad every hour spent was worth it. Thanks to PMZilla forum members and their ever enthusiastic spirit to help the fellow aspirants. All the posts, questions really gave me good insight into the exam and defintely boosted my knwledge and confidence. I have tried to put together my study plan and lessions learnt. Do let me know if you want any assistance.

Preparation

Started my prep around Nov 2014 however coudnt really focus seriously till Jan 2015. After the christmas and New year parties, decided to take it up seriously and prepare for it. Joined a training institute for formal PMP training of 35 hours. This really helped me as it gave me a gist of the subject to cover. I had studied Scope, Time and Cost by then from Rita M but after the class, i got a sense that i need to focus on PMBOK as well in great detail.

Picked up PMBOK and went thru all chapters in detail in my first pass. I used to refer Rita M for any concept that was not clear in PMBOK. After 2 months of thorugh prep (around 2 hrs every day), gave my first mock exam - PMStudy and scored around 61%. I was disappointed and felt how can i really understand more. I wasnt sure there are some good great material and mock exams waiting for me :)

Started going through my wrong answers and gave one more attempt on Simplilearn. Again 61%. :(  Same strategy i.e. to review my weak areas and gaps in knowledge. After few days, i started attempting Scordo (free if you are PMI member - i would suggest you to be as it saves money and gives access to good books). Scordo really helped in getting good idea of the subject and i started scoring in late 60s and 70s. Attempted OL 75.. again 61% .. believe me :D

This was it. I went thru PMBOK again and Rita M chapter by chapter and made some detailed notes on all tough areas. Kept attempting Scordo, i know it is easier than real exam but it kept me going and i could see good PLUS in my knowedge and ethics.

Finally in last month, i decided to buy PMZilla Tough questions set. Thank you Admin for sending the book very promptly. Believe me guys: really good questions and will boost your concepts. Dont much worry about the percentage that you score. Idea is to get the concepts right. I was scoring around 50-60% in this set.

Kept attempting mock tests and questions from Rita M's chapters  (very helpful) and got good confidence. Here are my scores:

Scordo (74 - 86%) - took most of my mock tests from this book only.

Rita FT (77%)

OL 175 (69%)

iZenBridge 100 questions on a day before exam: 76%

If you look at my score, you will observe that they are not that great. So the key point is to learn concepts and work on WEAK areas, as they make or break your exam.

Day of the Exam

I had booked a morning slot so that i could go fresh and calm. Arrived on time. The test center staff was very helpful too. First 50 questions were a mixed bag; easy, confusing, situational. Got good amount of questions on calculations and questions on Quality, HR, Risk and Procurement. As all suggest, please ensure to go thru these chapters in detail. After 110 questions, decided to take a short break. (kept relaxing after every 50 questions at my desk though). Went out, had a cookie that i got and came in. Rushed back to solve remaining questions and started getting a good feel about it all. Questions were defintely not same as mocks' but concepts were similar (thats what you would expect). Breezed through till Q.180 and then started getting tired. Buckled up and solved remaining 20. I was left with 5 mins in the end so coudnt review all my questions that I had marked for review - around 35. tried to review a few but then clicked End Exam :) ... Had to do a short survey before I could see the results. Finally, the Congratulations message showed up with 1 MP and 4P, yoohooo! Relieved, relaxed and overjoyed !!!!

Just stay focused and work on your weak areas. Ensure that you go back and check any thing that is not clear while studying. Dont over do.

Key notes

* You don't need to memorize ITTOs, instead try to understand them (got lot of questions though in real exam. was able to solve them easily with understanding)

* Focus on formulae based questions. Aim to score here 90% +

* Focus on WEAK areas and concepts and keep reading till you are clear.

* Move with your pace. Dont get overwhelmed. There will be times you will lose hope but come out of it.. watch a movie, play some sport... and get back ....

Thanks again to PMZilla and forum members to help me achieve this goal.

Regards,

Shantanu Kumar, PMP.