Hi all,

Glad to let you all know that I have cleared PMP this Monday (05/09) in my very first attempt.

I must admit that I had faced quite a few challenges while preparing for the credential. I will list them and tips below.

1. First of all, you should pay the credential fees - Otherwise (as per typical human psychology) you will not have the willingness and desire to study

2. As mentioned before, my challenges were real time - I have a very cranky 1 year old daughter (who simply doesn't let me allow to read - used to tear the pages of my books, disturb the key board while I'm online etc. In addition to this, I was handling 5 projects at my office as part of my project work. So typically both of these kept me quite busy through out the day and evenings too. Hardly I could spare 2 hours a day for reading PMP stuff

3. I bought and read hard copies (paper back editions) of "Head First PMP" and "The PMP Exam- How to pass in your first try, by Andy Crowe. I have read these books entirely. Don't skip even a single page. Occassionally I have read the PDF version of Rita Mulcahy's book. In fact I haven't completely read PMBOK guide itself as I found it extremely hard to understand - It was typically like my (Foreign Author) Engineering books - very tough to understand.

4. My actual study started in April 1st week - I typically used to study after I came home form office (10:00 pm to 12:00 AM). Targeted completing each Knowledge Area in 3 days flat at any cost. In that way I could complete Head First PMP book including the exercises after each topic by April end.

5. Then browsed through the book -  The PMP Exam- How to pass in your first try, by Andy Crowe. This book has made PMP study (revision of topics) quite easy. It was quite simple and tremendously improved my confidence levels.

6. May 1st week to May 8th - A week before exam: The last page of the book -' The PMP Exam- How to pass in your first try, by Andy Crowe" has a key which enables 1 week online simulated exams in the website http://insite.velociteach.com . This proved to be the turning point in my prep. The questions were at a moderate level (not so easy, not so tough) and I made sure that I asnered most of the questiosn across all Knowledge Areas (including Social Responsibility).

Note: I have also bought a $20 simulated exam test (#3) from www.pmstudy.com but frankly speaking I couldn't answer most of the questions in them :-(. In adiditon, because of my challenging preperation schedule, I couldn't even score 60 / 70% in any mock tests. So there was this fear that I may also face the same score in the PMP too.. But anyway, I didn't loose my cool

May 9th, 2011 - Day of Exam - Place - Prometric Testing Center - Banjara Hills, Hyderadad

1. Reached the center by 8:00 AM, but they asked me to wait till 8:30 AM to begin the formalities. Pushed all my stuff (including wallet, wrist watch, pen, coins etc) in a rack / closet allocated at the center.

2. The snacks (these are MUST) I carried with me were to be placed beside the securty as we were not supposed to open the racks during exam time.

3. My Passport and PAN card were the primary identities which will be scrutinized by the examiner before starting the exam

9:30 AM - Sat before the comp screen - PMP exam was about to start !!

A. I have utilized the first 15 mins of timepass tutorial for writing down (in the rough paper given) all Knowledge Areas vs Process Groups, plus all Earned Value Mgmt Formulae, Maslow's Needs Triangle, the Develop Project Team tools - Forming, Norming, Storming stuff etc

Started the exam. My friends, the strategy I'm telling you below REALLY did wonders ( I used the same funda while writing my Engg Entrance Exam years ago and it proved again)

- First glance at any question, see if the quesiton is more than 1-2 lines, If yes, just click the next button and move on. Do not read / answer it at all. In that way, you will be able to see and answer direct single line questions (there will be atleast 80 to 90 of these single line / 2 line questions out of the 200 questions). These questions usually have direct anwers, so not much thinking is required and they will give you real confidence in the exam

- In this way, I could browse through 55 questions in the first 21 minutes and 122 questions in the first 1 hour. So out of the 122 questions, roughly I could answer 80 single line questions. I was also sure that I answered them correctly. So having viewed over 60% of the entire questions, I took a first break after 1 hour . In this break, I washed my face with cold water, had snacks (this is MUST) and stretched a bit and checked back to the computer - all in 6 minutes.

- Followed the same strategy of glancing for single line question from 123 to 200 questions and I could reach the last question exactly by 1 hour 45 mins flat. I was confident that I answered about 100+ questions in this way. So to clear the exam I needed to correctly answer 24 more questions which I left out (124 out of 200 = 61 %, passmark)

- Click on the "Review" button which will tell you what all questions you marked / left blank. So the next two hours I have focussed on anwerering the remaining 80 odd left out questions (they were real big and complicated - some of them had Network diagrams, 5-7 line questions, scenario based questions, etc). I took 2 other breaks so that the mind got rejuvenated. Make sure you answer ALL 200 questions.

- PMP exam doesn't display % scored.  The result will just tell your proficiency levels in all the Process Groups and the words PASS. A print out of the same will be given by the test center.

So, ALL the best guys..

Regards,

Krishna Kanth V, PMP