Hi All,

Happy to let everyone at PMZilla know that I was able to pass PMP Certification today, 06/07/2011.

Final result

Initiating -                                 Proficient

Planning -                                Proficient

Executing -                               Proficient

Monitoring and Controlling - Proficient

Closing -                                   Proficient

Professional and Social Responsibility - Below Proficient

Details on Preparation

Submission of Application - April 13th

Date when I started to Prepare for the Exam - April 15th

Original Exam Date - 15th July, 2011. (Preponed to 6th July)

I started to learn for PMP on April 15th. Initially, though I started to read PMBoK one chapter and then followed it with same chapter in Rita, it did not work for me after first 2 chapters, as PMBoK was tough to grasp in the first go. So, then I concentrated only on Rita Mulcahy's Book and read it throughly once. I did most of the excercises and games given along with back questions. But I clearly remember that, after the first pass I could not recall much details about concepts.

I used to arrange Rita's Process Chart every day on my study table. Then used to do it alternate days but lost track of doing that after almost 2 weeks.

Meanwhile, I started to read PMBoK. I completed first pass throughly and was now able to get many of the process details after finishing. As I started the second pass, I also tried to check out resources on the net and hit on PMZILLA. It was very important for me as it gave me so many other successful PMP experiences. I got so many mock exam sources and hence I started attending them. The initial few ones I attended were Head First, PM Study Free Test. PM Zilla helped me to get so many sources for test as I moved on.

Oliver Lehmann's 75 Questions was kind of a scare, as I scored only 64% on that. I knew that it was a tougher exam but still failing that gave me a small jolt. Hence, I tried to find gaps in learning and raise the bar for next exams. Addressed specific knowledge areas where I was scoring less and then finished a 3rd Pass of PMBoK.

In total, I did 4 passes of PMBoK, before the exam and 1 Pass of Rita's book,3 passes of Rita's back questions and 800 of Rita's Fast Track Questions. Towards the end, I also started doing Rita's Process game again.

I did read and write processes and ITTOS so many times that by the end, I could find relations and also remember the ITTOs. It actually helps during the exam. I also did crazy things like recording entire ITTOs as mp3 and listened to it in my car every day to work. You may need to use a combination of understanding and memorizing. Use short techniques for Tools like AEPF (Define Scope), DERT (Define Activities), SCCWRASS (Develop Schedule) , PVPWRASS (Control Schedule) and so on. You can create your own techniques and short cuts :)

Prep Exam Scores

Head First - 74%  second after a month 85%

Edwel  - 72%

Examcentral - 76%

PM Study 1 - 76%, second after 2-3 weeks 91%

Oliver Lehman 75 - 64 %, 92%

Simplilearn - 71.46%

Oliver Lehman 175 - 132 - 76%

PMP Prepcast - 90 Questions - 74%

PM Final - 50 questions 1st set - 85%
           50 questions 2nd set - 80%
           50 questions 3rd set - 86%

PM Study 2 - Paid - 81% , 141/175, 158/200

PM Study 3 - Paid - 85% , 148/175, 167/200

PM Study 4 - Paid - 86% , 150/175, 170/200

Recommendations

PMBoK is the ultimate reference and reading and knowing it throughly is a must

Rita's Book is good as well but she can be scary at times, demotivating you. Avoid reading such parts but use it as a +ve influence. Otherwise, its a good book to understand PMBoK. You can use it as a key to decipher PMBoK

PM Study Paid and Free exams are a good taste of the final PMP exam. The final questions are not same but there is a feel of it in those exams. If you get 75% + in all 4 PM Study Exams then you should be in with a good chance. Many exams have out of PMBoK questions, especially Oliver's but you can note those down. I had only one question outside PMBoK in my exam.

Judge the time you need to study. I guess if you work real hard you may need only 2.5 months. I scheduled the exam for July 15th and then by the end of May, felt that I would not be able to retain it for so much longer, hence I preponed to July 6th. I mean its difficult to keep revising and you loose track of so many finer points. So plan your preparation period. Too Long can be too tough as well...

Final Exam Day

I stared the exam at about 8:30. I created the pre-planned Brain Dump in 12 mins during the Tutorial. All EV formulae, PTA, Sigma Values, Sources of Conflict, NPV, PV, Payback formula and page 43 of PMBoK but to be frank I did not find myself using this Brain Dump much but it adds to the confidence as you start and its good to have your own Brain Dump.

First few questions, about 8 - 10 of them were kind of tough. I guess its because of the nerves. Then its like some moderate, some easy and some tough. and that keeps iterating. During my Practice Exams, I had found that if I reviewed any questions and then came back and changed the options, they always ended wrong. Hence, I decided not to do the same. I would still mark all the questions involving calculations and review only those incase I had time. This was a predetermined strategy. I could complete 44 questions in 1st hour (45-50) was my target. 100 questions by second hour (95-100 was target). 145 questions by 3rd hour and then I finished all 200 questions with 13 mins to spare. I had taken one break at 110 questions to just have a rest room break. Once I completed the survey, I was really nervous as I was like it was okay but there were tough questions too, so lets see.. And then I got the results as PASS.

Thanks

Thanks to my wife and 2.5 year old daughter for enduring this for the last 3 months. (It really comes at a social and family cost).

Finally, thanks to Jesus (I really dont think I could have done it without him).

Apologies if the LL was so long but I want to say that everyone should write their experiences after the exam, so that its useful for people like me who came here and got information. It really helped.

Thanks,

Anil Kurian PMP !