PMP Exam cleared 8th Aug 2011 - 1st try; Lessons learnt

Submitted by aaron on Tue, 08/09/2011 - 14:41

I promised myself to post LLs as soon as I can if I clear my PMP as this site has help me greatly to prepare for my exam.

Preparation

I started with Rita's book and actually read it two times before realizing that this book is not for starters but I felt good about Cost and Procurement chapters from Rita's book. I then bought Andy Crowe's book and things started to make some sense however not all topics are covered in detail esp Procurement Management. Andy's book is most helpful to remember the ITTOs (but then Nair and Chowdhary's notes are available for free for that here :-0 ) I also explored Kim Heldman's book and read the Quality Management topics from there which are explained in great detail.

Once I felt comfortable with all topics, I enrolled for velociteach.com for 7 days using the key provided at the end of book. I attempted all the questions and that is when I started to find gaps in my study. I googled for topics where I got incorrect answers, refered Rita and Kim Heldman's book and made notes to cover my gaps.

I then attempted all the questions second time. Now the confidence level was higher than from where I started.

I started attempting questions from wherever I can find. Skillsign, examcentral, pmstudy, pmp-exam-simulater etc. I kept a journal of all the questions that I got wrong so that I can attempt again them later.

After all was done, I then started reading Rita's book a third time and that is when I felt comfortable with it. Every word, every line in Rita's book has been written from vast experience. Every line can get you one question right on the exam.

I then retook all the free exams from Pmstudy, exam central and skillsign.

3 weeks before the exam, I started taking questions from Rita's fast track. I was now scoring above 70% in all topics and was feeling more confident. One week before the exam I downloaded PMBOK and skimmed through it. I did feel that I should have started with PMBoK in the first place but the other books I read were great too. I made notes on some topics that I did not find anywhere else except PMBok...e.g. Trianguler and Beta probability distribution charts, Power/Interest/Influence grid on stakeholder analysis, charts of funcational , strong and weak matrix organizations. Forecasting methods (time series, judgemental) etc.

Last 2 day before the exam, I was only reading my notes and the questions that I had got wrong from all the sources.

The Exam

I was feeling good on the exam day. I reached 30 minutes prior to the exam. They had a vacant seat and asked me if I want to take the exam right then i.e 30 minutes earlier than my scheduled time. I said yes and started the exam.

I marked 6 questions out of first 10 and felt a bit nervous but I knew from the LLs posted by members in pmzilla  that this is normal and did not get frustated. Slowly the the rythm set in and I started to breeze through the exam.  After every 10-12 question there are 2 straight easy questions to make you feel good and from getting frustated.

I over all marked 45 questions. I completed all 200 Qs in 2 hours and 15 minutes. In next 30 minutes I reviewed the marked questions and corrected 5. I still had 75 minutes. I took a 5 minute break and started reviewing all the questions again. In 70 minutes I was able to review 190 Qs and I had changed answers on 5 more questions. I ended the exam and filled the survey. The white screen made me nervous but when Congratulations message displayed on the exam I was relaxed.

I got 4 Proficient and 2 Moderate Proficient (Closing and Professional responsibility)

Over all I would suggest:

Start with Andy Crowe

Read Quality Management from Kim Heldman

Read Time, Cost and Procurement Management from Rita's 6th edition

Read PMBoK in parallel to all three.

 

I wil be a regular visitor to this site out of habit. so please feel free to ask any questions if you have.

All the best.

Aaron

 

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PMP Exam Tips, Tricks and Lessons Learnt.
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jackcsprat

Tue, 08/09/2011 - 15:09

Hello Aaron,


Congrats on passing your PMP exam  !!


I will be taking mine a week from Saturday on August 20th in order to get it in before the exam changes.


I have been studying using the PMBOK, Rita's book, and Andy's book also.


What are your impressions regarding the mathematical types of questions ?   Did you have a lot of them and were they very difficult ? 


Obviously math is a poor subject of mine, but I have managed to memorize all the formulas along with Rita's Process chart.


Thanks for any input you can provide.


Jack

aaron

Tue, 08/09/2011 - 15:40

Thanks Jack and good luck.

There were around 5 numerical questions and all were very very straight forward.

One question was on TCPI using basic BAC-EV/BAC-AC formula, 2-3 questions on Expected Monetory Value and some on CPI, SPI, SV and CV.

Nothing fancy about the questions. I don't think you have to worry about the complex formulas. The exam seems to test you more on the concepts than your math skills.

Some of the situational questions were tough though. There were some questions where even after spending 5 minutes on a single questions I felt like there are 2 correct answers but then out of 200, less than 10 questions fell in this category so I won't stress much about it.

nidhitripathi

Tue, 08/09/2011 - 15:44

Hi Aaron,


Congratulations on passing the exam!


I have mine schedeuled for day after tomorrow.


Am getting nervous now! Any specific areas which had a lot of questions from in the exam?


Any inputs would be appreciated.


Thanks


Nidhi

aaron

Tue, 08/09/2011 - 16:04

Hi Nidhi,

Thanks and Good luck for your exam.

Overall the exam was moderate tough. It was not easy and it was not overly hard.

I used the on-screen calculator for 3-4 questions (very simple calcuations) and did not feel it confusing or anyting.

To your question, I felt there were many questions from team building techniques but the exam is generated from a pool of thousands of questions. Every exam is different from other so I won't think you will get the same distribution of topics that others have got.

I had attempted atleast 10 practice tests of 200 Qs. (4 PMP + 1 Super PMP from Rita's FastTrack, PMStudy, ExamCentral, SkillSign and some others.) so on the real exam I was feeling like I have taken the exam before. The pattern of questions was not feeling new et al and a tough Q here and there did not disturb me. I even took some practie test multiple times to find any minute gaps in knowledge.

There was one question on Organiation Type chart (Strong Vs Weak matrix) straight from PMBoK that I did not find in any other book.

From my experience and from others I noticed that first few Qs on the exam are always hard. So don't get bothered by it. Just mark them and keep moving. Soon you will find yourself in familiar territory and then the first 10 questions will also feel easy to answer in review.

Aaron

dpimatrix.com

Tue, 08/09/2011 - 16:52

Aaron -


You are not necessarily saying that PMBOOK should not be the primary book for the PMP exam correct?  You only suggested that Rita's book because that was the tool you associate your success with; yeah?


Ps 

aaron

Tue, 08/09/2011 - 17:01

Sorry if my comment created any confusion.

PMBoK should be your primary book and you should start with PMBoK.

It clears your fundamentals but at the same time it should not be your only book of reference.

I made a mistake of not starting with PMBoK and by the time I read PMBoK, I had already read Andy Crowe, Kim Heldman and Rita's book so I did not get much benefit from reading PMBoK.

I would suggest one should start with PMBoK and then refer other books for additional knowledge.

Aaron

jackcsprat

Tue, 08/09/2011 - 20:28

Hey Aaron,


Did you have any ITTO related questions and did you braindump anything out to help you with these types of questions ?


 


Thx,


Jack

aaron

Wed, 08/10/2011 - 16:44

Yes, there were many ITTO questions.

I did not brain dump anything in the start and started my test as soon as the survey finished but I did use the scratch pad for some questions as and when required e.g to remember the i/p for a process, I could not remember the correct answer so I had to spend some time writing down on the paper to recollect my memory.