Lessons Learned - Passed PMP on June 30, 2009

I completed my PMP exam on June 30, 2009, around 10 PM EST,US. (Not sure, if anyone else completed later than me on June 30th, and can I call myself as the last person who successfully completed PMBOK Third Edition Exam )

Please become members of many other forums, it helps a lot. I joined PMZILLA 2 weeks before exam, but PMHUB.NET also helped me a lot in my preparation, and I truely consider it as the best forum/site for PMP exam preparation. This is what I did for preparation. I completed Rita Malcahy twice six months back, and let me tell you I failed in the exam at that time. Reason, I was ignorant. At that point in time, I didnt know the difficulty level. I was so ignorant that I didnt even give one full 4 hour practice exam before appearing for the real exam at that time. At that point in time, some one (who became PMP way back in 2005) told me that if I do Rita and some questions from some question bank if I read, I will be able ot pass. So I read some 600 question bank, and thought I now know how to solve the problem, and appeared in the exam and failed.  I am not saying that that person was wrong, actually I was wrong because I ddint validate that and verify that information and compared with the scenario nowadays......but I will not say as a failed attempt , I would call it as an ignorant person's practice test.(though technically speaking I failed in that attempt) 

I again started preparing around May 15, and wanted to finish it before June 30, 2009, reason everyone knows, third edition. Here are the things that I did in the last one and half months.

Material Used

1) - Reviewed Rita Malcahy again.
2) - PMBOK (First four chapters, Tools and Techniques, Glossary)(Glossary very helpful, Tools and Techniques very helpful)
3) - JIMBOK (Jim Owens) (Please see PMHUB.NET)
4) - 47 Video Professor notes for PMBOK (PMHUB.NET,Very Helpful)
5) - PMI Code of Conduct
6) - Raj Rani Notes (Very Helpful,PMHUB.NET)
7) - Vijay Verma Delegation Chapter(PMHUB.NET)

My preparation

Every person has its different view, I am not sure whether this is the best way or not. But I believe in one simple funda, I listen to everyone, but I do what ever I feel right. So please evaluate for yourself whether they are right for you:

1) - Some people say we dont need to remember TT,I/O. I would like to differ on that. I understand knowing and understanding is important, that will happen anyway when we read. But in my opinion its best to memorise them. For memorizing them, 15 days before the exam, I spent 20 - 25 minutes every day morning without fail, just having a glance at them, so that I can remember them. This really helped me, and it started registering in my brains.

2) - 15 - 20 days before the exam, apart from my normal study schedule, I used to do around 50 questions from Rita Fast track CD everyday(I used to call it short PMP Test), in around 35 minutes. I know some questions were repetitive, but still it helped me. It was so helpful that 3-4 days before the exam, I was getting 47-48 questions right, around 95 %. And it allowed me not to forget the basic rules.

3) - I used to make notes of every test for the questions I did wrong, so that I can revise it 2 3 days before the actual exam.

Tests Taken

1) - I gave 3 full PMP Tests and one Super PMP on Rita Malcahy Fast Track CD. This is fine, but I was getting the feeling, around 25-30 questions I already knew because of repetition, but questions are tricky and helpful.(I was getting more than eighty percent in these tests, in super PMP I got 78 percent)
2) - Gave Headfirst 200 Questions (free), got 78 %
3) - Bought 4 tests from PMStudy for 50 dollars. But could manage to give only 3 exams, as I was running short of time to revise other stuff. (I got 70 % in first test, 73 percent in second test and 78% in third test (3 days before the exam)), but I made sure, that whichsover questions I did wrong, took note of it, to revise later.

BAD Habit that I have, which you should never do: Right from the childhood, I am having this bad habit of studying till the last minute. In my school and college days, people used to make fun of me and this time it was no different. I slept only 4 and half hours the night before, kept studying. My exam was at 5:30 PM. I studied and revised till 4 PM, then took shower, had lunch and then started for the exam (Reached at exam center 45 mintues before, it was near by and I had visited the center 4 - 5 days before to get an idea about its location)

Thing which you should do : Revise your most important topics and you think you might forget in the last two days.

Regaring the PMP Exam: Though questions are similar to PMStudy and Rita Malcahy CD, but let me tell you I have never seen questions in my Practice exams that were there in actual PMP exam. They are meant to confuse you. 35-40 questions are very easy, 35-40 questions are very difficult(at times, seems out of the world). The major problem with these questions is that when you look at the question, it seems easy, but when you see the answers, 2 choices are easy, you can really ignore them, but the rest 2 choices are so similar that even today, I am not sure ,whether I made the right choice or not e.g. in Professional responsibility, there were mixing 2 things which both were wrong, and I was not sure, which one is more wrong(that I need to choose). These are the questions that I was not sure, and these are the questions I am talking about that I have never seen in any of the practice exams.

But finally, all is well that ends well. So I am a PMP now, thats what it matters. All the hard work ultimately did pay off.

Thanks to my daughter and wife for being so understanding, as at times I was preparing and could nt give time to them. 

admin's picture

Very good and comprehensive sharing of PMP experience. Congrats Puneet and welcome to PMP Club. I am sure your writeup will be very valueable to PMP aspirants

Regards

Admin

Thanks Admin, just wanted to help PMP aspirants, to the best I can, hopefully they will get some benefit out of it.