Hi All,

I haven't posted much on this forum. This could very well be my first post!

I became a member here to be more regular but in the end just ordered the PM Zilla 200 Q set and used that.Did download a few resources like Abhishek Nair notes etc. 

Below I want to document..what materials I used, what strategies I used, and any other tips which may help others...

This is a LOOOOONG post, so if you just want a gist of it here it is.

PDU's : iKompass,Singapore 4 day classroom session.

Study Materials Used :

·         Andy Crowe

·         Rita

·         PMBOK - Of course!

·         Misc Material available on PMZilla for download

·         Google !

Short tests + Full Length tests

·         iKompass Quizzes : 500 Qs

·         iKompass Full Length test * 2 : 400 Q

·         PMPFORSURE free : 100 Q

·         Oliver Lehman 75+175 : 250 Q

·         PM Study 1 & 2 : 400 Q

·         PMZILLA : 300 Q

·         Andy Crowe and Rita end of chapter exercises (around 50 per chapter) : 600 (approx)

·         Andy Crowe end of book full length test : 200 Q

·         Other short quizzes here and there : 150 Q

Total Questions attempted (approx) : 2900
 

Summary Scores :

Tips Summary :

·         Solve as many questions as you can from as many sources as you can.

·         If I had the time, I would have solved EDWEL, EXAM CENTRAL, PMPFORSURE full length paid tests,PM Exam Simulator 3 day trial, Simplilearn , and Christopher Scordo. I had planned to do all of this but could not.

·         Pick up tests who can give answers & explanations and reference them to appropriate sources. This was good for me to clarify why something was correct/wrong.  My iKompass almost 1000 Q had no explanations. Bad idea.

·         PM Zilla, Oliver Lehman, PM Study and PMPFORSURE all have excellent Questions and more importantly excellent explanations to answers.

·         Andy Crowe : According to me this is a must if you are starting fresh. Explains the concepts nicely

·         Rita : Did not like this book apart from End of Chapter questions + Procurement chapter. Hate her style of writing.

·         Made excel answer sheets for any quiz / test I attempted. Had columns like Unsure/Review which I would mark while solving, and while reviewing answers, I would write in my own "language" what was the concept being tested and why that answer is correct and mine is wrong. - THIS WAS EXTREMELY HELPFUL  and because of this detailed analysis of each test that I did, I didn't really have to go back to reviewing them again. Reviewing Wrong Answers and knowing why the wrong choices are wrong is very very important.

·         Made dump sheet or just a collection of points I want to go through. Just about had 40-50 points.

·         Read the PMBOK in a detailed manner at least once and give some tests come back and skim through it at least 2 times before you give the exam. Keep referencing it through the test reviews.

·         Read up on google on some Culture theories, Org theories, IRR, Payback Period, Standard Deviations, Decision Analysis, CPM vs CCM , Free Float vs Total Float, 7 Quality Tools, PV, NPV.

·         Relax : Take time out from prep. Watch movies / sports. Do not try to crunch it. Take your time. We are humans. Work and / or Family are big commitments and to take time out from those to study is not easy.

·         Identify your weak areas and make it strong by re-reading it from PMBOK and Googling.

WARNING : THE POST IS VERY LONG AND DETAILED HERE ON. Read if you have time :)

My prep was also divided into phases that I have named as :

Initiating ,Training, Planning , Studying , Practice , Last Week Sprint, D-DAY

Initiating :

Training :

iKompass Test 1 : 136/200 : 68%

As per the iKompass report I just needed 2 weeks of study to clear the exam!

Planning :

Initial Plan was to start prep as soon as classes were over and finish the exam in 1 month while the concepts were still fresh. Idea looked good at first, but by the end of the class and the 3rd week of working , I realized I had not taken a break for 18-19 days!. This exhausted me and I was in no mood to study in the near future. I procrastinated for almost a month and then finally decided to gather some materials and book exam date based the iKompass Test 1 results. I booked a date of 24-Mar and decided to change it if after 1 week of study I feel it's too aggressive a schedule.

Made a day by day plan and kept changing and adjusting it as I went along. Helped me in keeping focus and not lose track.

Read lots of reviews and finally decided to buy books by Andy Crowe and Rita.

Books :

Andy Crowe : This book is excellently presented. Its crisp its simple and not boring! It does a good job of explaining what the PMP is all about from an exam point of view and presents the PMBOK in a much simplified way. Loved the content. Since I had not picked up any book after my classes for almost a month, Andy Crowe's book was a god send and helped me understand all the concepts very nicely. After 1 week of reading Andy Crowe, I decided 24-Mar was not going to be achievable and that I need more time to practice and be sure. So postponed exam till 14-Apr

Rita : What shall I say. This book is the best seller for PMP. But compared to Andy Crowe, Rita's book is very complicated. She has lots of material, tough questions. The tone of language used in the book is annoying really. But I liked the end of chapter questions and some sections especially the Procurement chapter. I always read Andy Crowe first and then skimmed through most of the chapter material and did not solve "in-chapter" tests

PMBOK : Once I read Andy Crowe and Rita, I started reading PMBOK. By this time I was already 3 weeks into my prep and there were just 3 more weeks left for the exam. I read the first 7 chapters hastily and then decided to jump into the tests. Then while doing the tests I reviewed the other chapters from PMBOK..again hastily. If you want to pass the PMP, PMBOK is a must to understand. It is dry no doubt, but do you expect it to be a harry potter novel? After reading Andy / Rita ,I always breezed through PMBOK chapters.

Practice :

· I gave Andy Crowe full length test right after I finished reading Andy Crowe and Rita. By this time, I had read the 2 books + solved end of chap questions.

Score : 178/200

I was overjoyed. I thought this was easy. Became overconfident and then came crashing down.

· Oliver Lehman 75 Online Qs :

Score : 45/75

The questions are so awkward. Some of them really tough. Some of them weird. But this test knocked me down. I decided to research and look back at what I was doing wrong and make corrections.

At this moment, I decided to buy PMZilla questions and try PMPFORSURE free.

· PMPFORSURE : 100 Q - good tough questions. New concepts.

Score : 60/100.

I knew I had to do something. So I went back to the drawing board. Organized stuff. Found out weak areas. Looked at every question very hard which I was getting wrong. Googled it up if I did not understand the concept being tested.

· PMZilla 200 + 100 bonus :

Again good collection of tough questions. Used same strategy. The good part about PMZilla is it has 6 short tests rather than 1 big.

I would solve 1 test, look at the wrong answers, understand the concepts, review that area from PMBOK (sometimes the whole chapter) quickly and solve the next test. By the end of it I had become pretty confident.

Scores :

o   21/30

o   20/30

o   37/50

o   22/30

o   19/30

o   21/30

o   65/100

Total : 205/300

·  Period of Study + T20 World cup  : There were few days after the PMZilla completion where I just reviewed some chapters from PMBOK and strengthened my concepts. Also the T20 World Cup was going on so got a bit distracted.  I had exactly 8 days to go for the exam.

· PM Study 2 :

This was the day of the final between India and SL.

I decided to buy PM Study 1 & 2 since everybody says they are pretty close to the actual exam. Due to some goof up,  I had to give PM Study 2 on this day. Gave the test very seriously in the morning.

Score : 134/175

Spent the rest of the day reviewing each wrong question and making notes in an excel. I thought it was a decent % score, but was not happy with getting 41 questions wrong.

Last Week Sprint :

I had just 1 week to go now and was still not getting confident. Had thoughts about postponing the exam but decided against it.

It was now. Decided to put everything into the prep last week. Got up at 4 am everyday and would study till 8. Reviewed chapters and solved many more online misc quizzes. Details follow.

· 7 days to go : Reviewed chapters and some special concepts and some weak areas of mine.

· 4 Days to go :

Decided to give PM Study 1 : Got up at 4 AM and gave the test. Completed in 3hr 15 min.

Score : 144/175.

There was improvement and I was happy. Reviewed each wrong question and making notes in an excel. I thought now that I am ready for the exam. But I wanted to sprint more. Practice more.

·3 days to go :

The training team had mentioned that this test should be given 3 days before and if I got 70% ..I was ready....else I should re-schedule.Again got up at 4 am and Gave iKompass Full length test 2

Score : 169/200.

Was happy. But thought some questions were very easy. And the answers had no explanations. So couldn't review much.

Wanted to give one more big test but couldn't decide which. Was hesitant to give Oliver Lehman 175 since I had gotten 60% in the 75q test earlier. But thought, if I am truly ready, I should be able to pass his test.

·2 days to go : 2 full days of weekend.

Solved 175 Q of Oliver Lehman by early morning. Some really good questions from and outside the PMBOK. Answers had real references with PMBOK guide as well as from to other books from the eBooks on the PMI website (free if you are member).

Score : 138/175

Went through all answers whether from PMBOK or from other book. Made notes.

·Last 1.5 day : Now I attacked the PMBOK one final time.

Started from Quality and one by one picked up each chapter. 45-60 min per chapter. Took up rest of my Saturday and till evening of Sunday. By the time I finished the final revision, my head had started to ache and I started getting familiar exam nervousness.

Took a 3 hr break, played with my kid, saw some Friends episodes and then went back to some dump sheets from PMZilla and points that I had collected and called it a day.

Did not sleep that well during the night but not bad either.

D-DAY :

·Wanted to take a cab to the centre. But worst fears came true. No cabs available on the street nor through booking. Ran to the bus stop, caught a bus went to another bus stop, and caught another bus.

·After 1 excruciating hour in the bus, reached the centre. Called my wife who wished me luck and went in. Did not have a good feeling to the start of the day. But relaxed in 5-10 mins.

·Went to the seat, took out a dump of formulas even though I had not planned to do so.

·First 20 questions were tough. Marked almost 8-9 from them and took 35 minutes for them.

·But them somehow, got back on track..did get quite a few pappu questions too. But did get some twisters, where I really had to analyze the answers and each word in the question hard.

·Took up 210 minutes to finish 200 Q. Then started reviewing them.  While I reviewed the first few which I had thought were tough, I actually changed answers on at least 4-5 questions! I thought this was getting dangerous and decided to end the test and not review any further.

·I clicked END and waited, the blank screen stayed on for a while and I partially closed my eyes like I was watching Paranormal Activity. Then came the survey...Oh c'mon man....just show me the result...Finished the survey....and then again blank screen for 5 excruciating seconds.

·Then FINALLY - CONGRATULATIONS!

So relieved and so overjoyed. Hard work has paid off. Wife was in her first trimester for our 2nd kid (yep :)) and was having troubles of her own. Thanks to her I could focus on studies.

Uske ghar DER hai ANDHER nahi :)

I hope my story has helped some of you people.

That's it guys.

Thanks to all the people who unknowingly helped me in my prep. Huge thanks to my wife for being so understanding and patient. Hugs to my 2 yr old kiddo who kept saying Baba Abhyas Karto when I locked myself in a room to study :)

The journey has just started. Miles to go before I sleep.