Passed with 3 P , 1MP and 1 BP .Thanks to PM Zilla

Submitted by rmehra on Sun, 05/10/2015 - 15:08

Guys,

Wanted to share the good news and my LL on this forum ,that has been my platform for learning and formulating my strategy for the test. I was able to clear the exam on

4th May.I would like to share LL to help and understand the common/unique problems that we all face while preparing for the test

Inception

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This test has been on my mind since June 2013 , but was getting distracted because of job ,travel and family committments.

Took PDU's in late 2013.Had to travel abroad. The preparation came to halt.

Kick start.

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My PDU's expired :( by the time I started studying.

Reminded myself that I should be in heavy gear and need to start at some point.Read the PDU material , off and on and the procastination went on for an year.

Misses :Should have started with Head first to make the subject interesting.

Read one complete round of PMBOK and got the hang of 47 processes.Purchased Rita 8th edition and practiced the questions by Knowledge area.

Was about to hit 70-85% in the first round.

The Ascent

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Completed PDU's again.

In the 2nd round Looked for some online resources and practiced the questions.Identified my weakness and strength

-Cost, Schedule , Quality & Numericals were my strong areas where I made very few mistakes > 90%, while answering questions.Needed very less practice here.

-Scope,Procurement, Stakeholder were the areas where I had good practical exposure as I worked on lot of RFP's and estimated the softwares using WBS,FPA (parametric

estimation).

Particpated in bidder conferences.Though the scores were not very good initially, but the content was very interesting.Once I finished reading and relating to my

experience.The scores jumped to 80%.

The tougher challenge was to master HR,Communication,Ethics, Integration that has more of soft-skill ingredients.Reading them was boring , remembering even tougher.

Here Saket Bansal's PMP videos were of great help for topics related to Closing , Lead /Lags,Conflict Mgmt,Stakeholder,PTA,TCPI,EV Techniques, Project Management

framework.

Steady state

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Once completing the material it was time to test and get the feel of the exam like questions with time constraint. Office work was less for a month and I knew that

this was on the only time to crash the preparation by putting all the energy into the critical path.Scheduled exam date in April and tested myself on the following

PMStudy 1 free

PM study 2 paid

IzenBridge

PMZilla 30Q

Pmzilla 200Q

Oliverlehmann 75

pmpden full length

pmpden KA

Andy Crowe

Scored between 60% - 75% on these tests.Looked into each the question that was incorrect.Identified the weak areas Read the concepts from pmbok again and scores jumped

up.Instead of taking more tests I read the concepts where I made mistakes in the tests that I attemped and discussed the situation based questions with a friend who

was also preparing for the same exam.

Here I would like to emphasise the test reviews are very important.Post this activity , I had a steep gain in the scores and felt confident.

Exam Day and Result:

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I had been to prometric center a week before to check the exact location as it was 25 miles away from my home,Therefore had no problems in locating the center on the

exam day.Reached an hour before time.The staff had completed their checking procedure and let me in.The test was neither too tough nor an easy one.For first 50

questions I was not sure of the choice , hence marked 15-16 of them for review.Was able to complete the test in 3:40 mins and started reviewing the questions that I

was doubtful of.During review and in second reading I changed 5-6 answers , that I understood better when reviewed again.

Finally I had 30 seconds and 3 questions left for review.I gave up and submitted as there was no point in reviewing anything in 30 secs.

With an accelerated heartbeat and impatient mind, saw the word "pass" on the monitor and thanked God.This was one of the step that I had completed towards my goals .

Hope this should help the readers on this forum as pmzilla and its contributors LL's have helped me.

Good Luck.

Forums:

PMP Exam Tips, Tricks and Lessons Learnt.

admin

Mon, 05/11/2015 - 07:34

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Congratulations and thanks

Congratulations and thanks for sharing. !

dipti1pmp

Mon, 05/11/2015 - 10:19

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Congratulationz!!!

Great!!!

stonecutter099

Mon, 05/11/2015 - 14:30

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Congratulations.

Reading your story of submitting your exam at the end with 30 seconds to go brought back memories for me. I think I submitted with 45 seconds to go.

Do they still ask you if you'd like to do a survey before you get your score? And if yes - did you do it?

saketbansal

Tue, 05/12/2015 - 06:12

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Congratulations !! and i am

Congratulations !! and i am happy to know that you found our resources useful, you may also check my blog on earning 60 PDUs , it can save some $$s for you.

http://www.izenbridge.com/blog/how-to-earn-60-pdus-and-maintain-your-pmp...

jyotig

Tue, 05/12/2015 - 06:24

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