Profile - I am having around 12 years of experience with project management experience of 4 years in an IT mnc.

Planning and Execution  -  I started preparing around 3 months back, roughly around April last week. I did some research in the web, browsed thru PMZILLA and tried to get a look and feel of the exam. To be honest was trying to get an idea how close and far I am from the requirements to clear the exam. I narrowed down on the following resources

1. Head First

2. Rita

3. PMBOK - offocourse

4. PMchamp online training

I decided to start with Head First, as I realised this book will give me concepts , will make me realise the delta with my real life PMIsm (if I can call so) and also give me a sense of the curriculum. It indeed was a good choice and at the end of the book I got a good positive feeling. I will highly recommend this as a START UP point.

With the confidence gained, I applied, got accepted, scheduled a date of 07/22 and started preparing.

The reviews made me feel RITA is too serious and PMBOK is too bookish. To be honest in my opinion both these feelings are totally WRONG. I strongly recommend RITA , the way it makes you build your concepts, make you assimilate it and after 3 rounds of it when you connect the dots, you understand it was a well executed process to make you prepare. Some people call it negativity, I will like to call it the NEED. I highly recommend it as a MUST.

Before moving on to PMBOK, I was skeptical,still trying to make up my mind if I can skip it. Infact at one point was looking for reviews of people who would say they passed without PMBOK. It was a foolish exercise. Still I went into PMCHAMP online training. The coverage of the course is very good, however the response from admin is sometimes late. Overall it is decent , but I started feeling that online videos was making me bit sleepy. But I take this opportunity to thank admin, as they were kind enough to extend my registration till 07/22, even though I finally could not use it due to lack of time and poor health.

I now moved into PMBOK finally and did 2 rounds and I felt this was NOT bookish, infact complements RITA beautifully and both together is a perfect couple to overcome this battle. I recommend this as MANDATORY.

With unpredictable work pressure, very active kid and occassional trips, sometime I was getting into schedule slippage and had to adjust my baseline many a times. Bottomline, one would need to adjust the plan and keep on doing it. In one way do kind of reserve analysis too.

MOCK EXAMS : In most of the mock exams, on an average I scored between 70% to 84%.

I strongly recommend RITA (book questions), Scordo (13 to 18), PMStudy.

If time permits - PMPforsure, PMZIlla.

My take on mock exams is, it is required to assess where you currently stand, it is NOT a requirement. I do not think one would need to do 2000 or 3000 questions. Most importantly use these exams as critical check points to evaluate against the acceptance criteria - that is closure of gaps.

RISK - There are some risks which will always be out of control eg. Unpredictable work pressure, environment ( kids), health. You cannot do much on this , ACCEPT them and DO NOT PANIC.

On 07/18 I got a vertigo attack and was admitted to Emergency and was on IV. My exam was on 07/22 and I had to reschedule it. I rescheduled it to 07/29. Unfortunately on 07/27 , just a day before the exam I got the Vertigo attack again. It was hard for me to keep the head up, had lost lot of fluid and was recommended full rest. Since 07/18 till 07/28 I could hardly study. To make things worse, had tremendous work pressue on 07/25 and 07/26. Finally I took all the courage and appeared for the exam on 07/29.

EXAM DAY - The exam was scheduled at 4:30. I reached around 4:15 and finally when I entered the test center after security check it was 4:29 pm. I could walk very slowly, most of the time skeptical that a bit more movement of my head can trigger the vertigo. Thinking about anything with much concentration was increasing the constant pain which I was getting at the back of my head. I thought I will start with 70 Q, then 60, then 50 and so on and in between will take break to give rest to my brain.

I started the exam and continued for full 200 Qs and took the first break after 3 hrs 10 mins, The main reason in between the exam, I felt that I am hardly moving my head around here, and if I get up and get the sensation again, I may not be able to come back for the exam. So wanted to continue till I can last.

I had marked 58 questions (means I had doubt on them and wanted to recheck) and skipped all the math questions (around 21) till this point. I took a 15 min break and relaxed a bit, By this time I had a feeling I will clear it. I came back and did all the math, reviewed a few and time got over.

Finally got the "CONGRATULATIONS" message with

Initiation, Planning, Execution - Proficient

Monitoring and Control, Closing - Moderately Proficient

I was relaxed for a moment, thanked GOD that these 4 hrs, he managed my health.

TYPE OF QUESTIONS

Math - Easy - Around 21

Hard - Around 80

Very Hard - Around 30

Moderate - 50

Easy - 20

Closest Mock - PMStudy and also very close PMPforsure

I take this opportunity to thank this forum , as it had been instrumental in achieving this success. The LLs, the questions, the comments, each of these factors contributed significantly to my success. I also urge to all my fellow PMP certified professionals to continue to contribute here, answer queries, assist aspirants and help to make this forum even more enriching and fullfilling.

All the best to future PMPs.

Regards,

Subinoy, PMP