Hello dear friends

I've been a silent reader on this forum, and it's my turn to contribute with my lessons learned.

Following are my proficiency results from the PMP exam:

•                Initiation-Proficient

•                Planning-Proficient

•                Executing-Proficient

•                Monitoring & Control - Proficient

•                Closing-Moderately Proficient

* References used (reading) : Head First + Rita 6^th edition + PMBOK

** References used (questions/exams) : PMSTUDY ( 4 tests) + Rita Fastrack  6 th + PmPerfect + Oliver 175 Q + Oliver 75 + Farndail + Exam Central + Head First exam

Learning strategy:

§  I started my prep during the first week of December. Kept a daily contact with the material (around 4 to 5 hours / day average).

§  As soon as I received the PMBOK from PMI, I started to ‘’work’’ on it from page 1 to page 80, it was very painful to keep my focus reading and taking notes without getting sleepy, so I decided to look around and search for some material that can be more ‘’read-friendly’’. 

§  The biggest concern for me was to find a way to be involved in the subject, if I could understand/master at least one concept to start with, I could move further. My choice was on the critical path concept, so I downloaded Critical Path Drill from O’Reilly’s web site, read it and did all the exercises within.

§  Bought Head First. Gone through all the chapters cover to cover, and did all the chapter’s questions. Concepts became more and more clear as I was moving forward, and I build up a good idea on the ‘’scope’’ of the content needed to prepare for the exam.

§  Went through Rita chapter by chapter, did all the exercises and questions. IMHO this book gives a deep and detailed review of project management concepts, still I was not very comfortable with the author’s style/attitude but as I get used to it I just skipped/ignored some paragraphs.

§  PMBOK stand alone, taking notes.

§  An overall review of 3 books mentioned above. Compared what’s common and what’s not for the same chapter among the 3 references .I tried my best to understand ITTOS, EVM formulas and the framework of each process and the mean idea behind each process group, to do so, I practiced, practiced and practiced.

§  Moved to questions and exams (see **), was scoring consistently around 80 % in average. 

§  You don’t have to practice as many exams as I did, but I wanted to make sure that I can handle the physical part of staying 4 hours in front of my screen. The overall practice helped a lot to assess and reassess my knowledge. I referred to PMBOK for each question I had wrong and made sure to deeply master the concept behind it.

§  1 week before the exam: More and more exam (about 1 exam/day) + random glances at the PMBOK and ITTOS.

§  1 day Before the exam: Took the day to relax, did quick review on the glossary and ITTOS

How I dealt with the exam:

§  Appeared at the exam center 30 min ahead, got some water, went through the check inc/security process, everything went smoothly.

§  OK, I am in front of the screen and my exam is about to start, gone through the tutorial in 3 minutes max, and clicked on START the exam.

§  Decided to keep a 1 min average for each question and consider the exam as a set of 4 separated mini exams (50 Q for each one, not more than 60 min/set), that way I could have a tighter control on it  + decided to not mark more than 4 questions / a set of 50.

§  As each set of 50 Q was done, watched the timer to see whether everything is going as planned, took 3 or 4 deep breaths and reviewed the marked questions related to the current set I was doing, then moved forward to the next set of 50 questions.

§  When answered Q number 200, I had about 25 minutes left, so re-reviewed some of my answers and clicked on ‘’END exam’’.

§  Fastest hearth beat ever, as the system was processing my results, until I saw ‘’CONGRATULATIONS’’ on the screen with my proficiency results.

The PMP exam is not tough but it’s not easy neither, I think that there’s no unique recipe to pass the exam, each PMP aspirant will develop his own learning strategy based on a his daily dedication to the subject + his experience + choices of material + taking advantage of LLs posted by PM community.

If you ‘’reaaalllyyy’’ want it, you’ll get it .

Regards

Reda Soussi , MBA , PMP