Passed PMP (28/12/2015) First Attempt

Submitted by lonsharim on Wed, 12/30/2015 - 07:00

I spent sometime on this forum the week leading to my PMP exam and I felt a tinge of regret that I discovered this treasure trove only a handful of days leading to the exam. I benefited from reading success stories, allowing me to reinforce my belief that I was on the right path to success. One of my key takeways from the PMP certification is that people who enjoyed the learning process and understood the best practices stood a superior chance of clearing the exam.

I wrote and cleared my PMP exam on the 28th of December in Bangalore, India and my proficiency scores are listed below

Initiating - Proficient

Planning - Proficient

Executing - Proficient

Monitor and Controlling - Moderately Proficient

Closing - Moderately Proficient

I started studying for PMP on 19th Nov and joined Simplilearn live classes. I didn't enjoy the online live learning experience and I made more progress via self study route. I think we all have our own ways to study and I realized than self preparation really works for me best.

I read HeadFirst which is a very light and simplified explanation of all concepts. I also read Rita Mulchay which I highly recommend. Her book has much more depth and my eureka moment of understanding how to interpret situation based questions came while reading her book. I used PMBOK only as a reference point. I would have liked to read it but I simply did not have any time left. I preferred taking up mock tests in the week leading up the exam.

Simplilearn has 5 tests that come along with the course. They also have a free version. In order to expose myself to questions prepared by other people I also searched and took the free tests from other websites.

I strongly believe you have to spent time analyzing what questions you answer incorrectly and more importantly why you answered them incorrectly. I used to spend hours after a mock test trying to figure it what I did wrong and that really helped me understand the infamous 47 processes and how they interrelated with each other. Its also the spirit of PMI - lessons learnt at the end of each test are like lessons learnt at the end of a project phase. The OPA (your mind) need to be updated so that the organization (you) benefit from it in future phases of all your projects :)

Listed below are all the mock exams I took

Rita Fasttrack - 66%

SimpliLearn Free Mock Test - 63%

Full Length PMP Simulation Test 1 - 71%

Oliver Lehmann 75Q Online test - 57%

Rita's Exam Prep 8th Edition Exercises - 81% (This was the turning point for me)

Full Length PMP Simulation Test 2 - 85%

Full Length PMP Simulation Test 3 - 80%

Full Length PMP Simulation Test 4 - 82%

PM Study Free Simulation Test - 74%

Brainbok Sample 50 Q Set 1 - 68%

Scordo - PMP Lite Mock Test 1 50 Q - 94%

Oliver Lehmann 175 - PDF File - 75%

Full Length PMP Simulation Test 5 - 88%

Exam Central - 82%

I am attaching an Excel sheet which contains more details of the exams I took which other people on this forum could potentially use to benchmark their results.

Many thanks to the PMZilla for such an active and well managed forum. This is helping so many people.

Cheers