Passed PMP on 2nd August.........Posting of Lesson Learned

Submitted by sunilmohite on Mon, 08/08/2011 - 10:34

Dear Friends,


Though I could clear the much coveted PMP certification on 2nd August, due to official engagements thereafter I could not put my LL on time on this esteemed blog. However, today I am taking the opportunity to post the same.

Background :

I am having petrochemical / fertilizer projects background. I am working for such type of projects since last 17 years. Being a foremost institution in project management I became member of PMI in 2007. In 2008 I had decided to go for PMP certification as I thought, it would help to enhance my project management knowledge/skills and add some value to resume. However, due to some unexpected turmoils which cased me 3 job changes, I had to prolong PMP plans. Finally in April 2011, I decided to go for it and joined one REP to earn 35 PDUs, which was completed by 16th of April 2011.

Study Plan / study Material etc. :

Real study I started from 1st week of May onwards. Even though most of the processes I knew very well due to my background / experience, I found PMBOK little bit hard to assimilate initially. However, after continuous 2-3 readings I could grab the central idea of the book and after that it was easy to go forward. I used following material for exam preparation

·         PMBOK

·         Rita’s  prep 6th Edition

·         Material collected from Internet

Out of the above, over the period of time, I realized that PMBOK is indispensable. So I gave more stress on this book. Rita’s prep was used as a secondary material wherever more insight in the subject was thought to be needed. Taking reference of the PMBOK, I also realized that, the crux of the each knowledge area lies in the ITTO tables which are given under the heading of each management area OVERVIEW. After my initial 2 readings of PMBOK, I started concentrating on these tables ( as well as process group table which is given on page 43), started to think on each input, T&T and outputs of each process and addressing each of these individually.

By 1st week of June I was well conversant with all the process, so I started giving mock exams and attempting more and more freely available questions from internet. Giving mock exams definitely helps as we evaluate our wrong answers and go back to the PMBOK and try to understand the topic once again. This is a good method of memorizing the concerned topic.

Mock exams given are :

PMSTUDY – 4 exams ( score between 75 to 85%)

Exam Central – 2 Exams ( which are free available) – score more than 80%

HeadFirst_PMP – 200 questions – scored  75%

Skill Sign – 1 Exam – score 73%

PMZilla – 200 tough questions – scored around 62% overall ( This is really tough and therefore gives lot food for thought process)

Overall about 2000 questions attempted,

 

By 20th June when I had gained quite good confidence I scheduled the exam. I got  6 weeks later date i.e 2nd August 2011. From 22nd June to 2nd July I took a break of 10 days as I went on  Vacation. After returning, I devoted around 4 hours every day ( and around 8 to 10 hours on week end) consistently till the exam date. During this period  literally every day I tried to memorize ITTO, tried lot of numerical problems and also prepared few notes on so called difficult to understand topics.

 

Exam Experience :

I did not find exam that difficult. On the scale of 1 to 10, starting from EASY to DIFFICULT, I would rate it at 6 OR 7. Most of the questions were straight forward with two seemingly suitable answers / options. Remaining two options were irrelevant. Out of the two seemingly right options, you can pick-up the correct one instantaneously if your fundamentals are clear. In some of the cases you have to make a right choice considering some related factors and giving stress on your memory & knowledge. In my case out of 200 questions, around 40% questions were 1-2 lines, around 20% 2-3 lines, 20% 3 to 4 lines and around 20% verbos questions including questions based on schedule network diagrams etc. Around 40 to 45 questions were on ITTOs. Around 10 numerical questions. Around 25 questions were based on real life / typical dilemma situations (this include typical question from code of ethics) where you have to choose the option based on your knowledge / intuition / analysis etc.

Brain Dump : Most of the people advise for this ( in initial 15 minutes time) however I did not do that. I directly started the exam after demo. Reason being, only very few formulae are there which are pretty simple.

After starting the exam, it took about 15 minutes to get properly accustomed with the environment and the exam. During this time there was some kind of anxiety which faded slowly afterwards as I completed first slab of 25 questions fairly well. It took me around 214 minutes to complete all 200 questions. Meanwhile I had marked around 14 question for 2nd thought / review. Fearing that I will not get any time left, I had marked very less questions. Possibly some more questions I would have marked for review because I was left with around 20 – 22 minutes. Marking of the questions for 2nd review can be done judiciously, which can definitely help to improve upon the score because at the fag end you are accustomed to the exam and your head is cool, without much anxiety. When you finished answering all question please do check the status during marked question review. There is a chance that sometime you might have missed some question inadvertently.

My conclusions :

-          Minimum 230 to 250 hours study is essential, in continuation, to crack the exam. This is around 8 weeks of rigorous work, apart from managing your other duties.

-          Maximum learning is recommended from PMBOK. Though this is somewhat boring initially, however, it is a complete knowledge book, perfectly designed, wherein each and every line is having a meaning from exam point of view. Concentrate on process tables, ITTOs

-          Solving as many questions as you can and having affiliation with blogs like PMZilla helps a lot, because you feel your self at the centre of the PMP action and a some kind of tempo is created, which is eventually helpful to pursue the studies in right direction.

With these conclusions, I would like to end this LL session. Thanks to all of you and specially thanks to PMZilla, for making this beautiful forum available to all PMP aspirants. Wishing all the best all PMP aspirants. In case of any further assistance or help, let me know, I will try my level best to help.

Sunil

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PMP Exam Tips, Tricks and Lessons Learnt.
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kan3

Mon, 08/08/2011 - 10:53

Congrats sunil. Did you read PMBOK's glossary too?


Thank you.

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admin

Mon, 08/08/2011 - 11:43

This is a very good format of sharing the LL. I always say that if the person includes his background people with similar background can related more easily to how much time it takes. Since preparation time is different for people with different backgrounds


Also Sunil thanks for endorsing PMZIlla 200 questions. I agree with most of the things you have written here like what books to read, what exams to take etc.


Congrats on your PMP

Deepti

Tue, 08/09/2011 - 05:20

Hi Sunil..

 

First of all Congratulations!! and thanks for compiling such a nice LL.

I need one more input, which mock exam (paid or free) you think is closest to the real exam? This will really help me tuning my preparation, I have my exam lined up for next week.

 

Thanks!

Deepti

sunilmohite

Tue, 08/09/2011 - 07:39

Hi Deepti,


In my opinion the closest tests are from PMStdy. In case of PMstudy one test is free, however, for other three (or more) you have to buy a package. All the very best for your upcoming exam.


Thanks


Sunil