Postponed; Failed; Postponed; Passed

I would like to share my PMP journey and LL here:

Attempt 1

Journey:

My journey has started on Dec 2013, when my company has announced a PMP preparatory training session. I have nominated and joined the training. Learnt the basics of PMBOK. After that in May I have applied for PMP. My application has been selected for audit. My manager has taken the personal responsibility to deliver the relevant documents and done it. I have scheduled my exam on July 2014. I’ve got a permission to work from home for a month. Read PMBOK twice and Rita once. I was not confident to face the exam, so postponed the exam for 2 weeks. I have taken few exams on               www.examcentral.net and Rita’s PM fast track. I have never taken 70% in these practice tests.

My first attempt on PMP exam was on 08/08/2014. I have taken a last practice test on examcentral on Risk Management and scored 65% and I was pretty sure this time I’m not going to make it this time. If I had passed on that attempt definitely it would have been a miracle.  Luckily, I didn’t. Yes, luckily I didn’t pass the exam. I have scored 2MP and 3BP. 

LL in my first attempt:

1.       No planning at all.

2.       Not enough preparation

3.       Poor understanding of the concepts

4.       Not enough practice tests

5.       Full of uncertainty and fear

Attempt 2:

Journey:

Most of my friends, colleagues and family thought that I will break after that results, but I didn’t. My laziness is my weakness, but always cool is my strength. My company is subscribed with skillport, a leading online education provider. This time I have started preparing using the courses in skillport. Skillport courses are the same as PMBOK guide, but the difference is it offers you a lot of examples, and easy to understand. Simultaneously read PMBOK as well. I have decided to utilize the year end lean period for the final preparation and take up the exam.  I’ve got the permission to work from home for 2 weeks from my manager.  I’m so lucky to get permission to work from home twice in a year, isn’t it?

This time my approach is first to understand the concepts and find the gaps in my knowledge by taking up the practice tests. Hence, I started using both Rita and PMBOK simultaneously. First I used to read PMBOK and take up the practice test on www.examcentral.net and then read Rita and took Rita’s PM fast track practice tests. The tests on www.examcentral.net has helped me to find out how much I understand PMBOK and the tests in Rita helped to understand the concepts and complex questions as well.

I wanted to get rid of both PMP and the year, so scheduled my exam on 12/31/2014. Before a week to the exam I realized that with this preparation if I take the exam the year alone will get rid of me, not the preparation for PMP.  J Hence, I decided to postpone it for 5 days. The last 7 days I was purely in fire fighting mode.  I have taken only practice tests on the last 3 days. I have taken all the tests on PMP exam prep by Chritopher Scordo and scored between 75 and 85 on all the 18 exams it has. I have got 67.5% in Oliver Lehman’s 175 questions test.

After a solid understanding of the concepts and enough practice tests, I have taken the exam with confident and I couldn’t find any question as difficult. In the scrap book I put a vertical bar if I feel the question is right and a horizontal bar if I feel the question is wrong for all the 200 questions. At the end of the exam I had only 40 questions with horizontal bars. I have reviewed them and corrected them if I felt they are wrong. At the end, I am passed the exam with 2 P and 3 MP in the same process groups where I have failed with 2 MP and 3 BP.

Lessons Learned:

1.       Still not good in planning. A long way to go

2.       Good in preparation with solid understanding of the concepts.

3.       Had a lot of practice tests

4.       Still having uncertainty and fear, but learned how to overcome them in the last week.

Suggestions:

1.       If your company is a subscriber to skillport, exploit it. It is a treasure to hold it.

2.       Study PMBOK and Rita. Don’t read it.

3.       Take as much practice tests as possible after you understand the concepts.

4.       If you poor in planning like me then ready to fire fight.

I’m considering earning PMP certification as a project. In that 2 schedule changes and one failed delivery all due to poor planning and execution by me. Due to that there is schedule delay, cost escalation and poor quality. I’ve passed PMP at the end, but a failed project manager in that project.

Regards,

Venkatesh