I am so relieved after passing my PMP examination in the first attempt with 4Ps and one MP and was keen on sharing my ways of studying for other PMP aspirants. I wrote my PMP examination on the 18^th March and hence I am a victim of the new syllabus. Here is my journey to PMP, and I hope it helps you:

1. A brief background about myself – I work as a Project Manager in a multinational bank in South Africa in the technology space. Needless to mention that this job comes with high pressure, non-negotiable deadlines, release nights, etc. Plus being a woman and having a family comes with its own responsibilities. The point of telling this is although with above challenges, less time to study, it is still possible to clear the dreadful PMP.


2. Classroom Coaching – I was lucky enough to get a fully paid Classroom course available through my organization at a local training institute called PM Ideas. The course was good for me as I hadn’t read any books before the course and it helped me to clear all the concepts. I paid full attention in the class and was involved actively in all discussions which helped clarify concepts and understand different views on same concept.


3. Books – Initially, I felt very overwhelmed looking at the list of books people read to pass this exam. I had heard from friends and colleagues that I need to refer to atleast 4 books if I have to pass. This is not true. I suggest select PMBOK + 1 book and you should be fine with the study material. I used the following books:
   
   
   
   1. PMBOK 5^th Edition – read twice
   
   
   2. Kim Heldman – read once, reviewed once
   
   
   3. Head first – read once (only because I get a better understanding looking at pictures – content wise I felt Kim is more comprehensive)


4. Method of reading – this is something that worked for me, but not necessarily it will work for you. I started a chapter from PMBOK, read the same from Headfirst and then from Kim. Then solved few questions to check if I understand the concepts. Used Head First chapter wise questions and Kim chapter wise questions for this. This I did with the 3 months classroom course that I attended. I spent on an average 2 hours every day on weekdays and 4 hours on weekends.


5. After one reading I decided to book date for my exams, and I decided on 18^th March. I had nearly a month before exam where I had to plan one more read of PMBOK, solve papers and review questions. This is where I really started stressing. One big mistake I did was I told all my family, friends and colleagues about my PMP. More than me passing for myself, I felt the social pressure of passing the exam as I will be embarrassed if I fail. PLEASE AVOID TELLING ANYONE ABOUT YOUR EXAMS UNTIL PASSED.


6. Something which helped me was having a buddy preparing for the exam with me – this helps as you get numerous doubts while studying and discussions help to clear concepts.


7. Around 10^th March I finished my revision from the books – which was already very late and high time to start solving questions. This is what I did for questions:
   
   
   
   1. Kim – Scored 85%
   
   
   2. Head First – 86%
   
   
   3. Rita – chapter wise questions – 75% - 80% on average
   
   
   4. PMZEST – 2 mocks – 65%

I didn’t do any other questions apart from the ones mentioned above. Writing one full length mock of 200 questions helped to understand how I will fare during my D day. I recommend all of the above as it has a good variety of questions.

8. EXAM DAY: As I was doing my reading I had prepared one page notes on each chapter. This is the only thing I read before going to the exam. As soon as I got in, I did my brain dump of 47 processes and all the formulas. One thing to remember here, write your brain dump only on a single sheet. My experience on the exam questions – most of the questions (nearly 80%) are situational. Try and relate the questions to your day to day working and answer as per PMBOK standards. In my set of questions, there was a good amount of questions on Stakeholder Management, CCB and lessons learnt. May be those are the new focus areas.

I hope the above information has helped you in some way. Please contact me if you need any further help or guidance on diptizanpure@gmail.com

All the best!