Hello to All,

I am Srichand Sobhani, having over 6 years experience of Planning in O&G field. I passed PMP exam on 27-Jul-2013 on first try and wanted to share my experience with peers on this websites, because I know the importance of reading posts and obtaining useful information from success and failure stories.

Going Uphill and Downhill of Preparation Track:

On first instance I planned to prepare and appear in exam within 4 months after training, but as always, job work never allowed me to accomplish this. In beginning I could not prepare due to work load and later employer’s market condition was getting down so I quit and moved to another employer but this time in Oman. I thought that I would appear in exam in Oman where there is only one metropolitan city (Muscat), but I never knew that there is no Prometric in the country. The only available option was to write to PMI to arrange for paper based test, which I didn’t want. So in this, I lost over 1 year but I never quit to equip my neurons and kept studying on and off.

Real Preparation:

On returning back to Abu Dhabi, I revitalized the idea for appearing in exam, before change of test system; from PMBOK edition 4 to edition 5 from 1^st August, 13. After setting down on new job in June, 13, I obtained PMI membership and applied to schedule exam with Prometric. Guess what! This time another hurdle came in my way. My credential application selected for audit process. I was very upset as time was running out and I didn’t want to lose chance of appearing before change of test system. I quickly sent required documents for audit to PMI and lost one more week of study because I was not sure about audit result. 

After getting clearance from PMI, I searched for dates and luckily got one on 27^th July, 13 in Dubai. So I had only 6 weeks to prepare for climbing a mountain.

I did not pick many books to read due to time constraint and chose 2 source only i.e. Rita Mulcahy & PMBOK. Following was the sequence I followed for preparing in these 6 weeks. 

1) PMBOK:           Studied during training especially before lectures and then on and off to refresh.

2) Rita:                  One full read during four weeks and skipping through processes in next two weeks.

3) Fast Track:    To integrate knowledge learned through reading, I chose to perform test on Fast Track simulation software by knowledge area-wise and used to get score between 75% and 85%. This gave me confidence and an idea that how question vary in type, difficulty etc.

4) ITTO:                  I did not memorize ITTOs (although I was worried about this too) but I used to play online games during numb hours of day. I obtained experience of picking right Process if ITTO is given or vice versa by repeating this game. Links are given in References.

5) Head First:       Though I did not read this book but it always attracted me because it contains humorous pictures and phrases for learning. I chose to perform one full test online and got score 76%.

The Day:

I departed one day before to Dubai and resided in hotel to minimize the pressure by roaming on streets of City.

Next days reached test center. Center’s security check was irritating. They don’t allow even water or some snack inside. So if you feel need for something you have to rethink because your test time keep on ticking. Every time you go out, you need to logout on register and again log-in and get checked by metal detector.

As all test takers do, I wrote 42 processes and few formulas on scratch paper and then went in to screen for next four hours. During first 60 questions I was not sure I am choosing right answers for most of question because many complex questions were making me more and more nervous. I took one break of 10 minutes to refresh my memory and to get calm down. I remembered Rita’s techniques to take deep long breath and this helped me too. I answered rest of the questions calmly without thinking much for negative consequence of result and finished 15 minutes before. Reviewed marked questions and time ended.

Now I was fully tired and wanted to get out from that site. Quickly completed Prometric feedback survey generously and submitted. Blank white screen for 1 minute. Then there you Go… Sigh of relief to see one word PASSED. Thanked to God first and then continued reading.

I got 1 Excellent in Execution, 1 Bellow Proficient in Planning (Felt sad L because this is the job work that I do) and 3 Mid Proficient in rest of the areas. Though the most important in this result was that “I Passed and I Passed on first try.”

I would like to recommend to test takers who have very short duration for preparation or hardly get time from job routine. Read PMBOK once. Read Rita thoroughly once and skim next time along with simulation tests. Rita’s Fast Track is an excellent source to bond complete knowledge in to your brain. Don’t mind to review all 1400+ questions answers with explanations before test. This will certainly help you. Also if you plan for PMP then plan in such period where there shouldn’t be any disturbance relating to job change, domestic issues etc, which break sequence of study and demoralize too. 

Online References:        Following are some of free online references;

ITTOs Games:                 http://quizlet.com/2994535/pmp-tools-techniques-by-process-flash-cards/

Head First:                       http://www.headfirstlabs.com/PMP/pmp_exam/v1/quiz.html

Other test sites:               www.examcentral.net

                                           http://www.pmpden.com                                                                                                         

                                           http://www.tutorialspoint.com/pmp-exams/pmp_mock_exams.htm

                                           http://pmhub.net/pmsuccess/Menu.htm

                                           http://www.passionatepm.com/free-pmp-exam-practice-test-questions

                                           http://www.techfaq360.com/pmp/

Good Luck!