Hi Guys,

I cleared PMP yesterday in first attempt.  It is not a  very spectacular journey but it is successful one. These are my study plan and LL.

Background

I am MBA(IT) having around 14 year’s experience in IT industry. 6+ years in PM/lead role.

Challenged by Apathy

I have completed my 35 Hrs training 3 years back. Since then I wanted to gain this certification. But soon after I finished my training, company sent me to onsite (UK) and I was there for almost two years. While at onsite in August 2012 I decided to go for the certification and registered in PMI. My target was to appear for exam in Dec 2012. But meanwhile client given me responsibility to expand team at offshore and I was then got busy in jumping from onsite to offshore giving me no time to study. In feb I was permanently placed at offshore. I decided again go for PMP and booked exam on 30 August 2013. But at the offshore the workload has increased considerably I was working 12 hrs a day and sometimes on weekend too. By the end of July haven’t studied at all for PMP.  

Lucky Me

In august situation changed at workplace as workload reduced considerably.  Also my wife and son went to visit my in-laws for rakhi festival. My parents went for vacation. I was alone in house for t 15 days and I said myself that’s it! This is the best opportunity to clear pmp, Let us give a genuine attempt.

Study Material

PMBOK 5, Rita 8, Ragas 360 notes, PMZilla fourm.

Original Study Plan

This plan was inspired by some post in this forum where someone cleared PMP with 8 days prep.

Week 1 – Read PMBOK (First Pass)

Week 2 – Read PMBOK (Second Pass)

Week 3 – Mock Tests

Actual Study (9-30 August)

On long weekend 9-11 Aug, Started reading PMBOK. I reached up to HR M at the end of 11.

But I realised that the PMBOK language is very tough. At the end of the reading my comprehension was very low. I decided to go for Rita. I issued a book from company’s library.

On Long weekend – 15-18 read rita. It’s a wonderful book. Studied 12-14 hrs a day.

I did the exam at the end of the topics. I haven’t done test your knowledge stuff. I took notes as well. This is because the rita book was taken from library and it was issued only for 8 days.

This is my log for this spell.

Mock Tests (19-24 August)

Now I was confident. I was getting 60-70% score in each topics and attempted Rita fast track test. Boom! I got 55% in test. I was depressed and confused.  But I stick mock tests,

• ·         Practiced Christopher Scordo. For 3 days. I was scoring about 65-70 in that.
• ·         Again given 1 more rita fast track and score was 61% this time.
• ·         Then attempted Oliver Lehman 75Q and got 54% in that.
• ·         Techfaq 58%.

I was using internet and PMBOK 5 to clear my doubts/knowledge gaps in mock tests.

Finally given the PMStudy test. My target was 75% in PMStudy. The test appeared very easy but I got 63% in that. I was very depressed and lost. I was making silly mistakes like not reading the questions properly. I was not sure what I was doing wrong in some cases.  

I started thinking negatively, like not to appear for test etc. I haven’t studied for 2 days. Basically I was disappointed with my performance in PMStudy test.  

Revision (27-30 August)

I picked up myself. Started final revision.

27^th- Practiced dumps whole day (in office) . I read my own notes. Read PMBOK annexure

28^th (leave)– Practiced math questions.  Evening some internet articles randomly searching in fourm.

29th (leave) – Read Integration, HR, Procurement, Quality, Risk from PMBOK.

30th (Exam day) - Ragas 360 points. Own notes.

Exam day

Exam center was I different city which is 4 hrs journey from my native place. In anxiety I started early and reached to prometric centre 4 hrs before exam. Security guard did not allow me to get inside the campus. So most of those hrs spent sitting at bus stop near by reading ragas 360points and my own notes. At prometric there was long queue of tofel exam, because I was only pmp candidate they given me priority.

Exam

It was very tough. The questions that PMI asked were created by experts. They were targeted to test your skills in application of knowledge areas in real world.

Exam started with very tough questions. It took me 38 minutes for first 25 questions. Then gradually level of difficulty reduced.

There were around 10 difficult and 10 easy math questions. Around 40 questions were very very easy like straight from PMBOK. Around 5-7 questions like what the hell they are talking about. Rest situational questions ranging medium difficult to ultra tough.

For some questions you can eliminate 2 options easily but it was very difficult to pick one from rest of the two. I found M&C questions very tough. The risk response-Integrated change control and Quality control-testing defects combination was deadly.

I felt no stress/tension/happy/sad during exam. It was time perception disorder. 4 hrs passed by like a minute.

I finished test exactly after 3 hrs 57 minutes, In last 3 minutes I have to look into 27 question marked to review. Obviously failed to do that.  Reviewed 3 question and exam ended automatically.

I was neither very confident that I did well in exam nor very certain I was going to fail. I was blank. Completed survey. I promised myself if I fail I will come back in two weeks time again to reappear. On that note I ended survey. Congratulations screen appeared.  

Initially I thought they are congratulating me for completing survey. I was expecting a full screen congratulations or otherwise. Confirmed with the moderator that I passed.

It was 4MP and 1P. Not flying colours but I was very happy with the result.

For 20 days I lived PMP. Hard work payed back.

Tips and Lessons learned (from my mistakes and based on my perceptions. No offense)

During study

• Split study plan into two phases. Gain knowledge and Exam oriented. For knowledge use rita and exam use PMBOK, internet and mock tests.
• Do not read rita process chart more than once. PMP is about knowledge and its application. It is not about process sequence.  If you try to remember sequence it is very hard to unlearn that.
• Do not over study. It will confuse your mind.
• Do not memorize IO. Don’t even try to understand it by reading books several times. Rather use your imagination. Ex. Imagine a situation that you identify new risk during planning or executing or Quality control. Imagine actions that you will take and confirm outcome referring to PMBOK.  (I realised this was missing in my study during actual exam.)
• Revise often. Read Annexure A1 in PMBOK every time you complete reading new chapter.
• During revision use only PMBOK. It is very structured book. Process – Input-TT- Output.
• Read everything in PMBOK. Don’t skip topics even you find it very easy concept to understand.

Mock tests

• Real exam is very different than mock tests. The objectives are different. Mock tests are tool for training and preparation. The real exam focuses on testing knowledge and its application.
• There are many overlapping processes. Real exam check your understanding how those are layered.
• Mock tests focus on improving your ability to read questions carefully and Mock tests also help you to practice for sitting in one place for 4 hrs and answer 200 questions.
• Anything above 60% in PMstudy test is a decent preparation.

During Exam

• No pressure. You can fail. you are not the first who failed. Just take one question at a time.
• Dump formulas with all variations. I had a tough time in manipulating them and wasted time.  Also formula should be on your fingertip Ex. if you want to find out EV what other values you need. It is not useful if you trying you check the brain dumps every second math question. Braindumps is a fall-back option.
• No emotions. Ex. All of a sudden you will encounter 3-4 very tough questions in series. Don’t get frustrated because of that. Easier sequence will also come.

 PMZilla was my Inspiration and help throughout the preparation. Thanks all.

All the best.

Warm Regards,

-          R