Hi All,

 Yesterday I cleared my PMP. It’s a Hard fought Battle. I really would like to share this with my fellow aspirants..

 Training

Everything started some time in Feb 2012, Attended Corporate training for 35 hrs to get the PDU. Nothing serious until June.

 Plan

I planned to complete the PMBOK one time and Rita's 6th Edition one time before taking any exam. Oh Boy , Planning is really easy but executing is the hard part :-(, Being not a serious reader for last 10 years this plan gave me tough time to concentrate. Have to struggle to put my concentration to complete each chapter. Finally gave up PMBOK after 4 units and stuck with Rita's. This book has lot of exercise and end of chapter test gave me a way to make sure my understanding are correct.  Also last but not the Least PMZilla.com.. Posts and LLs are the real motivator. People who are struggling to concentrate/need some motivation to complete their PMP, should come to pmzilla at least once a day.. this is been my real motivator.

 I Test

Started my First Test with Headfirst. Scored around 70%

 From Pmzilla I found out this is not a good %. Head first is suppose to be easier than other tests. My strategy changed, I memorized page 43 and the mnemonics all TT . As part of this, I also understood the Input and Outputs .Hwever I had challenges in the EEF,OPA, PMPU type update. Got a mnemonics only for these and memorized that.

Also Filled all the gaps with Head first.

By this time Rita's 7 edition released. I went through Rita 7^th Edition once again. This time it was easy and the concepts made more sense.

II round of test

Oliver 75 -72% .. Really motivated by this result by comparing with all the LL's in PMzilla

Filled the gap

Oliver 175 -72% Good confidence boost again.

Again filled all the gaps

Finally, As Many expert suggested saved the PMstudy for the last day. I revised the PMBOK once and memorized all the ITTO.

PMStudy -73.14 % - Not happy but , I am sure I am almost ready for PMP.

II Review

Had a worst Plan to memories all the Input and Outputs and started memorizing that. This is the Stupidest decision I made , Spent almost two weekends but couldn't succeed in memorizing that. Then checked with PMZill and as per the experts opinion decided to understand with the logical flow.

III Round Test

I took Abhishek's Rajesh Nair material from Pmzilla and revised that once and did  below test

Exam central -80%

Pmpforsure - 4P and 1MP

Exam

Scheduled my exam on DEC 1st and Revised PMBOK and Abhishek's Summary sheet. By this time , I can tell the TT and Pmbook 43  even in my dreams.

Didn’t do much the day before. I was feeling confident and just trying to relax as much as I could( As Per the Pmzilla’a Suggestion)...

 Exam,

Wrote the PMBOK 43 in the exam with TT mnemonic and the Common Input output EEF,OPA...

Didn't even write the formulas , I am so used to those formula with the exercises in tests and the practice from Rita's Exercise. Tip whenever you solve EVM calculation try to put the formula first.

 I got at least 8-10 question just because of the 43 and the mnemonics.

 There are around 10-12 question on EVM. Not much Question from Professional and Social Responsibilities.

 Material Used

Abhishek's Version of Rajesh Nair Notes

Combined TT mnemonics and Some shortcuts to remember ITTO in one Excel Sheet.

Thanks

Arun