All.

I passed the exam last week.

Here are my learnings and believe me i went thru every possible aspect in getting this right.

Rita was a good start but I now believe they are out for their own agenda and there is a lot of good money to be made; they are promoting their own work processes and you cannot use Rita to pass the exam with PMBOK. I abandoned it 4 weeks ago and just focused on PMBOK.

Strategy:
Use Rita to get the overall comprehension or HeadFIrst book if you do not have a principle of PM course done already. Then focus on PMBOK and get a book via pmi site called Exam Prep Q&A - to get mocks. It is a good help. However be prepared, the new exams questions are completely different - no matter what - DO NOT FALL for web based exams offered literally by anyone and anybody, they are a complete waste and you will lose focus. I used Farnesdale 275 q&a test; this was pretty close to what the exam is like.

Summary:
EVM – around 15 questions.
PERT calculation
Network diagram – around 12 questions
Understanding of reserves and calculation for risk
Contract type applicable to different scenarios.

When you get in the exam there are 15min you are given to review the tutorial on how the process works; it took me 2 minutes to do that you now have 13mins; I used those to dump the formulas and full matrix of process areas vs knowledge area (NO I.TT.O know the flow...). This proved to be useful to see how the process flowed in some questions. Exact knowledge of tools and inputs I did not memorise as if you understand the relationship it was easy to piece it together. Another item of note, please remember Project Management Plan updates mean – all the baseline and plans specific to each knowledge area are included.

Areas where I felt most questions focused on were as follows in ranking order:
1. Risk
2. Quality
3. Procurement
4. Integration
5. Cost
6. Time
7. Scope
8. Communications
9. HR

Study in depth – Develop Project Charter, identify stake holders and closing process program, difference between close project/close procurements.

Once I started the exam, I allotted 50 questions/1 hr as a planned benchmark. I was nervous and found I hit 100 questions in 2hrs 20min; I was truly behind – going into a bit of panic (I also had the flu to contend with). First 70 questions were really demoralizing as they were really complex to throw you off. I collected myself and took a 2 min water break. Then went after the remaining which turned out to be moderate complexity. I finished in 3hrs 52min; there were around 13 questions which I had marked for review including 3 which I could not make sense of.

Then the time finished and following 2-3minutes were the longest to get the congratulations;

I scored 3P (Intiate, Planning and Monitoring/Control) with 2 MP in (Execution/Closing).

I hope folks find this useful and contribute to their success.

I did attend a Prep course and found it not to be worth the effort just a reinforcement of your learnings to date just 2 weeks prior to the exam.

Remember if the pyramids could be built 4000 years back with a project plan (no MSProject); this is nothing new – it is common sense and requires you to think logically. Think of it like you are doing a home renovation project – put yourself in that shoe when thinking instead of a work situation.

Think positive and you can all do it; it is definitely not rocket science. Understand – NOT memorise was my process to get this behind me.

Give yourself 3 months to review and prepare. Use the last 2 weeks prior to exams to try out the various Q&A and mocks - farnesdale.