Hi All,

I passed my PMP exam on 17^th Dec with MP, P, P, P & MP. I had been silent reader of PMZILLA but it’s time to give back.

Preparations (Don’t follow this; it is very personalized and long):

1)      Started in March-2012 and collected mandatory PDU’s from online training provided by office. Completed this by May-end at my pace with good no-study gaps in between.

2)      No studies in Jun-July.

3)      In August, started reading RITA and finished in Mid Sept. I only did chapter end questions of Rita.

4)      No studies from mid-Sept to Oct-mid.

5)      In Oct, started PMBOK and completed by November mid.

6)      Started revision of PMBOK and completed again by Dec-1^st week. Also did tests from Estrella (practice makes perfect book) and some online tests like Scordo (not all of them).

7)      Booked exam for Dec-17^th. My application was selected for auditing but I cleared auditing process in 15 days as I had informed my previous manager’s when I was applying for PMP.

8)      Last 10 days (and I am glad about what I did in last 10 days), Rita book revision and repeatedly did interesting exercises from the chapters and with special attention to “tricks of trade”. Also did PMSTUDY free exam.

9)      No special focus on ITTO’s just would refer them when needed.

If I had to do it all over again, here would be my simple plan, first it can be done with your job in around 3 months with 2-3 hours of average study hours, and my steps would be:

1)      Read Rita in first 1 month or any other book that you want to follow. Complete chapter end questions.

2)      Read PMBOK twice in 2^nd month and do questions from Estrella and do chapter end questions from Rita again.

3)      In last month, I would go back to RITA and do exercises in it and online questions like PMSTUDY, Scordo etc., look and study for gaps. Understand process, flow and what happens in each process group and K.A.’s. Lastly create some personalized acronyms; I somehow can’t remember acronyms created by others.

My scores in all the tests that I gave (you’ll realize I didn’t do many tests, I was more focused on material):

1)      Scordo Mock 1: 84%

2)      Scordo Mock 10: 80%

3)      Scordo Mock 11: 80%

4)      PMSTUDY free test(200 Questions): 81%

5)      Estrella book (Practice tests A, B, C & D): 75%, 83%, 86% & 76%.

6)      Andy Crowe Chapter end questions(total) = 175/200=87%

7)      Rita Chapter end questions: 306/379= 80% ( on 2^nd attempt a month later)

Exam Day:

I had seen the location of exam center 1 day before and it’s very comforting on exam day as you know, how much time it’ll take to reach and where is it located exactly. Prometric(had written Parametric before :) ) center here in New York was excellent, very quiet and nice Tiny-cubicles. You can’t see person sitting next to you although he is sitting hardly two steps away. Nothing is allowed inside exam hall, you can’t take even car keys or watch inside, have to keep in locker. They scan you for metals and will be asked to take out your pockets to make sure they are empty. Even Jackets are not allowed in exam hall.

Exam:

1)      I used first 15 minutes to write all the formula’s , Page 43 of Pmbok, some acronyms for Interpersonal qualities of manager, conflict resolution techniques, Risk response actions and Rita’s planning chart on Page 41, almost finished it in 15 mins + 2 minutes of test time. What I found helpful out of it during exam? Earned value formulas!!! Since you don’t want to lose any time recalling formula’s and also avoids any mistake in formula that you might make. Using Page 43 of PMBOK, I think I referred it 3-4 times, that’s it. Acronyms were quite helpful as you know which one is right key word in the answer and then short list from that only.

2)      I didn’t get hard questions initially so that took off some anxiety I had, whenever I got confusing question, I spent 2 minutes on it, checked most probable answer or did a random pick if I had no idea about answer and marked the question for later review and moved on.

3)      Finished first 100 questions in 1 hour 50 minutes, took 7 minutes break for restroom and water. They again do security check, before you can enter room.

4)      Last set of 100 questions , I couldn’t maintain same pace as first set of 100, as lot of questions on earned value calculations , network analysis, some confusing questions on what happens next, some questions with very close 2 choices and couple pure math questions on make-buy decisions like would you lease or buy. Rita has some practice questions on it, make sure you do them. I finished 200 Questions in 3 hour 55 minutes, reviewed 4-5 marked questions, I had more marked but couldn’t get to them.

5)      No questions on Professional and social responsibility, no question on PTA calculation, no question on network analysis where you have to do forward and backward pass, no question on configuration management plan, configuration change control or configuration management system. Why I mentioned configuration management is because somebody who passed exam few days back he said he got 5-7 questions on it. So I had prepared it. But I think this confirms that PMI has huge question bank and questions are randomly chosen from it at the start of exam.

Tips:

1)       Don’t spend more than 2-3 minutes on confusing questions, just keep moving , keep the monsters for last, mark your guess so that in case you are not able to come back. Spending 3-5 minutes on single question means you may not have time later for even easy questions which take like 10-15 seconds to answer.

2)      Don’t memorize ITTO’s; I got like 3-4 straight questions on ITTO’s and not more than that, rest were indirect ITTO questions. If you know the process, process groups and what happens in them, you’ll be able to answer them. Just refer ITTO’s and DFD’s (data flow diagrams) whenever you have to.

3)      Spend time on processes like :

a)      Quality control vs. Quality assurance

b)      Develop project team vs. manage project team

c)       Develop budget and develop schedule, what do they need in inputs.

d)      Distribute information vs. Report performance

e)      Qualitative and Quantitative risk analysis

Best of luck to all & let me know if any questions.

Nitin