Friends,

I am so glad and happy to annouce that i have passed  PMP exam with God's grace and support of my family .I used to visit this forum often to check the latest LL and the questions people ask while preparing for my PMP examination.This website has played a crucial role in my success in PMP examination.

Inputs :-

Background:- I work for one of Big 4 Consulting companies in NYC, USA  and have managed several IT projects since last 4 years , had worked with so many virtual teams all over world . Also delivered so many projects on Time and Budget . Idea of getting PMP certified was always in my mind since last 2 years but i kept on postponing it as i was not able to dedicate time both on  weekdays and on weekends as i fly Monday -Thursday  and this exam requires real dedication and lot of hard work. But since last 3 months i managed to spend enough time and made myself comfortable with PMBOK guide and Process framework.Also managed to do 4 hours practice tests since last few weeks and worked a lot of my mistakes in exam making sure i dont do same mistake twice.

Tools and Techniques :-

1.Rita Exam Prep Book:- Very good resource for clearing the concepts and understanding the Framework  , The language is little harsh sometimes and you feel like Rita is like one of those strict professors you had in school  who were very rough but we learnt so much from them. I read this book 3 times . First pass was to understand concepts . I felt everytime i read this book i learnt something new .

2.PMBOK Guide:- The best of all and you really need to start loving this book if you want to suceed in Exam . Once you start giving Practice exams and you realize your mistakes then you come to know that every single line is exam question in PMBOK guide . It is boring and lot of text , its like reading help files and manuals of software tools.I read this book 3 times as well to make sure i know each and every detail mentioned in this book.

P.S:- 

1.Every diagram ,Every formula , all numbers you see in the PMBOk Guide is an exam question . 

2.Glossary:- Make sure to print out glossary and read it couple of times . Even last day of exam i revised the glossary.

3.Page 43 is your friend and it should be in your mind all time . I had print outs of Page 43,Page 73, Page 104, Page 131, Page 167, 191,217,244,274, 314 ,These are all ITTO Pages of PMBOk , You should be familiar with everything in these diagrams and i was able to draw 90% of them without seeing on day before exam.

Practice Test:-These are closest to real exam.

PMSTUDY 1---- 72%

PMSTUDY 2-----71%

PMSTUDY 3-----74%

PMSTUDY 4-----76%

Dont worry if you dont get 80% in these exams as other readers of this forum  keep on saying , Thyey really made me nervous . Just foucs on your mistakes , you learn for mistakes and failures and not from success. 

Rita Fast Track  

Test 1--------62%(My first Practice test0

Test 2--------74%

Test 3--------85%(I think i remembered most of answers by this time).

Super PMP ----62%(Got exhausted reading the questions and felt them crappy , but they were good for knowledge)

BetterPM(Ipad App)

Exam 1--------82%

Exam 2--------80%

PMZilla 200 tough questions

Test 1------62%

Oliver Lehman

75 Questions----62%

175Questions----72%

Output :

PMP real Exam :- Passed

Initiating    :- MP

Planning   :-  P

Executing  :- MP

M&C            :-MP

Closing       :-MP

Lessons Learnt From real PMP Exam :- It felt it really tough for first 100 questions , It was like WTF :) is going on why each question is so much twisted . There were no straight questions or one line questions.  But after 100 questions things started cooling down and i put on my top gear .

1. Friends only thing i can suggest Is read ,read and practice as much as you can , understand  PMBOK guide, It is written by PMP experts and covers ITTO very clearly.

2. Manage your time properly in real exam , the questions really want you to solve everything on calculator and you have to be fast , i was behind my planned milestones of 1 hour , 2 hours, 3 hours, 4 hours . I felt exam to be lengthy but it covers all aspects and every single aspect of PMP framework. If you understand it well rather than just cramming the ITTO you will definately SUCCEED.

3. Dont spend too much time on one question , some questions were really there to make you waste your time . I was just nervous and was reading questions couple of times before marking answers and was also making sure not missing the hidden facts in questions .

4. If you drink alcohal on weekends you have to cut it down last week of exam , i was not able to sleep properly  a day before so took 2 glasses of wine as my exam was on monday and still didnt help . But i slept in morning for few hours as my exam was at 1pm.  :). Make sure you choose the timings which are good for your biological clock.

Overall it was a journey worth remebering and i am happy to celebrate it partying this weekend .

Thanks and Good luck,

Anurag Sharma  MS , PMP :).