Hi All,

Today is my turn to share LL from my PMP exam experience. First of all, I wish to thank God for my success. There were many hiccups along the way that threatened to derail my exam plan, but God made sure I was able to study and pass the exam. I also wish to acknowledge my family's infinite patience, encouragement and support in my endeavour, which made it possible to achieve this success.

I made use of PMZilla during my preparation and I would like to thank PMZilla forum and its many contributors for making such excellent information available.

THE EXAM:
The Exam is very well designed and is administered in a thoroughly professional manner. That is what we expect from PMI and that is what we get. The Goregaon, Mumbai Prometric centre staff is very friendly and co-operative.

Before the exam, you are asked to put your belongings in a locker. Be sure to put your food/drinks on a table near the lockers (and not inside the locker), as they don't allow you to open the locker during breaks. The staff will explain this. They will do usual security procedures including fingerprinting. Then you will be led to your cubicle.

Like most others, I used the initial 15 min tutorial to write down from memory the PMBOK page 61 table and some formulae. The tutorial itself can be completed in 4 min. I did not refer to the table and formulae during the exam, but just having them handy gave me a good feeling.

Overall, the exam did not appear to be either too tough or too easy. Some questions were ridiculously simple and some were really tough. Most questions seemed middle-of-the-range, I thought. I ended up spending a disproportionately large amount of time on the simple questions just to ensure that I was not making any stupid mistakes. This cost me valuable time, but I had to do it for peace of mind. This caused me to lag during the first 2 hrs. Then I forced myself to pick up speed. I was under pressure virtually for the entire 4 hrs.

I was done answering all 200 Q in 3hrs:40min with about 50 questions marked for review. I could review only about 15-20 of them. At about 2 seconds left, I ended the exam. Thereafter, it was the usual experience reported by others on this forum: white screen, brief survey, white screen again and then result message.

The greedy human mind in action: Before the exam I was beseeching the Gods to let me pass, as I simply could not bear the thought of having to study all over again, not to mention the extra $$$. At about 3-1/2 hrs into the exam I felt that I was going to pass. All of a sudden, my prayers changed and I started beseeching the Gods again, this time for a good score. Greedy, greedy!! In the end, I am no doubt very, very relieved and thankful for having passed the exam and also for my higher than expected score.

STUDY DETAILS:
Due to personal circumstances and health problems I could not study in a systematic and consistent manner. However, below are the resources and the method that I used:
- Rita Mulcahy (2009 edition, yes older one based on PMBOK 4)
- Andy Crowe (2009 edition, yes again older one based on PMBOK 4)
- PMBOK Guide 5th ed (latest)
- HeadFirst Critical Path Drill
- SimpliLearn online learning with tests. Also used SimpliLearn for the reqd 35 Contact Hours.
- Oliver Lehmann 75Q & 175Q
- Chris Scordo Tests 11 - 18
- PMStudy free test
- PMPForsure free test
- Miscellaneous questions from here and there: forums, blogs etc.
- PMZilla forum periodic visit
- For network diagrams with lead/lag relationships, refer to the below videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXj2AEVgs0U Long video, but at least watch from 45min onwards to get some lead/lag forward/backward pass concepts cleared.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Whc0QHSuk28 Short and sweet.
- GOOGLE. Yes, if you are unclear or unconvinced about something, look it up on the web. There is a pretty good chance that you will find it already discussed somewhere.

I purchased PMZilla 200 Tough Questions, but did not get time to try them at all.

There are changes between PMBOK4 and PMBOK5, but the basic principles stay the same. Hence, I was able to use the above mentioned older version books together with PMBOK5.

I used Rita and Andy for understanding the concepts, examples and exercises only. I used PMBOK5 for theory, processes & ITTO (these MUST be as per the latest PMBOK Guide).

Needless to say, the Stakeholder Management Knowledge Area is introduced in PMBOK5 for the first time.

I did NOT memorize ITTOs at all. But I read through all of them and made sure that I understood them. I did not even try to use any ITTO mnemonics that seem to be so popular. I find the medicine to be worse than the ailment itself :)

I started reading Andy Crowe, since it was easier to understand with reader-friendly layout and focus on ITTOs. I stopped after about 25 - 30 pages. The book is excellent but it does not seem to have the level of detail of Rita Mulcahy's book. I read Rita Mulcahy and solved end-of-chapter questions. I did not read the book systematically. I picked and chose the chapters I felt more comfortable with and studied them first - Scope, Time, Cost and then Risk and Procurement. Then the remaining chapters in random order.

I studied the HR and Communications chapters from PMBOK5, but referred to Rita & Andy Crowe for management/motivation theories - stuff that PMBOK does not cover.

Eventually, as I became familiar with the subject matter, I started reading just PMBOK5, and referred to the other books only for clarifications or to solve questions.

While I studied and took mock tests, I jotted down many, many points and questions that I felt were important, but later did not find time to process and organize the information. The last few days before the exam were terrible with ongoing health issues and shortage of time.

I did the mock tests only one time. I simply did not have time to repeat the tests. Also, maybe because I did 5 full-length tests in 3 days, I was zapped and my head was spinning. The test itself, plus analyzing the results, closing knowledge gaps and taking notes are all extremely time consuming.

There is one point reg network leads/lags I would like to mention here as I had a tough time finding an answer to my doubt. I will write about FS+lag relnship type only, but it applies to all types. Let's say activities A and B have a relationship shown as 'FS + 3 days'. This means that Activity B can start **AT THE EARLIEST** 3 days after the finish of Activity A. Activity B could even start 4 or 5 or more days after Activity A finishes. 'FS + 3 days' does **NOT** mean that B must start exactly 3 days after A finishes. In a simple scenario (99% of questions) the latter logic may work fine, but when you have convergence of activities with lags/leads resulting in competing constraints, the simple logic fails. None of the books seem to give a rigorous definition of lead/lag relnships. If you watch the first Youtube video mentioned above you will see what I mean.

IMHO the exam won't have such complex questions, but personally I prefer having full and correct knowledge and then choosing to apply it as per need, as opposed to learning only special cases and then getting stumped on seeing a question with a twist.

ACCOMMODATION:
Hotel Laxmi Int'l is very near to the Goregaon Mumbai Prometric exam centre... a 5 min walk to the centre. Additionally, for those who are interested, there is also what appeared to be 5-star hotel right opposite to the exam centre. I can't remember its name, however.

Overall,
* Do read other people's LLs to get inspiration and helpful suggestions. PMZilla.com is an excellent place to obtain information. Make use of it.

* After solving practice questions, make sure to review the ones that you got wrong and also the ones that you got right by guessing/luck.

* Don't chase many different books. Ideally, PMBOK5 (latest ed) + 1 good text + good quality questions (including some 200Q simulation tests) is all you should need.

* Make sure you truly understand everything that you study.

* Make sure to UNDERSTAND all of the definitions from the glossary.

* The fact that you finish practice tests at home in 2:30hrs does not necessarily mean that you will repeat this performance on the real exam. It is important to periodically monitor your pace during the real exam and adjust as appropriate.

* In the 1 week prior to your exam date, do not schedule any other high priority commitments (or at least minimize them), or else you may get severely distracted.

* Make your own formula sheet and study notes. There is a real risk of notes from others being inaccurate or obsolete.

* Hopefully, you are taking notes as you study. Please make sure to process/edit/compile/finalize/print them in a timely manner so as to not get stuck like me.

* In my view, the 2 to 3 days preceding the exam should be just revision of PMBOK and your own notes.

* During the exam, try to pick up speed initially.

* If I had to do it all over again but in a comfortable fashion, I would follow the sequence: Rita, or other good text (1st pass in detail), PMBOK (1st pass in detail), Rita (2nd pass also in detail), PMBOK (2nd pass also in detail), and thereafter full-length tests, closing of discovered knowledge gaps, and PMBOK skimming plus personal notes review till exam day.
Visiting various forums as time permits, along the way. Solve piecemeal questions along the way as and when you find them.

All the best to PMP aspirants.

Best regards.
-KM