PMP-Lesson Learned

Submitted by monomit on Fri, 08/07/2009 - 07:04

Hi All,

I passed PMP examination on 27 th July,It was my first attempt.As the Lessons Learned from PMZilla had been very useful,I wanted to share my experience in case it helps anyone.

Study Time:

I had taken the 35 hour Project Management Training 3 years back,excluding that the total study time would be 3 weeks with an average 5 hours and may be more on the weekends

Material Used:

The most important material is PMBOK,Everyone suggested Rita but apart from the questions I do not think it was of much help,There are some sections like matching the activity to the process,matching the conflict resolution mode which may be helpful,Questions from Kim Heldman book was the most difficult,I also used Joseph Phillips,Language and format wise I liked J.Phillip's book.I had taken 4 tests from PMStudy and scored 75% to 82%.The questions were of good quality.

Approach:

Initially I thought understanding the concept is the most important thing and it will help me sail through.MISTAKE.

Please note you need to memorize the input -output and Tools technique,it was in the last few days I concentrated on that area,I wrote  all the ITTO in one place and revised it daily,also I went through the PMI professional responsibility from the PMI site,You can get a copy once you become a member.

Exam

It took me 2 and a half hours to complete the exam,I wrote all the ITTO down in the 15 minute initial time,but honestly it was not very helpful as you would get plenty of time and may use the time to conserve your energy.I did not attempt questions which were more than 2 lines and were mathemetical in nature at the first go,as I settled down I did a review of the questions,Also a point to add the bigger the question is ,it seems the easier they make it ,and some questions had extraneous information.

Final Thoughts

Concentrating on the PMBOK(reading it line by line) and reading one text book thoroughly and practicing as many questions possible(I practiced 50 questions daily) should help one pass.

 

Best of Luck to anyone trying for the exam!

And I hope this helps someone.

Monomit

 

 

 

Forums: 
PMP Exam Tips, Tricks and Lessons Learnt.
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mpohare

Sun, 08/09/2009 - 13:41

After studying for about 4 weeks, I finally passed the PMP exam a few days ago.

Material Used

Basically, I relied only on PMBOK. That was the main source of study for me. Apart from that, I spent almost 50% of my time practicing sample tests. The best site to practice lots of sample tests is http://www.pmpmodel.com

 Approach

Read PMBOK guide three times, and took 2 sample tests every week. As mentioned earlier, the only source of sample tests for me was  http://www.pmpmodel.com

Exam 

Took less than 2 hours 30 mins. Questions were very familiar and were very close to the one I encountered in my sample tests. No need to memorize the ITTOs. But, if you do memorize, it will definitely help you to get 5-8 more questions correct.

Final Thoughts 

No need to buy any expensive study packages. Stick to the PMBOK and practice as many questions as you can. Thats it!

Let me know if you need any help.

-Mahendra Pohare 

 

pradeepsodha

Wed, 08/12/2009 - 03:37

Hi Mahendra,

Thanks for sharing LL. The site has free as well as paid test questions. Had you precticed on free or paid questions? The price for paid questions is only 1 USD which seems very low compared to other paid sites. How you rate the quality of questions? However you have already cleared the PMP test with the help of these questions, I wanted to confirm again looking at the cost of question banks.

Regards,

Pradeep

mpohare

Tue, 08/18/2009 - 10:48

Hi Pradeep.

Sorry for my late reply. Since I passed the test, I do not come quite often to this forum. Nevertheless, here are my observations. 

I bought a package of 3 tests. The questions were very realistic. The user interface is very close to the real exam. 

Regarding $1 pricing, I think that should be some short-term marketing campaign run by the site. I checked the price, and currently it is the same as then when I purchased.

 

I would recommend you to take the 3-test package. It is not only good quality, but also very reasonably prieced.

I hope the above helps you. If not, please feel free to contact  me.

Best Regards,

Mahendra 

admin's picture

admin

Wed, 08/19/2009 - 04:38

Congratulations Monomit, and great writeup on LL.

Regards

Admin