Passing PMP had always been my goal and I have achieved that on 29^th August, 2011 in my first attempt. I am very much thankful to the PMZilla forum for guidance and encouragement.

 

 

It all started when all the quality PM jobs in good companies were limited to only PMP certified people. This became market demand and a business objective for me. I did some research and seek guidance from some of my seniors who were PMP certified as well. After gaining some initial knowledge about PMP in general, I enrolled for PMP Prepatory Training from 23^rd Aug – 26^th Aug, 2010. I wrote my goals, constraints and known risks.

 

Objective: To clear the PMP to stay competent in market and gain new skills

 

After taking the mandatory training, I had studied for some time in much unstructured manner. I read whatever comes in front of me and thought that I can gain the required knowledge and skills only through forums and reference material. I was proved wrong when I gave a sample test of 50 questions.

 

I decided to put a structure and framework to it. Evaluate my learning abilities and found that I work best when there are deadlines to it. So I immediately registered with PMI and filled my application. I got approval from PMI in the last week of December 2010 and I had entire 2011 to give my exam. I chose 24^th Feb, 2011 as the date of exam and scheduled it for Delhi as I was going for 3 weeks’ vacation. I again got distracted due to increased workload and too much literature in the book (PMBok)

 

It was early February and I had not been able to finish reading PMBok even once, I was stuck in Time & Cost Management. So I decided to re-estimate and cancel the exam. I could not decide on the next date as my foreseen risk (marriage plans) were activated. I decided to halt the study for some time, get settled and resume the study after marriage.

 

Marriage happened in the month of May and I came back to Bangalore in last week of May. I decided to resume my study from 1^st June. First thing I did was schedule an exam date for 29^th August. I failed to get a slot for Bangalore, I immediately did a what-if check to see what if I never get a slot in Bangalore? I booked a slot in Hyderabad and added it to my watchlist. I kept on checking for a slot in Bangalore, once or twice everyday but never got one.

 

Since I effectively had only 3 months left for study, I decided that I will not look at any other book than PMBOK. I concluded this on the basis of “number of pages” to read. PMBOK had least number of pages than any other reference book. I read the entire book once, and did not tried to understand any topic too hard. I just read over any hard to understand topic. It was early July already, and this time I got myself audio version of Rita’s book along with hard copy (not flash card).

 

I used to listen to every chapter and read along with the hard copy, did all the exercises in the book. “Tricks of the Trade” and “Process Chart” were invaluable in the exam. I was able to finish the entire book in 15 days, and it was fun. I DID NOT MEMORIZE “I.T.T.O.”, instead I just tried to make sense out of them.

 

I re-read hard chapters from PMBOK, memorized the theories & their creators, all the formulas along with Rita’s chart by heart. I took all the exams from Rita’s end of chapter and was consistently getting above 75% in all the exams. This boosted my confidence, I stand in front of mirror and tell myself that “I will clear the exam” – this is important. If you cannot believe in yourself, you will not be able to make it.

 

I also did PMZilla’s Tough Questions exam – I was not very great in that but scored between 65-70% in all the exams. This did not changed my confidence level, don’t let any failure shake your confidence but learn from it. Focus on weak topics, re-read them from PMBOK.

 

The exam day – finally arrived. I took the early night bus from Bangalore to Hyderabad and reached early morning around 6:15am to Hyderabad. I decided to reach the center and not take any hotel room even though my exam was on 1:30pm as I did not wanted to spend any time in finding a room and other things. I reached the center on 7:05am when the center itself opens at 8am. There was a parking lot next to center and they had a large table and couple of chairs to wait. I sat there and studied through my own notes. It must be a busy day for center as so many candidates started to come for their GRE exam. I did my study until 9:15am and decided to take a 15-20 min break and was walking around enjoying the weather – it was a lovely morning after-all.

 

May be it was fate, the security guard at the center noticed me sitting there since 7am so asked me would you like to take the exam early as there might be a slot available. This was totally unexpected, and I was not mentally prepared for this. I took couple of seconds, not minutes, to think through it. I thought if this happens early my mental pressure will be at ease soon, I might be able to see around the city in the evening – as the bus back to Bangalore was for night and what harm it could cause. I decided to give the exam right then! I was asked to go inside and do the formalities.

 

9:36am – it all started, I was wished best of luck and asked to go to the room. First thing first, no not downloading the data to scrap sheet but taking the tutorial. I agree that I had been an IT Pro since long but still did not wanted to underestimate anything in their software that I might not be aware while in the actual exam. I spent 3 minutes to read through everything in tutorial, then downloaded formulas, Rita’s chart and theories on the paper – good thing to do.

 

4 minutes yet for the tutorial to finish, I thanked god for everything, prayed for success & clicked on “Start”. First question was not tough, but I had decided that I will not spend too much time in thinking is it right – just mark it for later. Make sure not every question is marked for later – be confident in yourself. Spent 1:45 minutes and I was done with 100 questions when I decided to take a stretch break. Did some eye exercise, took couple of deep breaths and stretched my fingers and arms. With 1:50 minutes passed, I resumed my exam.

 

Completed the last question with almost 1 hour left in hand, went back to “review” and marked all unanswered questions – yes those questions where I had no clue at all, did not marked them but left them unanswered. Spent 15 minutes to finish them including the calculation based questions. I spent next 10 minutes to cover all the marked questions. I still had around 30 minutes in my hand, I did not want to reevaluate entire exam again – felt confident that I did great and not questioned myself for once. “Come what may”, I said. Thanked God again & prayed for success when I hit – “Finish”

 

Next was 15-20 seconds of blank white screen, which most of us are not very comfortable with, was followed by survey. I quickly fill the survey and again a blank screen for 15-30 seconds. Next was the happiest moment of my life, since marriage J

 

The results were as follows –

 

Initiation : Moderately Proficient

Planning : Moderately Proficient

Executing : Moderately Proficient

M & C : Moderately Proficient

Closing : Proficient

Ethics : Moderately Proficient.

 

I finished the exam before my actual start time of 1:30pm, met the deadline of 29^th August to be a certified PMP.

 

Make sure to tell yourself every day that - “You can do it”

Evaluate your learning abilities and find out how you learn best

MUST read PMBOK twice

Do not go off-track, focus on maximum 2 books (including PMBOK) – my suggestion “Rita’s Exam Prem”

Do not memorize the stuff, understand it. If it does not make sense to you then do exercises to make sense out of it. Everything in PMBOK MUST make sense to you.

 

Thank you once again everyone who have helped me realize my goal, and also all those who challenged me that I cannot met the deadline to boost my confidence.