Finally my day has come to write my LL in PMZilla. My LL goes on 3 phases stretched around 8 years.

Initiation & Planning

My Organization decided to have PMP professionals for better opportunities in the market. Hence they picked a bunch of resource and sent for training (8 years agoJ). I was Team Lead then PMBOK was on its version 3. It was a great experience for me and I started dreaming about PMP and then become PM.  Some of my colleagues have taken further steps and passed PMP leaving a large group undecided to proceed further (still). I was little hesitant to take up exam and got into a critical project and completely drowned in it. Later PMBOK 4 was released and people started talking about it again. I tried to go through some chapters (not more than a week) and skipped again. But the PMP aspiration never moved out my head as always crumbling whenever I take any initiation. I become PM and later Sr. PM and was handling 3 accounts so do the PMBOK 4 gone to PMBOK 5. But it never gone out of my head and I had a guilty feeling that I didn’t become PMP.

Execution & Monitoring and controlling

This February I was encouraging a colleague to take up PMP exam by mentioning its credibility among employers. He surveyed several institutions for PDUs and finalized one institute in Chennai, insisted me too to join with him as I was planning several years by then (everybody knows in organization :-)).

I joined and repeated the same boring course by skimming through slides with some useful and not so useful (?) discussions. They have completed 35 hours and gave a best of luck wish and asked us to study through PMBOK 5 every page and every word to pass PMP (as if I don’t know L).

My problem stands here. The first thing is I need to unlearn my experience and think like PMI. I have very little patience to go through such huge book and store them in little brain till the exam date at least. A lot of distractions never allowed me prepare more than 2 hours per day and I am sure I will not remember them next week. There may be many techniques like Yoga, Systematic study approach, read chapter by chapter however it was not suiting my real world.

The good thing…my colleague was completely impressed with PMBOK and always used to discuss on the topics. I should admit these kind of regular discussions helped to take the exam seriously. I went and booked the slot on 14^th April which was two months from that date. As I mentioned the preparation was not so good and it was hard for me to remember every topic that given in PMBOK. However I completed the entire book in 1 month. As per some LLs in pmzilla, I used to refer RITA (I bought this book of previous version) and tried to build some confidence.

Wait here…I believe this is where I and my colleagues gone wrong earlier. You SHOULD NOT stop or take break for second revision. The good thing I did was I never stopped and immediately started the second revision. Apparently the subject seems all new (L) and hardly remember little part of the book from my previous study and rest like reading it as new. Then I tried something different to resolve this problem. I started taking mock exams (PMStudy, PMfasttrack and some paid / free questions from various resources).   It is like doing a Reverse Eneeringing (Answers to Topic) . Whether the answer is right or wrong I always look into explanation and try to understand what do that mean and compare with my experience. I slowly injected PMIsm in my mind and started applying the same principles in real world at organization. Sometimes it yields good results but many times not so expected.  Believe me my mock exam score was always between 50%-60% till April 13. But the explanation for every question I gone through was a good lesson for me and helped a lot in the final exam.

Closing

The D-Day has come. I did 25 questions test on that morning and got 50% again. As it was not so surprising to me and decided to give the exam and rest leave on the god. The slot was 12:30 but I was allowed to take exam at 1 PM after formalities.  

The first 10 questions were so friendly and greatly improved my confidence. While approaching the 100^th question, I was pretty confident on passing the exam though the required score is more than that.  The questions were not at all tough and very gentle compared to mock exams that I’ve appeared. I felt I should have concentrated more on Risk, HR, Quality, Cost and procurement rather than running behind some fancy keywords (hammock) and super formulas (PTA).

It took exactly 4 hours to complete 200 questions as I read the questions carefully twice (??) and never marked any questions for later reference. I would not suggest this technique to others because it depends on individuals and strength on understanding.

When I submit for result ..white screen..and flashed with congratulations message. 4 MP + 1 BP (execution).  Rather than two months, may be a three months preparation would have fetched me little more than that. I have no regrets now as long you are a certified professional J.

Summary:

PMP exam is not at all tough and several questions are straight forward and not so tricky.

You can have safe bet on RITA materials (PMP Exam Prep, PM FASTrack PMP v8)

Find a right partner for group study for better results.

If you are a working professional think the daily aspects in your real world through PMI way. You will easily adopt PMI concepts.

Never give breaks in between of preparation and don’t plan to study more than 3 months. Preferably pay the exam fee and book the slot.

Mock tests are not bad idea. Initially you have to verify all the explanation (right and wrong answers) to understand what PMI or author of the mock tests thinks for answers.

Abhishek's Version - Rajesh Nair PMP Notes - Good for last week reference before exam