Passed PMP on 29-Jan-2013: Average 2 hours a day for ONE month

Submitted by Che Mohamad on Wed, 01/30/2013 - 11:34

 Dear all,

I read and gain a lot from this forum. So here I would like to give back something to our community here.

1]I set a simple but very challenging goal : * To PASS the PMP exam regardless of the whether I will get P or MP or even BP. I dont care so long as I PASS. The objective is to achieve it within one month with minimum resources or effort.

2]Having set a clear goal and objective, I came to this forum where I read a lot about other people success and FAILURE. I start with the FAILURE first because that will set my minimum limit..then followed by the SUCCESS story for my inspiration.

3]Then I conclude what is the minimum effort and resources :

      3.1 Miminum effort is 2 hours a day for ONE month

      3.2 Minimum resources for book: PMPBOK 4th edition and either Head First or Andy Crow or Heldman. I choose Head First. I dont care about Rita. You may want to read Rita if you set high target or if you have more than 2 months for preparation. Not me.

     3.3 I set the amout of study and exam practice : 40% on reading books mentioned above and 60% on exam practice. For exam practice I buy the idea that PMSTUDY is the closest to the real exam. I have no way to verify this statement since I never take the exam before and never try PMSTUDY. I just believe the statment from the SUCCESS guy is true...unless he is a sales man from PMSTUDY. haha...

4] PMBOK is pretty boring to read. Head First make you wake up...but hold on! When I start to try the PMSTUDY free exam trial I have the feeling that I still need to depend very much on PMBOK. Many of the phrases are coming direct from PMBOK. The Head First is only trying to explain what it means by the PMBOOK. 

5]I subscribe to the PAID PMSTUDY trial exam and did 500 question out of  600 PAID question. I also did all the chapter test in Head First and those 200 questions. And also the 200 q's free trial from PMSTUDY and Oliver Lehman since everyone mentioning it. I got 75% from the last 200 paid exam from PMSTUY

6]I found many of the Qs from Oliver is so difficult and have a feeling that those Qs many of it are above the PMP standard. I got 64% from Oliver.

7]So I went to the exam room by just hoping that PMSTUDY is at the same par with PMI standard. I start by writing all 42 process during the 15 minutes trial and it helps a lot.

After finished 30 Qs I am happy that my BELIEVE is tru : the PMSTUDY Qs are on par with PMP real exam. (Still I didn't manage to answer 3 Qs as I dont really know the answer)

8] I got 5 MP which means I PASSED and fulfill my goal.

Thank you guys.

 

Regards,

Che Mohamad

 

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PMP Exam Tips, Tricks and Lessons Learnt.
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googler's picture

googler

Wed, 01/30/2013 - 15:08

Congratulations!!

This really inspires........

 

Che Mohamad

Fri, 02/01/2013 - 00:26

  Thanks for your comment. Go ahead guys. You can do it with the first attempt.

nitinhamir5

Wed, 01/30/2013 - 18:24

Good to know that even 5MP is also pass. I thought minimum 1-2 P's are required to pass. I liked your approach of 1 month. You have good grasping capacity, seems.


I took 2 months , with some gap in between to complete PMP.


Congrats once again.


Nitin

Che Mohamad

Fri, 02/01/2013 - 00:30

 No one know what's really a PASS means in term of scoring. PMI never really expose the scoring . Those BP or MP or P is just to show us our strength and/or weakness. I have seen people with 1BP , 1MP and 3P still PASS the exam. So I guess the overall marks is crucial.

Regards,

uglory

Thu, 01/31/2013 - 13:45

 Congrats Mohamad!. What an approach!!. Am glad you made it.

Che Mohamad

Fri, 02/01/2013 - 00:25

 Thanks for your comment

admin's picture

admin

Fri, 02/01/2013 - 06:16

Congratulations on your PMP

jiazzi

Fri, 02/01/2013 - 10:21

Congratulations and thank you so much for sharing!  I am taking the exam in THREE days and am starting to practice my "data dump."  You mentioned that you took the 15 minutes to write out the 42 processes.  I just finished practicing this and just barely made the 15 minute mark.  Were you also able to squeeze in the formulae within the 15 minutes?  

Creating the process chart is SO time consuming, I don't know how others have been able to write out the chart AND write out all the formulae.  Maybe I just need more intense practice and repitition.

Thanks! 

Che Mohamad

Fri, 02/01/2013 - 13:34

 Hi,

I did  not write the formulae but if  you want to do it I dont think it will takes you more than 3 minutes assuming that you have memorised all of them. For those questions with calculation I really practised very hard because this type of question really point you to one answer only : there is no confusion...so its not like "what is the best action" or "what is you next action" type of question which try to confuse you.

For answering the mock up test the objective is really to close the gap. Dont panic if you get low score because that the purpose : CLOSING THE GAP from your many mistake or weakness. Try to close it by refering to the right answer and comment given. I have read a few people who scored 78% or above but still failed the exam. I believe the asnwer to this is CLOSING THE GAP.

Many people think its difficult to pass the exam. I say its difficult also to FAIL the exam. Assuming that the passing marks is 75% (no one knows for sure) then you need to have more than 43 questions answered WRONG out of 175 marked questions. Thats too many isn't it? Think this way "how on earth I can get 43 questions wrong?". Its difficult to get failed really.

 

So you can do it.

 

Regards,

jiazzi

Sun, 02/03/2013 - 02:26

 Thanks so much for your words of encouragement.  I have one more day to go before test day and have definitely studied the questions I missed on the first PM study exam.  I just finished taking the second PMStudy exam and scored much better.  Now I will go through the gaps and review the questions that I missed in detail after relaxing for a little bit.  

Interestingly, I'm finding that I'm relying more on the formulas sheet vs. the 42 process chart...I'm finding the formulas are written or not included in Rita or Crowe's book in the manner that the EVM questions are being asked.  Especially EAC!!!  I need to really practice EAC!

Thanks again and for listening to my random digressions - I think a person gets a little weird after studying for 6 days straight.  :)