Cleared PMP exam today on 3/29.

 

Lesson learned:

 

1. Time management is really important to clear this exam and I was like rushing in last 30 mins as 40 questions yet to be answered and could not review my marked questions and those were around 5.

2. Exam was not at all easy and was it was really picking my brain and u need to analyze most of the questions. Complexity was medium to hard.

3. There were very few straight forward questions like 20 to 25 which were no brainer.

4. There were around 15 EVM questions and few were based on S curve to tell about project performance. EVM questions were time taking and needed medium level of calculations with lot of distractors in the question.Graph questions were straigh forward and u just need to analyze EV,PV and SV and report performance.

5.Lot of PERT questions around 3 based on Beta distribution and were easy.

6. Two questions on communication channel.

6. No need to remember input, output and  T&T as there were around 5 questions and were easy to answer if u know the concept.

7. There were arond 3 Tuckman'd ladder questions based on situation and they gave a situation and asked in which stage team is. 2 questions of HR theories and were straigh forward based on situation. For example you are noting down employees in and out time so what theory you belive in.

8. 3 to 4 risk response strategy questions based on situation.

9. There were around 10 situational questions on Change management and those were really tricky to answer. Even if u know the Change process sequence it was taking time to analyze the quetion and pick and correct answer.

10. No questions on PTA, incentive calculation but there were a lot situational questions for picking up corrcet contract types and were not so straight forward what we see in mock tests. It was really new and needed thourough concept and analysis.

11. Questions were not lengthy and it was mostly between 3 to 5 lines.

12. 3 questions were on CPM and were really time consuming and due to shortage of time I chose to skip those.

13. 3 or 4 questions of schedule compression and was easy to pick corrcet answer.It was very much important to know Fast tracking and crashing concept in depth to answer those.

14.I also feel PM study was close to exam and I have given all 4 paid tests but no question exactly matched real PMP question but complexity was same.

15. There were questions on Control charts in terms of graph and asked to see if the process is stable or needed adjustment.Those were easy if u know all terms in control chart.

16.In all exam has nothing to do with your PM experience and u really need to understand the PMBOK and other material and grab the concept and know by heart. Also practice exam like PM study, scordo will help simulation your thinking.

17. Closing remark is u really need to be fast in exam and dont waste much time on a particular question and skip it. Time management is really important and do it right in first time as u barely will get any time to review. I think I could have done much better in terms of time management but the pressure situation took me in some other world and even I knew I have to manage time I was running behind and just wanted to make sure I am not making mistake in hurry and questions needed two times reading and analysis.

18. Also I just read PMBOK 2 times and Rita 8th version 2 times and strongly feel they are enough for concept building and rest is your analytical skills and time management and memory. Also my preparation time was around 3 months, 2 hrs daily and 4 to 5 hrs in weekends.

 

Please let me know if I can help anyone with my experience.