Dear All,

Pleasure to annouce that, Today 19th May 2012 I appeared for my PMP Certification Exam in Dubai and Cleared on first attempt. My results were:

Initiation and Planning- MP

Execution, Monitoring and Control and Closing- P

Thanks to Admin of this Forum.

I earned my 35 Credit Hrs in March 2011 and since then I was reading PMBOK and RITA on and off. Got new job in Dubai so had to recolate and all PMP plan disturbed. I took some time to get settle in Dubai and again started my PMP studies in October. Get my self registered to PMI and started studying seriously. Filled the application form and submitted sometime in January 2012. Initially I was having an opinion to take the date only after I feel confident enough to take the PMP exam. But that was proving to be a bad idea as I was delaying it for no cause. on First Week of April 2012 I decided to book my date and that was it. Since then I started to study 4-6 hrs daily. NO PAIN NO GAIN.

Study Material Used:

1. PMBOK 4- Uptill my second last week I was relying more on RITA but after reading a few post on this forum, I made up my mind that I need to finish atleast 2 rounds of PMBOK 4 end to end and today I am glad that I did that. There is NO alternative to PMBOK. Make sure you understand and get your self Familiar with each line.

2. RITA 6TH Edition- Read couple of times and solved every chapter end excerise. Its a bible to PMP.

3. PMZILLA and Deepfriedbrain Forum- Thanks for brining all of us together. Rajesh's Notes were good for a quick revision a day before the Exam.

4. MOCK Tests-

   PMSTudy FREE test, Oliver 75 and 175, HeadFirst, RITA Fast Track. PMStudy was more close to actual exam. Made notes from these papers and PMP fast track. Worh making notes.

About Exam:

Based on my prep. and learning I was confident that I will clear it. But WAIT.. It was not that easy, I was completly blank when I started responding first few questions and it continued till first 50 question. I lost my hope and thought that I would not be able to make it. After an Hour I just responded to 48 question where I planned for 60 questions.  I continued and then I found the questions very easy then I picked the pace from 51-200 questions I marked the answers very confidently and I felt I will clear it. At 200 question I was left with 27 more mins. I utilized this time to go back to first 50 questions and I found them very easy in this round of revision. Finally timed out and I saw the screen Congratulations with my result in front of me.

There were too many CPI, SPI and S-curve questions, After every 2-3 questions I was having a CPI SPI question. You shoud know the concepts very well. Risks were all over the exams. Difficult to respond. Crashing, Fast Tracking, Compression were too much on the exam. Then comes quality. Numericals were marks gaining, Few simple PERT, N/W diagrams, EMV, Channels...The most easy part we all think is Framework and Initiation, but the way they make it tricky it will become the MOST difficult part on the exam.

Million Dollar Quesion: Did I memorize IITO? Well, If you read PMBOK 3-4 times end to end and you tune your mind in PMIs way it will automatically get memorized without puting any effort. On exam there wil be questions revolving around IITOs but understanding the usage is more important. Furthermore, Out of 4 choices, for every quesion I easily eliminated 2 illogical choices which left me with 2 choices to think over. and then based on learnings and common sense I picked one.

Thats all About me Journey and Now it time to celebrate and have some fun.

Regards,

Shamir Surani,PMP