TOPIC: Been there, done that, achieved PMP!

Hello Cornelius and Co,

I achieved my PMP last week with the help of your fantastic products. I highly recommend both PM Prepcast and the PMP Exam Simulator to any PMP aspirant. It is a complete offering - you will not need to look any further than these two for the basic understanding required to clear PMP.

Here are the materials I used:
(1) PMBOK
(2) PM Prepcast
(3) PMP Exam Simulator - excellent tool for exam-like experience
(4) www.oliverlehmann.com (for tough test questions)

Here is my advice to PMP aspirants:

(1) Read PMBOK cover to cover atleast 2-3 times. This is a must. Each new reading either gave me a new understanding or clarified my grey areas. I made Flashcards of important concepts (or whatever I found important) for later reading.

(2) If PMBOK bores you to sleep, listen to PM Prepcast videos. Cornelius has done a fantastic job clarifying the PMBOK for mortals.

(3) Don't try to memorize the ITTOs. Understand them instead, as they are very logical.

(4) If costing formulas scare you, please please *PLEASE* listen to Cornelius' Cost Mgmt and EVM chapters. They are a GOLD MINE of info and the underlying logic. Once you listen to them, you will never need to memorize any formula because you will UNDERSTAND the logic behind it. (BTW, I did not do any brain dump of 47 processes or formulas during the exam)

(5) Schedule your exam as soon as you have read the PMBOK once, because you will be aware of the entire study material then. Estimate whatever time required from there onwards, but *DO* schedule the exam. It will help bring focus and urgency to your studies. Else, everything is usually a function of Parkinson's Law - Work expands to fill the time required for completion.

(6) Give as many FULL mock exams in PMP Exam Simulator as you can. It will give you an idea of how big a 4 hour exam can really be!
It was a very big deal for me to sit for 4 hrs at a stretch! Simulator questions are a good start, but also move to the tougher questions (like those in OliverLehmann.com) at some point in time.

(7) Here is what I did in the last 2-3 days before the exam
- Went over all my chapter-wise flash cards (had about 200 of them)
- Re-read all the ITTOs (especially tools and techniques) and formulas
- Read my master excel (I had created an excelsheet of all ITTOs, so I could understand the overall picture)
- gave some really tough exams

( Have a strategy of how will you approach the exam because you will need at least 1 break. My strategy was to take a break after 100 questions or approx. 2 hours.

(9) Reach the venue atleast an hour early. You can calm your nerves with time to spare.

(10) On the exam day, don't read anything. Just chill. If you have read enough and given enough mock exams, your brain already has everything needed to clear the exam. The real exam is anyway going to be a completely different experience. I passed all the Simulator exams (first attempt with 82-88% score and an hour to spare) and even OliverLehmann(first attempt, 75%, 45mins to spare), but in the real PMP exam, I barely got 15minutes to review my marked questions (I had taken a 10 min break in between).

Good luck to all the aspirants taking the exam. Don't worry, you will do it!

And lastly, a big thanks to you, Cornelius, for imparting your pearls of wisdom in such an interesting and engaging manner. I also looked forward to what Justine will say at the end of each chapter, no kidding! May your tribe increase!

Cheers,
Sandhya

Congratulations SANDHYARANI and thanks for sharing your lessons learnt, this will be very useful for all PMP aspirants.

A side note, me too used to wait and see what Justine will say at the end of each lesson

Congratulations Sandhya! Your "lessons learned" recap is fantastic and should be very helpful. I, too, found the PMPrepcast extremely helpful. I actually viewed the prepcasts before I read the PMBOK and that made the PMBOK a lot easier to understand. Great job!

Great job! This is a very similar story to mine and a recipe for success! Thank you so much for sharing.

Jeremy

sandhya, I'd like to use your PMP "success formula" for the PMP Prepcast forum FAQ. We published our first edition and will periodically update it. Your story offers valuable advice from the field and I think many PMP aspirants can learn from it.

Do I have your permission?

Sure Michael, please feel free to use my lessons learnt in the Prepcast FAQ.
If it helps even one person progress further in their PMP journey, my 'Lessons Learnt' would have served their purpose.