TOPIC: Starting my PMP Journey 2 day.

I am starting my PMP certification journey today and i am here to share my plan and get it corrected.

My application was selected for audit and I cleared it. Now its time to get certified before 1st of June 2015(deadline from employer).

Here is my plan study hard for 45 days and take full length tests and revisit weak areas.

Books
1. PMBOK5 (member copy. I have to take print out)
2. PMP training kit (ebook)and PMP Rapid Review both authored by Sean Whitaker.

I also have Rita mulachy 8th edition, Andy crowe, Kim heldman,Headfirst. but I am very comfortable with Sean whitaker and I will stick to this book for study. however I will attempt questions from other authors.

Training
I have purchased PM Prepcast, PMP exam simulator and PMP study coach.

when my application was getting audited, I read many lessons learnt from many forums and listened to few podcasts shared by cornelius.

I am planning to glance PMBOK chapters and watch related prepcast videos. then read the same chapter in prep book.

I will spend 4-5hrs during weekdays and 8hrs on weekend which includes mock tests and practicing formula based questions. I am also going to take break on mondays.

my target is 2-3 knowledge areas per week and 1 week for risk and 1 for procurement.

For mock tests i will use pmp exam simulator, for revision i will use hot topics by rita mulachy.

Please review and let me know if I am missing something here.

Hi Sathish,

You have a tight deadline, but you have good resources and a fairly solid plan of action.

Only suggestion I would make, would be to be look at the combined durations of the PMPrepcast videos for each knowledge area, to determine whether you will be able to achieve your 2-3 knowledge areas per week. It was something that I got tripped up on and meant that I had to be a bit flexible in my progress targets, but I was still able to remain within my overall timescales.

Use results from mock exams to identify areas of weakness, and if you are able to maintain a mark of 75% and upwards for a knowledge area, you should be well enough to pass that aspect in the final exam.

Regards, and good luck - hope to hear your success story early in June.

Hi Sathish,

You seem to have a good grasp of what you need to do to prepare. As Andre mentioned, you really want to take into consideration the duration of the videos for the knowledge areas. That was something I had to remember as well. June 15th is a tight deadline. Good luck and let us know if you have any questions, or need encouragement, as you prepare.


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Sathish, you have a solid plan but do be ready to re-evaluate and iterate on your plan especially after the first couple of weeks! Everyone is different and you will recognize what is working and not working.

My favorite part of your plan is: "Here is my plan study hard for 45 days and take full length tests and revisit weak areas." Weak areas will be obvious, but one method I used especially early on was to mark any question that I wasn't sure about. Especially if I managed to 'guess' the right answer I still needed to ensure I understood why it was the right guess.

Anyway, good luck! It's a tight and aggressive plan but it's doable.

Jeremy

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Hi Sathish,

I did a very similar thing last year and I would warn you that at risk of trying to do too much at once. There is a lot of study materials there and you do not want to get bogged down and run out of time; I very nearly did.
I would recommend using the PM Prepcast as your master tool for study. It will help you to get a very good understanding of each area. Rita is great for further in depth study of your weaknesses and skimming PMBOK is good once you have that understanding.
I would recommend taking at least one mock exam a week, and spend more time on the weaknesses, and just refresh on the strengths. By the end you need to be getting over 80% in the mock exams, if you are not there is a risk that you will not pass.

It is completely doable, but very very tight, so you need to be focused and ensure the weak areas are your priority.

Definitely take one day off a week though, it would be very easy to burn out with this. Also ensure that if you have family they give you a break for the few weeks you need and you do not take on anything else.

Good luck!

Sarah

Hi Sathish,

first of all good luck in your journey and i am certain you will achieve your Goal and earn your PMP.

you have got plenty of advises already and i am sure these will help you adjust your plan.
i just want to add one more thing, be specific in the plan. for example in each week specify what will you be doing from each resource. this will help you monitor your progress.


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Hi Sathish,

First, good luck! That is an agressive plan, and trying to prepare so quickly can wear you down -- I know, since I also did all of my preparation over the course of 6 weeks.

I would recommend sitting down with the book that you're planning to use, as well as a list of the PMPrepcast episodes. Schedule it all out so that you know how quickly you need to get through each chapter or episode.

I found this to be more useful than just listing a set amount of time that I needed to study. By having concrete goals in terms of how much material I needed to cover each week, it allowed me to have a little flexibility in my studying schedule. I could take a day off here or there, and catch up on the material. Or, if I had an especially long study session, I could get ahead of schedule and look forward to being able to take a day off sometime later that week at my leisure!