TOPIC: My journey towards PMP

Hello everybody,

Recently I completed my PMP (Project Management Professioanl) certification from Project Management Institute (PMI), USA.
I thought I should do something to the project management community and PMP aspirants in general. Then this very idea of writing a blog striked in my mind. This is my first post towards this. I dedicate this first post to all my eFriends at PMPExamforum.

Completing PMP is really a achievement for me. I heard it is very difficult to learn once anybody starts working. I felt the same throughout my journey towards PMP. Now I have a feel of satisfaction.

I was introduced to PMP by one of my colleague, Shambhavi in year 2007. I was not sure whether to do it or not. I talked to my then manager Dr. Ravi Guttal and he gave a green signal to me. I got a training from Seed Infotech in September 2007 which gave me the required 35 contact hours for PMP exam application. Ideally, one can finish the exam withing 3 months from the training. But somehow it slipped. There were personal reasons, office work load. I was parallely persuing my Six Sigma Black Belt. There are many more reasons, but major reason was I was not sure whether to do PMP or not. Though there was delay for my exam, I was studying intermittently.

Major focus was obtained once I got audio prepcasts from Cornelius. That was late December 2008. These prepcast, while hearing, gave me a confidence boost that I can now appear for PMP exam. After that I started preparing and was serious enough from February 2009. Why? PMI introduced a new version of PMBOK and exam pattern will be based on this new version from 1st July 2009.

I got my exam date on 5th June. In fact I selected this date purposefully. I selected Hyderabad as my center cause I was more familiar to Hyderabad than Mumbai. The other reason was I can meet my old friends.
Exam was OK. Planned (??) preparations let me pass the exam. I am a PMP now, WOW !!!
I felt relieved while coming out of exam center.
Evening, I celebrated this success with my friends. This was my bday too !!!
Now my (re)certification will be aligned with my birthdate.

For such posts and help for PMP students, pls follow me @ linkbee.com/tipsonpm

Thanks,
Mahesh Masurkar, PMP

Here is one more LL I put on examgroup forums and at pmsuccess.biz
Hope you will find it useful.

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Hi,
Last year I got a QA login for pmsuccess through PMHub. It helped me a lot understanding the question pattern as well as methodology of how to tackle the questions. The questions were of great quality. I thank Mr. Roger Chou for providing me access to pmsuccess.
Here is my LL for the exam:
I found its very difficult to write LL as I may go off track while writing it.
I was not sure how to write it out and here I took use of one of the PMIsm PMI stresses more. Its called Historical Information.
There are so many LLs available. So I took one out of that big pool and editing it with my experience.

A) Online Membership:-
Internet as usual is a great resource of information. But there is no guarantee of correct information. I am a member of couple of yahoogroups as pmpexamforum, pmpbest, pmpsingapore, pmi_pune_exam_forum.
I am also a member of pmnetwork, pmhub.net and premium podcasts by Cornelius.
Out of that, I'll suggest to go for pmpexamforum as this is a very live group as compared to others.
Be a member of PMHUB.net if you are not. Register yourself for a daily digest question. This is very good. Also daily question from pmexam.com

35 PDUs:-

1) I got training from Seed Infotech, Pune in July 2007. 35 PDU
After that I was studying intermittently. Always Off and sometines On. But I was following pmpexamforum continuously.
Firstly, I was doing my Six Sigma Green belt certification. And then at present about to complete my six sigma black belt certification.
2) The real trigger I got when I bought premium podcast from Cornelius Fitchner.
I used to hear them while going to and fro for office. They are really good.


C) Books:-
1) Herold Kerzner - A Systems approach to planning ......
You can find that on books 24X7 .. Free for PMI members.
This book is very good. Its indian edition costs only Rs. 260/-
2) Headfirst PMP. This is a good book for begineer. (No need if you are not a begineer)
3) Kim Heldman's book for PMP. Available on books 24X7.. Free for PMI members.
4) PMBoK v3.0 The GOSPEL for PMP exam.
5) Rita Mulachay. This book is a must for PMP preparation.
6) Vijay Verma's book Vol. 1. Available on books 24X7.. Free for PMI members.
7) PMBoK Q & A. 200 questions. Available on books 24X7.. Free for PMI members.
The goal - Eli Goldratt
9) TOC - Eli Goldratt
10) PMIs code of ethics and professional conduct. (this is not a book though)

I read book # 4 and 5 three times each. (or may be more as I was doing it intermittently)
All the books are not required for PMP exam.
I want to cover all the aspects and not wanting megre certification.
I am sure even if my company is among fortune 100 company, it will not recognise PMP exam as expected.
For PMP exam only, books # 4,5,7 are important.
Book #6, chapter 4 on delegation. And Book #3, all questions after each chapter.

D) Questions:-
1) Daily digest from crosswind (pmhub) and pmexam
2) PMBoK Q&A
3) Questions at the end of chapters from Kim and Headsfirst book.
4) www.thesciencereporter.com
5) Obviously, pmexamforum
6) www.pmsuccess.biz
Last year during August, pmsuccess announced QA login for testing their questions.
I got that login and did couple of sets for that. I really thank Mr. Roger Chou for the same.
7) PMP Prep course exams after each chapter.

E) Exams:- All free exams.
1) Headsfirst 200 Q exam - Level easy
2) PMStudy 200 Q - Level Medium
3) www.pmsuccess.biz 100 Q and 200 Q - Level Medium to hard
4) Oliver Lehman 75Q and 175 Q - Level Medium to hard
5) PMP Prep course 200 Q exam. - Level easy

I was scoring 75% and above in each exam above.

F) 2 weeks before exam:-
1) 1st week:- PMBoK and Rita together. (Yes in 7 days)
2) last week:- Delegation, Raja-Rani notes (pmhub), pmstudy exam. Rita's process chart. Code of ethics and professional conduct. Glossary.
3) Day before exam:- People say do not study, but I did. Only ITTO and PFD for each knowledge area.

G) Exam day:-
My exam was at Hyderabad, India on 5th June. I reached there at 8:45 am while exam was at 9 am.
Presented my passport and driving license which was accepted as valid docs.
They gave me one locker and asked to keep everything (even kerchief) in the locker.
Then I was allowed to go in. Gave me 2 pencils, and a set of blank papers.
I went to my comp allotted to me. Completed the 15 mins tutorial in 7 mins.
Then as suggested by others, tied to do brain dump, but did not.
I just put few numbers on the papers. (If anybody would have seen that they might assume that I like betting !!)
Exam was quite easy. I completed 200 Q in 2 hrs 50 mins with one break of 6 mins.(total 5 breaks of 10 mins each are allowed)
I marked almost 40 Qs. Then I cheked all the 200Q again. In between I took a break of 9 mins. I did lots of stretching in this break.
Questions were from all the areas. I think I got around 30-40 Qs direct or indirect on ITTO, 5 Qs calculation based. Few questions I thought were like psychology test. Same question asked in different way. I was not able to figure out which 25 questions were of pre-test type. They were mixed so correctly

I was confident that I had scored more than 75%. So when 5 mins were remaining, I clicked on Finish.
Then as usual a survey of 9 questions came.
Aftre finishing this survey, within a minute I got a msg saying "Congrats. You have successfully completed your PMP exam."
And then the final score. I got Proficient in 4 areas and moderately proficient in 2 area (Closing and Professional Resp).

H) Celebration:-
Celebration of success is very very important.
I planned my exam on my birthday. So after the exam, combined celebration was due.
Went with friends and family in a restaurant and celebrated the day !!!
One more thing is, now my PMP certification (or recertification) date is aligned to my birthdate)

I) Whats next :-
I gave exam based on PMBoK v3. Now I want to complete my reading of PMBoK v4.
That way, I will be in a good position to answer any queries based on v4.

Thanks,
Mahesh Masurkar, PMP