Hi,
I started my PMP journey sometime in Mid January when I ordered PMP Prepcast by Cornelium Fitchner after contemplating about starting preparation from Nov last year. I listened to the prepcast when ever i found time(evenings/weekend/on my 10 min ride to work as well:-)). My idea was to complete the 35 hrs first, finish the app next and get heads down with the actual prep after that. But the 35 hrs was not 35 hrs alone. Cornelius's prepcast gives lot of in-depth preparation material which takes more like 90 or so hrs of study. So i completed the 35 hr certificate by early Feb. Then I started on my application process which took me a while to complete. It really needs quite a bit of effort to get the number of experience hrs documented in the right buckets. One thing to recommend here is to start the hrs logging process directly in the PMP app instead of an xls sheet, because the buckets might be listed in different verbiage on the pmi website. This way you make it a point to quickly wrap it up since pmi gives you limited time to complete the app i think. Since the application process itself took me about 3 weeks to complete, i was simultaneously preparing from both Rita PMP prep book. Having finished my app in 3 weeks, i concentrated on completing the Rita PMP book first and occasionally referencing the PMBOK for extra material. Rita's material sounds very pessimistic and triggers a fear factor,but it does get the job done. It took me about 1.5 months to complete Rita's prep book once with exercises. I did not try the exercises before beginning the book. I did them after the corresponding Chapter. Then I worked the PMBOK chapter by chapter in another month. Then I started with the PMBOK again and completed revising it in 3 weeks with 3 days approximately per Knowledge Area with extra time study time on weekend. The Last 15 days was spent in taking 5 full tests(PM Academy, Oliver Lehmans 75,Tutorials Point, PMStudy, Edwels, Lehmans 175, Head First). I saw a gradual improvement in score from start to finish. I found the all these exams have quality questions with Edwels the toughest and the best. PM Academy has a good test(length questions though!), but it doesn't reveal the answers. That is the only drawback. I took a few other sample tests like cert gear, prepare pm, Voight, tutorials point, Tech Faq. But some of these have version 3 questions which gets you even more confused especially when taken earlier in preparation.During the last 15 days when i was taking the tests, i would look at some blogs(alongside with the daily braindump which i finally got down to completing under 15 mins)--deepfriedbrainpmp, pmhub forum, PMPexamforum and Cornelius's Daily mailing list and got some really good discussions and lessons learnt experiences. Lessons learnt and some concept explanations were very insightful on deepfriendbrainpmp. I am grateful to all of them including my wife who put up with my long study hrs.
PRE EXAM DAY:
I revised the entire 2 days leading up to the pmp with cut off time at 8pm on the prior day. I just kept saying to myself to execute well with all the good preparation that was already put in place. Rita's PMP Prep book has this page called "Why you might fail the PMP", in line with pessimistic tone, but is a great couple of pages to refer to one day prior. Also i found the exam day and score sheet review by Cornelius pretty helpful as well. I drove to the test site the prior day to check the driving route and time. Unfortunately i couldn't get to enter the site as it was closed!.
EXAM DAY:
It was a rainy day but I was all prepared. I had packed a small snack pack and some water to take along. I forgot to take my sweater, but I found the temperature at the test site very comfortable, so I got lucky there. I showed up at the place about 20 mins prior to the exam and it was a breeze when the instructors walked me through with the process, asked me to sign in, handed my scratch booklet/pencils and off I was into the site. They had some really good headphones that cut out all noise. I started the tutorial and started on my braindump in parallel. I completed the braindump earlier than i expected(12 mins when i averaged 15 mins until the day before). I went through the rest of the tutorial in 3 mins and started immediately. I took a break at 150 question point, went out for a bio-break , had some snack and got back in 5-6 mins. I completed the rest of the questions in 2.5 hrs in total. I had marked about 80-90 questions which i went over in the next 1 hr. I was done with most marked questions except 5 questions and kept reviewing them until the time ran out. I found the questions straight forward, easy to answer except for a few which were probably part of the 25 pre-test questions which I took my best guess at. Over all i felt comfortable through the exam, and was happy to see the "CONGRATULATIONS" pop up on the screen after the 10 question survey which actually felt like an hour!. I could actually hear my heart beat louder and louder as i approached the final survey question, but the final result was such a relief. Now its my turn to give back what I learnt and what better way than starting with sharing my PMP exam experience with the rest of the aspiring community!.
Cheers,
Hyd_Maverick
