TOPIC: How I got my PMP....a marathon

My Story:
My quest for being a PMP started in 2009.I bought PMPrepcast by Cornelius and Rita Mulcahys book/cd to start with.But my preparation never got realised.

My PM in office never even let me breathe and sleep,forget study.Everything he used to delegate to me,himself only booze and smoke and used to make unrealistic commitments to customer with goldplating.I am referring about a PM in an top MNC,which bagged even lot of federal projects in USA.Dont know how these people survive and who feeds them to stay.It added more fatigue to me rather than skills.The sponsor was a coward and my esaclations never worked.
35 hours for the eligibility was never achieved:(

The quest again started in Sep 2010 .I am with a new pm team now who are all good and there is better coordination.That old PM is history but had scars.
My husband encouraged me a lot to start it agaiSo having a goal ready I pounced upon getting the 35hrs to immediately book the exam date.
I enrolled in proxalt.com and it was so cheap and awesome.It does not make u prepare for the exam but lays the path to go there and guides u the way through its practice tests...

Why do PMs have to be rich?? I also ask Rita for her book and the fast track cd $1000+ [$400 for exam booking]. The money hit me hard and did giv me a morale boost.

1) 10th Oct I started Proxalt and within 25 days I finished my course ,bagged the 35 hrs.
2) Applied for the exam and got audit notice:angry: .Audit took 1 full month and it was bad!!I was unhappy and it took some of my prep time to start over
3) Jan and Feb read PMBOK,RITA .Then came some personal commitment which led me to postpone exam until June.
April and May I studied really hard, managed my time well and sometimes it was hard as I am a mom of a 2yr old .

Books/materials :


1) PMBOK IS THE BIBLE.SO So good.Guys read the pmbok and it will make sure you pass.

I read it 8 times and beleive me I discovered something new to grasp everytime I read it .Never got bored of it.Loved it.


2) Rita 's book was good only for 1st time for me.
Bads: VERY VERY demotivating.Why does she curses/mocks every1?A PM sud be motivator.....
It scared me a lot ,though most the end exams I scored well.The way she explains seems like I am a tot and then again she tells if u have not created WBS u sud not
pass the exam.But yes her fasttrack is a good 1,questions are PMstyle.But again got burnt seeing a same set of questions over and over again in chapterwise as well
as final mocks.
I dont think there are any goods at all to pay such a hefty price.If you are a PM u dont need all that explanation the book has .

Goods: I thank her a lot in the tricks of trade part of the book and the chapter exercises .Thats all worth!


3) Cornelius Fichtner : PM Prepcast

Bought it to get my 35 hours for exam application but it never happened in 2009.But I still had the chapters as mp3 in my laptop.I used to hear to them while cooking.
Cornelius Fichtner just rocks in his voice.He motivates,simplifies and assures .Thats what a true PM does...He explains the keywords which are a must to keep u thinking and probing deep in order to pass the exam.


4) KIM Heldman book was good with the mock exams to clear up extra concepts.Though I never scored more than 65% in them.

5) Headfirst pmp was fun to clear up cost management and critical path concepts.Thanx a lot to this book.Cool One....

6) Skimmed through Joseph Philips book.It was a good one.

[Kim Heldman,Joseph Philips and Headfirst were taken from my local Library]


7)deepfriedbrainpmp was a blessing in common concept clearances-PTA,PERT,TCPI...awesome!!


8)Lesson learnt by successful PMPs from PMzilla.com was gr8 for its guidance and motivation.i used to read them while eating.


Mock Exams:


Rita's pmp and chapter tests [ 60-75% ] .Its pmp style.
headfirst labs [ 85% ]
pmstudy free [ 85% ]
oliver lehmann 75 [ Repent that i took it , failed 2 times,why so tough ]
exam central [ dont remember , but too good for confidence ]

The Exam:

1) Exam was at 12:30.Could not eat a lot,ate some cereal and was so nauseated.I was actually burnt out ,may be overstudy.
2) Exam was tough [ taking everything to considerations,50 questions were 5-6 paras,4 grueling hours and waiting for a positive outcome after hard work ]
3) There were easy questions too,maths was good 10-12 of them
4) Completed 200 in 2 hrs exclusing the biggies and maths. PMBOK helps!
5) 15 mins dump of itto,formulas helps but not a whole lot.
Dont memorize them guys,read them and u will remember if u understand.I kept in mind only the risk and quality part ITTOs.As they have these tools.Rest dont require
to jot down.
6) Although the calculations were simple , the calculator which pops up is bogus.Watch out guys..In one of the calaculations by clicked right no of times but
400000 became 4000 .I had to recheck.

Too small to see ["* and ." seemed the same ]
To get the zeros u have to click harder
Slow in calcualtions

7) Took 3 breaks
Was shivering during the last 20 mins when all the done.Reviewed few questions again by random sampling.Within first 2.5 hrs to the exam I know I will pass.
9) Total 50-60 was for review.Few questions was tough in the sense that it took time to eliminate all 4.U will think all 4 might be correct depending upon the PM
10)Ritas tip of smiling and deep breathing helped.I was burnt out and was telling myself now or never:)


"Congratulations" message after those 4 hrs and all this prep is so sweet.

Here comes the final Lessons Learnt:

1)Tools ,techniques,PMIsms,Org structure are important.
2)Read the real pmi code of ethics from pmi.org. No books.That will tell you what practises are mandatory,what u sud do and what not...
3)Risk management is important.
4)Know what contracts tell about seller/buyer risk/loss/gain
5)EVM rules are important as per time management.
6)Know EVM parameters in cost management -what they tell you , not just the formulas
7)Never take 4 hours to take mock tests
8)Take a soft drink before the exam .The sugar gives a lot of energy to keep u get going.
9)Listen to Prepcast Cornelius Fichtner voice.Very Assuring and has a positive note on every explanation.
10)Read the PMBOK...Beleive me it has everything to make u pass:)



My sincere thanks to:


My hubby : thanks a lot for ur cooperation,support,help
My Kid : Thanks sweet pea for giving me the much needed mommy time...
Thanks a lot to the LL guys [ motivated me so well ] ,


No offense to any 1,afterall every book is different and every person too.We all hav our +ves and -ves too.

Best of Luck to all studybuddies,may all ur hard work reap sweet fruits:)

thanks for sharing!
I've been trying to tackle for a year myself.
Your post is encouraging and provides the needed
push for me to get going again.