TOPIC: My journey to PMP certification

Hi,

My journey to becoming a PMP proffessional ended on 2nd August, 2011.

I started 3 months ago with HeadFirst PMP. I bought it for fun, and I had fun reading it. It took me about 1.5 months to get through the book, and by this time it was June. I wanted to give the exam before August, and I did not even have the PDUs required. I started to look for the fastest and cheapest way to earn PDUs. During my search I came across the PMPrepCast. I happened the be the fastest and cheapest way I could earn my PDUs.

The PMPrepCast is a podcast that can be downloaded into your iphone, laptop, or which ever device you like to use. It was the BEST thing I did. I did not have much expectations from it, since I was looking for the cheapest ways to earn PDUs, but I was pleasantly surprised. The podcast is BETTER than a real live training session.

The advantages of the prepcast -
1) The lessons are well delivered... they keep you awake and hold your attention.
2) You can revisit any section/topic you wish to hear again. In bootcamps and other trainings, once you are done, you are done. There is no way to go back. So if your mind wanders, you miss out on what you should be learning.
3) You can listen to it any time, anywhere, at your own convenience.

So basically, I spent a lot of time on the prepcast. I listened to the lessons and made my notes. I went through them again when I felt like it. I earned my PDU's, and a lot of knowledge through the PMPrepcast.

Once I had all the required PDUs, I scheduled my exam in a months time, and studied like crazy

The exams I did were -

Headfirst
PMStudy #1
PMStudy #2
PMStudy #3
PMStudy #4
simplilearn
PMP Exam Simulator (one exam)
Oliver Lehmanns questions (75 questions/ 175 questions)

My scores were mostly between 78% - 82%. I scored lowest on the simplilearn exam and Oliver Lehmanns questions (in the 60's).

I made sure I knew each and every concept for the questions I missed. So the exam itself would take me 4 hours, but the revision after would take about 10 hours, per exam. This I learned from a 'lessons learned' posting from this very site, and its what helped me get all my concepts clear.

Here is what I think about the PMP exam -

1) The exam is not tough... if you study. If you take it seriously, and give it its due, you will clear it.

2) Everyones scores vary in sample tests. People say get 80% plus on all exams, I think an average of 80% is decent. In sample exams, it gets tough to concentrate on the last 50 questions. That does not happen in the real exam.

3) Review the sample exams before submitting, in the same way that you would review the real exam. I learned that during reviews, for questions on which I made educated guesses, I always end up changing the answer from the correct one to an incorrect one during reviews.

The day before the exam, I rested. I slept basically the whole day, and spent about 2 hours looking through the list of questions that I had missed on the sample exams.

On the day of the exam, I said a little prayer and took a deep breath. And the rest is history!!


Regards,
Anjali Riat, PMP