TOPIC: Passed PMP on first try - Lessons Learned

Yay....got my PMP designation on the 22nd of June.

I consider this one of my biggest achievements and it was all self-study for me. I took 6 months to prepare, have a full-time job and an active 3 year old.

I used the following materials to prepare for the exam:

1. PMBOK Vol. 4
2. PM Prepcast - Webinars & Flashcards
3. PM Study Prep - Rita Mulcahy
4. PM Study - Course Materials

Exam Simulators:

1. PM Exam Simulator (OSP International)
2. PM Perfect
3. PM Study - Knowledge Area Based and 4 Full Length Exams

Lessons Learned for future PMP aspirants:

1. Whatever one may say and whatever method you may use, make sure you know your ITTO's for all the processes. A profound knowledge of the ITTOs will help you pass the exam.

2. DO NOT start preparing for the exam by going through the PMBOK. My personal preparation sequence is as follows:
(a) Mulcahy and questions at the end of each chapter
(b) PM Prepcast (Helped a lot - Cornelius ...you rock!!! Did not attend any boot camp. Cornelius did not let me miss a live instructor)
(c) PM Study - Course Materials and Exams for each Knowledge Area
(c) PMBOK
(d) Mulcahy/PM Prepcast (skimming through the main areas identified earlier)
(e) PMBOK
(f) Flash Cards
(g) Exams - PM Perfect and PM Exam Simulator

You should answer 200 questions everyday in the last two weeks before the exam.

You are ready for the exam only when you are consistently getting >80% in the standardized exams. I felt PM Study, PM Exam Simulator and PM Perfect provide great standardized questions (similar to what you would be getting in the PMP exam).

Trust me - preparing for the PMP exam is in enriching experience. Develops you as a person.

Thank you.

Hello,
I cleared my PMP, just after the July 4th holiday. I would like to share my 'lessons Learned' to the future PMP aspirants.

Materials (Books) I referred in my studies in the sequential order.

1. Rita Mulcahy - Understand the Knowledge Area and the details which were not in PMBOK guide.
2. The Prepcast. ( I spent time to listen everyday, This is very important that to understand and correlate the Knowledge area.)
3. PMBOK Vol 4 - Read multiple times and highlighted the details, so that I can come back the day before the exam and refer it.
4. prepared the ITTO quick chart myself, so that I can quickly refer rather going back to books every time.


exam Simulation:

I think this is most important activity you should do at least 10 days before the exam. it is hard to sit and answer 200 question in one sitting daily, but DO IT !. I have taken all the simulator question including the ITTO specific one and achieved the 70-80 %. I have noted down the missed ones and realized that missed ones are taken from other wiki sites or some other text books.

During exam.

1. I made no plans to take any break during the exam rather spent 4 hours completely.
2. I have 'marked' the long questions right away without even try to read it.
3. I quickly answer and finished the first round in 3 Hrs.
4. Came back to Marked ones and finished at the last one hr.

Hope this helps future students.

Thanks Cornelius for your great help in providing the prepcast ( may be formal or informal, highly detailed or broadly framed!!!!

Regards

Vinod

Hi,

I recently passed 4th edition in my first attempt. I started studying in Feb specially watching and listening the PM Prep cast Webinars. I took one and half month break due to some medical emergency. I again started my study from May end to July end until I get the Certification. Last two months I tried to maintain 30-35 hrs weekly (every day 2-4 hrs and weekends 10-12 hrs).
Also, I used to listen the videos while driving .

Whenever I find difficulties to understand any topic , I used to watch webinars and read the topic in PMBOK/Rita more until I completely understand it.

It is my immense pleasure to thank Mr Cornelius Fichtner for the awesome webinars which helped me a lot to understand the concepts thoroughly during my PMP preparation.

I was studying :

1. PMBOK Vol. 4 ( read 3-4 times. I was focusing more wherever I find more difficulties to understand )
2. PM PrepCast - Webinars (most of the time and I was refering to PMBOK /Rita for more knowledge for topic after listening )
3. PMP Exam Prep Free Questions from PM prepcast that was received regularly in my email.
4. www.oliverlehmann.com/pmp-self-test/75-f...tions.htm#providers_ : (There are very good practice questions here. I tried around 500 questions from this)
5. PM Study Prep - Rita Mulcahy ( I was reading couple of times)
6. PM fast Track Exam Simulator - Did it three times and review incorrect answers.

I made sure I am comfortable with the formulas (webinars/ Rita helped me a lot) and took as many sample questions as I could .For every wrong answer , I was reviewing the answers and refer to the PMBOK / Rita.

Good Luck and my best wishes to All.

Hitesh Kalita
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.