TOPIC: 4 Hours of Non-Stop Critical Thinking

I started preparing for my PMP exam in July 13, studied for 4 months before I finally took the exam in Oct 13 end.

35 Contact Hours: I did not want to attend a weekend program as I always thought they were fast-paced than what I wanted. So instead went for PM-PrepCast PodCast from Cornelius Fichtner and really liked it. I could study using the Podcasts at my convenience, could repeat them whenever needed and the best part was being able to listen to it while driven to work and back. Highly recommended if you are tight-scheduled and would like to study at your own pace. It took me 3 weeks to finish the PodCast, take the test and earn the contact hours needed.

PMBOK: Started my first pass through PMBOK and took 5 weeks to finish it studying 2.5 to 3 hour every weekdays and 6 to 10 hours on weekends. One should definitely read PMBOK once. Filled the online form and submitted the application.

Rita Mulcahy 8th Edition: Started studying Rita’s Exam Prep book and completed 1st Pass in 4 weeks. This is when I decided to book the exam date for a month later. In the last one month I did 2 quick passes of Rita’s book first in the descending order of complexity/difficulty of questions as prescribed by Rita in her book and then once from beginning to end. Trust me even while doing the 3rd pass of Rita I was getting terms that looked like I was reading them for the first time and that was a confidence dampener until I finally read in Rita’ last chapter ‘Do not over study’. Guess when I read it I had already crossed the line but it was a great relief Rita herself recommending this.

Sample Tests: In the last 4 weeks of study (in which I was doing 2 quick passes of Rita) I solved 4 Full Length Sample Tests to determine if I could sit for 4 hours and solve questions one after the other and trust me it proved to be one of the many right things I may have done while preparing for my PMP.
1. Oliver Lehmann – 175 Questions – 79%
2. CertChamp – 200 Questions – 77.5%
3. Edwel – 200 Questions – 73%
4. Oliver Lehmann – 75 Questions – 70%

Exam Day: My strategy was to solve 25 questions every 30 minute and that really worked well. I guess in addition to the studies what helped me on the exam day was definitely practicing sitting through full length Sample Tests. Highly recommended.

Recommendations:
1. Cornelius’s PM PrepCast, if you are looking to earn 35 PDUs
2. One easy pass of PMBOK
3. One easy pass and two quick passes of Rita’ exam prep book
4. Solve as many Full Length Sample Tests as you can in strict 4 hours
5. Ironical enough, during my full length sample test I always wrote the Brain Dump first and figured I didn’t need them during the exam. So in the actual test I did not create one and guess what didn’t regret not creating it. But then you need to figure out yourself if you may need it during the exam or not
6. My Test was from 5:00-9:30 PM and it actually started at 5:45PM. With lunch at 1:30 and some light snack and tea at 4:00 PM, I really struggled when hunger started setting in half way through the exam. Had no choice but to continue, could only finish the test 2 minute before the scheduled end. One is allowed to take a break but the clock continues ticking and you need to go through the entire exercise of ID verification when you come back. That info was enough to keep me sitting.

At last what earned me the PMP credential was 4 months of rigorous study and then on the day of the test ‘4 Hours of Non-Stop Critical Thinking’. Wishing Best of Luck to whosoever is preparing for PMP.

Thank you
Manish

Congratulations Manish ! Thanks for valuable LLs

I have also planned same test slot (5-9:30 PM.) Just want to confirm with you if you took your test at Mumbai Prometric center. If yes, please share you experience at test center , I meant disturbance, external noise etc. and what all they provided for exam .

Thanks

Thanks Sachin.

I took my test in the Gurgaon center of Prometric. Although I think the standards should be the same in Mumbai as well. It was very professionally managed and they followed all the requirements pretty well. They allowed a locker to keep my stuff in there and was instructed to NOT access it during the exam. Any eatables that I would have needed during my breaks were supposed to be kept on top of a shared table right outside the exam room. The exam room was pretty comfortable in terms of no noise or distraction. They also provided noise cancellation head phones but I hardly needed them. One is checked thoroughly before entering the exam room and anything you are wearing you are not supposed to take out and keep aside.

All the best for your exam!