TOPIC: My take on PMP Exam - PASS on 1st attempt

Exam Experience:
I took PMP exam on December 4th and passed it on 1st attempt. I got 3MP and 2P.

Overall, I felt the exam was tougher than anticipated. A lot of situational questions with tricky answer choices and a fair number of EMV and Critical path questions. EMV questions were fairly simple but critical path questions were time killers, with lot of paths to analyze. The biggest challenge for me was focusing on the situational questions. I had to read multiple times to pick an answer. I was also marking a lot of questions to review at the end. Overall, I finished answering all questions in 3hrs 30mins, but the last 30 mins weren't sufficient for reviewing all the marked questions. But, I was patient and reviewed maximum number of questions within the allotted time and clicked the "End Exam" button just before the time ran out. Waited for few seconds, answered a quick survey and then the end result popped. Was elated to see that I passed.

My word of advice would be to practice focusing on lengthy questions, and always be positive. After 2 hours you will start to lose some focus, but be patient as the other half is as important as the 1st half.

My preparation:

1. I studied for about 2 months, with the 1st month focusing on readying the material and the 2nd month taking exams and reading the same content again and again.
2. I used PMBOK and Rita Mulcahy's PMP Exam Prep as my main study material. Strongly recommend Rita's book as it really helped me to understand the concepts.
3. During the 2nd month, I used PMP Prep Exam Simulator. I think it's one of the best way to practice for PMP. After taking 8 exams, you get a good grasp on the concepts and helps to boost your confidence.
4. My score on the first exam was 74%. But rest were consistently close to 80% and couple were above 84%.
5. I analyzed every exam results in great detail. Created my own excel files to identify weak areas and focused on reading them multiple times. Human Resource Management, Communications and Stakeholder Management always got me. So focused a lot on those topics.
6. Couple of great online reads were from Jerome Rowley about Project Statement of Work vs Project Charter, Edward Chung articles and of course Cornelius Fichtner (can't thank him for all the efforts in making PMP prep easy for us).
7. I also downloaded couple of PMP apps but the most beneficial was PMP Smart Exam Prep - Practice Test & Study by Friendly App Studio. I used it to take short 10 question tests whenever I found time during the day.
8. I also downloaded ITTO excel sheet from an online source (googled it), unfortunately, I couldn't trace the actual owner to give credit. But It greatly helped to draw connections between various ITTO's. Remember to download 5th edition.
9. And last but not the least, I prepared notes (using OneNote tool) during the 2nd month and used that as my guide to review key concepts. Rather than writing on paper, using a tool helps you to search notes instantly
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T[/ol]ips:

1. Everyone says don't try to memorize ITTO'. It is partly true. You don't have to memorize each and every ITTO. But I took a blended approached by using the ITTO excel sheet and figuring out the most common ITTO's among several knowledge areas and drew connections among them. I then memorized those subset of ITTO's, which greatly helped me to answer many of the direct questions on ITTO's. However, the exam didn't really have direct ITTO questions. But understanding ITTO's is a must because it helps on answering situational questions.
2. Regarding formula questions, just take as many questions as you can from various online sources. I spent couple of days just before the exam practicing all types of formula questions (EMV, Critical Path, Procurement, EVM etc.). I think that helped to gain my confidence and do well on formula questions. I don't believe on the concept of writing formulas or doing brain dump on the exam day.

Ending with one recommendation to Cornelius Fichtner & team. I think having more situational questions on the PMP Exam Simulator will be beneficial, but I wouldn't have passed the exam, if it was not for the PMP Exam Simulator.

I thank the team for all the great work and commitment to help PMP aspirants. Definitely #1 recommended source to all PMP aspirants.

All the best to all test takers!!

Rajesh,

Congrats on passing the exam! Thanks for posting your lessons learned and exam experience to the forum. Much appreciated! Best of luck to you as a newly certified project manager.

Cheers,

Mark

Congrats Rajesh.

Hi Rajesh, concerning ITTOs, I would like to contact you if you dont mind. I'm having difficulties in ITTOs even though i kindof understand the processes to some extent. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. How may i reach you? Thanks for your hopeful reply.