TOPIC: PASSED PMP TODAY 22 DEC 2016 - HOURRRAAAAAA

I took my PMP today 22 December 2016 after more than a year preparation.

About myself

• I'm full time project manager in an international context with project teams located worldwide.
• Maried, 3 children, and travelling frequently to customers and to various stakeholders.

Study

• July 2015, i started my preparation by taking about 80 hours classroom divided in 5 sessions. My company organized in that way.
• The last training session was held in feb. 2016
• Jointly, i started reading PMBOK and Rita bok in Dec. 2015
• I completed reading Rita Prep Exam book in April 2016
• From there, my full time PM couldn't allow me finalize preparation.
• I restarted in August 2016 by passing through Rita again. I felt like all i learned has gone away and needed to repeat again
• End September 2016 i scheduled my exam for today 23rd Dec.
• I took Rita Exam and scored 68% - which is not fabulous. i understood that practicing is a must
• I decided to purchase PMP Precast and PMP Mastery from Dave Litten.
• PMP mastery is in my opinion perfect to understand how processes are linked to each other. The format shortens learning time.
• Skimming Rita Bok again while taking full exams from PMP Precast and using PMP Mastery videos helped me to boost my preparation
• In October 2016, my PMP Precast exam results improved from 70% to 87,5%. unfortunately i took only 4 full exams in total.
• Thanks to end year holidays, may of my project customers are left officies. I used the opportunity to devote this week entirely to final preparation. Analyzing my weakness using exams results, skimming Rita to catch them, capturing processes relationship in PMP Mastery and taking 3 full exams:

1. PMP Precast exam 4: 85%
2. Oliver Lehmann: 80%
3. Rita Exam 77%

Considering the rule of a thumb stating that if you are scoring regularly between 70% to 80% - depending on exam difficulty levels - you're on track, i was confident though,...there're always uncertainty remaining. You never know what can happen. I had even dreamed i could reach excellent scoring in real exam. Let see.

Exam session

[/ul] I went through, keeping an eye on the time, with target to reach about 120 questions in 2 hours.
After 2 hours, i had only done 109 questions, and a feeling that plenty are marked for review. I took a break for restroom and swallowed one glass of water: this is for less than 5 minutes including Prometric formal re-inspection (pockets, shoes, ...signing the protocol document). I realized afterwards, i should have taken the break 30 mn earlier. Indeed as i returned to my desk, my efficiency improved - believe me, it was only water i drank - and i moved forward but not as fast as i experienced in the last days. When i reached and answered the 200th question, only 12 minutes left to review.
About 20% of questions were marked !! I started reviewing, in a full stressful mode, knowing that i will never be able to review them all. But as i was lucid - thanks to previously mentioned break - i identified wrong answers quickly in a couple of questions. The rest although marked were not modified. In total i reviewed about 15 questions when the timer announced end of the exam.
I answered the survey questions on exam conditions and pressed END. At that precise moment, i had any clue wether i've got it or no. But i felt i did my best, i won't have any regret whatever happens. Then nothing in my brain during few seconds which seemed to be hours!!.
I just saw "congratulations" on the screen, the only word meaningful to me. Remaining text on the screen were useless during few seconds. I clenched my fists, and said YES in my head (other test takers in the room look for quiet).
Looking at my results:

• Initiating: Proficient
• Planning: Moderate Proficient
• Executing: Moderate Proficient
• Monitoring & Controlling: Moderate Proficient
• Closing: Proficient

Lesson learned

1 - My preparation time is too long. No chance to do better as you red in my summary above
- Better concentrating your learning effort short period prior to the exam
2 - Taking mock exams is recommended. I took about 1500 (including all not mentioned free exams)
Time limited exams prepare you better than unlimited time exams. It's exam to have an assessment on how much time i need for 50 question, for 100 questions and so on to help controlling your real exam time
3 - Soft skills (roles, responsibilities, conflicts, conflicts of interest, leadership,....) are really the hardest area
Do not skip or neglect them.
4 - Exam translation in your language is not so important: You don't have time to reach translated questions.
While scheduling the exam i chose to language translation ( french). Consequently the exam computer's screen was horizontally split in 2 areas. English was only underneath, diminishing your visual confort. In the end, i haven't red any translated question.

Thank you
I thank all professionals including the PrepCast team for their engagement to providing us with great material to prepare and hit the PMP exam on first attempt.
I wish to all PMP aspirants success in their endeavor. We all have different lives, but we can achieve our goals if we don't loose focus on our objectives and working enough to reach them.

A2BO,
Congratulations and Thanks for the wonderful lesson learned given.

Cheers.

Tajudeen

Dear A2BO,

Congratulations on passing your PMP exam!

Many thanks for sharing your long journey and detailed lessons learned. Posts like yours help and motivate all prospective PMP aspirants in their preparations for the PMP exam.

Best of luck!

Hi All -
I am a 32 year old IT Professional .
After 2 months of serious planned studying in whatever time i could squeeze out - happy to announce that i cleared PMP today, with 4 P's and 1 Below P (in Closing) .

My approach :

1. I did not study the PMBOK Guide. Tried it a couple of times, it worked as a good sleeping pill for me - abandoned it. Though i wouldn't recommend this as a strategy.

2. My 2 main study guides were Head First and Rita Mulcahy. I used to study a topic from Head First , first and then used Rita M for a more serious review. The negative tone of Rita's book puts off many people, but i was not rattled by it. I did chapter end of questions of both about 3 times each. Head first questions are mostly embarassingly easy, so dont pat yourselves on the back for having got most right the first time itself. Rita's questions are trickier , so dont be overtly dissapointed if you come a cropper the first time around. Learn the 25 planning processes that are in order - pretty easy if you read them about 3 to 4 times and write them down twice.

I also bought Rita's hot topics for quick revisions when i had time at work, during travel etc.

M Fahad Usmani's Short Guide on PMP Exam Formulas is another very good investment. He covers the quant portion very well with lot of examples and solutions. Priced cheap at around 10 dollars.

3. I divided the whole syllabus into 4 blocks as follows :

a. BASE Block : prelims, pm framework, pm process
b. QUANT block : time & cost
c. EASY Block : HR,Comms and Stake Holder mgmt. // deceptively easy i should say,scope for screwups is big if you misunderstand concepts.
d. TRICKY Block : Quality, Risk and Procurement. Make sure you study these chapters IN DEPTH from Rita M. BURN the concepts into your head. Read more from the net. Quality is the easiest among the 3. Risk is the trickiest, even on the exam.Learn the outputs page just before the chapter end quiz for Risk in Rita M. It will serve you very well.

I enjoyed studying Procurement, though many people find it tough for some reason.

4. I strengthened the above blocks in order the first time - and used to revise one block at a time whenever i got the time. Made condensed notes so that i didnt have to lug huge books around.

5. Mock Exams :

HF PMP : 87 % // easy exam
OLIVER LEHMAN : 70 % // way tougher than real exam
PM SIMULATOR 1,2 & 3 // 74 % , 87 % & 85 %.
Invest in PM SIMULATOR - it has 9 mock exams , the last one is purely based on ITTO - so effective 8 full length tests. I gave only 3 - couldnt take out time for the rest.
But i ensured that i completed all 1801 questions on the simulator by way of learning/timed quizzes. This exposes you to a large number of situational questions and sharpens your skills in eliminating wrong options. Also gives very good detailed explanations. Its also important to review the answers you may have marked correctly during simulation as you may have marked the answer right, but your thought process may be totally wrong.

6. If you can memorize ITTO's for a few chapters , it will serve you well. I memorized for a few chapters, and just kept a general understanding of the flow for others.

7. The exam had tricky questions - though nothing seemed like a bolt from the blue , barring one or 2 questions which i suspect may have been from the PMBOK - which i had abandoned with disdain. The situational questions were tricky - with options that really made you cringe - just when i thought i had the question nailed, i used to be stumped with another seemingly better option.

There were about 25 numerical questions - most were easy. About 3 were tricky , and made you work a little harder in terms of thinking - but they were solvable. Learn to spot red herrings and navigate around them. I can confidently say i got all the numericals right .

I completed the exam pretty fast , around 2.5 hours. I took another 20 minutes to review my marked questions, i realized i had marked the answer for 2 numericals wrongly in haste and corrected them .

Finally, my restlessness got the better of me and i decided to wind up the exam - it was nerve wracking when the system was deciding my result - but soon the PASS message flashed and i could scarcely belive i had 4 proficient ratings in initiating , planning, executing and monitoring. Closing was a disappointment with a below proficient rating. I am not sure why that happened ... anyway i was satisfied with my planning and performance overall . Now, i am off visiting my family for a week - for what seems like a well deserved break !

Vamsi Gorthi

Dear Vamsi Gorthi,

Congratulations on passing your PMP exam!

Thanks for sharing your lessons learned. Enjoy your brand new PMP credentials and don’t forget to celebrate your success. After this, it’s time to start earning your PDU’s.

Good luck in all your future endeavors.

Hi there!

Thanks so much! Your breakdown is very helpful. I will buy the books you have recommended. Can you elaborate as to where I can find sample tests/questions. You mentioned 3 sources of tests in your message:
-HF PMP
-OLIVER LEHMAN
-PM SIMULATOR

Thanks so much!
Alicia

Thanks Stan - i initially posted my review here by mistake - later on i posted my experience as an entirely different topic.

Hi Alicia - oliver lehman is available online for free . There is a pdf that has 175 questions and answers to those questions.

HF PMP exam is at the back of the Head First PMP book .

PM Simulator - can be purchsed online @ www.pm-exam-simulator.com/