PMP is achievable; there are a few important facts to remember and given below is my lesson learned. I did it on 23rd March'18 with ''ABOVE TARGET" score and want to give sincere thanks to Mr. Cornelius Fichtner and the platform of 09 mock test he created. It's a great tool to get success.
1. You need to read the entire PMBOK thrice (Now PMBOK-6 edition is available and having around 1000 pages with the Agile platform). There is no shortcut for that. Usually, more than 75% questions come from the PMBOK, and most of the answers are a single line or a single word from any corner of any page from PMBOK. It will be great if you could achieve the task of being completely thorough with PMBOK, as a real-life application of PMBOK becomes easy. But it is not practical to aim to do so. Keep in mind that if you score 80% on your mock test, you can schedule your real exam.
2. Having taken a decision to read the PMBOK, you have to make sure that you first become a PMI member as that saves you money on your overall exam fees. Once you get your membership, immediately download the free copy of PMBOK-6 and take a print of it for your own reading. Productivity increases a lot when you read a hard copy rather than a soft copy, especially when the book is like PMBOK where the content of many chapters is linked to each other. We all work better when we have a deadline. Hence, I would suggest you become a PMI member fill the application and pay the fees and then start your exam preparation so that you have a pressure to schedule your exam date as soon as possible. (You still would have one year to do so after paying the fees).
3. As far as ITTO (Input, tool & technique, output) are concerned, I would suggest you to just understand the logic behind them and by-hearting the same is not a solution( you have to understand the process flow of 650+ ITTO’s). I got only six ITTO Questions in my entire exam. And also, no one cares about what ITTO is there in which process once you pass the exam. You can refer it up when you need it for practical application.
4. Please don’t attempt the long scenario based questions first, skip it and mark them for later review ( I got first 25 scenario based questions and having the length of about half A4 size paper with unnecessary data and numbers, progress graphs in MSP, S Curve etc. Please always read the last line of the question first). Focus on the low hanging fruits and attempt 2-4 line questions only in your first 2:30 hours
5. PMI did not share any cut-off for PMP exam ever, it actually depends on your right answers for the most difficult questions and you will find almost 70 questions where you see all the 04 answers are correct. There is no negative marking and there are 25 questions out of 200 which shall not be considered for your exam result evaluation (those will be the trap to confuse you and consume your time), so be careful and have a strategy to attempt those questions ( aspirants don’t know which questions belong to the set of 25 )
6. I did not take any professional coaching for PMP, only focused approach and sincere study of daily 04 hours is required, approx. 03 months without the gap.
7. You have to take as many sample questions as possible. I had solved more than 3000 sample questions and kept a log of each question. This way, after completing one set of questions, I used to analyze the wrong answers, in which there were still some questions where I did not agree with the logic provided. Such types of questions were just approximately 200 or so, which I reviewed the day before my exam. So, keeping a question log helps.
8. Have a good sound sleep the night before the exam. My exam was scheduled from 01:00 PM to 05:00 PM in the second half and still I did not study anything right from 10 AM of the preceding day and did meditation for 04 hours in three slots. You will need time to process and digest what you have read in your preparation time.
9. Please visit the test center one week before your exam. It is your own responsibility to do it. When I scheduled my exam and got the appointment confirmation email from PMI, I drove to the test center one week before as per the route directions are given in the mail. You can’t fight against PMI if anything goes wrong.
10. On the exam day, they gave me two sharpened pencils, one calculator, and a blue color booklet, for scratch paper with 4 single papers (Eight single side pages of size little less than A4). The team was very cooperative and provided sharpened pencils in return for old pencils. Please remember they will not allow you to brain dump the formula’s before the exam begins. Make sure to do deep breathing time to relax, as its very difficult to concentrate from 04 hours. And since there are other people giving the exam, I had asked for Earplugs as there was a lot of typing noise. (They will allow only your Passport and your ID inside the test center, no watch, no pen-pencil, no water bottles, eatables)
11. Do well for your exam and prepare well, I am always available for any help required during your preparation and difficulty you may face.
12. My sources were:-
1. Cornelius Fichtner: 9 full-length mock test, Notes, blogs, videos and free questions from
www.project-management-prepcast.com/
2. Rita Mulcahy’s 8th Edition book: PMP Exam Prep ( a good resource for all earned value questions)
3. PMBOK-5th edition
4.. Flesh cards and Games
5. Free Android Apps like PM study’s PMP, PSA PMP, Formula’s PMP, PMP Genius, PMP ITTO and many more
