TOPIC: Cracked PMP today!

Hello All,
I passed my PMP today, 12th October 2018 with Above Target in all 5 process group. I spent roughly around 4 months for rigorous preparation.

1. June 2018: Spent the whole month, going through Joseph Philip Udemy Course and reading Rita. Along with that, I made flashcards for all the terms and practiced drawing out process group, knowledge area chart along with formulas on a daily basis.

2. July 2018: Read the PMBOK guide along with Rita to get my fundamentals clear and cover any knowledge gaps. Practiced Rita's chapter end questions, just to get into PM mindset and feel of the type of questions asked. Continued practicing flash cards and drawing out the process chart, formulas on a daily basis. (I strongly suggest doing this as this help underpinning everything strongly into the brain)

3. August 2018: Bought Ritas Exam simulator and started practicing quizzes on learning mode. Spent the whole month, practicing quizzes based on knowledge areas and process groups and at the end of the month, I gave the full practice exam to know where I stand. Scored 79% and found out the weak areas. (At this point, I decided to take the exam date and gave myself a month to strengthen my preparation. Unfortunately, my application got audited but was able to clear the audit in 10 days)

4. September 2019: Spent half of the month studying Rita and PMBOK side by side to cover the weak areas and improve my knowledge. Meanwhile, given full-length Rita Exam Simulator tests. Was progressing around 85%. In the other half of the month, I bought PM PrepCast Simulator and started practicing quizzes based on my weak knowledge areas and also gave few random learning mode quizzes based on process group. At the end of the month, gave a full-length test from PM PrepCast and scored around 94%. This boosted my confidence level.

5. October 2018: I have got only 10 days left before the exam so I planned on giving rest of the 7 full-length exams from PM PrepCast Simulator. I only gave exams those 10 days and was spending the rest of my days going through wrong answers and making notes of any knowledge gaps. My scores were - 89%, 88%, 90%, 85%, 92%, 87%, 90%.

6. The day before Exam (Took leave from work): I skimmed through the whole PMBOK once in the morning till noon. And practice flashcards, charts, and formulas for the one last time. In the evening, went through my personal notes of any knowledge gaps, I made during practice exams.
Had dinner early and watched a movie and went to sleep.

7. Exam: My exam was scheduled at 7:30 AM. Woke up at 5.30, got ready, took breakfast and rushed to the center. I was seated upon arrival. I found the first 20 questions of the exam, difficult and I marked almost all of them. Then slowly as I progressed, I was able to move with confidence. Took a break on the 100th question (2hr) and then took another break on 200th (3hr 30min) question. Upon returning from break, I have got only 30 mins to review the marked question (Have marked around 60-70ques). Was able to review only 20-25 questions and my time got up. Gave the survey answers and in the end, I was presented with a big Congratulation screen. I did it!

Exam Overview:
- In my exam, I found more questions on Stakeholder, Procurement, Quality, Scope (Mostly, Planning & Executing) compared to other knowledge areas.
- Have encountered questions that were even beyond the Initiating process. For examples, questions involving the business case and benefits management plan creation process.
- Just 2 questions on EVM and 1 question on Schedule diagram This was my strong areas and I was expecting more calculation question.
- Some of the questions seem to be very vague. I was not able to even recognize in which process the question is based on.
- Haven't seen a single question on AGILE today. This might not be the case for everyone out there.
- I would not say the exam was similar to PM PrepCast or Rita Simulator but yes, PM Prepcast Simulator has helped a lot in un-covering my knowledge gaps. Especially, those learning mode quizzes where they have provided a detailed explanation of why a particular choice is correct and incorrect. They will greatly help your brain to get into that PMI-ism mindset to crack those real questions.


Lesson Learned:
- Firstly make sure you manage your time answering questions. In my case, while I was practicing full-lengths simulator exams, I was able to complete the whole exam in 2hr 30mins but in the real exam, it took me 3hr 30mins with hardly 30mins of time left for review. So I would suggest, whenever you answer the question for the first time, make sure you do your best guess because you might not get a second chance to look at the question again.
- Make sure you read and understand every single word in the question before you proceed to answer. I have found many questions with words like possible, preferential etc. Overlooking those words will completely change the answers.
- Be positive through the exam and keep moving to the next question. During the first half the exam I got demotivated seeing difficult questions and I was not even sure whether I am clicking on right answers but trust me, go with your gut feeling. The first answer you click is definitely right and do not change the answers unless you are 100% sure. Carry on the pace and keep on answering. You will get a bit exhausted in the end but remember that you don't have to/ want to give this exam again!

Overall, it was a wonderful experience. Have put 4 months of hard work into this and feels good to get it DONE! Now, its time to relax and enjoy the rest of the year with holidays coming around.

Wishing everyone all the best for the exams! YOU CAN DO IT!

Hi Kartik,

Congratulations on passing the PMP Exam! Thank you for posting in detail your experience preparing and taking the PMP Exam.

Congrats, Kartik! And thank you for sharing your tips!

Thanks for sharing the lessons learned. A couple of questions:

1- ALL questions were situational or you had some short questions too?
2- Is Rita's book enough for answering Stakeholder, Communication and Quality related questions? I guess as you mentioned Rita is good for knowledge areas that are so called project restraints such as cost, schedule, scope. And not informative for communication and stakeholder areas.
3- What is your lessons learned in terms of comparing difficulty, depth, variety, etc of the actual tests and simulators you have used?

Cheers

1. It was a mix mostly heavy on situational side.
2. I haven't mentioned anything related to which areas are good in RITA or which areas are not. Overall, I followed both RITA and PMBOK side by side.
3. I found the questions on the real exam more vague and time-consuming compared to simulators. Most of the questions were just one or two liners but you need to really pay attention to understand each word and figure out what they are talking about. As I have mentioned, it took me more time to finish the actual exam compared to my simulator exams.