I passed PMP on 06/17 - Cheese Flan almost killed my PMP (or may be not)

SatyaU

I was scheduled to appear for PMP certification on Monday morning on 10/17. As many of our PMP friends suggested to not to read a lot on the day before exam, I wasn’t preparing to do lot of study however I had fun day and fun night

Not sure how it started but From Sunday morning 4 AM, I was constantly throwing up and what I ate wasn’t staying in at all and horrible stomach pain throughout the day and till Monday morning with no proper sleep at all. I wasn’t sure it was the cheese flan I ate on Saturday or the stress I was having due to the exam? I was thinking should I reschedule or just go ahead and give the exam? Good that PMI stopped allowing last minute reschedules….. yes I passed with 1 P and 3 MPs.

After all this boring part, here is my experience and preparation details.

Total preparation: 2 months

Books read: 1 full read of PMBOK and Rita Mulcahy simultaneously (PMBOK mostly in office pdf version and RITA at home) then did exams in RITA from chapter 1 to last chapter.

Then scheduled the exam with a month gap. Started doing exams from following sources for complete 4+ weeks.

1) Christopher Scordo – Available from 24X7 books from my employer. Solved chapter wise questions then 40 questions per test. Did around 12 tests. Consistently scored 65-70%. Recommended: 70%
Quality: Good practice for questions and explanation is average. Overall questions quality is average.

2) 15 questions a day: I think it is from passionate PM. They have sent for a week and stopped after that. Good quality questions with explanations.
Quality: Above Average.

3) OliverLehman: Did both 75 and 175 questions. Good exercise to train your brain. Only references are given to find answers from multiple sources and it is not easy to find answers. Scored: 65%

Many of the answers for these questions were found in below notes. I felt like jackpot after finding this link
squaryaty.blogspot.com/2014/12/i-passed-pmp-exam-from-first-time-notes.html?view=snapshot

4) HeadfirstPMP: 200 questions. You need to this exam to build your confidence.
Scored: 76%

5) BrainBOK sample questions: On par with real PMP exams. And the famous 80 commonly confused words in PMP. Fantastic list and needed one.
Scored: 69% (I guess needed is 70% or more but scored 1% less than needed)

6) PMPrepcast Free Exams: You will have access 3 days with access to 3 tests and each 30 questions(I guess). On par with real PMP exams. Excellent explanations.
Scored: Test 1: 58%; Test 2: 65%; Test 3: 75%

7) PMStudy Free Exams: 200 questions. On par with PMP exams. Good quality of questions.
Scored 65% for the first run. 77% for the 2nd run

Overall I was scoring between 65% and 75% for most of the tests and I was able to clear PMP even being in bad health situation, Did I tell you, I was reading most of the questions 3 times yes, I had only time to review marked 20+ questions.

All above feedback is just my opinion and I might be wrong in few references above but I am confident that most of it can be used for anyone’s preparation.

One last suggestion, do not reschedule the exam ever but work towards your exam date to cover the materials you planned. Failing is not a bad thing unless it is cost constraint. All the learning will still stay with you

Harwinder

Congratulations, Satya! Thanks for sharing your lessons learned.

SatyaU

Thanks Harwinder, Appreciate your contributions to our PM community.