Passed PMP with Proficient in all five knowledge Areas

alok_shukla1

With God’s grace and lot of cooperation from my family I cleared the PMP Exam with Proficient in all five knowledge areas.

The team at 'Deepfriedbrainproject' & 'PMhangout' have also been instrumental in my success. Thank you Harwinder. I am trying my best to get maximum visibility for the forum.

Regarding the lessons learnt -- Books / notes & iterations of the books referred are covered to in great details in lot of posts already. I will like to highlight few unconventional areas.

Time Management for the exam is critical -- As with a project, entire exercise [ Pre-study -- 35 contact hours training -- Post training exam preparation -- Exam date ] has to be planned much ahead in advance.

My family was away for 2 months and I planned to finish the certification during the 60 day period, but my planning was weak the following happened

a. Slots at my preferred training provider filled up faster than expected. I had to wait for a month for the next slots.

b. Plan the exam date in advance. PMI has only one approved Prometric center per city. Slots fill up fast, the exam date and office leaves have to be planned in advance. I had to cancel my leaves and apply again as exam slots were full.

c. Guests, Unexpected office work, illness has to be factored in / planned while deciding the exam date. I ended up facing all of them which elongated the study period.

d. Create a study plan and stick to it religiously. Preparing for the exam requires major change to one's daily schedule. My mentor guided me to write all my daily activities in an excel sheet and help me plan for number of study hours during the day.

About the Exam --

Lengthy questions with an elaborate situation [tricky language] can easily prompt you to select the wrong answer. My Strategy -- Rewrite the situation on paper, associated background information & what is being asked. This will help understand the question better.

Be very careful to crosscheck, if the question is looking for True or a False situation.

Initially I used to skim through the questions which led to poor scores on the practice tests. I changed my habit and during the exam I went at an extremely slow pace which help me understand the questions better.

Making personal notes is critical. I referred to multiple sources and during revision faced lot of difficulty due to unavailability of personal notes.

Do not attempt to learn all the ITTO's, although reviewing the reason for the inclusion of a particular ITTO will help you understand the process much more thoroughly. I marked the critical ITTO's and focused my attention on the limited set of items.

There are lot of practice exams available online. Do not run after completing all of them. The following exams [5 exams in total] should be enough to give you a feel of the exam and the range of questions.

1. Full length exam conducted by the training provider
2. Full length exam @ Headfirst website
3. 2 Practice exams @ Oliver Lehmann
4. One full length exam in the book that you may refer [Head first | Andy Crowe | Rita ]

Complete all practice exams at least 2 days before the exam date. Keep making notes of questions which puzzled you during the practice exam. Last two days – Do not attempt any exams instead focus your energy on revision and attending to any areas which you made note of during the practice exam.

Do not mark every second question during the exam, you may not have sufficient time to review all the marked questions.

On the Exam day –

Carry light snack [ Energy Bar / Lemonade ], Exam jitters did not allow me to eat breakfast properly and I felt hungry during the exam. At Bangalore Prometric, a separate locker is provided to keep edible items which can be accessed during the exam break. It would be wise to call the Prometric in advance to check policy.

Drink ample amount of water to keep hydrated.

For People in Bangalore -- There is no parking available at the Prometric, You may have to park at a distance and have to walk. There is no waiting area at the Prometric, so you will be allowed in the premises only at the appointed time. People in other cities it is wise to call and check with Prometric for Parking / waiting area / edibles.

Harwinder

5Ps - wow! That's awesome, Alok. Congratulations.

Your lessons learned post is really unique, and has some really good pointers. Advanced planning, discipline and practice are absolutely essential for passing this exam. Thanks for stopping by and sharing your success story.

I'll pass your kind words to the Deep Fried Brain Project and PM Hangout team, which at the moment is just me

juliopizzi

Congratulations Alok! I recently got approved on the PMP exam, but with 4MPs and 1P. 5 Ps is awesome!

Harwinder

Congratulations @juliopizzi. A pass is a pass - you are as good a PMP as anybody else

manoj625

Congratulation Alok. Pls tell me Alok/Harwinder how 2 prepare as I failed twice withe 2MP,4BP and 2MP,3BP. Pls tell me how to start again

Harwinder

Hello Manoj,

Do you have real project management experience? What was your earlier approach? How did you get your 35 contact hours, and what study material did you use?

P.S.: Please post your response in a new thread (using the Start a New Discussion button).

Thanks.

juliopizzi

Thanks Harwinder!