I cleared my PMP examination in January 2018. Because of my other professional commitments, it was a very challenging journey for me. Till the date of examination I had a feeling of not being prepared adequately and many thanks to Sandip Karia (Ahmedabad PMP Champion) who suggested me to WinningPMPlan group and without his intervention, I would not have scheduled my exam date!
Following are my lessons learned which should help PMP aspirants in the preparation:
- At a first sight, if you find PMBOK very technical (or scary), start with Headfirst – then Rita’s book and then PMBOK. Headfirst will make your journey interesting, Rita’s book will help you to bolster concepts and PMBOK will help you to understand the perspective that PMP examination requires.
- Once the understanding of concepts (reading books) is completed, participate in group discussions like that in the watsapp group ‘Winning Plan for PMP‘ and watch YouTube videos which helps clarifying doubts.
- After basic/small topic specific tests, give full length time bound mock tests. Time bound test is very important. Target 25 questions per 30 minutes and keep tracking this at every 30 minutes – this technique will also help during practice stage as well as in final examination to move focus from passing the exam to completing questions in 30 minutes time. It worked like a stress busting technique for me!
- I have used Rita Fast track and SimpliLearn mock test and scored between 70% to 75%. Scored 66% in Oliver 175. Rita and SimpliLearn were nearer to actual examination and Oliver is far away from the actual one – my perception only. I do not think that I was prepared fully for the final exam, but. I think if one’s average score is 75% in mock tests, it is almost likely that one can clear the actual exam.
- I found the actual exam questions easier then mock tests. They were not very lengthy and hardly any cost formula based questions. Even if one is not sure about the correct answer, select the choice before marking it for later review – there are chances that one may not get time to review further. Use the strike out tool to remove unlikely options – I didn’t find this tool in any mock test platform. Most of them will be situational question with 2 most likely options which may create confusion – but keep a tap on time. There will be many straight questions as well which will not take more then 10 seconds to answer.
- I didn’t take any break during the exam and I have also not done any brain dump before starting giving answers. I used rough paper for creating questions completed milestone and updated that every 30 minutes – as per above point number 3.
Thanks again to all WinningPMPlan group members for their valuable inputs and special thanks to Vidhi and Vidyesh for leading such initiatives from their busy professional life.
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