Dear All,

First of all thanks to Vidhi for adding me to the Watsapp group #winningpmplan when I requested her in the initial days of my preparation.

Vidhi and Vidyesh constantly post questions in the group and after sometime providing the answers with justification.

This helps us to correct ourselves
if we are wrong. Initially, I had gathered all the questions posted in the group and prepared a question bank to answer before my final exam.

After passing PMP everyone asks about the lessons learned during the preparation. But personally, I feel the mistakes which I did, and the lessons I learned may not be applicable to all. However, yes, if it helps someone I am very much interested to share.

I started my preparation last year and then gave my CAPM exam, in Sep17 and passed with above target in all the KA’s (CAPM is also a PMI certification but less complexity compared to PMP with 150 questions to answer in 3hrs).This is just to get a feel of the exam and then want to attempt PMP. This really helped me.

I was trying to study in between several disturbances both from office and personal life and was not able to spend much time on PMP. In Mar’18, just before one day when PMBOK 5 was changing to PMBOK6, I gave my PMP and failed very narrowly (3 Above target, 1-need improvement, 1 below target)

Then I understood PMP exam, very clearly is a physcometric analysis and it requires lot of patience and dedicated effort. I again started preparing from Jun’18 and in between I got selected for WHO and final interview was scheduled in Sep’18. I was in full dilemma whether I should study for PMP or prepare for WHO interview. With all patience in mind, I attended the interview and in parallel prepared for PMP. I didn’t hear anything from WHO in the final round so then I decided to take my exam preparation seriously, with increased vigor and planned to give PMP by end of the year.

One day, I decided to throw the hat over the fence and booked my exam date as 27^th Dec. I started my preparation and with super support from all PMP aspirants from various social media groups (whatsapp, linkden, facebook..) I cleared test.

Some of the lessons learned I want to share with you….

1. PMBOK is the only mantra for success
2. Nothing is impossible. Just concentrate. Please put all your efforts and study sincerely.
3. Book the date, be active in the groups and start moving towards your goal
4. Do as many questions as possible ( I had done almost 5000 questions)
5. I took questions from various sources but the books I studied were Rita and Headfirst.
6. 3 months sincere efforts are enough to prepare for PMP. If you don’t take me wrong, I can definitely guide you and you can contact me personally if you want any help)
7. The more you extend the date, you will loose confidence.
8. Prepare your own notes and start writing from day one. Others notes will be an added advantage only but your notes will help you what you studied.
9. Start studying with one buddy group.

Some of the lessons learned from Questions:

1. All questions looks simple but they are not easy
2. Please stick to the correct process and answer and don’t change them. They will be twisted but the answer should same anytime in anyways.
3. Since I did lot of questions, I can tell all mocks will help to improve our knowledge
4. For sure nothing will match with PMP questions.
5. No agile questions
6. Very few math questions – but very simple

Some of the lessons learned from Prometric

1. The Aircon is super cool and please go with something warm
2. You may expect lot of disturbance from other people (coughing, sneezing..) but your concentration should not deviate
3. Practice to sit for 4 hrs at one place. I know it is very difficult but if you want to achieve you have to do it

Finally, I understood from various sources that questions will be revised soon. So please plan to complete and close by Mar2019. I wish to share many more but stopping here.

I wish all the best for all of you and you can ping me for any help. So many people helped in my journey and I am very much thankful to all of them

Regards

J V G K Murthy CAPM, PMP