This is one of the most memorable day in my Career. The joy of seeing the “Congratulations” on the screen after the huge amount of hard work and dedication. This moment should be “felt” by all the PMP aspirants.

First, I would like to thank Vidhi Raj and Vidyesh Alve for their WhatsApp group “WinningPMPlan”. Somehow, I got to know about this group while searching something about PMP exam. Joining this group is my starting point of this PMP journey. This group was instrumental in to my success. Until last day before my exam, I never missed to solve any questions posted in this group. Thanks a lot to Vidhi & Vidyesh for their excellent support and coordination. More importantly the very high quality questions.

With my organization support, I got my 35 PDU through Simplilearn. I attended 9 days online training program in simplilearn. The training was very good. I did the mocks, submitted the projects they mandated, and then I got my 35 PDU. Thanks a lot to Tanveer the Faculty. I learnt lot through his sessions.

I was quite impressed with EDUHUBSPOT videos, which I came across. I purchased the videos and mocks. It was quite good. The mentor explained the concepts very well. I was impressed with the flow. I watched the videos and studied the PMBOK® Guide to understand the Concepts. I repeated them three times. Thanks a lot to Varun Aanad for the support. However, I was not part of the mentor program I followed your strategy for my success.

Once I got the confidence, I decided to submit the application. I just referred one of the videos of Kavitha Sharma. How to fill the PMP application, it was quite useful. I filled the application in the same way it was instructed in the video. As a precaution, I did inform my previous company managers upfront about this exam, to be better prepared for audit. Luckily, my application did not go through audit process. After 5 days, I got reply from PMI, stating that my application was “Approved”. I felt happy that one milestone is achieved. Still the job not done yet.

Then, I scheduled my exam on 18-July-2019. Throught this journey to keep my focus daily, I subscribed to Daily question of the day # EDUHUBSPOT #Crosswinds, # PMPexamsmartnotes from Shiv shenoy, also questions posted in the #WinningPMPlan whatsapp group. I never missed to solve these questions daily.

 “Slow, steady progress is better than daily excuses.” Robin Sharma

Throught the  PMP journey I solved the below question sets.

1. SimpliLearn (4 Mocks) 800 questions
2. EDUHUBSPOT(4 Mocks) 800 questions
3. Kimheldman (1000) Questions
4. Christopher scordo (1000) Questions.
5. Fahad Usmani(400) Questions.
6. Adel Mansoor(400) Questions
7. All knowledge areas questions (Simpli Learn+EDUHUBSPOT) Close to 500 questions.
8. RITA Mulchy (400) Questions
9. All Chapter end questions (Head First+ Joseph Philips+Rita)
10. Free Mocks (Examspm, Simplilearn, Oliverlehman, Pmexamcoach)
11. Prepcast 1000+ Questions.

Finally, the D-day has arrived 18-July-2019. Last two days before the exam, I was not getting sleep at all. Bit nervous. I went to the exam Centre 1 hour earlier. They did all the prechecks and gave one locker key to keep my bags and other items. They gave one instruction manual about the rules and regulations. I read and handover it to them. They gave one sheet and pencil for rough work. Then they showed the workstation where I suppose to take the exam. They logged in to the PC and handover it to me. There were some instructions about the exam, I read and kept clicking on next.

Then the Final click came to start the exam, First 45 minutes , the questions were tricky, I was not fully confident on answers, I marked most of the questions for review, the next 45 minutes I got some questions where I was very confident, some numerical it was very easy and calculator was not needed at all, and I completed all the 200 questions in 2.45 minutes. I marked close to 50 questions, then I revisited the 50 questions and changed options for few questions. It was close to 4 hours. Just 10 minutes left. Then I clicked next, I got the survey about the exam centre and how was the questions quality. I did that and clicked on next. Still 8 minutes left .I could not control myself, I just clicked on finish exam.

Then the congratulations message flashed on the screen I was quite happy and raised my hand. The exam coordinator came and he said to close the session and wait. They handover the result sheet. (3 Above Target –Planning, Execution & Monitoring & Control) and (2 Target –Initiation & Planning).

 To All PMP Aspirants.

1. Reading PMBOK® Guide is must. I would strongly recommend to read it at least twice.
2. Read Initiation and Closing process group carefully. Though there are only 3 process, the questions in real exam will be tricky. You could see many would get low scores especially in these  two process groups. In fact, I am not the exception.
3. Though I solved 6000 + questions , none matched with real PMP questions.
4. To solve the questions , first try to find out which process group the question talks about, then try to find out which process it talks about. If none works then  try to find some key terms like specific techniques or tools. If this is done, half of the job is done. Then think about the process situation, what is the state of the process, is it just started, in progress, or closed, if it is just started think about the likely inputs plans and documents, if it is in process think about the likely tools will be used, if the process is done, think about the likely plan and documents  get updated. The way the Prepcast questions are analyzed in the mocks helped me lot. I applied the same pattern in exam too. It worked.
5. Change requests are very important. I got lot of questions on this area. I believe everyone will get more questions in this part.
6. Numerical are very easy. They are easy scoring ones.
7. All plan components are very important.
8. Plan updates and document updates (lessons learned, issue log etc.) are very important too. Do not miss to read it.
9. Memorizing ITTO is not necessary. However, it is necessary to understand them.
10. Don’t miss to read any topic in PMBOK they touched all the areas in the real exam.

Clearing PMP is not a big deal. It is quite possible. Only thing you would need Consistent preparation, hard work and strong commitment.

Keep Motivated! Stay Committed!   Keep Focused !

Wish you all the very best to all PMP Aspirants. Good Luck !

Best Regards,

Prakash Dhasarathan, PMP