Cleared PMP® Exam in the first attempt with “Above Target” in all areas – Thangaraj D

Hi All,

How my Journey started …?

Few Years back I thought of doing PMP certification. But I didn’t know how to start? When I was in discussion with my colleague Alex (Last Year June-2019) I came to know that he enrolled in one of the online PMP course(The same time my organization also announced that all PM associates needs to be PMP certified). Also he introduced one more colleague named Prakash. When I discussed with Prakash he shared the information about “Winning PMP” WhatsApp group & asked me to join in that group.

I would like to say my heartful thanks to Vidhi and Vidyesh who immediately accepted my request and shared lot of valuable info, scenarios , questions and healthy discussion over the period of time in the WhatsApp group.

Also I got suggestion from Prakash to join some online PMP course to get the 35Hrs training course & know more details about PMP.

I started searching in Google & Youtube. Finally I selected “Eduhubspot” online PMP preparation course (by looking at the samples provided) & enrolled in July 2019. Luckily in the next week itself I got a chance to attend “Eduhubspot” 4 days boot camp course offered by Mr.Varun Anand. In that course he explained how to identify the “keywords” which will be useful to answer (interestingly this helped me a lot to clear the certification).

Later on I have filled the application using reference from simplilearn community https://community.simplilearn.com/threads/three-steps-to-fill-your-pmp-application.646/ and got it reviewed by Mr.Varun Anand and then submitted the application by 3^rd of Aug’19. After submission, immediately I got the PMP application Audit notification mail (which will come randomly for few) . After seeing this mail , I was shocked and don’t know what to do here.

I searched in internet and came to know that PMP Certification body will randomly select few application and do the audit. I informed to my group manager “Mr. Parthasarathy Venkatesan” about the PMP audit & what he has to do?. Once I received the PMP audit kit details, I had requested him to share the necessary details.

In Aug 23rd 2019 I couriered the sealed cover received from group manager & other required details (my College degrees certificate & 35 hrs. contact certificate) to PMP org USA. Within 2 days my application got reviewed & approved. The status got changed from audit to pay for the exam. Finally the real time came to picture with God’s grace.

How the preparation started..??

Initially I planned to take the PMP exam in first week of Nov 2019 because the last date for the current exam pattern was Dec 15th 2019 and started watching the “Eduhubspot” videos & read few chapters of PMBOK 6^th Edition,“Rita Mulcahy 9th Edition” and also actively participated in winning PMP WhatsApp group discussion. In the last week of Sept 2019 I got to know that new PMP exam pattern will be extended to another 6 month. After knowing this my preparation became very slow and not much serious.

When I started my serious preparation..??

As a New Year resolution Jan 1^st 2020, I paid & scheduled the exam on 25^th Feb 2020 and stared my serious preparation ( I used to read daily morning 1hr, evening 2 to 3hrs and weekend 4 to 5 hrs )

Which Materials to refer…?

Book:

PMBOK 6th Edition

Audio & Video:

Mock test (Hardcopy)

RITA – all chapter wise questions

Mock test (simulator-Paid)

Eduhubspot (Chapter wise questions-Approximate 200 Questions)
Eduhubspot (Attended Complete full length 4 Mock test 4X200=800 Questions)
PREPCAST (Attended Complete full length 8 Mock test 8X200=1600 Questions)

Mock test (simulator-Free)

http://www.lovepmp.com/docs/question/pmp-questions (Approximate 1000 Questions)
https://www.oliverlehmann.com/sample-questions-pmp-self-tests.html ( 200 Questions)
https://www.pmexamcoach.com/ (200 Questions)
http://www.certchamp.com/pmp-sample-questions.jsp (200 Questions)

Special notes:

1. I didn’t even refer any other contents other than the above for my preparation

2. Total questions attended in the mock test : Approximately 4000 questions and I used to get score (70% to 75%). For all the wrong answers I referred the PMBOK guide & noted down the important keywords.

Tips:

Just 3 days before the exam I called “Anuraag Nigam” who posted his certificate in winning PMP group & shared one very important tip “Keep your eyes Cool” and he asked me to re-verify the wrong questions. While taking mock test I realized that it is true due to stress on my eyes (lost the sync between mind & eye) 4 to 5 continuous questions were answered wrongly. So don’t look at your mobiles/TV before your exam (atleast a day)
Read PMBOK 6th Edition( Back to back at least one time)
Give more focus on specific important processes & ITTOs like (Charter,Close,Risk,identify Stockholder,etc)
Don’t memorize the ITTO (Just learn which ITTO will come under which process & why?).
Look for “keywords” from each question & match the answers.
Stay focused and don’t refer too many materials, websites (to avoid confusions).
Try to take as many as reliable mock test (at least 4000 questions) & score between 70 to 75%.
Join Winning PMPlan whatApp group (Be active in this group & try to answer all the questions posted here)
Try to take at least 2 or 3 mock Tests without any break ( adapt yourself to be prepared for PMP 4 hours exam)
Be calm and cool. Don’t take much tension.

On Exam day:

Try to be there in the venue atleast 30 minutes before start time of your exam (to do few formalities like read the exam center guide line & Biometric, etc.)
Around 30 people came for attending various exams with time duration of 2 to 4 hours.
I faced one tough challenge which made me feel uncomfortable while taking the PMP exam (the person who came for attending another exam irritated me a lot for almost 2 hours because he was coughing very often ; Not sure whether he is really sick or he has some problem.)

Actual Exam

I got 10 – 15 questions which are more than 3 lines ; remaining all are 1 & 2 lines only
2-3 questions based on simple formula ( I did not used calculator, Erasable writing pad)
2-3 questions on ITTO
20-30 questions in Change request
10-15 Agile questions

Finally I would like to convey my sincere thanks to my wife & son who supported me a lot to achieve this biggest milestone in my career.

Thanks to all & all the best.

Thangaraj.D PMP

+91-9590566272

thangarajerode@gmail.com