TOPIC: Passed on 1/24/2011 : Lessons Learned

Finally all the stress is gone and the Certification is mine

I thought of a PMP certification as a platform for both personal and professional growth since I had been leading projects for about 3 years and I knew there were best practices out there.

I started by subscribing to Cornelius's PREPcast which took away the fear of reading a fat book and instead was enjoyable. I listened to one lesson a day, got the 35 contact hours and then started reading Rita's Exam Prep book backwards just so I would remember the latest. I know sounds weird but worked for me.

On a side note, as I was reading through materials, I actually incorporated quite a few practices on my projects even before passing the exam since I didnt wanna just use it as an exam and instead wanted some practical knowledge.

Then I took practice exams on PMStudy and found my gaps. I am not sure about others, but the stuff I took pride in (Communications) continued to be my worst area. So I focused on that over and over and as I took more practice exams my scores on that got better.

I went through Rita's book twice and read portions of PMBOk guide. Every morning as I would get ready for work, I would murmur formulae and the Planning process chart in my head so I didnt need a brain dump since I remembered them all by rehearsing everyday.

Total Time Taken: 3.5 months
Total money spent: $700
Result: Priceless