PMP Lessons Learnt
I passed the PMP on my 1st attempt on Oct 31 with a 4-AT and 1-AT(Closing).
Why PMP?
On July 17th 2018 I woke up to the reality that my work life has become too monotonous. I needed a challenge. I looked at potentially certification options and I zoomed into PMI's PMP.
Challenges:
1. A very demanding job that averages around 13 hours per day atleast.
2. 2 young kids who needed a lot of my time.
3. I'm not very quick with numbers
4. My reading efficiency is atrocious. I can barely read 1 sentence and comprehend it in the 1st shot.
Positives:
1. If I decide on a goal, no force on earth can deter me from it, and I decided to take up my PMP exam in 3 months.
Study plan:
1. I started off with the PMBOK 6th edition. On my 1st read I found all the process groups / knowledge areas / processes very disjointed and none of it added up and made sense.
2. I then bought Rita Mulchay's book - honestly, I was demotivated while reading her book. Although it had create pointers for the exam and awesome recaps, the persistent mentioning of "failing the exam", "if you are not familiar with this, you'll find the exam tough" - things like this can be demotivating. Nevertheless I am grateful to the content of her book.
3. I re-read the PMBOK and once again went over Rita Mulchay in tandem. Things slowly started falling in place.
4. I was still not satisfied that I did a good job getting a hang of it, so I read both the books once again. and once again. So I did a total of 4 times on each book.
5. I then took up a PM Study exam and scored a 77% on it.
6. By September 15th I signed up for the prepcast.
7. I listened to Mr Cornelius Fichner's lessons and everything then made real real real sense to me.
8. I had decided to listen to all of his videos and the interviews (they were priceless).
9. I also kept going thru the PMP articles and abstracts.
Mock exams:
PMP Exam 1 Pass (90%)
PMP Exam 2 Pass (90%)
PMP Exam 3 Pass (90%)
PMP Exam 4 Pass (88%)
PMP Exam 5 Pass (86%)
After taking 5 mock exams, I felt a lot of questions that I previously answered started frequenting in every subsequent mock exam. So I did the timed mode and selected "unanswered questions". I did an average of 80% in the subsequent exams and I was disappointed that my average was beginning to fall. However, I finally finished all "unanswered questions" and started doing these quizzes, by selecting "only questions that I answered wrongly" - this way I covered the entire scope of the mock questions on the prep-cast.
I averaged around 80% towards my exam date.
1-day before the Exam on Oct 30:
1. I skimmed the PMBOK guide and listened to some of the few critical processes on the prepcast.
2. I listened to some motivational videos.
3. I meditated
4. I prayed
5. I ate well
6. I slept early
On the day of the exam on oct-31:
1. I was impressed with Bangalore's Prometric Center and noticed how meticulously they went over the procedures.
2. I did not do a brain dump nor did I write down any formula.
3. I took up the entire 15-min before the exam to cool off and pray.
4. I started and my heart sank
5. Towards the 60th question - I thought I'd fail. After reading the other "lessons learned" I was under the impression that the questions become easier as the exam progresses. However this was not the case.
6. I however just went with my gut feeling + marked off those questions that I was not sure of. At question-100 I had marked almost 50-60 of them.
7. I was sure I'd fail, nevertheless, I just kept moving on and on.
8. I did not attempt the quants in the 1st pass, I made of note of those questions and came back to them after I was done with all my 200. This was because I knew my weak area is quant.
9. So I was done by 3:05 hours.
10. Now I went over all my marked questions . I changed almost 15-20 of them.
11. It was 3:45 min and I was still reviewing the marked questions and I had almost 60 more to go.
12. I then went from question # 200 backwards, and managed to cover a few questions.
13. Time was up and I had almost 30 unreviewed questions.
14. I really thought I'd fail.
15. I took up the feedback and went on to see the sweetest surprise in the recent past "CONGRATULATIONS" with a 4AT/1T. I almost chocked with shock.
Gratitude:
1. My biggest thanks to the prepcast team, I'm positive that signing up for the prepcast was the singular thing that made a difference to my score. The exams are pricless.
2. Big thanks to my husband for putting up with my obssession during the PMP preparation.
3. Thanks to my children for understanding my preparation needs.
4. And biggest thanks to God - He helped me keep the fire of wanting to pass the PMP exam alive.
Suggestions:
I loved the prepcast mock exams, the % success on the 1st time attempt was useful to guage the likelihood of success.
However I felt the statistics could have included an additional parameter say "level of difficulty". This way people know how they fare on a "difficult" question, vs a simple one. It would be really nice to understand the level of difficulty attached to every answered question, what the general test takers feel about it.
