Lessons Learned – I Passed My PMP Certification Exam

I passed my PMP exam on December 13, 2010, and in today’s blog post, I am going to share how I prepared for the PMP exam and my lessons learned.

I hope you will find my lessons learned useful for your PMP exam preparation.

Let’s get started.

I decided to apply for the PMP exam back in May 2009.

After collecting all the information and reading the PMP Handbook, I started looking for an affordable training program. I found that all of the programs in Kuwait were far too costly.

So, I widened my search for a low-cost training program in my home state (Uttar Pradesh—India). Unfortunately, I could not find any PMP training provider near my location, even in my state capital.

I had no other option except to attend aPMP trainingin New Delhi, which was about 400 miles from my home. I started this training program in the first week of January 2010, during my vacation. The only book I studied before joining the training program was the PMP Handbook.

I began the training without doing my homework, and I suffered a lot because of my lack of preparedness. During the sessions, I was often unable to participate in the discussions, and many concepts were new to me.

It was an embarrassing situation, and I still regret it.

In the class, all participants were provided with aHead First PMP book, manual, mind maps, and a CD that had some PMP exam sample questions.

我有一个不好的印象的PMP的第一本书. Initially, it looked unusual to me. It contains hand-drawn diagrams, different types of fonts, notes in the margins, etc. However, as I started studying the book, I began to like it. It helped me understand important concepts.

After completing the training, I joined the PMI membership, and then I applied for the PMP exam.

My application was approved, and I started my studies at a slow pace. I lost interest in studying a few days later, and then I stopped reading.

我变得忙碌,忘记了PMP考试。在the time my eligibility was approaching its expiry and then, I woke up and applied for the PMP exam. I was not selected forthe PMP audit.

I headed to the Prometric website (now Pearson VUE are conducting the PMP test) and scheduled the exam. I had three months to prepare.

After I applied for the exam, I got a boost and started to study rigorously. I don’t know where I got this energy from, but I believe I was excited and became devoted to my studies.

I had a great deal of passion and enthusiasm after scheduling the exam.

After going through the Head First PMP book twice, I started reading the PMBOK Guide. At first, reading the PMBOK Guide was not enjoyable. However, the second time I was more comfortable with its concepts and enjoyed it more.

I also purchasedKim Heldman’s book, which was fantastic. The book is organized according to the process group, while the Head First PMP book is based on knowledge areas.

So, I had two books with different perspectives. Kim Heldman’s book was more detailed than Head First PMP. I studied both Kim Heldman and the PMBOK Guide twice.

I did not buy any simulators to practice the questions. I used the questions given at the end of the exercises in both books and a few online tests.

I only used tests by Oliver Lehmann and Head First Labs (This test is not available now). The Head First Labs test was straightforward, and the Oliver Lehman test was tough.

I focused on reading and spent little time practicing questions. The three months of preparation was enough, and I was well prepared for the exam.

I went to locate the testing center a day before the exam to avoid searching for it on exam day. The next day, I reached the test center 30 minutes before the scheduled time and completed all the formalities.

The exam started with a familiarization session. This is an introductory session; it showed me how to select an answer, use the calculator, and so on. The duration of this session was 15 minutes.

This did not count towards the exam duration. Therefore, I completed this session within five minutes and utilized the remaining time to note down some important concepts and formulas.

The PMI has banned using notes during this awareness session. You must end the sessions, start the exam and then you can make your braindump.

After that, I took two minutes to rest, complete the session, and then the test started. The questions were neither too tough nor too easy. Some questions were lengthy, but most of them have average length. Shockingly, I found a few repeated questions.

The mathematical questions were not too difficult and based on the formulas.

Be careful while solving situation-based questions, these are tricky.

I took my first break after one hour and my second break when I had completed all the questions after two and a half hours. I spent the rest of the time reviewing the questions and answers.

After a final review, I submitted my answers. This was followed by a survey. At last, I saw my result.

“Congratulations! You have passed your PMP Certification Exam.”

我不能用语言表达我的感情,这是one of the happiest moments of my life. After seeing the result, I left the exam room, and the Prometric staff gave me a printout of my results and congratulated me. I informed my friends and had a little party that night.

This was my journey tobecome a PMP.

My PMP Exam Lessons Learned

My lessons learned for the PMP exam are as follows:

Lesson Learned #1—Collect Information on the PMP Exam Application Process

Get a PMI membership and become involved with the organization. Meet PMPs and ask them for their lessons learned. It will motivate and energize you.

The most authentic source for PMP exam related information is the PMP Handbook. So, please read it.

Lesson Learned #2—Read a Good PMP Exam Reference Book and the PMBOK Guide

This will help you get the most out of your training.

I joined my training program without even opening the PMBOK Guide and I suffered a lot. It would be best if you weren’t in my position.

Lesson Learned #3 – Take an Online Training Program

Do not go for a classroom-training program unless you have a strong reason to do so. I suggest you take an online 35 contact hours program instead.

Online training programsare affordable, flexible, and you can attend them from anywhere. For my training, I spent two nights traveling and spent three days in a hotel.

在that time, online training programs were not well-known. Now you have options, so choose wisely.

Lesson Learned #4—Schedule the Exam

This is important.

After completing the training program, schedule the exam for three months in the future. This is enough time to prepare for the exam.

If you think that you will prepare well, then schedule the exam; trust me, you will never be ready for the exam. Once you schedule the exam, your hidden potential will emerge and then you will be motivated to prepare well.

You won’t take your preparation seriously unless you schedule the exam. If you don’t do it right after completing the training program, you may lose interest.

Lesson Learned #5—Refer to At Least Two PMP Exam Reference Books

我最喜欢的是头PMP,我的第二个choice is Kim Heldman. You can also use Rita Mulcahy instead of Kim Heldman.

Reading two books will give you different perspectives and will grant you more insight into the concepts.

Read the PMBOK Guide as many times as you can. I went through it more than five times.

Lesson Learned #6—Use a Good Quality PMP Exam Simulator

I did not use any simulators; I only practiced the questions available at the end of the PMP reference books and provided by my training providers, and those were enough for me.

However, I suggest you use any good qualityPMP exam simulator. It provides you with many practice questions and mock tests to iron out any weaknesses in your knowledge.

All of these should be enough for you.

Don’t try every free test available on the internet. Most of the time, they are not updated with the current syllabus and the quality of their questions is poor. Moreover, they don’t offer any support.

Lesson Learned #7 – Don’t Try to Memorize All ITTOs

Don’t try to memorize all ITTOs; they’re not easy to remember and trying to do so will only waste your time and probably demoralize you. If you follow my instructions for thePMP exam preparation, I assure you that you will be able to solve more than 70% of the ITTOs by yourself.

ITTOs are provided to understand the project management process flow, not for memorization. So, understand them but do not try to memorize them.

Lesson Learned #8—Pay Attention to Initiating and Closing Process Groups

These two groups have only four processes, so there will be fewer questions on them; therefore, you don’t want to miss any questions from these groups. Make sure you get a good score in these domains.

Note that if you get below target in these two domains, passing the exam will be tough for you. These process groups are small and have fewer questions, so you can easily miss and get a poor score.

Therefore, you have to put extra effort into these process groups. The remaining processes have many questions to play around with.

Try to understand the sequence of activities from “develop project charter”到“确定预算过程”。许多questions in your exam come from these processes.

Lesson Learned #9—Don’t Forget to Verify the Answers

This is very important.

Don’t forget to verify your answers before the final submission. Even though you are sure of the correct answer, you may have clicked the wrong option by mistake.

I was a victim of this.

While checking the answers, I noticed that I selected incorrect answers for two or three questions even though I knew the correct one.

This may happen to you as well. Therefore, before completing the test, check all your answers once again to avoid this error.

Summary

The first step to pass the PMP exam is to make a plan and follow it because if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Understand the PMP exam process, attend a training session, and schedule the exam. I strongly recommend you schedule the exam as soon as you complete your training so you will take your studies seriously.

Most experts believe that three months is enough, and I was able to complete my studies during this time.

Good luck with your PMP exam.

These are the lessons learned from my PMP exam. I hope it was helpful.

If you want to share your lessons learned on the PMP exam on this blog, you can contact me through the comments or send me email at[email protected]