Finally after a long summer studying for the PMP certification, I sat for the exam on Saturday 10/17 and I passed on my first try. This article is about my experience with the PMP exam which might help others starting the same path, but also telling my personal story, so it might be quite long for some people to read.
Background: IT lead developer, and project manager for ERP and E-Commerce implementations, for small sized projects. About beginning of this year I thought the best way to be prepared on this bad economic times was getting a certification and I found the PMP certification more valuable than technical courses I used to do in the past, which was my other option.
Study plan: I did not develop a study plan from the beginning, instead I did a progressive elaborated plan where I was completing one step and then planning the next one. I knew important family events were close like the birth of our first child, so I preferred not to plan in advance, and go one step at a time. At the end, all the study process took me about 4-5 months elapsed time, but I would say an effort of about 200+-40 hs. I have read LL's of people taking not more than a month, which that really is remarkable, but I personally think it takes some time for the brain to process such high volume of information, and also I feel lucky I have a life which does not let me spend that many hours studying per day. Here you have to find whatever plan works for you, and whatever worked for me might be probably a slow process for some people, and fast for others.
I started this journey on April 2009, at that moment I started browsing the internet for information and right away I decided I would shoot for the 4th edition exam. First issue: not enough study material for this edition was available on the market.
Step1 Contact hours: browsing the internet found Cornelius Fitchner Prepcast which seemed too good to be true, spent a weekend reading reviews which convinced me it was the product I was needing, decided to purchase it on that weekend but found out the 4th edition was not ready until the end of the month. So to gain some time purchased the PMBOK at $65 on ebay, and started reading it, to be honest I was not able to finish it. I found only scope and time management were understandable knowledge areas to me since were the only ones I had experience with. I realized that it was wasted time to keep reading it with no other source of information to understand what I was reading, so kept waiting for the prepcast. Finally in may it was released and since I subscribed to a waiting list, I got a discount and cost $70. Going thru the Prepcast took me elapsed time of 6 weeks, 2 hs on a daily basis after work. I passed the prepcast test on June 28th, which allowed me to print the 35 contact hours certificate and started planning the next phase.
Step 2 Fill application: After an alternatives analysis of paying the exam fee versus PMI membership+discounted exam fee, opted for the latter. Paid $129 for the PMI membership and started filling the PMP exam application (elapsed time about 3 days)
Step 3 slow reading of PMBOK, it seemed a total different book after completing the prepcast compared to the first useless reading. On this reading I focused on understanding concepts more than studying or memorizing, and the whole methodology started now to make sense to me (Elapsed time of 4 weeks)
Step 4 faster reading of PMBOK now on study mode, repeating thru what I thought were important concepts (Elapsed time 2 weeks)
After several weeks of reading, it was about time to get the feeling of exam questions. I found a highly recommended blog at deepfriedbrain.blogspot.com with tons of resources for passing the exam. In particular I used the 'Free mock exams' section, which I started working bottom up. Just after a few questions, I realized too many questions were referring to topics I ever read. Until that moment I thought the prepcast+PMBOK were all the resources I needed, it happened they were not enough and I was needing to issue a change request. So I started reviewing prep books, and the obvious option seemed to be Rita's book, by far the most recommended book.
Step 5 bought Rita Mulcahy 6th edition, at ebay for $60. Following the book recommendations, started by doing all chapter questions before reading the book, which averaged 75%. Then completed the reading of the book (elapsed time 4 weeks)
Step 6 fast reading of Ritas book emphasizing on charts and chapter exercises which I did not completed, I always went directly to the answers except the Rita's process game, time management and earned value exercises(elapsed time 1 week)
Step 7 memorizing by photocopying the 9 knowledge area ITTOS, formulas I got from the web, PMBOK and Rita's process charts on both pages 43, PMBOK summary on Appendix F, and various Rita's exercises like actions to complete each process group, roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder, etc.
Up to this point, I did all the study with no rush since: 1- I preferred to sit for the exam after our baby was born, and 2- did not schedule an exam date which would have put some pressure. I think this was a good approach, but also I have to agree that feeling the pressure of a schedule date helps to not over studying which I felt at some point. Break of 1 week when having a baby, if that is not a good reason for stopping what is it!!!
Step 8 After the break, analyzed the best possible date for the exam, and scheduled it for 10/17 at 1pm. Up to that moment I did not know it was possible to sit on a Saturday and it seemed to be a good option so I did not have to ask for the day off.
Step 9 In order to get in full exam mode, reviewed list of mock exam websites from the blog I recommended before, and discarded the ones from older editions, and others with inconsistent questions (more than 4 answers per question, duplicated answers, or empty answers), so finally collected a list of added value exams and planned to start with 2 hs duration exams and finish the preparation with full 4 hs exam. I planned to spend the following 5 days answering exams, until completing the list. The first few of them helped to understand the type of questions I may find, and also analyzed and learnt from failed answered questions. Some of the mock exams with their corresponding scores were: PM Educate 68%, IT World 58%, Prepare PM 84%, Tech FAQ 360 78%, PM Study 82%, Head First PMP 81%, Oliver Lehman online 72% and Oliver Lehman downloadable 75%. During this final phase, my confidence was boosted day by day and at the end I really felt confident about passing.
Finished with the exam taking phase, 4 days before the exam and then dedicated to review knowledge areas I scored poorly on the exams, like HR and social responsibility, also reviewed once again ITTOS and charts on Rita's book. Next day I did not study, and with 2 days left tried one exam more pretending I was on the examination room, doing things like not going to the restrooms or drinking anything for the 4 hs duration but not much luck with it. This was the only commercial exam I paid for, from PMStudy which I scored 85%. It seemed pretty easy and it really did not make much effort. Day before the exam took a final review, and already feeling nervousness and excitement for being so close. I skimmed thru as much as I could and managed to review everything I needed, anyway the dices were already rolling and I was not going to learn anything new at that point.
Day of the exam: slept alone in the bedroom and managed to sleep much needed 8 hs, played a little with the baby and had an omelet before leaving, I was feeling pretty relaxed. Took a banana and gatorade with me, in case I decided to take a break.
Environment: the place was crowded, most of the positions were in use, probably they were sitting for another exam since people were too young for PMP. Many of them fast typing on the keyboard and making too much noise. Tried the headsets and they were canceling most of the noise but I had to take them off a couple of times since they were not comfortable on my ears after using them for hours. I started with the tutorial, and the message was saying to start in 1 minute or the exam would end, oops better press the button quickly. I went thru the tutorial as fast as I could in about 3 minutes, and started the brain dump sheet as I read on other LL posts. I wrote the formulas first, and then the process chart from page 43, and managed to do it right on time.
The exam: It was way much difficult than any of the mock exams I did.Most of the questions were situational.I was hardly ever sure I was answering correctly, most of the time I had to pick between the 2 potential right answers.All this made me go extremely slow, comparing to the time it took me to answer on the mock exams. I Only took one break around the 3hs mark to go to the restrooms, but did not take the snack. After the break I focused on not making such a long thought process and just take a decision, even when I was not sure of the right answer because I was not going to be able to finish on time. I even had to drop the coin on 2 EVM questions I knew I had no time to go thru a math problem resolution. Finally I finished the 200 questions with 20 minutes left, having about 15 marked questions, and 7 unanswered questions, which I managed to finish on time. Along the 4 hs the nervousness got in crescendo, because I started pretty confident and taking the time to answer each question, and finished really worried to the point I was shaking. Getting the results was pretty disturbing. I knew there was going to be a survey at the end, but I thought that was going to be presented after showing the results. So after processing the results which took a few seconds, I thought I saw I message box flickering which I could not read anything and then right away the survey screen popped up, at that moment I thought I failed because I was expecting the Congratulations screen. So I canceled the survey screen and only after that the Congratulations screen popped up, so watch out the survey comes before the results. After that final take, I spent shaking for 15 minutes, but extremely happy and relieved.
It has been an atypical summer, no exercising, no spending time on hobbies, and no weekends, but finally I was rewarded with the PMP certification which I hope will help me on my personal and professional growth. I hope this story will help to others on the road of becoming a PMP, and any questions more than welcome.
My scores were:
Initiating - Moderately Proficient
Planning - Moderately Proficient
Executing - Moderately Proficient
Monitoring and Controlling - Moderately Proficient
Closing - Proficient
Professional and Social Responsibility - Moderately Proficient
