PMP Success Story: An Exciting Journey with Focussed Preparation

Supriya Ghosh is a successful PMP® today. I remember her mail in excitement when she informed on her cracking the PMP exam. Her own family responsibilities delayed the preparation a bit, but finally she earned her credential. 

She believes the work put in while preparing is worth the effort – when you see “Congratulations” on your screen, on being a PMP.

Supriya was part of my class in end of February 2016 at Bangalore. Supriya was initially sceptic, but as we proceeded she participated and took lead in solving the questions. I remember her taking the lead and coming to solve the questions on forward pass and backward pass calculations. I think she enjoys tricky question on mathematics – though unsure about the answers, she joins in and most of the time they were correct answers.  

Below, she has outlined her experience, which is unique. Go on and read it. 

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Introduction
The Project Management Professional (PMP) is the most important industry-recognized certification for project managers. I am currently leading projects and aspiring to grow my skills in project management. I felt PMP certification can give me an extra edge and help me beef up my resume. Hence, I decided to pursue this certification.  

I registered for training in Feb,2016 after doing some research on the web. At the outset, this seemed to be difficult – because the classroom training session is only for 4 days, and there was so much to cover. But that was the first look. 

PMP Training Experience
I was very lucky to have Satya as trainer. The training was beyond my expectations and it laid a strong foundation for me to proceed further for my preparation. He shared lots of tips and tricks to clear the exam during his session. 

I remember his unique way of calling people on board and making them solve exercises especially related to Critical Path, Total Float and Free float etc. It was awesome. Also he made us all memorise the entire 47 processes by the time his classroom session ended.

My Own Study
My preparation time was around four months with two hrs study on weekdays and no study on weekends - because of my child and family responsibilities. Two weeks before the exam, I took leave from office and did a focussed study of five to six hours daily. I tried Mock tests from various sources and was consistently getting 75%-80% score in my last week of preparation. The main study books for my preparation were the PMBOK® Guide and the book by Rita Mulcahy. I scheduled my exam on 28th July 2016.

My PMP Exam Experience
I scheduled my exam in the month of June 2016, around one month before the actual exam. at The Prometric exam centre was at PSN, Bangalore. I had scheduled at 1 P.M. and reached the exam centre 30 minutes early. 

Initial formality took some time. Finally, was assigned a desk for my exam. I had taken a manual calculator, although you can use online calculator given in the exam. I completed the exam in three hours but had almost forty questions for review, which I reviewed in the last one hour. I submitted my exam sheet and also did the survey that followed. Within a minute, Congratulations appeared on the screen! It was heartening to see the result.  

I was given a printout of the result from the centre. One proficient and four moderately proficient – in various performance domains (or process groups). The exam is not very difficult, however, it is not straight forward either.

• Exam was a mixed bag having questions ranging from low difficulty to high ones.
• Around % of questions were of low difficulty, 60% medium and 30% high.
• In my case, lot of questions were focused on initiating and closing.
• Also many questions were from pre-initiating phase.
• There were lot of questions involving stakeholders, communications, change management, requirements collection related processes. 
• Some 3-4 questions on beta distribution (probabilistic calculations). 
• 6-7 questions on EVM in which very simple calculations were involved.
• 2 questions on network diagram.
• I had no questions from Inputs, Tools and Techniques (ITTO).

Suggestions for PMP Aspirants
  -  Dos:
         o  You need 4-5 months of preparation. 
         o  4 Hours of exam time is more than sufficient if you prepare well.
         o  You need to remember a lot of stuff.

  - Don’ts
      o Don’t drag your preparation. You may lose motivation

Conclusion
Overall, I would say a focussed and dedicated study is needed to prepare for the exam. But finally that pays off once you see “Congratulations” on your screen.

Brief Profile: I am Supriya Ghosh and currently working as a Senior Consultant at Capgemini, Bangalore.

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Supriya’s PMP credential is available at PMI’s online credential registry. 

I am thankful to Supriya for sharing her experience, which I believe will help and guide other PMP aspirants, who are readers of this blog. 

Book Available for PMP Exam:

• New Book for PMP Exam Prep: "I Want To Be A PMP"

You may also like:

• PMP Success Stories of Year 2020s
• PMP Success Stories of Year 2010s

PMP Success Story: Not A Difficult Exam if You Put Your 100%

Sajith Vijayan believes PMP® exam is a not a very difficult one and you can definitely do it, if you try wholeheartedly. He was part of my class in February, 2016. I remember the batch to be quite lively with lots of questions. 

Sajith is a composed person with a deep listening approach.  One aspect he has downplayed, but which I want to emphasize is – his commitment, which you can see in this post. He is used to read in the cab while travelling, as it takes a long time to reach the office. Also he had booked a hotel next to the test centre to beat Bangalore traffic! Today he is a successful PMP.  I would say - well earned.

He has outlined his detailed experience in this post.  Go on and read his unique experience.

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Introduction

I heard about PMP for the first time around 3 years back from my colleagues. That time I was not so keen to get PMP certified. But over the time I have realized that PMP certification is a must to move ahead in this world of competitive job market. Around one year back PMP aspiration actually came into my mind and I decided to get PMP certified.

In order to avail the mandatory 35 contact hours, I googled for the authorized institutes and found a provider closer to my home. Then enquired about the institute from my colleagues. One of them told me that his reportee did the course there and cleared the exam.

My PMP Training Experience

I have attended the classroom training in February, 2016. Satya’s training was awesome. He is very knowledgeable, covered almost all the topics and his focus was to make us understand the concepts better. He used proper examples to make it simpler and easy to recollect. The exercises and study materials he has provided have helped me a lot for the exam.

Moreover, he shared a lot of tips and tricks during his sessions. His method of memorizing all the 47 processes was very good. We could recollect them like a story and had no need to mug up. He has created a few flow diagrams, e.g., flow of deliverable, which will help answering many questions right.

My Own Study
I would say my real preparation started after the training. I have read five chapters of PMBOK® guide. But every time when I read PMBOK it didn’t make me awake for more than half an hour. Later my colleagues suggested me to start reading Rita Mulcahy’s book. He also told me that if I am not planning to go through PMBOK I need to at least go through the glossary before appearing the exam. So I did the same.

Since my office is two hours away from my home I used to get 1.5 hours of quality time for reading in the cab. During weekends I spent around 4 Hrs. Meanwhile I scheduled the exam on 10th of August. 
One month before the exam my studies went into top gear. During this time, I finished reading Rita’s book two times along with study materials given during the PMP program and prepared my own notes. 

I took one week leave before the exam and started taking the mock tests, revised the topics using my notes and daily I spent almost 8 hours altogether. I could consistently score around 80% in the mock tests. I have decided not to study anything on the day before the exam.

My PMP Exam Experience

I have scheduled my exam at the Prometric Testing Centre in Prestige Shantiniketan, Bangalore. My schedule was in the morning as I wanted to write the exam with a fresh mind. Reporting time was at 8:30AM. The test centre was 24km from home. To beat the uncertainties of Bangalore traffic I have decided to stay at a hotel near the test centre. The previous day I went to the test centre and got the documents verified. They asked me to report at 7:30 AM instead of 8:30AM. So I felt the decision to stay near the test centre was right! If you are unaware of the location I suggest you to visit the test centre once before the exam. The campus is big and you may end up spending more time searching for the test centre.

I reached the test centre at 7:15AM on the D-Day. After verifying the credentials, they provided an instruction sheet and a locker to keep our belongings. They won’t allow you to carry anything inside other than your ID card and locker key. If you want, they will provide a manual calculator. I have collected one. Ear plugs were available at desk. I have used it during the exam.

There was a 15 minutes’ online tutorial about how to take the exam. I had some doubts which got cleared in that tutorial. Then the exam has started. My target was to finish at least 60 questions in an hour. But my answering rate was very slow. I could score only 37 questions in the first hour. Pressure started mounting on me. I realized that I won’t get time for review so I chose final answer for most of the questions though I marked a few questions for review. In the next hour also my answering rate didn’t improve. After two hours I answered around 70 questions where I am supposed finish 100 questions. I was under immense pressure when the timer shows 1.5 hours left and I couldn’t even read the questions properly. I literally became panic and started thinking about taking the test once again! 

Then I realized it won’t lead me anywhere and went out for a quick break even though I was lagging. I came back with a fresh and determined mind and started answering. I really caught up in the next 1.5 hours and finished answering all the questions just 1 minute before the exam ends! Immediately I submitted the results. While the results were processing in the background a survey about the Test Centre popped up. Within seconds after finishing the survey “Congratulations” flashed on my screen;-). I got 3 process areas ratings as “Proficient” and 2 are “Moderately Proficient”

The mistake I made was that even though I was 100% sure about the answers I kept reading twice or thrice to make sure that I didn’t miss anything while reading the question/choices because it was not the mock exam where I made lot of mistakes by not reading the question/choices properly. Some questions were very simple and straightforward. That made me think “WILL THE QUESTION BE THAT SIMPLE? OR DID I MISS READING SOMETHING?” – Believe me “NOT ALL QUESTIONS ARE DIFFICULT IF YOU STUDY WELL”.

Question Patterns that I remember:

• Mathematical questions – Around 10- 12 questions.
• Many are situational questions.
• No questions from professional and social responsibility.
• Some questions asked inputs/outputs of processes by describing a scenario.
• 4-5 questions about Pareto chart!
• One question on network diagram.

Overall the questions were not very difficult. If you prepare well you can easily pass the exam. 

Suggestions for PMP Aspirants:

- Dos:

• Have a proper study plan and stick to it. 
• Answer as many questions as possible before the exam. This will increase your confidence.
• Take 4 hour tests and manage your time.

- Don’ts:

• Don’t consider the mock exams as mock, consider it as a real exam.
• Don’t over study.

Conclusion

As noted before, not all questions are difficult. You can definitely do it if you prepare well.

Brief Profile: 

I am Sajith Vijayan and currently working as a Lead Engineer at Sasken Communication. I have 12+ years of overall experience in IT.

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Sajith’s online profile is available PMI’s registry. 

I am thankful to Sajith for writing his experience. I believe it will help the readers of this blog to prepare and earn their PMP credentials.  

Book Available for PMP Exam:

• New Book for PMP Exam Prep: "I Want To Be A PMP"

You may also like:

• PMP Success Stories of Year 2020s
• PMP Success Stories of Year 2010s