All,

   I have liked the informative exchange in PMHub. Please find my lesson learnt in both prep phase and during exam.  

Preparation

1)       Learning has to be iterative, the concepts of management have to sink in gradually so that they become a habit while applying over practical situations.

2)       I did not have too much time to prepare, so the approach I took was to focus on PMBOK, Rita (book and question bank), training, and numerical questions (for practice).

3)       Rita mulcahy book will not make much sense till attempting questions brings out the gap in understanding

4)       On the last day, trainer gave me an insight when I felt unsure on the numerous inputs and outputs. He suggested I start each knowledge area trying to understand each process’s main purpose, why its there. Then figuring in your mind as to what inputs will make it happen and what are the prime outputs I am trying to arrive at. Linking processes of each knowledge area like this gave a good grasp of basic inputs and outputs. In exam, using elimination for input output questions brought the answer clearly

5)       Rita’s question bank was good for training on such question/answer pattern.

6)       Seeing lags, leads, free float, project float in an activity diagram helped me get to their value and purpose

7)       For EV, PV, SV, CV, CPI, SPI: questions were testing just the basic understanding of what they mean in real life scenarios or as values and when you will use one formula for EAC versus the other (BAC/CPI or AC + ETC or AC + (BAC-EV)

8)       Knowledge of contract types should be such that given a situation we should be able to assess which contract is more suitable and why. 

Exam taking:

1)       Started by writing all formulae on the first half page of scratch paper sheets. It’s a booklet of four pages, so 8 sides.

2)       Finishing the first round gives a better feel, skipping lengthy text questions or numerical

3)       Questions give relatively less sense of familiarity, more so in the first round.

4)       Its about catching the essence of a question from wordy questions (often made to appear confusing too)

5)       Practicing elimination of choices helps

6)       In second round, the question might give a clearer perspective. Should not get stuck on any question

7)       The exam in the end has option of reviewing all un-attempted questions by simply clicking next and same for all marked questions, in a series. I did not know this feature.

8)       Last round of going through each and every question, thinking again on questions that looked unsure, helped me correct some of them.

9)       Some questions and terms are out of blue, being prepared for it helps

10)   Procurement questions were many: numerical were made confusing with values for price, cost price, profit, actual profit etc.

11)   For a question you might know the answer, its just that you do not see it as one of the options J  Got to understand which of the choices relates closest to the actual answer

12)   Some questions are made wordy solely for confusing. In the end the question can be very simple and basic with a straight answer.

13)   Language of the questions is not always straight.

14)   Questions on what would you do FIRST from a series of actions are often there

best wishes,

Chowpsey