Fwd: Lesson learned : PMP

[Karthik Ramamurthy]

All,

Here is an email from Santhi Krishna, a student of PMP & Beyond in April.

She has just passed the exam, and written a detailed Lessons Learned email.

Please go through for your benefit.

And if you have not already started collecting details for your PMP application, start NOW!

In the meanwhile, have a great day!

Thanks and with best regards,

Karthik.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: PMP&Beyond Communications <pmpand...@pmi-chennai.org>
Date: Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 10:40 AM
Subject: Re: Lesson learned : PMP
To: Santhi Krishna <santhik...@gmail.com>
Cc: pmp_ap...@googlegroups.com, The Board <bo...@pmi-chennai.org>


That's great news, Santhi!

You should definitely attend our next PMI Chennai Chapter Knowledge Sharing Session in June so we can recognize your achievement -- we do this for all new PMPs at every session.

It gives all our faculty great happiness to hear that you completed the PMP, and also shared your Lessons Learned with us. Please also post this on pmhub.net so that more people can benefit from your experience!

And why is it that I don't see the letters PMP after your name?

Don't feel shy -- you have every right to use it -- after all, a lot of hard work goes into passing the exam!

For everyone else in the April batch, one down, thirteen more people to finish the PMP! 

If you have not yet completed the application, aim to do so immediately!

Have a great day ahead!

Thanks and with best regards,

Karthik.

On Wed, Jun 2, 2010 at 10:53 PM, Santhi Krishna <santhik...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi all,

Today I passed PMP exam!! My sincere thanks to all PMI Chennai chapter faculties for helping me successfully complete the most important exam in my life.

Below are some of the points which I think would be helpful to you in preparing for exam.

Preparation :

I read PMBOK and Rita 4 times. I took questions at the end of Rita and Road to Success twice. Each time I noted the percentage of correct answers and re-read chapters were I scored badly.

Below are the sites which provides free mock test. Answers in some of the sites were not correct. 

http://www.headfirstlabs.com/PMP/pmp_exam/v2/quiz.html#   : was easy
http://www.pmstudy.com/enroll.asp      : Site was slow. Quality of questions were good. toughness was almost same as those in actual exam
http://www.oliverlehmann.com/pmp-self-test/75-free-questions.htm    : 2 sets 75 ad 175 questions was tough
http://www.preparepm.com/pmp/questions.html
http://www.preparepm.com/mock1.html
http://www.preparepm.com/mock2.html
http://www.headfirstlabs.com/books/hfpmp/hfpmp_ch15.pdf
http://www.tutorialspoint.com/pmp-exams/pmp_mock_exams.htm
http://www.tutorialspoint.com/pmp-exams/pmp_sample_questions.htm
I took four mock tests in mqhub.com

I came across some of the mock test sites only 1 or 2 days before exam and hence could not utilize the test to the maximum. It would be helpful if PMI Chennai chapter provides list of such sites which provide free mock test to participants.

While taking mock test I would write down the areas were I lacked and re-read those areas (rater than go check the answer in the site which could be wrong). This helped me a lot in identifying areas were I needed to improve. Below is the list. Hope this would be helpful to you.

HR/staffing mgmt plan
net present value
war room
collocation
attribution
general management
opportunity cost
bcr
product/project life cycle
coordinator/expediter
assumption/constraint
problem straight line depreciation
value analysis/marginal analysis
forecasting methods
procurement doc/non disclose
screen/weighing
y manager
business case/project objective
management by objective
group thinking
rty/fty
liquidated damages
journey to abilene
irr roi    
Constructive change 
project champion
unit price
analogous - top down

The exam :

I took two breaks during exam : at 120 and 200 questions before reviewing marked questions. Eatables and water can be kept outside the locker and during break you are allowed to have it.

I finished all questions within 2 hrs 32 mts. After that I went through marked questions. I had more than 65 questions marked. After reviewing marked questions (most of them I did not change the initial answer)  I got some more time when I reviewed questions from the start where I could have made mistake because of the tension in the beginning.

Some of the questions were direct sentences from PMBOK so read it thoroughly!!

Be ready for surprises! Some of the questions were very easy. The exam had a lot of terms which I have never heard mostly as options for question. The trick is to prevent tension and think logically. The end result was the biggest surprise of all. For most mock tests I was rated badly for Planning/Execution/ Monitoring and control process groups. I was worried as these were the sections from which maximum questions were asked. But for the exam I was rated proficient in all the 3 process groups. :-)

I hope this mail would be helpful to you and I hope all of you pass the exam successfully at the earliest. Wish you all the very best for the exam.

Thanks and Regards,
Santhi