My PMP Certification Experience

PMI certification ( Project Management Professional – PMP)

I just passed my Project Management Certification exam ( PMP) this afternoon (June 14th 2009) , and I am very glad it is over . It feels good to write my experience and lessons learned . Hopefully this will benefit other project managers and PMP aspirants.
I was quite surprised with the real exam. It was very different from what I had expected. I had very few earned value or calculation questions and encountered mainly scenario based or direct questions. I found it easier than I expected, since I tend to do well in scenario based tests. I did encounter a couple of questions that I had not seen in PMBOK or other books . In fact my very first question took me by surprise, since I had not seen the terms used in PMBOK. But over-all I would say the questions felt easy , since I was prepared for the worst.
Initially, I did spend some time memorizing ITTO, and I gave up after that, since I don’t do too good with memorization. And I was very glad to note that the exam didn’t require a lot of memorization, except for maybe the formula portion. Those of you like me that are scared of IITO memorizations and questions, can relax because the questions I encountered mainly tested your understanding of the processes and process flow and not memorization. Some of the techniques were worded differently to trick you. But if you understand the concepts, you’ll do fine.
My preparation time was 21 days (total) since I was under a time crunch . I started with Rita and PMBOK . I found Rita helpful. I made my own notes based on Rita and PMBOK. Since I was hurting for time, I didn’t get a chance to read any other book. However , I did get a copy of Andy Crowe 2 days before the exam and read 2 chapters and regretted not starting with that book first .
I know there people that like Ritas book. It is good too. It’s just a personal preference, since I felt Rita was more geared towards exam preparation. I took up some free exams and liked a few of them. Some of the mock tests were close to the real exam .
Study Tips -
Please beware of free exams on the web with incorrect answers. I took up some on-line tests that made me think I was NOT prepared and actually rescheduled( postponed) my exam by 3 days. Some mock exams tend to focus too much on remembering every line of the PMBOK. But that’s not the case in real exam ( atleast not the one I took up today) . I also found some study notes online that had incorrect formula etc. I feel the best way to remember key points is to make your own notes and study .
If you like Mindmaps or flash cards , use them. They will help a lot.
I found sites such as Honest Pm and Oliver very helpful. I scored well on both these tests and it made me feel better about my preparation. I felt the real exam was close to these two. I took up PM study tests as well. I liked the JIMBOK from PMHUB.
Watch out for any on-line study notes if you don’t know the source. Because there may be typos and you will end up remembering incorrect information.
I did not encounter many questions with calculations either. A few on Cost were very direct and easy. There were quite a few questions on quality and other areas of triple constraint. Make sure you understand procurement process very well. I read the chapter twice before the exam and it helped me a lot . Understand what each tool / technique does , versus memorizing the names. The exam can ask indirect questions on those.
I did my brain dump of PMBOK and formula on the sheet just before the exam. I was surprised that I never had the need to look at it, since the questions were really testing your knowledge .
Make sure you study social and professional responsibility as well.
If you are really good at memorizing, go ahead and learn the ITTO. There is no harm . But if you cant memorize, that’s fine too, you’ll still do very well as long as you understand the core processes.
If you have questions ( Comments? ), feel free to ask and I’ll include the answers here .