Shiv,
I am very happy to let you know that I passed my PMP exam on my first attempt last week!
I want to share my study experience with your readers.
PMP Preparation
My PMP journey started 3 years ago, when I received my first training from a friend who was certified and wanted to coach me. Unfortunately few month from them I had to relocate to another country with a new job. Soon enough PMI introduced PMBOK fifth edition.
My last sprint started in February this year, when a good friend recommended me PM Exam SmartNotes blog. I signed up for the free PMP Study Blueprint email course. Soon I finalized my study resources and ordered the PM PrepCast by Cornelius Fichtner. I used the link from Shiv’s PM PrepCast review page and received discount and precious PMP study books as bonus from Shiv.
PMP Application Stage
I submitted my application on 20 May 2015, and five day later I received a notification that my application has been accepted.
PMI membership is very important as you can have many reference resources from members area. Also you will get your own copy of PMBOK with your name marked. I suggest it is better to get PMP membership as early as possible.
During the month of June my computer was stolen, with all my study materials. I was pretty disappointed, I sent an email to Shiv and he kindly sent me all the books again. I would say this was an uncommon risk to manage 😉
Also read: What I found about PMP prep during my 4-month prep journey – by Muhammad Shahid, PMP
PMP Study materials I used
Following were my reference resources,
- PMBOK,
- HeadFirst PMP,
- Study notes and these study tips from PMExamSmartNotes.com, here
- PM PrepCast Video and Exam Simulator
My advice is to study the PMBOK rigorously, and be familiar with process Data Flow Diagram for each process. It would be useful to review DFDs regularly. For those who will do the exam in paper based test mode prepare yourself for this as you will not be able to write down brain dump before the exam.
Manage your time wisely during the exam, you have 4 hours for 200 questions – which means you get an hour each for 50 questions. For me this segmentation made it easier to cover all the questions in time.
Issa Mamadou, PMP
