Challenges I Overcame to Get My PMP®: Mohammed Saleh Almohimeed

Shiv, I passed my PMP® exam and here are few points I would like to share for the benefit of PMESN blog readers.

First, I thank my God Almighty, then thank my parents for their contribution to my success. Also, special thanks to my wife, sons and daughters for their understanding when I was not able to spend time with them during my preparation for this certificate.

Big thanks to my teachers, Dr. Farid Bouges, Dr. Rami Bitar, Eng. Ammar mango, Mr. Cornelius Fichtner and his team, Mr. Dan Ryan, Mr. Shiv Shenoy, and my boss Eng. Hesham alrabah. I am thankful for my partners (Mr. Waleed Edress, Mr.Ali Alshri, Eng. Mouth Alshareef).

Study materials used in my PMP® preparation

1. My session with Dr Fred Bugis at SAC Center in August 2009 on the 4th version of PMBOK.
2. Course in Jordan with Eng. Ammar Mango in July 2010
3. With the engineer Saleh Al-Mahmud at SAC Center in April 2011
4. Course with Mr. Cornelius Fichtner by participated in electronic course a PM PrepCast videos and Exam Simulator, Flash cards, act.
5. Session with the instructor/Dan Ryan by coaching four weeks beginning in 2016 meet for an hour/week
6. Online course PMStudy.com with four exams, Videos and chapters exam.

Challenges I faced

My PMP® journey too was filled with challenges like most of PMP® aspirants. Here are a few that I had to work around –

1. The language is one of my big challenges because English is not my native language. To address this challenge, I started reading books as often as I can and solved thousands of sample questions.  Now I feel my language is better than when I started.

2. Updates to PMP® syllabus

When I initially decided to get PMP® certification, PMBOK-4 was in force. Then PMI introduced to PMBOK-5, later in early 2016 there was an update to the syllabus.

I could overcome this by taking PMP® courses in Udemy, and the PM PrepCast – both of which were updated to updated to latest PMP content.

3. Time management

Training myself to manage solving 200 questions in 4 hours was a challenge. I overcame this by practice, practice and more practice. As I started taking full-length mock tests I could identify what type of questions I was spending more time on, and consciously managed my time.

4. Studying alone seemed bit boring and disconnected. I realized that many of my friends appearing for PMP exam also faced similar issue. So we made WhatsApp group and connected with each other on a daily basis. Support of each other, both morally and through content sharing, helped all of us in the group.

Also read: My 2-Phase PMP Exam Strategy, by Mukesh Singh, PMP

Reference material I used

1. Rita book 8th edition with fast track
2. PMBOK 5th edition
3. All books of Mr. Shiv Shenoy

My method for preparing for the exam

I started with my new plan in the month of January 2016.

I created a plan as the following –

• The 1st week chapters 1,2,3 from PMBOK and Rita
• The 2nd, 3rd week chapters 4 from PMBOK and Rita
• The 4th week chapters 5 from PMBOK and Rita
• The 5th week chapters 6 from PMBOK and Rita
• The 6th week chapters 7 from PMBOK and Rita
• The 7th week chapters 8 from PMBOK and Rita
• The 8th week chapters 9 from PMBOK and Rita
• The 9th week chapters 10 from PMBOK and Rita
• The 10th week chapters 11 from PMBOK and Rita
• The 11th week chapters 12 from PMBOK and Rita
• The 12th week chapters 13 from PMBOK and Rita

Then I followed the following steps –

1. Read chapters 1,2,3 from PMBOK
2. Read the same chapters from Rita book
3. Did PMStudy chapter exam
4. Did Fast track for the same chapters
5. Back to the steps from 1 to 4 on the rest of chapters.

I listened to PM PrepCast in my car during my commute. I also jointed with some PMP® groups in Facebook such as this one.

I went over books and content released on PMESN.

I took PMP Simulator exams and solved more than 1600 question out of the database of 1800 question.

When my score reached 72% in Rita PMP® exam (200 Questions ) and from 75-80% in PMStudy I scheduled the real exam.

I gave my PMP® exam on 31-May and passed!

All the best,

Mohammed Saleh Almohimeed, PMP

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