“You used just 2 PMP study guides?”, I asked Sivaram. I just wanted to be sure I heard it right.

If you are just starting your PMP journey you may be tempted to collect as much of information as possible from the internet.

This can be a bad move.

Too much information leads to Information Overload and Analysis Paralysis (though these are buzz words, they indicate exactly what the words suggest) – two traps that may get you overwhelmed and/or not let you make steady progress.

It happened to me when I started out, I kept collecting information like a squirrel collecting nuts for the winter, and eventually kept on jumping from one information resource to another – mostly judging their quality and usefulness than studying anything seriously.

[That’s one of the reasons I decided to create this blog, so ALL the necessary information, tools and techniques required for PMP prep is available in ONE place. That’s another story.]

Anyways, to cut to the chase, few days ago Sivaram wrote to let me know that he completed his PMP exam, and I requested him if he’d be interested to share his PMP prep advice on the blog. I was glad to see so many great tips he had for a PMP student, and noticed the fact that he had used just 2 PMP study guides.

Here’s his story!

Oh, and by the way Sivaram is an accomplished flute player of Karnataki style. If you are into music you’ll love his stage performance here.

-Shiv

[continue reading…]

Hi Shiv, thanks for letting me share my PMP test lessons with PMP aspirants. The PMP lessons learned from your site were great guide for me to prepare for my PMP exam.

Initial preparation

My journey to get this prestigious credential started as early as November of 2014.

However, due to various personal and professional commitment I could not devote quality time to prepare myself for the exam. I first attempted PMP test in the month of April 2015 and I failed it. It was evident to me that I was under-prepared. I could not take many of mock PMP tests and this contributed heavily towards my result.

Soon I joined a new company in a new role that certainly increased my responsibilities as well. So I had the renewed resolve to get my PMP credential.

Also Read: My 7-Step Simple PMP Test Prep Plan, by Rakesh Dharmani, PMP

The final push

It is only in October that I realized that the PMP test eligibility expiry date is not too far and I need to think about it. And then started my real preparation. Sometimes having some kind of deadline helps you focus on the task and get it done. In a way I’m thankful that I had this time restriction to get the certification done. It helped me take necessary action. [continue reading…]

I decided to attend PMP exam more from the perspective of learning the ideal way to approach project management process. As I started learning the concepts my way of thinking and approaching the day to day project management problems changed completely.

I started going through PMBOK and other study books not just to pass PMP exam, but to apply my learning in real life.

My PMP study approach

After making up my mind to appear for PMP exam I joined PMI and attended the 35hr contact classes on October 2015. Prior to attending the course I skimmed over PMBOK and felt it was really worth the effort. After my contact classes I decided to cover the rest of the guides – I bought the books written by Kim, Rita Mulcahy and the Head First PMP book.

[continue reading…]

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PMP Exam Cheat Sheet Kindle Book: Planning To #1 Best Seller Journey

18 July 2016, 10:00 am – Planning: PMP® Exam Cheat Sheet Kindle book

19 July 2016, 11:30 am – Completed first draft

19 July 2016, 4:45 pm – Created Cover page images

19 July 2016, 10:00 pm – Published the book on Kindle platform

20 July 2016, 1:22 am – Received notification from Amazon about book go-live.

20 July 2016, 7:00 am – Checked Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) backend, initial sales are in!

20 July 2016, 1:10 pm – Announced book release as part of weekly newsletter

21 July 2016, 8:15 am – Checked product page. Best Seller #1 position hit!

A hearty thanks to You, and everyone that has got the book – for your support and giving me an opportunity to contribute in your PMP journey.

Have a productive day,

Shiv

In the last post of this series Swati Popli shared her experience of preparing for PMP under 3 weeks. In this post Vivek Gulati, who passed his exam 3 weeks ago, shares what he did for his PMP Exam preparation and how he got over blockers that most of us face as well.

-Shiv Shenoy

Shiv, I’m glad to share my PMP experience with your readers. I felt it was one of the toughest PMP question papers. Needless to say you have played an important part in my PMP success.

I’ll try to keep this as brief bullet points.

My PMP exam preparation: resources I used

• I started with Rita’s PMP book and initially went through it twice. Then I switched over to the PMBOK guide and read it twice as well.
• I also enrolled for Simplilearn’s PMP course (self-study), because I felt other than self-study through books, we also need expert advice to pass the exam. I needed the 35 training hours as well.
• During the final stages of my preparation (last one month), I decided to make use of additional resources to cover the updated PMP content (new tasks added). That is when I read the books written by Shiv Shenoy as they contained additional content in simple language. I also used his books related to different process groups for final preparation.
• I am glad I came across the book ‘PMP Exam Simplified’ written by Aileen Ellis. It contained chapters written task-wise rather than by process groups. The quality of questions at the end of each chapter was pretty good. Also, there were a good number of questions arranged by process groups, so it was easy to know how much I was scoring in each process group. It also contained the updated PMP course content.

[continue reading…]