Last updated on January 26, 2017
Pass PMP Exam in First Attempt – Deepak Shares His Experience
In this post, I have shared Deepak Chander’s PMP journey and PMP exam experience in his own words. He passed PMP exam in first attempt in October 2016. He has kindly documented his experience and shared a few tips that can help other PMP aspirants.
I conducted a PMP exam prep workshop in July 2016. Deeapk was part of that workshop. I found him to be highly motivated about the PMP exam. Throughout the workshop he was attentive and was asking right questions. I am glad that he is the first person to crack the exam out of his batch.
Without any further delay, let me share Deepak’s experience in his own words.
Deepak’s Experience
I am writing this blog to share my experience with all of you & the strategies I followed to get through PMP in first attempt.
My PMP preparation span over 5 months. First two months for only PMBOK reading. I admit, I didn’t understood much of it but was good enough to get the basic ideology of projects, processes, knowledge areas & PMBOK structure.
Then comes the 35 contact hour training. That was a booster & kick start for the rest of preparation. It sets foundation & clears basic fundamental of the management practices. It was helpful to understand the meaning & relations among ITTOs.
After training I completed the thorough reading from Headfirst & covered the chapter wise questions. I read somewhere that the Headfirst is not the perfect book for PMP, But must say it is the easiest book to understand & interesting to read. Choose one which suits you well.
It took 2 month to cover all content from Headfirst. Then I scheduled my exam date & according plan for my end phase study & 7 days leave just before exam.
End phase study involved taking simulator test & looking after pitfalls. I covered nearly 2600 question(many of them were repeated). During my end-phase study I referred PMBOK for every issue or concept. This was my best shot of preparation…I believe.
Then finally cleared PMP.
5 Suggestions
- Read & understand every word of PMBOK.
- Get a better understanding of PMBOK structures & popular terms before 35 hours training so that you get most of time in understanding the rest.
- Get one more book for variation & further analysis.
- Get Online Test Simulator. This will provide you thousands of questions. Leverage to create your own test both Knowledge area based & Process group based. Closely assess your progress & practice what pulls you behind.
- Schedule your exam at least 20-25 day before your desire date & plan last couple of weeks very specifically.
Study Material Used
Joseph Phillips PMP Training Course on Udemy (All mock tests and flashcards)
Rita Mulcahy’s Book (Only questions of few chapters)
Christopher Scordo’s PMP Exam Simulator
I feel very happy for Deepak and wish him good luck for life ahead. Please leave a comment if you have any suggestions.
Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Appreciating the persistence you put into your blog and detailed information you provide. It helped me pass the exam.
Thanks.
Congratulations and thanks for sharing your experience with the PMP Examination. Your suggestions will be very useful for people who are currently training for the PMP Certification. Good point made on using a test simulator it will help gain a lot of important experience.
Thanks.
Good one. 6th tip – do lot of Q.
Thanks.