PMP Lessons Learned

PMP Prep Advice by Deepa John, PMP

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.

pmp prep advice

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.

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PMP Exam Preparation Plan: Vivek Gulati, PMP

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 usedpmp exam vivek gulati

  • 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.

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My PMP Exam Prep In 3 Weeks: Swati Popli, PMP

Hi Shiv, I want to share my PMP exam prep story with your readers. It indeed is a great feeling passing the PMP exam. Actually feels nothing less than conquering Himalayas. ?

pmp swati infosysMy PMP journey started last year in August when I had enrolled for training program for a week. Post training I did do one round of study for PMBOK as well as Rita Mulcahy but that was more of scanning.

These books were not able to bind me well as they were too exhaustive and verbose. Post one reading of books, from October 2015 to June 2016, I was pretty much held in my assignments, which did not leave me with much time to study.

My books were packed away and it was like out-of-sight-out-of-mind story. In late May I received Paper Submission event from PMI and I logged into their site, only to realize that my membership was expiring on 31st July. I was planning to take personal time off for June and it worked perfectly well with my plans of passing PMP exam.

So essentially my PMP preparation was 3 weeks. And here’s my schedule. [click to continue…]

Hi Shiv, I have just passed my PMP exam last week with Proficient in all domains, and I wanted to thank you for the resources you share with the community as they were important for my preparation.

I want to share my road to PMP as I think it might be useful for others.

The beginning

kris pmp bulgariaI started my preparation with 35hr training session in the beginning of March.

As I know my learning process (highly utilitarian and concentrated on practical application) I started from the beginning to apply the new knowledge to assess previous projects that I have been managing or am a part of.

The mistakes that were made there, whys and hows of the PMI processes could have helped there. And indeed, in every knowledge area that we were speaking about during the course I have found answers that I should have known earlier!

I was going in my head through the scenarios of how I would manage project differently this time, even sketching schemes and elements to use in each project depending on its specifics. [click to continue…]

This week we’ll look at the PMP® journey of Basheer Baba, who got his PMP® certification earlier this month.

Hey Basheer, Congratulations on your PMP success, and thank you for sharing your prep advice with PMESN audience. When did you start your PMP exam preparation?

pmp prep advice basheer babaBasheer: I started my preparation in February, 2016.

Q> What was your study approach and what study resources did you use?

My study approach was in 3 parts.

In the first stage, for each Knowledge Area (KA) I first read the HeadFirst PMP® book along with  Shiv Shenoy’s blog posts on PMESN. He’s given all the topics in simple, short and easy to understand format. Next I went over the same KA from Rita Mulcahy’s book and finally from PMBOK guide.

The reason I started with FeadFirst was because I liked the way they explain concepts. It is easy to understand the topic as it has pictorial representation. For details I always have PMBOK that I studied in the end. [click to continue…]

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.

my pmp lessons learned salehBig 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.

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Dear Shiv, here is my PMP exam prep experience. I’m hoping that it will help other PMP applicants.

My PMP journey was a difficult but an interesting one. I work as a Civil Engineer and my work schedule include eight hours a day, six days a week schedule, which leaves me very little time for PMP study. Moreover, I had just three years of project management experience but I was determined to get certified once I met the minimum requirements PMI has mandated for eligibility.

Classroom beginning to my PMP exam prep..

I started with classroom training last October and for about a month I studied what I learned daily in the course, but managing work and studies was difficult at the beginning.

I started studying right after the training. I planned to study for three to four hours a day but it did not pan out that way on most of the days. However, this act of planning helped me keep my study momentum.

I ended up studying for two hours during the weekdays and managed to study very well on weekends (my one day-off); this day was a great time for me to study well. I managed to clock in five hours (sometime more).

During this period I couldn’t set a date for the exam as my study plan didn’t work well for the first month, and I wasn’t sure if I’d have enough time. So I decided to set my exam date after some more preparation till I could get a better sense of my progress. [click to continue…]

My PMP Resources & Lessons Learned – Santhi R, PMP

Shiv, I passed PMP in first attempt with 3P and 2MP!

Here is my experience, hope this will help people studying for their PMP exam.

PMP training

pmp santhi rMy core study companion was the PM PrepCast by Cornelius Fichtner – Needless to say, it is the best one available. Thank you sir!

Other PMP resources I used

1. HeadFirst PMP – My favorite. Gives good foundation. Liked many aspects of this book.

2. Rita Mulcahy – Great book to understand the topics in depth and in a practical approach.

3. Andy Crowe – Very easy to understand and to the point.

4. PMBOK – Hardly touched. Covered only a few chapters. I should have read it.

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