Preparing for PMP exam - My experience

During my MTech in Computer Science from IIT Kharagpur I got a chance to take class on project management in Vinod Gupta School of Management( VGSOM). As I had executed number of projects in my career I felt this was relevant area to specialize. Towards this goal, I planned to acquire the PMI's Project Management Professional (PMP)® certification. PMI's Project Management Professional (PMP)® credential is the most important industry-recognized certification for project managers.  The exam is based on the PMI Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), and requirements to sit for the exam include, a bachelor's degree, at least 4,500 hours of experience leading and directing projects, and 35 hours of formal project management education. A candidate who passes the exam and meets the professional requirements is awarded the PMP certification. As I aspired to gain and certify my knowledge of project management I studied for three months and gave the PMP exam at the Prometric centre in Gurgaon. I am listing my study experience below which could be useful for PMP aspirants.

Study Material

My main sources of material for study was as follows

1. Head First PMP - Extremely useful  for understanding concepts and easy to read. As it is under Rs 1000/- it is a must buy and value for money. It should be the first read for anyone who wants to get a good introduction of Project Mgt concepts. It uses illustrations and diagrams to explain difficult concepts in a very interesting manner.  It has a sample exam in the book and  the same one on-line also. It is an extremely useful to get a slow, simple yet interesting and thorough introduction to Project Management.
2. PMBOK Guide  - Though it is very verbose and difficult to read, it is very essential for the PMP exam. You must read it once thoroughly and twice if you can find the time.
3. Rita's PMP Guide - It is a very exhaustive and lengthy book. Read the book only if you have the time and the stomach. I read a few chapters and then left it to do the questions in Rita's FastTrack. It is an expensive book and worth it only if you are sure you will read it thoroughly and use it as your main source of preparation.
4. Rita's PMP FastTrack Question Bank - They are an excellent source of questions. It is excellent for practice and gaining confidence. It has around 1600Q . I was able to do around 1200 of them. Again very expensive.
5. Simplilearn Online course - The online tutorials are an average introduction for PMP and can give a good introduction to Project Management concepts. Most people choose this course for it's low price and the fact that is well advertised. I personally feel  there are better options available.
6. Simplilearn Classroom training - As the training was for 2 days it was very basic and only skimmed the topics. It neither helped me master the concepts nor did it helped in preparing for the PMP exam. It would be preferable to attend a 4 day course from some good institute. I had studied the book and found the material offered by Simplilearn to be of sub par standard and instructor also inexperienced.
7. PM Study  Sample exams  - Good quality questions.  I only took the  free exam. If I had the time I would have taken  the paid versions also.
8. Deep Fried Brain website -  This website is an excellent resource for all kinds of material on PMP. The link for  the author's articles is given in this link http://www.deepfriedbrainproject.com/search/label/Archive  He has written some great articles for clarifying difficult concepts of PMBOK which are worth reading.  Link to access PMP resources is http://www.deepfriedbrainproject.com/2009/03/collection-of-resources-for-pmp-exam.html

Study Plan

My recommendation for study would be

1. Study HeadFirst PMP first to get a nice overview.
2. Read the PMBOK once fast without a break marking the topics you do not understand and leaving them for further study later.
3. Attend the classroom training for four days to clarify your doubts and get some tips and tricks for the exam plus some sample questions which they would give you for practice.
4. Start doing some sample questions available online ( enough are available) or from the class you took at Ser 3. Keep identifying the gaps in your knowledge and clarifying them while doing the questions.
5. Go through the www.deepfriedbrainproject.com website to get clarity in important concepts.
6. Study PMBOK once again . This time reading it thoroughly to understand the concept you could not understand in your last read. Use HeadFirst and Internet to clarify the concepts.
7. Prepare your formula sheet or download one from the net. and practice numerical questions as they are very easy to score. The PMP exam lays stress on Earned Value and Critical Path questions.
8. Finally give some ( 2 or 3 )  sample exams - HeadFirst , PM Study , Oliver Lehman, Rita etc... to gauge your preparation. If you are satisfied with your preparation or are scoring above 70% go and give the exam.

PMP Exam

Finally the exam

1. Truthfully , I found the exam surprisingly tough and was not sure I would pass. Maybe I was being too pessimistic.
2. The language and concepts tested are predominantly from PMBOK. So study it properly.
3. There were a lot of questions on Inputs, Tools and Techniques and Outputs. So find a way to understand them or memorize them for most of the processes.
4. The exam time was long, but it passes fast . I was able to complete the test in 3 hrs and 40 mins. I was not able to revise all my marked questions. As I had marked 60 odd Q's, expecting to review all of them was a little too much.
5. I believe the exam tests knowledge from outside the PMBOK also. However to just pass the PMP exam you do not need to study more than the PMBOK. Maybe one book like HeadFirst will help in understanding the concepts

I hope my experience would be useful for you. I believe  the pass rate is high :-)  Final words  - “The exam was tough , but it was a great experience overall”. Do post your comments and queries.