My PMP journey (2009)

Cleared PMP exam yesterday
Hello All,I cleared my PMP exam yesterday. Would like to thank all who have helped me, supported me and encouraged me during the 9 month ordeal.I have immensely benefitted from information shared by other successful PMP's. Hence will also like to share some information about my exam preparation.

Why I wanted to opt for PMP?

I was working closely with PM's in my earlier role (as Service Delivery Manager) and was fascinated by the authority, attention to detail of PM's and always wanted to be a PM.In my present new role (Product Life-cycle Management), I was involved in a lot of mini- projects and I believed that PMI guidelines could be of immense help in executing those projects. Also, because of the present market conditions, I wanted to consolidate, strengthen my present position in my company and to standout from the crowd.

My preparation

Initiation: I started my casual preparation in July' 09 going through the various online trainings available on my company's training portal. This continued till mid Nov'09 when I registered with PMI.I bought the book Andy Crowe- How to Pass the PMP on your first try on 14th Nov'09. This was one of the best decisions that I had taken. Initially I had gone to Landmark Book store to buy Rita Mulcahy, but it was far too costly, so I decided to stick to Andy Book.

Planning: I chalked out a plan of action as follows:

1. Obtain the relevant PDU's from the online courses.
2. Apply with the relevant credentials to PMI
3. Attend for a 4-day PMP bootcamp
4. Schedule exam

Execution: I started going thorough Andy Book from mid Nov till Feb 09. I must say that I was focussed and went through each and every word of the book. The exercises made me analyze the various options before I answered (for the 1st time). Then I purchased the Rita's book on 1st Mar 09 and stared going through it for the 1st time. It was pretty good, but I would certainly score Andy over Rita. I completed my first pass through both the books before my bootcamp classes. I attended the PMTI Bootcamp in Delhi between 23rd April 26th April. It was very well structured and I solved approx 500+ exercises during the 4 day-period.

Monitoring & Control: I had a week's time after my PMP Classes and before my exam date. I intented to attempt as many mock tests as possible and revise the lessons that I had already learned.

My schedule was as follows:

Tue-28th April 09: Revise Rita - (completed), PMBOK- (not completed), PMBOK, Q&A-200 questions (completed)

Wed-29th April09: Revise Andy- (completed), Andy 200 Q&A- (completed)

Thu-30th April 09: Kim Heldman 200Q&A- (partially completed), Mock test from PMStudy-(completed)

Fri-1st May 09: Mock test from Headfirst(completed), Oliver Lehman-75 Q&A- (completed), Delegation by Vijay Verma- (completed)

Sat-2nd May 09: PMTI notes- (completed)

Sun-3rd May 09: PMBOK- chapters 1,2,3, Scope, Risk & Glossary (completed)

Monday-4th May 09: Final revision(completed)

* I had prepared my notes from Andy, Rita which had Input, Tools & Technique and Output (ITO), which I used to revise almost everyday, esp the ITTO's without memorising them.

** Page 70 of PMBOK is very important and I had learnt it by heart. It took me 4-5 minutes to reproduce it and I did the same in my Final exam during the 15 min practise test.