PMP Exam Lessons Learned by Syed Safdar Azeem

I passed my PMP certification exam on March 19th, 2018 on my second attempt. The first attempt was on Jan 11th, 2016.

I am grateful to the PMI for updating the PMBOK Guide and keeping it relevant, which acted as a motivation for some folks like me to schedule the exam. It happened to me twice, I scheduled my exam both times because of changes in the PMBOK Guide or the exam content outline.

2016年1月11日，每个人都在谈论changes on the PMP exam,所以我冲考试准备和attempted the exam knowing I was not ready and I might not pass. I failed the test, as expected.

我没有失去希望，决定在30天内重试，但由于其他优先事项而继续推迟它。

I gained momentum in August 2017 and scheduled the exam for Sep 17th, 2017 after I came to know that the PMP exam was again changing on March 26th. However, soon after I lost momentum and rescheduled the exam for Feb 19th. Again I had no solid preparation.

我得到了我的PMI会员资格on Jan 18th, 2018 and started my studies again. This time, I was prepared well. Being satisfied, I scheduled my exam for March 19th, 2018. This time I passed.

简而言之，除非您在口袋里放下凹痕，否则您不会获得动力。

Exam Questions Breakdown

以下是我在考试中发现许多问题的一些主题。

风险，Stakeholders, Communication, and Quality: you will find many situational questions from these knowledge areas. They are designed to be tricky and many questions will seem to have two correct answers. The other two choices were easy to eliminate.

综合变更控制：5〜6％的情境问题来自该知识领域。

预期货币价值（EMV）: about 5% of the questions were from this topic. None of them were complicated. With simple, logical thinking, you can find the answer.

关键路径法（CPM）: here, only logic was needed to solve the questions, even after drawing the network diagram. Sometimes a backward pass was not needed.

Quality Tools: about 15% of the questions were from this topic. You need a good understanding of these terms to solve such questions.

Conflict Resolution和Risk Responses：大约有5％的问题来自这些主题。

项目生命周期,Organizational Structure，PMO的角色，OPA和EEF：您将在考试中的每个主题中至少找到一个问题。

Estimation Techniques和Group Decision-Making Techniques: around 5% of the questions were from these topics.

合同类型：大约3％的问题来自该主题。

Please note that these percentages are just an idea and based on memory; I didn’t count them exactly.

There were no questions on the projectselection methodor the decision tree method on the exam.

I did not get many long questions, only about 3~4 were lengthy.

Exam Strategy

我计划在第一个小时解决至少75个问题，最后完成72个问题。在接下来的2小时10分钟内，我完成了所有200个问题，然后休息了一小段时间。

我留下了8个更艰难的问题，以供以后审查，并在我更放松时再次尝试。我在论文中注意到了这些问题的序列号。

休息之前，我在屏幕上标记了许多供审查的问题，但也将它们写下来。在我标记的18个问题中，我不得不更改11个答案。

底线：管理您的速度和时间，并尝试尽可能多地进行审查。

我在四个域中以“以上目标”和“目标”传递，并在执行域中通过“目标”。

预测教程

I suggest you learn how to use the marking and strike through techniques. This is very handy when you have to drill down your answer to the last two choices.

Exam Preparation

It took me one and a half months to prepare for this exam. I gained momentum as soon as I spent money.

PMP培训：我得到了我的35个manbetx2.0手机安卓版接触时间培训through a session held in my office in 2012 via VINSYS.

The PMBOK Guide:我经历了两次。

Rita’s 8th Edition:我读过一次，并以书中给出的顺序学习了计划过程组图表。

Andy Crowe:I read it only one time.

Sean Whitaker’s PMP Rapid Review:this was a good book to correlate the domain-wise tasks.

Edwel’s Bootcamp:this is an excellent book for a quick review and to learn things that you will not find in any other book.

首先首先PMP：我用这本书经历了一些艰难的主题，例如风险响应，冲突管理，合同等。书中的例子很好。

爱德华（Edward）令人困惑的条款和使用白板和标记的Saket Bansal的视频非常有帮助。他是宝石。

I also found Fahad’s blog useful. It has loads of study material with great examples, explanations, and query resolutions. Everything related to the PMP exam is available here.

Purchased PMP Training:“The Last Mile Program” and a “6-hour live class recording” from Daniel Ryan helped me go through everything on the second last day of preparation. Shiv Shenoy’s mnemonics helped me create some for myself. Shiv’s notes were also beneficial.

Emphasis on Mnemonics

I would recommend using mnemonics since there is a lot to remember. Create them based on your native language so you can remember them.

When I started preparing for the exam which was scheduled on January 11th, 2016, my wife,Noor Rizvi, created a few mnemonics for me. To remember the knowledge areas in order, she created one which, in fact, makes no sense but helped me remember them: “I Safdar Tutu C Quality, Hoon Carta Rehta Project Sahi”- I, my middle name, she calls me Tutu, see, am in Quality Assurance, works as project manager and do it right.

This is useless for anyone else in the entire universe, but since I could correlate the information with it, I remembered it. She created many more for me and most of them were personal. It was fun.

Mock Exams

我做了许多模拟测试，其中一些类似于真实的考试。我在下面列出了一些。

Rita’s PM Fastrack Simulator:考试前十天,我尝试七套200 questions timed to 4 hours. This helped me speed up.

Edwel - 200个问题：这些都是非常有用的。

Sean Whitaker:I used 200 questions and 400 question books.

Simplilearn:I used their 200 question simulator.

Exam Central:I did their test with 112 questions.

我尝试了奥利弗（Oliver）在考试前十天的75个问题，只获得了55％的评分，所以我跳过了175个问题。

Bottom line:don’t just go through the hardest questions as the exam is not as tough as some mock tests. Do not be frightened if your score is poor on a mock test; however, do not skip reviewing the wrong answers.

Don’t memorize ITTOs，不需要。一旦建立了对流程的理解，您将能够回答大多数问题。

Gratitude

I want to give special thanks to Praveen Jain, Anmol Sinha, Farhan Nadeem, Saket Bansal, Cornelius Fichtner and Nalinee Singh for providing me with guidance.

I also want to thank Sriram Maniram, who shared his success story onwww.pmstudy.com和recommended joining the group ‘I want to be a PMP.’ This group is motivating and informative, and you will get to know at least one person across the globe getting PMP certified every day, which keeps you motivated.

A big thanks to the owners for creating this group.

Last but not least, a very special thanks to my family (my parents, wife, and kids) who stood by me during my preparation.

Best of luck to all the aspirants who will now attempt this exam based on the PMBOK Guide 6th edition.

Message me if anyone wants any help, and I would be eager to speak with you.

Thank you.

You can contact me on LinkedIn at the following URL:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/syed-safdar-azeem-pmp/

你是pass the PMP exam and want to share your lessons learned with the community? Please contact me at[email protected]