An Amazing Roller-Coaster Ride Toward PMP Certification

Sekhar passed his PMP exam on the 4th attempt, and 2 years after taking the contact hours training. His is the most incredible (lessons learned) story I've heard. He shares his experience on his roller coaster ride toward PMP Certification: =============================================== Hi All, I just created an account and this is the first time I am posting into this group. I have been a silent reader of all the posts and inspiring lessons learned. It has been a wealth of information to me as I have cleared my PMP with all your help. I feel I should share my experience with PMP exam and the whole process. I started this initiative in 2008 hearing about PMP certification from my PMO. To get 35 contact hrs I joined a training facility in New york spent $ 2400 - ridiclous and pathetic training. Never spoke about pratice exams. Conseqence I failed. Haa PMP is not an easy exam. Success is counted sweetest to me. Blindly following just the training never paid to the attention of 3 attempts in one year. When I planned to retake the exam in 2009, PMP board did not allow me as per to their guide lines of wait time for 1 year. My unfinished initative kept on bothering me, I once again applied in 2010 and need to follow the whole application process once again. I was looking for material from PMP 4 edition, I came across PM Prepcast by Cornelius Fichtner for $99. Amazing Product, the way he simplified ITTO with reasoning was too good, One such example is Develop schedule ITTO I can never forget. I purchased his PM Study Coach but I never followed - thrown away my money there. Books- PMBOK the bible. PMBOK made sense to me after watching Cornelius videos. Rita Mulcahy I read the whole book twice and also bought Fastrack. I also read Andy Crowe. After reading Andy Crowe's book I liked his style more than Rita's. I memorized most of the ITTO and also I suggest to. Exams- PMSTUDY1 (free) – 73% PMSTUDY1 (free) – 72% Oliverlehamann – 58 % PMroadtrip – 71 % Headfirst – 78 % SuperPMP (fastrack) – 74% Andy Crowe – 80% PMStudy, Headfirst are similar to actual exam Forums- How they supported me. Study group is very essential when you are preparing for the PMP. Due to my hectic schedule I never found any patner, the only substitue was the forums PMZilla too good. Deep Fried Brain Project - The best. For example his explanation on TCPI. Awesome Harwinder, Keep up the good stuff. project-management-prepcast by Cornelius Fitchner. Final Exam Report on 08/28 Initiation – Moderately proficient. Planning – Moderately proficient. Execution – Moderately proficient. Monitor and controlling – Below proficient. Closing – Moderately proficient. Professional and social responsibility – Below proficient. And I Passed. I have no complains. I did it and I am happy for my efforts. I dedicate my success to my 19 month old daughter and to my wife who supported me. Thank you to PMZilla, Cornelius(PM-prepcast) and Harwinder - (Deep Fried Brain Project) Regards, Sekhar, PMP =============================================== Sekhar - Thank you for sharing your lessons learned and your appreciation. I really admire your perseverance. I'm glad to be of help. These lesson learned were originally posted by Sekhar here.