PMP Exam

I passed the PMP Examination on 9th Jan 2012  and here is my Lessons Learned and observation about PMP Exam. Here is my experience ..

• Majority of the questions  are scenario based and most of the time two out of four options can be easily eliminated, having said that there are good number of questions where it seems 3 options are correct and selecting the ‘best’ answer is the challenge and time consuming.
• Most of the questions are just single sentence to two sentences and very few 4 to 8 questions are lengthy.
• I found first 50 - 75 questions very difficult to answer and it was demoralizing and I spent most of the time to answer them which resulted in having less time and adding up pressure to answer the remaining questions, Around 20 to 30 questions just takes half a minute to answer and on another end some questions involving calculations or lengthy questions can take up to 2-3 minutes.The key is to manage your time effectively to answer all the 200 questions within 4 hours.
• Utilize the first 15 minutes of the Exam tutorial to dump the Formulas (EVM , Communication Channel etc) and table 3.1 Project Management Process Groups and Knowledge Areas Mapping present on Page 43 of PMBOK 4^th Edition this helps in ‘visualizing’ , focus and better understanding of question / answer.
• In my opinion reading PMBOK at minimum two times is recommended to understand and remember the wording/keywords as it definitely helps in answering and relating questions in PMP exam.
• questions on Organizational Structure need to determine the type of organization   Projectized , Functional or Matrix (weak/balanced/ strong) organization  , refer table 2.1 on page 28 of PMBOK
• Simple questions on Program and Portfolio management
• It is good to understand and remember the ITTO (Inputs , Tools and Techniques and Outputs) of each process , there are few direct questions which can be easily answered if we know which ITTO belongs to which Process and knowing the sequence of the Processes particularly for Planning Process Groups.
• Understand and remember the definition of each process group and process , refer Appendix F page 411 in PMBOK
• Study in depth and great details the Initiating process groups  (Develop Project Charter , Identify Stakeholders) and Closing Process Groups ( Close Project or Phase , Close Procurements) , here also understand the difference between Close Project or Phase and Close Procurements process, what happens when Project is cancelled , terminated ,  recommended to read in minute details all the Inputs , Tools and Techniques and outputs of these process (just for example you should know the difference between ‘Business Need’ and ‘Business Case’ , content of Statement of Work (SOW) etc  including Table A2. Elements of the Charter and Scope Statement present in PMBOK page 351.
• I observed most of the questions were from Risk, Scope and Quality knowledge area.
• question on Interpersonal Skill, refer page 240 and Appendix G of the PMBOK guide 4^th Edition.
• Number of Communication Channels question read question carefully to determine the ‘N’. Remember the team size is (Manager + Team members) and not just the Team members.
• There were  questions involving EVM, Critical Path, Float, Risk impact and PERT calculations.
•  few questions, Understand the difference between Fast Tracking and Crashing and which technique is best in a given scenario and know details about Resource Leveling.
•  few questions, Understand the cost baseline, difference between Contingency Reserve and Management Reserve and which is used and appropriate in a given scenario.
• few questions, Understand Communication Methods example Push and Pull communication and which is best to use in a given scenario.
  
• few questions on Team Stages, Refer Page 233 and URL http://www.businessballs.com/tuckmanformingstormingnormingperforming.htm mentioned in Appendix G.9 of PMBOK page 421 and understand the key differences in each stage.
  Understand the different conflict resolution techniques and which type is  more suitable in given scenario of exam question.
• few questions , Understand the different type of Contracts and subtypes for example in Fixed Price Contracts (FP-EPA, FFP etc) and which type is  more suitable in given scenario example between Cost Reimbursable and Time & Material Contracts.
• There were no direct questions about ethics and responsibility, but it was indirectly referenced in scenario as expected as per Aug 2011 changes in PMP Exam format.
  
  I suggest www.pmzilla.com for more such lessons learnt :)
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