Hello:

I passed the 4th edition of the PMP exam on October 29th, 2009. Thispresentation was created to enable me to share my experience withoutcompromising any PMI ethics violations. I presented it to my fellow peersand they enjoyed it. I thought posting it in Linkedin with additional backgroundinformation will enable others to enjoy it too.

By the way, it is best to view the slide deck in presentation mode.

If you have any questions or need additional tips, send me an email via LinkedIN. Good luck in your PMP certification!

Best Regards,Hector

By Hector Fundora,PMP, MBA, ITIL, BSEE, Green Belt Candidate

PMP Exam Experience and Lessons Learned

PMP Exam

What it felt like after passing!

Agenda• Details of the big Day of Exam – What happened?

• Recommendations

• Key Topics – What should you focus on?

• Brain Dump – What I did and how to use it effectively

• Summary

• Background Information

Details of the big Day of Exam – What happened?

9 – 10am Review books and print out of self help exam questions.

10 – 11am Review Inputs, Tools & Techniques, Outputs plus the flow of the major outputs.

11 – 12:30pm Drove to testing center and had lunch nearby.

12:30 – 1pm Use the bathroom and sign in…

Then the fun begins!

Here is the hour by hour of exactly what happened the day of the exam:

The rooms of the Deerfield, IL Prometric Testing Center looks like this:

Room #1 – Reception Area

Room #2 – Sitting & Sign in area

Room #3:Sign in again,And review rules

Room #4:Testing Room

Essentially you feel like a cow getting ready for slaughter as you go from room to room.

Details of the big Day of Exam – What happened?

12:45pm – 1:00pm Did my brain dump as soon as the timer for the tutorial was started by the Prometric person. Finished in 12 minutes and then clicked enter to start the exam.

1:00pm – 3:30pm Completed all 200 questions and I marked the ones that Iwas not 100% sure I had correct as I did them. (2.5 hours)

4:45pm – 4:46pm The screen goes blank for a few seconds and it was very NERVE RACKING! Then…..

3:30pm – 4:30pm Reviewed all my 70 marked questions. I wrote down how many questions I knew were not 100% certain to be correct and already knew I had a high probability of passing the exam.

4:30pm – 4:45pm Reviewed all questions quickly. Then click to submit my answers.

…you get a survey questionnaire about your testing experience.

Then…

“Congratulations you have passed the PMP exam.

….bla bla bla”

Then you hand in your notes to the guy in room #3.He gives you the examination report.

Be careful driving home because it will be rush hour traffic and you are just freakin exhausted.

Recommendations• Make sure you do a full four hour self test* every day until you areconsistently scoring 80% or better. Why? It will get your mind and body use to handling a real 4 hour long exam. Learn from the problemsyou get wrong and don’t worry about “memorizing” the same questions.

• Do buy, borrow, or check out from library the Rita Mulcahy PMP ExamPrep book. Rita’s book does a very good job of complimenting Kim Heldman’s book. I used the 3rd edition (better to use the 4th edition).

• Do make sure that you nail correctly all the…1. Formula problems (i.e. Earn Value, Line of Communications,

etc.) and understand what the formulas mean.2. Professional Conduct type Questions. Make sure you are

getting 99% or better scoring on the self-tests, Kim’s and Rita’s book for these types of questions.

3. PDM and ADM methods and formulas. Don’t forget about AOA which is not covered much in Kim’s book.

4. Contract type questions and understand the differences.• Make sure that you do whatever you can to memorize the flow ofInputs, Tools and Techniques, and Outputs of the 42 processes!!!

* I used: https://www.selftestsoftware.com

Key Topics – What should you focus on?

1) Once you memorized the 9 knowledge areas X 5 process groups plus do a number of practice exams: - Start understanding how the inputs and outputs of the processes are interconnected. Skim Rita’s book to give you a better understanding.

2) Don’t forget to understand AOA, see Rita’s book.

3) Planning session does have higher percentage of questions.

4) Continue to understand why you got a problem wrong when you do aSelf-test practice. The knowledge and understanding you gain will helpin the real exam questions.

Brain DumpCV = EV – AC PERT=(P+O+4ML)/6SV = EV – PV St.Dev= (P-O)/6CPI = EV/AC Var.=((P-O)/6)squaredSPI = EV/PV

FV=PV(1+i)raised to NBCWP = EVACWP = ACBCWS = PV

TCPI = (BAC-EV)/(BAC-AC)

VAC=BAC-EAC%VAC=(VAC/BAC)*100

EV=%complete*BAC

“Typical” EAC=BAC/CPI or ETC=(BAC-EV)/CPI“Atypical” EAC=AC+(BAC-EV)=AC+ETCnew or ETC=BAC-EV“CPI Negative w/schedule same” EAC=(BAC-EV)/(BAC-AC)

LS LF

ES EFEF=ES+DUR-1

LS=LF-DUR+1

N(N-1)/2

PMIS CMS CC Contract

1stdev=68%2stdev=95%3stdev=99.7%6stdev=99.9%

Here is exactly what my brain dump looked likeon the first page:

Brain Dump

ProjectCharter

StakeholderRegister

Scope Baseline

Note: Try to add as many details as you can remember!

Here is exactly what my brain dump looked likeon the back page: (see background slides for tips)

Summary

• Continue to meet once a week in a group study environment.Different viewpoints, tips, support, and ability to explain to someonewhat you know is extremely helpful.

• Knowing the formulas, PDM, contracts, and code of ethics type problems gives you a good chance of almost passing the exam.

• Understanding at least the high level Inputs/Tools & Techniques/Outputs will get you an almost sure shot of passing the exam.

• The use of Kim Heldman’s, Rita Mulcahy’s, and the PMBOK books along with the Internet self-test is enough material to review for passing the exam.

Good luck!

BACKGROUND

1) Knowledge areas sentence to remember:“I saw two chipmunks quietly having coffeereading poetry” the first letters of this statementcorrespond to the 9 areas.2) Process group acronym to remember: “I.P.E.C.C”

6

5

6

33

4

5

6

4

2 20 8 10 2

42 entries

Tips:

3) Noticed that processes has same name as 9X5 headers. (see underlined letters)4) Start with single letters (see diagram at right), then memorize the rest of process word entry. I found it very easy to memorize the Initiation and Closing processes first.5) Time and Risk has 5 processes. Time: “D SEED” takes time to planRisk: “PIPPP” planned to monitor Michael.(as in Scottie Pippen is planning to monitor and control Michael Jordon)

6) The number of processes by rows and columns ensure you did not miss any items.

How to memorize the 9X5 (9-knowledge area by 5processes)