Lessons Learned by Abhishek Bhati (New PMP Exam)

Abhishek Bhati passed the exam in first try with 400 hours of preparation. Below is his detailed account of his Lessons Learned from his exam Journey.

Abhishek Bhati Passed the New PMP Exam

Below is the sharing by Abhishek who have recently passed the new exam:

I would like to share my exam journey. I passed my  exam on 7th October 2016.

Preparation

For the preparation I had spent close 400 hours including several practice test spread over 7 months. In between I had lost the steam and was not preparing for the exam. I got the kick when out of adrenaline rush I booked my date of the exam 45 days prior to the exam. After booking the date, on an average I was studying 3 to 3.5 hours on weekdays and 6 hours each over the weekends.

From the content perspective I would recommend Rita Mulcahy as the reference book apart from PMBOK® Guide 5th edition. I have read this cover to cover once and skimmed through twice. Apart from Rita Mulcahy, I referred Edward’s Study Notes as a refresher. His notes are crisp and summary of all the concepts. I used his notes as a revision before appearing for any of the exam or practice test.

Practice Tests

Coming to mock exam questions, I would have solved more than 2000 question to gain the confidence. I solved all the questions from Rita Mulcahy and searched for lot of other free question papers available on the internet. Links for few of them I have listed below. I would suggest all the aspirants to take up at least 4 mock exams before you take up the real exam, as the real exam is an exam of physical stamina coupled with stress. You should also check out your score for these exams as they will help you to find your strength and weak areas. Scores of your exams can be compared with Edward’s score as they provide a benchmark and tell you whether you are ready for the exam or not. While doing practice exams lot of my concepts became clear and I discovered few more concepts which I might have not read or I would have thought these would not be asked on the exam. This gives you an ample confidence on the exam day and you feel relaxed and calm.

Free Mock Exam Links

• Google Group – https://sites.google.com/site/pgmpguide/pmp-1-20 (480 questions)
• PM Exam Simulator – http://free.pm-exam-simulator.com/ 7 day access with 3 exams having 30 questions each
• Head First – 200 questions
• Oliver Lehmann – 175 and 75 questions (Really nice question and everyone should solve them)
• 206 Free questions – http://206-free-pmp-exam-questions.blogspot.in/p/questions-1-20.html
• Project Management Academy – http://projectmanagementacademy.net/free-pmp-questions
• Exam Central – http://www.examcentral.net/pmp/members (It has 4 mock papers. Although easy but gives you a practice of the 4 hour sitting)

Exam Day

As I had done lot of practice question of various difficulty level I would say the real exam was of above average difficulty. Most of the questions were situational based which testing your 2-3 concepts together. For me the numerical based questions were tricky and they took most of the time. As such 4 hours seems to be a long time, but, on the exam I felt 4 hours was less. It took me 3 hours 35 minutes to complete the first pass of the exam and rest 25 minutes I spent on review. As such I was not able to review all the questions but, I managed to review around 120 questions. After the exam I was asked to fill up the survey and was got a congratulatory message.

My Exam Results

• Initiation – Moderately Proficient
• Planning – Proficient
• Executing – Moderately Proficient
• Monitoring and Control – Moderately Proficient
• Closing – Moderately Proficient

Thanks again Abhishek.

Wish you PMP success!