I cleared my PMP exam on 30th May. I really am feeling great about it as I've done this with Kimaya as 10.5 months old baby, with office work and with Mallu's preparation to go to US. If I've to thank someone BIGTIME for helping through out, that will be Mallu. For all the trouble he took over the weekends to spare me time to study, to take tests, encouraging me when I was down about the whole thing - Thanks a ton.

For all those who do not know what PMP is -- this is a certification - Project Management Professional - provided by PMI. This is valid for 3 years and focuses purely on project management.

There is a 35 hours compulsary session that you should have attended on project management by recognised trainers and that started it all for me. When I was Chennai, there was a session conducted by PELCON, Pune. I attended that and immediately apped and paid for the certification. Could not finish it while I was there and just after delivery. After so many months, the motivation factor was that validity period for the application and fees I paid was going to expire on June 1st week.

Started reading through Rita and PMBOK in April, but was not too serious until I fixed up my exam date. I went through Rita alone once and then took a mock test from pmstudy tp just gauge where I was. Then I went through Rita and PMBOK simultaneously once more. Took another couple of practice tests from Kim heldman's CD. I did not have time to do anything more as it was 30th Morning already :) and the exam scheduled at 9:00 am.

I could complete the exam and review in 3 hours. During the practice exams I found that 20-30% of the my errors were because that I was not reading the questions completely. As most of the questions were situation based in the exam, I think the ones I had made mistakes were becuase of this. Most of the Input, Tools and Techniques and Output questions were from quality, risk, time and procurement. I had done several reviews of these and I think I got all of them right.

Though people were advicing me against taking tests as it unnerves you (Which it did when I passed my first test!) but it gives you a feel of how to get through the 4 hours. It is really tough to have your concentration prolonged for so long! And the tips provided by Rita about the exam day was helpful. I took a break after 100 questions (there are 200 in total), had my breakfast and then did the rest of it. It helped a lot in relaxing a bit.

Thanks to everyone around me who have contributed in this success in some way or other.