Sanjay Ghosh works as a Project Manager at Hewlett Packard. He passed the PMP certification at his 1st attempt. We asked Sanjay the tips and tricks of his PMP study journey. Read on to learn “how I passed the PMP exam” story of Sanjay.
1-How long did you study for the PMP certification exam?
The serious preparation started only from 11th of Jan.’18 for the appointment date of 01st Feb.’18; though the preparation started with enrolling myself with Master of Project Academy during Aug.’17.
2-What was the biggest struggle when preparing for PMP certification exam?
There was a lot of work pressure from office and on top of that my Dad was sick since the first week of December. After visiting him on 25th Dec.’17, I found he is recovering, I fixed the PMP Exam date for 1st Feb.’18. But he passed away on 29th Dec.’17. Then, after the 13 days long rituals (as I am a Hindu, these death rituals go for this long); I started the serious preparations.
I wanted to express this story since how I passed the PMP exam story was not an easy one. I thought to postpone my PMP exam a couple of times but never gave up.
3-How was the quality of PMP certification training materials?
The PMP Certification training materials are really wonderful. The recorded explanation of every topic was concise yet they were elaborative enough to get an in-depth insight into the topic. The best was prompt responses on the queries; the last two days, I went through the handouts as the final revision of every knowledge area.
4-How much similar were the questions in real PMP certification exam when you considered the PMP certification exam questions in Master of Project Academy’s materials?
At least 80% of the questions where similar to the questions in real PMP exam. This helped me to clear the PMP exam confidently.
5-How many PMP certification exam questions did you practice before the exam?
All the questions that were mentioned at the end of each topic; plus, the questions in each module, the 4 practice exams, and questions from other sources. In all around 1000 questions were practiced before the final exam. I would say that, practicing as many PMP questions as possible is the biggest tip of how I passed the PMP exam in 20 days!
6-How was the support you received throughout the PMP certification training?
As stated above, the responses to the queries posted were prompt; the explanations were with examples substantiating the explanations. Most importantly, you can see the queries and their responses posted by other participants.
7-Do you have any recommendations for future PMP certification exam candidates?
a) Enroll yourself for a program like Master of Project Academy – as you get commentary on every topic in a lucid manner; handouts of every topics explained; Module end questions along with answers (and their explanations); and prompt responses for every query.
b) Go through the complete PMBOK at least once before appearing for the exam.
c) Practice as much as questions you get during studies, and revisit them on an incorrect answer; and for explanation do vet with PMBOK Guidelines on that topic
8-Do you have any tips for the PMP certification exam day?
a) Take proper rest the previous night (shouldn’t burn your mid-night lamp)
b) During preparation days, create personal notes containing all the important terms, formulas, one-liner explanation of each important point and revise them as the final study material before writing the exam.
c) Don’t get panic because of lot of instructions and checkings at the prometric center
9-If you would give 3 tips to your close friend about PMP certification, what would you recommend as part of your “How I passed the PMP exam in 20 days” review?
a ) Join any online course like Master of Project Academy
b) Go through the complete PMBOK at least once before appearing for the exam
c) Practice as much as questions you can practice
10-Finally, how likely is it that you would recommend Master of Project Academy to a friend or colleague?
Certainly, I would recommend Master of Project Academy to my friends and colleagues; as the course is very good compared to other online courses available in the market. I can say, it gives a very good return on investments.
Thanks a lot to Sanjay Ghosh for his “How I passed the PMP exam” journey
You’ll be as happy as our 125,000+ professionals community. Rishi is only one of them!
Check out PMP Certification Training for further details.
About Sanjay Ghosh
Sanjah started his career as a Corporate Banker in India’s largest private sector bank. Then, he shifted to IT Industry 10 years ago and joined Oracle (Oracle Financial Services & Software Ltd.) as a Business Analyst. Sanjay has been working for 5 years at Hewlett Packard Enterprises Ltd. as a Project/Program Manager.