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Me & my study buddy Ajeet Mogarkar passed PMI PMP certification exam on 27th Apr 2009. It is really a good achievement. I am feeling very happy & relax after 12 days of long study. It does not mean I only studied for 12 days but for 12 days I studied for almost 14 hours per day. I am planning to give details about how I studied & what material I used in coming days in another posts.
On the day of Exam:
The nearest prometric center that takes PMP certification exam is one in Mumbai. Though exam was scheduled at 1:00 PM, we decided to reach Mumbai one day before the exam. One can never predict traffic of Mumbai.
One day before the exam we drove to Mumbai from Pune in my car. We visited the prometric center on that day itself to know the location, parking situation etc. This helped us in avoiding the last day rush of locating address etc.
We stayed at my friend’s house which was only two KM away from the exam center.
That day evening, we reviewed all ITTOs (Inputs, Tools & Techniques, and Outputs) from PMBOK for all processes. We had a good night sleep for eight hours. This is really required for to keep you fit for THE day.
We took auto-rickshaw to reach prometric center as they were not having parking facility for visitors. We were aware of this as we had visited exam center one day before the exam.
At 11:45 we reached the center for 1:00 PM exam. The security guard did not allow us to enter in the center as it was too early. They allow candidates only one hour before the exam. We entered in the exam center at 12:00 sharp. They verified our two ID proofs & given access to lockers to keep your belongings. You are not allowed to take anything in the exam bay except your ID proofs & keys of locker. they do not allow you to open the locker until you finish the exam. All your belongings including your watch, mobile phone & wallet you need to keep in locker. Exam coordinator invited me for exam at 12:30, half an hour before the schedule time. That’s good because I was ready & eager to give exam.
While entering in the exam room security guards do frisking. The instructor again verified ID & details required for the exam. She gave me a booklet of six blue blank papers. As per her, if you require more blank sheets then you need to return it & get a new one. She then escorted me to my seat. There were about ten exam seats & people were giving exams. Then she asked me to press start button. I did so. She wished me good luck & left. But hey... when do I write my brain dump sheet? Computer was running a demo about the exam screens & how it works. I viewed that demo in a minute or so. There were 13 minutes remaining to end that demo. Without ending demo & started writing my brain dump sheet. I wrote page 70 of PMBOK then dumped all earned value & PERT formulae, sigma ranges, estimate ranges etc.
Then I clicked next button & exam started. I took one five minute short break at the end of 100 questions. Every time you take a break & you go out; you have to sign on a register with in-out time. Every time they do frisking while entering exam room.
I attempted all 200 questions in 3 hours 35 minutes. I reviewed the questions I had marked for review. At the end of the 3 hours 52 minutes I clicked end exam button. Computer was like hung & screen started flickering. “What the heck is this? “, I said. But in couple of moment I was presented with survey question about prometric. I completed those survey questions. I was little nervous before pressing the end button, even though the exam was simple & I was confident. Then I pressed end exam. Again few moments of flickering screen & the message appeared “Congratulations !!!” . I cleared exam with proficient grad in most of the areas.
Well, that was a moment of joy. I came out of the exam center. After fifteen minutes my friend came out, he also cleared the exam with good score.
We happily returned to Pune & had a good dinner while coming back.
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