Dhananjay Gokhale

Flat No 4, RajDhan Appartment, Plot No 33, Shriram Society, Warje, Pune 411058
Tel: +91 9822031915

www.dgonline.in
Lesson Learned
Following extract is from Mr Rohan Chhatre who cleared the exam on 18th August.
Regards,
DG
*************
Hello Dhananjay,
As promised, I took the exam and cleared it today 18th August (in August).
Thanks a lot for those awesome 4 days!
As a buddy its my responsibility to communicate this to Joyoti!
@All Guys, just go and take the exam ASAP, else you are losing the advantage of precious
weekend time spent with DG.
Here are lessons learned
*************
PMP Exam Some significant bits
1. I dumped page 43 from PMBOK on the sheet of paper the moment I entered the Exam room
2. The above helped me solve at least 15 questions without even thinking twice
3. I could answer at least 20-25 questions only because the discussions in the sessions and some
words and concepts of Dhananjay were continuously playing in my mind Rolling wave,
AT/KT (why are we doing this project), Virtual Executors, Pilots, Jungle crossing project, etc.
4. The exam questions were very clear and less ambiguous, unlike PMStudy/Rita Mulcahy
book questions
5. I completed the exam in 3 hours 15 mins with 2 breaks of 6 mins each
6. Break helped me gain some focus back and also reduced fatigue
7. Some simple sums on Earned value calculations were asked @5-6 questions.
8. I found questions on Human Resource Management knowledge area and Initiating process
group, most difficult/challenging
PMP Study Pattern I followed
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

After our sessions, there is hardly anything left to learn

I immediately took a full length test and scored exactly 58%.
I studied for 1 hour/day on an average from 10-Jul to 12-Aug
I read Rita Mulcahy book in 2 passes (mainly tools and techniques)
Study pattern was to read the chapter and answer the questions
Again read the bits where the answers went wrong; did this for all the chapters
After this I took 2nd full length test and scored 62%
I took 13 to 18-Aug off from work, utilizing the long weekend and appeared for the exam on
18-Aug
9. Gave a second pass through Rita Mulcahy book
10. In last 5 days, I completed 2 full length tests and scored 68% and 72% respectively
11. All the tests were either from PMStudy
12. 5 days was an overkill, 3-4 should have been sufficient

Lessons learnt

Conceptualized, Designed & Developed by Dhananjay Gokhale

Dhananjay Gokhale
Flat No 4, RajDhan Appartment, Plot No 33, Shriram Society, Warje, Pune 411058
Tel: +91 9822031915

www.dgonline.in
1. Think wrt process group and answer wrt knowledge area
2. Dump page 43 on your rough sheet before the exam starts, it really helps the thought process
3. Memorize all the Theory and chart names and their significance (Maslow's, Theory X and Y,
Ishikawa, Pareto, Bar, Scatter etc)
4. There will be some questions (for me there were about 6-7) where you will have no clue about
the answer
5. Try and remember as many tools and techniques as possible for every process
6. Rita's book has some very good PMI-isms, tips and tricks, etc which are very important
7. Some questions have too much useless information; try and focus on the second part of the
question
8. PLEASE verify your answer; after you have selected the answer read the question again (I
corrected 6-7 obvious mistakes)
9. Mark the question if in doubt. I got answers to 4-5 questions which were marked later in some
other questions or its options
10. 200 questions are too many, so conserve your energy
11. Eat something before your exam
12. 4 hours are too much to solve 200 questions, so do not worry about time (50 questions in 1
hour is easily achieved)
13. Try and avoid looking at the question number, my patience was tested through question
number 140-170
14. After you click End Exam button the screen goes blank for 15-20 secs, do not panic, its normal
:-) This time seems too long for obvious reasons
Happy learning... Hope to see a PMP in your signature soon. All the best!
Best regards,
Rohan Chhatre, PMP

Conceptualized, Designed & Developed by Dhananjay Gokhale