Student Profile: Janet Pinto, PMP

I work as a management consultant in application integration and strategy projects primarily in the financial services, banking and telecom domain.Completing the PMP certification was more organizationally motivated. As I had worked in a PMO role, a PMP was a big help in my current role in the organization.

After being out of the "study mode" for 2 years, it was difficult to hit the books again. Once I got over the mental block of studying "seriously", thats when it all came together. It is more of a mental game, and once I had scheduled the test date, it was easier for me to force myself to actually get down to studying given that I was working full time as well. In addition, serving 2 masters becomes very difficult (working and studying) especially after a long work day. I had to really motivate myself after work to sit down and study for an hour or two.

One of my colleagues had used the same material and found it helpful and recommended it to me. Once I saw the online videos I was sold!

I believe, focus should be given on the math part of it as I totally neglected it till the last month. After going through the PrepCast, I somehow convinced myself I could pass the exam without studying the math part. However, if the PMP Prepcast videos had more practice problems after each video and the solution, it would really help. In this case, I bought the formula guide and used Rita Mulcahy to help me with the formulae(her book has a very nice formulae chart).

I would recommend to schedule the test date, the moment you register with PMI. Only when you have booked the date, will you be able to plan your study time (especially for working professionals).  In addition, to PM Prepcast, Rita Mulchahy's book was really helpful in clarying the basic concepts on process groups. Do not worry about memorizing anything from the PMBOK guide. Just read it once and you should be good. Then do the PMP Prepcast and Rit Mulcahy. Both have very different approaches which complement each other.  In addition, 5 months should be more than enough if you are studying part time(key is not to overdo it). And yes, practise, practise, practise on real time tests. I also bought the PM Test Simulator which really helped me a lot. So good luck for all future PMPs - YOU CAN DO IT!