Student Profile: Melicia Grant, PMP

I am an Information Technology and Services Professional with over five years’ experience executing and transforming projects in the Financial, Insurance and Education sectors. In my academic pursuits, I have acquired a Bachelors degree in Computer Science and a Masters degree in Computer-Based Management Information Systems. I was enticed to hold credentials from the Project Management Institute (PMI) after being exposed to the field while I pursued a Graduate Certificate in Project Management. Shortly after finishing the Graduate certificate, I wrote the PMI CAPM exam and was successful. Subsequently obtaining enough hours and experience working on various projects, I met the requirements to sit the PMP exam. At that moment, the task of passing the exam the first time began. This task was successfully completed when I sat the exam in May 2016 and aced it.

In the first week of exam preparation, I would recommend that students understand the structure of the PMP exam as well as recognize that the PMP exam is not entirely based on the PMBOK Guide, like the CAPM, but on the Exam Content Outline provided by PMI. Additionally, I would suggest knowing all the 47 processes within the 10 knowledge areas with respect to their associated performance domains. I used Figure 3-1 from the PMBOK Guide to concretize that and this allowed me to answer a lot of questions correctly during my mock exams and quizzes. I would propose building an appetite to answer at least 20 questions from day 1 using the PMP Exam Simulator or any credible online source. Moreover, follow through by building a momentum to answer 50 timed questions and eventually 200 questions within the 4 hours like that of the PMP exam. Going forward, I read the PMBOK Guide and listened to the accompanying podcast on the PM PrepCast to ensure that I understood the concepts. I read articles from the PM Network magazines that I subscribed to along with other suggested materials from the PMI. Lastly, I would recommend joining live PMP coaching sessions to keep you motivated, focused, accountable and exposed to a knowledgeable individual who can answer your questions regarding any misconstrued concept you may have.

For the last 3 days before my exam, I followed my coach’s advice. So, I finalized the ITTOs for all the processes. More specifically, the PM PrepCast allowed me to understand the various ITTOs for the 47 processes so I did not have to swat these. On the penultimate day before the exam, I revised all the formulas and my personal notes from the PMBOK Guide, the PM PrepCast and coach’s tips. The day before the exam, I practised to complete my brain dump within 15 minutes and for the remainder of the day, I rested.

Melicia Grant, PMP