Student Profile: Kent Bell, PMP

I'm a CVS Health Systems employee and ex-military. I have worked primarily on computer and avionics systems and projects related to these systems. I have taken many tests in my career thus far. I study hard, but I play hard too and it is important to enjoy your downtime.

I recommend PMP testers to study Network Diagramming and Formulas in their first week. Group and order the Formulas by topic (they will be easier to remember this way) and Saturate your mind with this information early and often. Know how to do Network Diagramming, know how to do forward pass, know how to do backward pass, and know how to calculate Critical Path. There are many excellent study resources/demos on this topic. Also; don't shy away from Formulas, embrace them.

The Formulas are easy to remember and there's not a large number of them. Knowing Formulas or even remembering part of a Formula on test day will result in correctly answered questions.

Throughout my study time and particularly the last 3 days; I kept my laptop or smartphone or iPod with me at all times. In any free time I had; I was flashing questions, contemplating the answer in my mind, then verifying the answer. Repetitive saturation is key to success here. There are many questions and you must study to succeed. I find the flashcard method is best and passed the test the first time using this method. Be sure to review any areas you're struggling with or feel you don't understand. Just before you enter the testing facility, review Formulas. Then; once you're in the test room and cleared to proceed, use the paper and pencil you're given and right down every Formula you can recall. This is allowed and will help you immensely during the test.

One other quick tip: On test day; aside from being well rested and all the other things wise, do this. While taking the test; I skipped all the math/Formula type questions, answering all other questions first, as quickly as I could. I then went back with the time remaining and knocked out the math questions, using the Formulas I embraced early on. In the end I still had time to quickly review all the questions and double-check my work.

Kent Bell, PMP