TOPIC: Passed CAPM

Hi All, glad to say that I passed my CAPM with 1st attempted above average and completed the exam within 2 hours. I’m glad to share my lessons learned during my 2 months study journey. 1st of all, I want to thank Cornelius Fichtner for sharing his knowledge on the PM PrepCast and will most definitely encourage future learners to use the PM PrepCast as a study material. I have only used the PM PrepCast and the PMBOK 6th as study materials, nothing else...
I started my study with reading the 1st chapter of the PMBOK, watch the PrepCast lessons for that chapter and carried on with this sequence till the end of the PMBOK Guide. Thereafter I also create spreadsheets for all the ITTO and tried to memorize it. I received poor marks when attempted the quizzes on the Exam Simulator and realized that I must change my study plan from tried to memorize the ITTO’s to understanding the ITTO’s. The I/O’s can be confused if you follow the processes in the same sequences as describe in the Guide especially in the planning processes. In some processes there is an Input where you don’t even know where this document came from and then you must surge the BMBOK forwards and backwards to find where this document originated from.
I’m in the construction business and decided to create a “dummy” project and used all the processes described in the Guide but some of them in different sequences for me to understand the I/O better. Integration, Quality, Comms, Procurement and Stakeholder Management I kept separate because their I/O is not that hard to understand.
I have sequence the following planning processes to understand the I/O much better :1) Collect Requirements 2) Define Scope, 3) Create WBS, 4) Define Activities, 5) Sequence Activity 6) Estimate Activity Duration, 7) Estimate Activity Resources, Acquire Resources (this is in the executing phase but my personal opinion is that the BMBOK should have called this “Define Resources”), 9) Identify Risks, 10) Qualitative Risks, 11) Quantitative Risks, 12) Plan Risk Response, 13) Develop Schedule, 14) Estimate Cost, 15) Determine Budget.
After I’ve done this, I had to start work on the T/T, so I took my “Dummy” Project, compile a short story on all the T/T for each of the 49 processes and associated that with family members and friends which formed part of my project team.
Conclusion: You must memorise the 10 Knowledge Areas and the processes of each knowledge areas, read the BMBOK guide at least twice before the exam. Read the question in the exam, then identify in which knowledge area and in which process it is, before looking at the multiple answers. This exam is not hard if you UNDERSTAND the ITTO’s.
I will end this in Cornelius famous words…” Until Next Time” LOL.

James,

Congratulations on passing your exam!

Thank you for sharing your success and lessons learned. We are glad to hear that our products helped you prepare for and pass your exam.

Good luck in all your future endeavors!