Lessons learned
Ahmed Mohamed Eldeep, PMP®
Key words ( heuristics, study plan, flexible schedule, practice, resources, solve questions, gap areas, study answers, mind picture, build vocabulary, taking notes, free exam simulator, daily check).
First of all i`d like to say that I used three heuristics or best practices to pass my exam, which are :
“If you can`t plan it, you can`t do it”, “practice make perfect”, and “the magic of three (actually for me it was the magic of five)”
- You should have a study plan, flexible schedule. And try to stick to your schedule as much as you can.
- Practice every day one hour better than practice seven hours at weekend.
- Identify your resources before you start studying (for me it was Rita, Rita Fast Track, and PMBOK, with concentrated on Rita).
- Solve as much question as you can from various resources (I registered with two sites which still sending me a daily question and explanation of some parts from the book briefly, that will make you in touch with the material even though you are at work or can`t study for some reasons, that was a good technique. I solved around 3000 questions).
- Know your gaps while answering questions, you should write out your weakness areas and which areas need more attention (for me i had a lot, and i wrote out about two pages regarding my gaps areas, then i reviewed the book with concentrating on those areas and the highlighted areas from the first review. While reviewing, I had a checklist (the two pages I wrote) and checked every gap I covered.
- Study the answers. It`s important to know why you answer this question wrong to make the information stick on your mind (I studied even some right answers to emphasize the informations. I`ll share the notes from Rita fast track).
- Capture a mind picture for charts and tables. That helped me linked the name of the chart or table with the chart itself. For example affinity diagram linked to the boundary of the product. Do you know that WBS dictionary has more the description of WBS, it has code account, acceptance criteria, duration, interdependency and satra.
- Build your vocabulary, write words you don`t know outside and memorize them. Try to learn every day about five new words. (personally I learnt about 300 new word through my journey, especially from PMBOK. Which I can say that book is easy but try to start with another book to get the concept, then go through the PMBOK).
- Practice hand writing by taking notes with your hand and arrange those notes for the final revision. That will help you absorb the information quickly rather than reading it. I wish I could share my notes, its about 40 page with hand writing. But unfortunately I haven`t scanner.
- Don`t be astray by hundreds of resources, two or three books are sufficient. Concentrate on them and answer questions. I`ll share a page which have all of free online exam simulator.
- Daily check for the group on Facebook. I am sure that you will find something new everyday. I had a daily check for the group, and that benefit me so much. I almost got all of my resources of exam simulator from it, free courses on UDEMY, I even got my certificate of Six Sigma Yellow Belt before my PMP. Keep on touch with the group.
Finally, I can say that “ if anyone pass that exam, you can do so. You need only to focus on your goal and to believe that you can reach that goal”.
