I’m happy to report that on March 22nd I cleared the PMP on the first attempt and this post is intended to provide some pointers to how I went about it and a few lessons learned for others:
The speed that I completed the exercise is likely extreme compared to others but I’m fortunate in that my work allows me a good work/life basis. I’ll also add that I had been in student mode for approx.
3 months prior doing CBAP and Six Sigma.
I initially started studying on 8th February and my primary study source was the book PMP Exam Master Prep by Scott Payne. I chose this book as it had good reviews on a number of sites. I found this
book exceptionally easy to read and understand as it was written in a story format and ran through a project in the logical start to finish process. A new project manager arrives and has to go through
the various steps to complete a project while experiencing various challenges along the way. I’ll also point out that I didn’t read this book at home, but instead arranged that I could use the libraries of
a couple of local universities. I likely read the book 3 times and as I was doing so made my own flash cards of key concepts and terms that I refined as I went along. All my study time was logged in a
book including when, where and for how long I studied.
After 3 weeks I attended the weekend Boot Camp of Dan Ryan to further reinforce my knowledge and understanding (Dan’s workshop was outstanding). It was around this time that I also purchased a
subscription to the PM Prepcast Simulator and started doing mini-quizes and eventually worked my way up to 4 hour exams. In total I spend 26hrs in the simulator including 4 full (4hr Exams).
My scores in the exams were 72%, 72%, 73%, 79% and on average I was answering 74% of questions correctly on the first attempt. By then end I’m sure it was a lot higher than that as I remember in
my first few quizzes getting scores around 50%.
The prepcast simulator is in my opinion an amazing tool, and in my opinion was more difficult than the actual exam. The 79% was the trigger I needed to take the exam, I booked it ASAP and passed the exam with an above target rating 2 days later, so 43 days from starting the learning process. I will also add that after 20 days I took the CAPM just to confirm that I was understanding the material, passing that with an above target rating also improved my confidence.
Based on my experience the overall lessons learned that hopefully others can benefit from would be as follows:
1. Invest in an exam simulator and take at least 3 full practice exams. I actually did 4 and the speed it took me to do them improved by approx. 10mins each time. When I sat the exam for real I was
done in 2hrs 50min. The other part of that would be to not second guess, I don’t think any good can come of going back to a review a question you’ve already answered
2. Figure out which process group you are in before answering the question. Once I’d figured out I was in say ‘Monitoring and Control’ I could typically eliminate at least two answers as they would be
related to completely different process.
3. Read the question carefully especially for phrases such as ‘What should the project manager do next’ as opposed to ‘What should the project manager have done differently’. I found that the exam
was constantly flipping between those two styles of questions or variations of them, so again the student needs to figure out where they are now and is the question asking them to look forward or look
back.
4. There is no one size fits all when it comes to study or planning, everyone learns in a different way and has different exam techniques and tendencies. I personally didn’t jot anything down on the paper or do any kind of ‘brain dump’ at the start of the exam. Again this is something that I learned worked for me during my practice exams, for other people it might be different hence the importance of the practice exams.
5. Go into it with confidence, I studied (including Dan’s class) for 100hrs prior to taking the exam (I noted down all my study time in a book as and when I did it). The night before, I didn’t do any
studying at all except for a 30min read through of my flash cards. Prior to starting my exam I was sat in the chair pretty much convinced I would pass, 6 questions in I can remember thinking to myself: ‘I’ve got this’ so confidence is key.
Other notes:
* I personally didn't read the PMBOK at all and based all my learning on the study books, Dan's Bootcamp/forum and the Exam Simulator
• I had four EV/PV/CPI etc. style formula questions………2 of which I would describe as very, very basic, 1 as medium and 1 as difficult.
• In the weeks leading up to the exam, I started using all the language schedule, scope, risk register, issue log etc……on a routine basis at work, when someone didn’t know what I was talking
about I would then take the time to explain the concepts to them.
Hopefully these tips will help you to help others. I actually enjoyed my whole PMP Journey, outside of the certification I feel that I learned a whole bunch of new skills.
