.

Not many have realized this approach, and you will see that this 2-stage PMP preparation approach helps you iron out any ‘implicit assumptions’ quite easily.

Sangeeth passed the exam on his second attempt, and the insights he has gained during his PMP^® journey are quite impressive. I hope you will them useful for your preparation.

Sangeeth has over 16 years of rich experience. In this week’s PMP^® Lessons Learned article, he shares his experience of preparing for and passing the PMP exam.

Sangeeth is happy to guide you should you need to talk to him. You’ll find his LinkedIn profile link at the end of this article.

What made you choose PMP^®?

I had been planning on taking up PMP^® certification for the past 4 years, and due to time constraints and a hectic work schedule, I couldn’t make it.

I believe telling the truth is not a bad idea, I failed in my first attempt in Feb 2020.

However, I bounced back after a 15-day break, and those 15 days were kind of depressing. 🙂

During that introspection, I realized that the failure occurred due to wrong guidance and wrong training partner where there are 70+ students in an online class.

For some time I had decided not to take up PMP^® again, just continue with my work and develop my PM skills through some other certifications, as I had Prince 2 and SAFe Agile certified along with other Industry certifications in my profile.

After recuperating from the heartbreak I began reaching different people, training institutes etc. I come across a quote on the internet during the time that said, “never hesitate to wear the hat of failure”.

Then I met some good mentors (Sheriff Azmad, Shiv Shenoy, Gina Davidovic) who motivated me all the way in my PMP journey.

I took it up again and cleared my PMP on the second attempt.

Now that you are PMP^® certified, how do you see PMP helps?

After PMP certification I began realizing the benefit of the PMI triangle. Some common challenges in companies are stakeholder analysis, communication gaps, lessons learned repository, and so on, which I began finding easy to deal with.

I have begun to implement what I have learned during PMP preparation into my day-to-day work and enjoying my role as the project manager thoroughly.

Which study resources did you use?

• PMBOK – went through this multiple times
• Rita Mulcahy’s PMP book – 3 times
• Andy Crowe’s book – went through 3 to 4 times
• Other Multiple sources such as PPTs, templates, Facebook groups, WhatsApp groups etc
• Exam simulator used – PM PrepCast Simulator, PMI’s mock exam, and others

Also: Join daily PMP student support groups here for mock test questions, and other resources: Facebook & LinkedIn group

[continue reading…]

Working in the Quality Assurance field, Amit Lambi strongly feels that PMP for QA Lead can help them grow further into their role, as well as provide an opportunity to pivot into project management.

A music buff, Amit Lambi has about 11+ years of overall IT industry experience and 8+ years of relevant experience as a System Test Professional in the Data communication and Networking Industry.

In this week’s PMP^® Lessons Learned article, Amit shares how he went about preparing for his dream certification, PMP^®, and some of the insights he gained that might help in your preparation.

Let’s jump right in.

Why PMP^® certification over others?

PMP^® is a globally recognized professional certification and respected credential. It is considered an essential certification for Project Managers in any industry.

It helps even if someone is not in the official designation of Project Manager, but handles team, budget, delivery, etc, such as Quality Assurance, or Compliance implementation.

Since QA is my field of specialty, I decided to go with PMP^®.

PMP is essential for those looking to move to the next level in their career.

When I was working as Lead QE Engineer initially I thought of taking up ISTQB (Foundation Level and Test Manager). But then comparing the benefits with that of PMP, I decided to go with the latter.

Also read –

• Julian shares how smart use of simulator tests helped her pass PMP
• Karuna shares this simplest practice that made her PMP possible
• Mark shares his successful PMP study strategies

Now that you are a certified PMP^®, what benefits would you expect?

First of all, PMP certification adds value to my resume, it shows that I have the required knowledge to manage projects – big and small.  Then of course it provides industry recognition and showcases my commitment to professional growth.

Throughout the study period I have been able to discover many insights into how projects are (need to be) managed, and with this how Quality Assurance should be managed to achieve project objectives.

As PMI’s salary survey shows year after year, having PMP^® under your belt can drastically improve your compensation (22%-25%), which is great.

With PMP credentials I have been able to get in touch with different professionals in the industry, and PMI’s platforms & local chapters have provided me with various networking opportunities.

Which study resources did you consider, and eventually used for the exam preparation?

Initially, I started with these,

• SimpliLearn Online Classroom Flexi-Pass Instructor-led 35 contact hours classroom training with below training aids
• PMP Podcasts on the internet
• PMP Flashcards
• PMP Pocket Prep paid iOS App
• PMP Formulas
• Went through PMP Exam Lessons Learned shared by those that passed – this was both inspirational and educational as I found a couple of strategies

For my last 2 months, Last mile prep full time and below study resources used,

• PMBOK^® guide glimpsed once
• Headfirst PMP glimpsed once
• Rita Mulcahy’s PMP^® Exam Prep read once thoroughly
• Oliver Lehmann’s PMP Practice Questions (more free mock tests here)
• Simplilearn two sets of Practice Questions (practiced till I got a score above 70%)

[continue reading…]

Yes, Cornelius Fichtner’s PM PrepCast Is Back!

I thought this would never happen, to be honest!

When PMI moved over to the new exam on 2 Jan 2021, many instructors went with the ATP program, which – long story short – stopped them from helping PMP aspirants with their own courses.

Cornelius went for ATP too and their course cost a whopping $2K. This effectively put the course out of reach for many of the PMP aspirants, unfortunately.

But now that’s set to change, as PM Prepcast Is Back!

Does this cover the 2021 PMP exam?

An absolute 100%!

As you know the new PMP exam syllabus (ECO) has not deducted any of the previous content but added more.

A ton of Agile content.

The PM Prep Cast video course covers all of the new content required to be studied for the exam.

And right now you can get it at a neat $50 discount as a special inaugural offer (discount already applied).

This is the highest ever that was offered on PM PrepCast in its history (at least for the 7+ years I have been seeing it).

Grab your copy at this inaugural deep-discount offer today here.

This will be for a limited time, so I’d grab it while PM PrepCast is available at an all-time low price now.

Reach out to me from here if you have any questions, I’m here to help. If you are a student of one of my courses on my PMP student support list (you can join from the right sidebar on this blog), you can simply reply to one of my emails and I promise to reply asap. 🙂

Well if you are impatient, let me give you the goody straight away here –

[wpcd_coupon id=68348]

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What’s the change in PM PrepCast cost?

I told you earlier that the ATP program cost as much as $2000, right?

Compared to that, PM PrepCast is a steal!

But here is something you need to know first.

PM PrepCast comes with 2 packages – Basic and Elite (Elite Plus is on the way).

The Basic PM PrepCast cost is pegged at $279 and the Elite PM PrepCast cost, at $349.

What does the Elite package contain, did you ask?

It gives you an absolute gem, in addition to the video lessons (which is what you get with the Basic package) – PMP Exam Simulator!

Cornelius’ simulator is probably the most popular PMP simulator on earth right now.

The simulator alone costs $149, but now bundled with the video course as the ‘Elite’ package, you get it for just an increment of $70 (that’s like a 53% discount?)

But here is the great news!

Here comes, PM PrepCast Discount…

As an inaugural offer, Cornelius is offering PM PrepCast at a $50 additional discount! (that’s like another 20% off!)

So the PM Prep Cast Basic package costs just $229 & PM Prep Cast Elite package costs $299

And you can grab the inaugural offer today right here (the discount is already applied when you click the button below) –

I highly recommend you go over all the information on the product page. One point I want to highlight is that the PMP Exam Simulator has 90-day access (same duration access even if you bought it separately). The access starts when you take the first test, which means that you can plan when you want to take the simulator tests.

A great way to do this is to take the first test after you are done with one complete round of PMP study. [continue reading…]

After realizing how important it is to have an understanding of project management, he decided to take up PMP and passed it. The main takeaway? Make your own PMP notes!

Vinamra Tiwari is a Test Automation Manager, with mostly technical work and an obsession for the quality of deliverables. In his free time, Vinamra loves binge-watching and going on road trips (with a family record of covering 47 states in the US so far).

What made you take up PMP?

I took up the PMP exam as this was one of the learning objectives set up by my supervisor, to understand the Project Manager’s roles and responsibilities.

He also made me aware that after taking this exam I will have a basic understanding of how the project is initiated and executed.

There wasn’t another project management certificate as exhaustive and valuable as PMP, so that’s the one I went for straight away.

Now that I am PMP certified, I am targeting to be AWS cloud certified next.

Now that you are certified, what are your expectations?

The core benefit from this exam was the understanding of terms that we usually hear in the project but unable to understand as we would be working in a specific architectural/technical area of a project. Another core benefit is learning about leadership aspects.

PMP exam preparation has helped me understand various areas such as procurement handling, stakeholder assessment, etc. in a much better way now.

More importantly, I have the complete picture of how the product is created, managed, and transitioned – this has broadened my understanding.

What were your study resources?

I went with PMBOK book and Rita Mulcahy book.

Apart from these, I took PMP simulator tests for practice.

You may be interested in –

• Smart use of PMP simulator helped me pass PMP, says Julian
• A simple PMP success insight Karuna got early into her PMP journey
• Debashis shares why PMP is important for Construction industry PMs

How did you approach the exam, and what was your study plan?

[continue reading…]

This week Julian Kiggundu shares her PMP^® exam experience, and study insights. One of her take away from the exam experience is the smart use of the PMP simulator exam to gain confidence.

Julian is a highly experienced Project Analyst working with IMF, has over 25 years of experience, and is a passionate learner.

I’m super glad that Julian is one of my students, and she passed the PMP^® exam with Above Target scores in all 3 domains!

Let’s discover her strategies and insights. You might be surprised to read her analysis about the new 2021 exam as compared to the old version!

What made you take up PMP^®?

I decided to take the PMP certification to help me with my work which is more project-oriented.

Initially, I wanted to take the CPSM since my education background is in Supply Chain Management but decided to do PMP first because it is a universal certification.

The principles of project management can be applied in any industry/vertical.

The main benefit of getting PMP certified for me was the knowledge, ability, and confidence I feel, and the prestige that comes with the credential. And secondly, it would improve my visibility at work and in the end open up more career opportunities for me.

Which study resources did you use for your exam preparation?

In the beginning, I was overwhelmed by the number of resources that are available for the preparation of the exam.

I decided to take just enough resources, based on my research – so that I don’t get confused and feel confident about what I have.

I used PM Exam Last Mile Prep Program by Simplified Education Systems (Shiv Shenoy) and the PMP Exam Prep Seminar by Joseph Phillips.

For practicing the mock tests I invested in the PrepCast simulator.

The ‘Last Mile’ program, as I called it, is a very detailed course and uses mind-maps based videos to explain all the concepts. It helped me a lot to internalize the hard PMP concepts.

Not having the right set of resources can stress one out and lead to a lot of wasted time. Thus I’ve been suggesting people that are approaching me for guidance to do some research and limit the number of study resources.

Also read –

• Pete answer the question ‘is the new PMP exam harder than the earlier one?’
• Sandra’s top PMP success tips
• Karuna’s simple PMP success formula
• How troubled pandemic times fueled PMP goal for Manish
• Why Igechi thinks that ‘PMP Simulator exam’ approach was crucial

How did you approach the exam, and what was your study plan?

[continue reading…]