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My PMP Exam Journey…

As a believer in life long learning and always looking for a way to improve myself, I had taken courses through a local university to earn a certificate in Project Management. I was working for a large corporation and was involved in many IT projects. Through this journey, I learned more about the PMP certification and started exploring what it would take to earn the credentials.

My employer offered a study group that met after work hours beginning in February each year. The study group met for 16 live WebEx training sessions and lessons learned, which were recorded. The presenters were volunteer members of the company’s Project Management Community of Excellence and most were from previous years’ study groups that had successfully passed the PMP exam in prior years.

Working with limited time and budget

My budget and time were limited so I sought out the least expensive, most convenient options at my disposal for study resources. I participated in my employer’s no cost study group, which used Rita Mulcahy’s Exam Prep and the PMBOK Guide as resources.

I’ve also had many colleagues that were successful attending the boot camps if you have the financial resources available and can attend a full week.

In addition to above mentioned resources, I also took free online sample tests.

My study approach was to attend the twice weekly study group sessions and review the slides from the study materials and the Rita Mulcahy’s Exam Prep.

And read the PMBOK Guide.

Rita Mulcahy’s PMP book was most helpful to me, including the sample questions.

During my PMP exam preparation I discovered few things one must avoid.

Also Read: Pratiksha Saxena’s accidentially discovered trick to fast-track PMP preparation

What NOT to do on your exam

[continue reading…]

My PMP exam result: Above Target in 4 in first attempt.

Began prep in: 2016

Attempted exam in: 2018

Chances are you are in the similar situation as me, having taken a long time to prep up for the exam. 🙂

Inadvertently, I found the trick that fast tracked my PMP prep.

I’ll come to it in a bit.

Background

I am working as Functional Project Manager but my seniors’ jargon of Project Management terms often confused me. My appraisal was not done well enough so I was thinking about changing the job. I thought that since I am technically strong, it would not be a problem to prepare for PMP, but boy was I in for a surprise – I figured it takes something to pass this exam. But I was determined. And decided to take up PMP so I can better manage projects as well as improve my job prospects in today’s competitive market.

Like I mentioned, I started in 2016 and even took training from Simplilearn (a review here) but due to family problems could not begin the exam preparation.

Finally I made up my mind, and in 2018 I paid examination fee and started preparing for exam. [continue reading…]

3 Above Target, and 2 Target.

That was my PMP result.

I’ve been interested in becoming PMP certified for a number of years, but never liked the idea of having to take an exam. Who likes exams after all? 🙂

Once I got past that reservation, and realized that the exam is going to change I realized I had best try to get certified. I had nothing to lose in the process! I really should have done it earlier when I did not have children, it would have been a lot easier to study for, but, things worked out the way they did.

Where to start?

First thing first, I attended my PMP boot camp while I was expecting my 2nd baby – I was in the 2nd trimester, and he is now 18 months. A lot of time had passed.

I attended a PMP training webinar hosted by Shiv Shenoy & Dan Ryan around January 2018, and then signed up for the Last Mile course.

It was also logical that I needed to cover the course content thoroughly. By this point, I knew what I didn’t know.

Next, I worked more intently on getting in my exam application, which I submitted by the end of Jan 2018. I was lucky enough to have Shiv look it over, and I found a suitable date / time slot for the exam as well.

Then I worked to get all my study resources in order.

I had signed up for Shiv’s free study notes. These were so useful, and covered the material so well, and I felt it was so digestible.

No matter how I tried I really could not enjoy the PMBOK. At some point, I may have actually “decided” not to read it. [continue reading…]

Shiv, I got my PMP after what I consider one of the memorable study journey. I believe that PMP prep is made out to be an arduous task, while in reality it need not be so. Yes, the content is vast but as I discovered, if you can make it enjoyable the overall effort seems lesser and the PMP experience much enjoyable.

I’d like to share how I approached this exam and cleared it, in this article and hope PMESN readers will find something of value.

Trigger

I played the role of a project lead quite early in my professional career. Project management knowledge areas were so interesting that I worked towards gaining as much knowledge as possible by going through various books. In addition I loved researching for best practices followed by expert project managers so I can use them for successful execution of my projects.

It became clear to me that I was looking for certification that was recognized globally and also to learn the best practices in Project Management. Hence I decided to take up PMP with a goal of learning and to formally train myself as a Project Manager.

Also Read: Share Your PMP Exam Experience & Get My Course for FREE!

Study Resources and Study Plan

I had started researching about the certification back in 2016 and since then I had many false starts of the exam preparation. Finally the bolt hit me – Exam was changing in March 2018! This indeed was the trigger to ramp up my prep and pass the exam before it changed.

My serious preparation started from February. I had close to 6 weeks for the exam. I was skeptical about the possibility of getting prepared in such a short duration. This is when Shiv’s 4-week PMP prep plan gave me confidence and I set out for the preparation following the structure  mentioned in ‘The Complete ‘Ace Your PMP® Exam’ Series: Essential PMP® Concepts Simplified’. [continue reading…]

It all started in..

Jun 2014. I was to move from one project to another and I thought that till I get another project I should work on developing skills that will help me further improve as project manager.

My manager referred me to a classroom training which was happening in Mumbai, I booked the class. That was the starting point. However, I was audited in October 2016, where I had not followed the guidelines laid down by PMI & it was rejected before I could send any document to PMI for audit. I found that pmi.org and this article on PMESN had the guidance on how to fill the application properly.

I kept moving my dates, however, when I saw other colleagues getting certified, I promised myself (& my wife) to take the exam.

Also Read: Share Your PMP Exam Experience & Get My Course for FREE!

My study resources

I referred to the PMBOK guide while studying answers for mock tests/sample questions, referred to video sessions by Dan Ryan and Shiv’s Ace your PMP series book.

My study approach and study plan

My study approach & plan was Agile. I made a plan and modified it based on how each week turned out. [continue reading…]