After 4 months of hard work, I reached my goal in achieving PMP® certification! It was my mission to fulfill my dream. Having achieved this, I am now putting the same zeal into finding a suitable job for myself to make a career as a Project Manager. Right off the bat, I must emphasize that PMP® mock tests were most crucial part of my PMP® prep.
In this article I am going to share everything that helped me achieve my PMP® credential. Hope this helps certification aspirants.
PMP success factor
In my view PMP® was not possible without certain support groups.
I am very grateful to God, my family, my mentor Vidyesh Alve, (PMP, PRINCE2), my association with PMESN platform, WinningPMPlan WhatsApp group, ‘I want to be a PMP’ LinkedIn group and friends for their blessings and continuous support during my 2nd attempt.
I didn’t have a PMP® friend circle with whom I could discuss my queries. This group was my study support circle, Here, each question and the discussions around it helped as knowledge enhancement and motivation factor for me. I was free to ask any type of silly questions too.
The globalization of PMP® certification and the availability of the specialized courses offered me a chance to enhance my knowledge.
PMP® Lessons Learned
Based on my analysis and exam prep experience, here is a 6-step PMP plan.
- Analyze yourself
- Freeze your top study resources
- Make-Own study strategy
- Fix your exam date
- Practice a boatload of mock tests
- Be calm on the D-day
Let me briefly explain how each of these steps work.
Step 1: Analyze yourself
The very first question to ask is, “What is my learning Style?”
People have different styles of learning when it comes to studying difficult concepts.
Some enjoy Visual Learning aids – videos, graphical pictures like Data Flow Diagram (you’ll find this after each process in PMBOK), Mind Maps etc.
Some enjoy auditory learning aids – Listening podcast or any audio recordings.
Few others are fond of immersive, read/write learning. Reading from books, preparing the notes etc. Few may even have a preference between printed books versus e-books.
Knowing which type of study style you enjoy will help you a great deal.
This was one of the major mistakes I committed during my first attempt. I started reading from a digital copy of books but later realized that I should have stuck to my old habit of reading from a physical book to speed up my study process.
Analyze yourself and stick to your learning style; after all every individual is different, so is their learning style. [continue reading…]
Shiv, I passed my PMP exam! While I feel that it is important to make one’s own PMP study plan, I’m sharing mine here with the hope that it may provide some insights.
My day-to-day responsibilities at work had recently culminated into managing multiple end-to-end projects. I thought that taking a PMP certification would not only strengthen my resume but also provide me with opportunities to implement my newly learnt skills in real time.
My PMP study has been a roller-coaster ride. It took me one year to become PMP, as I was working full-time job and had to manage my 2 growing kids.
Here is my PMP journey!
Passing PMP was one of the toughest challenges for me as far as professional certification exams are concerned. At the end of it, the outcome is worth every ounce of energy spent, every hour of sleep skipped, and all the sacrifices I had to make. I’m PMP certified now and the feeling is simply fantastic.
In this post I am sharing my exam experience and some of the techniques I used to make my efforts more effective. This is quite a detailed guide and I hope that this will help PMP aspirants prepare better for their exam.
Shiv, I’m glad to share my PMP exam experience with you. I hope people preparing for their exam will find something useful in this to include in their study plan.
I kept it pretty simple. ‘
