Prabhao Moon passed his PMP exam, and I asked if he can to share his approach with the community. He feels that to pass the PMP exam all it takes is a simple strategy and consistency in following the plan.
By the end of this article, you may not just agree with him but also have a strategy and plan of your own (if you haven’t made one yet).
Prabhao has a master’s degree in Business Administration and a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. With 7+ years of experience in the Automotive industry, Prabhao is an expert on Project Management and New Product Development. Risk management is his favorite area. PMP® is his first professional certification.
What made you take up PMP®?
From the beginning of my career, I was working around the PM team and I always wanted to pursue my career as a Project Manager. About 2 years ago, during a casual discussion, one of my colleagues mentioned PMP certification.
That was the first time I heard about it, so I googled it, visited the PMI website and few other educational websites, forums, then went through some success stories.
Soon enough it was clear to me that there are no other certifications than PMP that I want to consider to enhance my knowledge, project management skills, and use to give me good exposure to the project management world.
I never considered any other certification and was only focused on PMP. But now I’m considering an Agile certification.
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How do you see PMP® helping you henceforth?
The first and basic benefit of being PMP® is the confidence it gives you. For me, along with knowledge it has been a confidence booster and has changed the way I approach the projects.
It helped me to identify and fill the gaps in my current understanding of project management. This certification has helped me get recognized at my workplace and by recruiters.
Can you share your preparation approach & the study plan?
First things first – I enrolled myself in 35 hours of classroom training from Seed Infotech.
They guided me about the PMP certification: how to read and key elements of PMBOK, introduced me to knowledge areas and process groups, recommended few books for reference, explained how to apply for the exam, and gave tons of motivation.
Books Referred – PMBOK guide & the PMP prep book from Rita Mulcahy
Preparation Strategy –
- PMBOK guide (read twice),
- Rita Mulcahy’s book (read twice) &
- Mock tests (went after the wrong answers with obsession)
I targeted to get PMP certified in 2 Months and planned backward.
This is my strategy for the preparation.
→ PMBOK (1st Read) – Frankly speaking it was very boring and frustrating at the start as it looks very theoretical. Sometimes I thought of skipping PMBOK and just continue with Rita Mulcahy’s book.
But I stuck to my plan and continued reading (cover to cover). It’s ok if you do not understand some topics it will fall in place after some time.
→ Rita Mulcahy (1st read) – This was a bit easy now that I have read PMBOK first and I kind of started liking it as the language was simple compared to PMBOK. Rita has covered few topics which you will not find in PMBOK but is useful for the exam.
→ PMBOK (2nd Read) – As of now most of my concepts were clear but the content was so vast, and I was wondering how I’ll remember what I have studied. But once I started reading PMBOK the 2nd time, everything started getting clearer and there was no need to remember anything.
And surprisingly I began liking PMBOK more than Rita Mulcahy by this time.
→ Rita Mulcahy (2nd Read) – This time the reading was quick but answering the questions and understanding the answers (even if they are correct) took some time. My goal was to understand the logic behind all the answers.
→ Mock Tests – The key to passing the PMP® certification exam.
I have solved many mock tests (almost answered 3000+ questions). Spent more time understanding the logic, concept, and ethics behind answers. I evaluated the wrong answer and corrected my understanding.
The more questions you answer and evaluate, the more you will get close to your PMP® certification.
Also check out – Grab 2000+ top-quality PMP simulator questions (at instant 10% discount with your special code: SN-PMSIM )
Consistency was key.
I studied every day; 4 hours on weekdays and 8-10 hours on weekends. I have not skipped study for even a single day.
Consistency is very important it keeps you motivated to study further, even a single break has the potential to push you back from your achievement. It’s ok sometimes to be flexible with hours but you need to keep it rolling.
Personal study notes helped a ton.
I took my own notes while studying, which help me to get a quick look at all important topics; especially the difficult ones.
Also, I noted down the concepts where I was wrong during the mock test.
Prepared notes about all the formulas on a simple A4 sheet and pasted at my study area.
In the week before your exam Personal Notes are very useful as a quick revision of your study.
Issues you faced during your PMP® journey, and how did you overcome them.
There are many issues and challenges, I’ll highlight some of them below:
- Family Time: when you plan 4 hours of study every day after your office hours, initially it is fine but after few days it gets difficult to manage Work-Study-Family – all together. I’m thankful to my family, especially my wife for supporting and understanding me in those 2 months.
- Low scores in the mock tests: It can be disappointing and demotivating at the beginning, but consistency and learning from mistakes helped me to overcome my weak points, and eventually I began to score better.
- Negative people: I came across few negative people, who demotivated me and said that I’ll not be able to get certified with two months of study. They also suggested rescheduling the exam after 4-5 months. It really gave me second thought of rescheduling, but I stuck to my plan and strategy.
The week before the exam is crucial. What was your approach to study during this week?
This was a very crucial and important week for me, and I planned it in advance.
Initially, I read Rita Mulcahy (just the highlights), then I was focused on my Personal Notes.
I solved mock tests every day and ran behind the wrong ones (till this time I was able to score 75+ every time).
EVM, CPM, and other calculation-based questions were easy for me, so I was not much focused on them.
I did not study on Friday evening as my exam was scheduled for Saturday afternoon, I watched a comedy show on TV had a nice dinner. Good sleep is important before the exam.
On the exam day, I read my Personal study notes and Formula sheet in the morning.
What was your exam experience like?
I reached the exam hall an hour prior to the scheduled time.
It was quiet and comfortable there. The support staff was nice and helpful, he explained to me the rules and provided a locker to keep my mobile, wallet, handkerchief, etc. They do not allow anything in the exam hall.
I began by writing down all the processes and formulas on the writing pad given by the staff. This helped me during the exam to check the process & formulas when needed without stress on my mind.
There was only one calculation-based question (CPM), most of the questions were based on change management, scheduling, scope, and risk management.
The initial few questions were long and tough, and I marked most of them due to which my speed was not as planned. Initially, my plan was to solve all questions in 3 hours and recheck my answers in the last 1 hour.
But the plan changed due to the slow start. The final hour was tough for me to finish all questions and recheck, but I managed to complete the exam in the stipulated time. I also took a breather every now and then, relaxed by closing my eyes, and deep breathing.
I passed the exam! ?
Any specific study tips, advice, techniques, or strategies you’d like to share with PMP® students?
- PMP is achievable, you just need a plan and stick to it as much as you can (as a PM you know it’s not always possible, and you know what to do when things go wrong: adapt!).
- Focus on the concepts. Your understanding is important as most of the questions are situational. You need to select the correct answer for that situation amongst all the right answers.
- Be ready for some bouncers (tough questions) in the beginning, everything will fall in place and become smooth after few questions.
- Do not spend more than one min on a question, mark if needed. Do not mark more than 15 questions. Don’t mark when you don’t know the answer.
- No one is perfect, no matter how much you study there is always a gap. So be confident and do not overstudy.
I passed PMP certification on my first attempt with just 8 weeks of study, so anyone can do this. All it takes is a planned strategy and consistency in following it.
All the best!
