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If you are looking for PMP® study material to prepare for your PMP® or CAPM ®certification exam, or even if you are generally interested in understanding specific project management concepts, tips and techniques – you have landed on the right blog.
Welcome!
This blog, and the corresponding Facebook community and the LinkedIn support group have helped thousands of people prepare for PMP® and CAPM® exam over the years. Based on mails from many of you I thought this page will help you get the most out of this blog.
Hope you enjoy your time here. I would love to get connected with you. You can do so by emailing me shiv(at)pmexamsmartnotes(dot)com or reaching me on Skype.
So, let’s get started.
Essentially this page shows what you can do to get best results in the least amount of time – which is to pass PMP® (or CAPM) and learn the subject in such a way that it not only helps you pass the exam but also helps do your job as a Project Manager exceptionally well.
There is a secret to make all this happen though.
And that secret is to ‘take action’.
Not much of a secret, right? 🙂 But this alone determines whether one can be successful in their goal of passing PMP® (in the shortest time with much ease, and on the first attempt).
Taking action refers to actually doing what we know will help us get success – preparing the study plan, chalking out a study schedule, studying every day, taking practice exams and so on.
Now having known the single most ‘secret’ ingredient to getting the coveted certification under your belt, let us look at how this blog and the community can help you –
1. Decide whether you qualify for PMP® or CAPM® exam
Both these exam have different requirements set by PMI.
Both these exams have same study resources – same syllabus and same PMBOK reference guide. Just the difficulty levels of questions and types of questions differ.
Please refer to this article to understand the eligibility criteria and other important information needed for PMP® exam.
Please refer to this article to understand the eligibility criteria and other important information needed for CAPM® exam.
Once you confirm which is the exam you can apply for, the next step is to prepare for the application.
Click to understand how PMP® exam is changing in 2019-2020.
Click to understand how CAPM® exam is changing in 2019-2020.
2. Sign up on the blog for FREE PMP® Launchpad video course (click here or sign up on the sidebar)
What does this do for your preparation?
This gives the right start for your preparation using a proven system. Proven to be useful for me and hundreds of successful PMP® credential holders who took advantage of this blueprint. It not only gives you study material with top-down approach, it also introduces few success principles that almost guarantee success.
This blueprint is delivered by email for free after you signup with your email address here.
Note: This will be discontinued very soon so sign up today.
Also Read: The Complete PMP® Prep Guide (New!)
3. Go through the exam study notes on this blog
You can access my entire set of PMP® study notes from the blog, for free. Get them from the menu item Study Notes..
There are over 110 articles and they are segregated by the Knowledge Areas – just as in PMBOK, so the mapping is easy for your own study. These notes are filled with brain-friendly mnemonics and mind maps that help you absorb information easily and recall effortlessly.
In fact, all menu items are designed in a way to help PMP students irrespective of which stage of PMP preparation they are in. I hope you make use of all the content on this blog, they have been created painstakingly over the years.
For instance, try reading this sentence couple of times, if possible visualize you telling this to a friend or colleague, and then see if you can reproduce it by closing your eyes –
“Integrating Scope and Schedule will Cost our Quality Resources to Communicate with a Risk of Procuring Stakeholders!”.
Now you can reproduce all the 10 Knowledge Areas, that too in the SAME sequence as they are listed in PMBOK guide!
A mnemonic need not make sense, but if it is out of the ordinary (crazy, silly, or even sexy), then our brain will find it easy to latch on to it. You can even make up your own mnemonic.
Many of this blog readers (like Nikhil here) have used these study notes as one of their study resources and passed PMP exam on their very first attempt.
Sign up now and get a huge head-start (if you are just getting started) or much deserved boost (if you have started with PMP study already) and get your PMP at the earliest!
If you have any questions related to your exam (including, any topic) write to me at Shiv@PMExamSmartNotes.com
Sign up today!
Note – Please share this page and help your friends who might be looking for a proven way to get their PMP certification.
4. Go through the study technique, tips, brain dump and other techniques
You can access these, again for free, from the side bar section ‘Important Posts’ on this blog.
Also find some of the crazy techniques under study notes menu, here.
5. Choose 2-3 study resources
Anything more, as I have seen from experience, will give you a diminishing returns on study effort (if you figured what this means, you are an ideal PMP candidate! 🙂 ). Jokes apart, if you have multiple resources it will only add more time for you to cover a single concept or Knowledge Area – which is not efficient use of your time.
Pick any 2-3 that works for you.
Now, PMBOK is crucial for PMP® – simply because most of the questions on the exam come from PMBOK guide.
The other one that I recommend (because I have used this to pass my PMP® exam) is one or both or these courses –
- PM Exam Last Mile Prep Program. Called fondly as the ‘Last Mile course’ by the students this is a complete PMP® exam prep course which has been helping PMP® toppers for years now.
This course is created using brain-friendly techniques based on study related research findings, and is proven to make PMBOK study 4X easier and enjoyable while increasing odds of PMP® success tremendously.
Click here to find more about this path-breaking course.
- Cornelius Fichtner’s PM PrepCast video course
This is a video course that helps you learn at your convenience, at your place, time and devices (PC, tablet, smartphone), and fulfills the 35-contact hours of project management education – a requirement mandated by PMI to appear for the PMP exam.
Read my hands-on review of this course here (make sure you begin with a cup of coffee!)
You probably are aware that the actual syllabus for PMP® is given by PMI via document called “PMP® Examination Content Outline” – available for download on PMI.org – and the syllabus for PMP® exam is NOT PMBOK guide.
This simulator does many things –
- Helps identify gaps in our own study
- Helps unearth areas that are not covered by your choice of study resources
- Helps you strategize your 4 hour exam time so you can answer most of the questions right (sort of a dry run of the real exam)
In case you wish to invest in PM PrepCast and Exam Simulator by Cornelius Fichtner, here is my review and a free bonus PMP® Turbocharger course – at no additional cost for you. You may even be able to get discount.
Check it out by clicking here.
The PM Exam Last Mile course has over 760+ questions you can take.
6. Get the much needed support!
Studies have proven that having a support group helps to,
- reduce procrastination
- learn faster
- get new perspective
- breaks monotony
- fill in learning gaps
..things that are so much useful in negotiating the rough path to PMP destination.
PMESN (short for PMExamSmartNotes) has two communities in social media –
- ‘PMP® Exam Notes, Tips and Resources‘ on Facebook
- ‘Get PMP® Now!‘ on LinkedIn
Take a moment and join these communities now.
These community platforms are vibrant place where PMP® and CAPM® exam aspirants, successful credential holders and project managers interested in updating/refreshing their knowledge hang out.
You can leverage their knowledge and support to fast track your PMP® (or CAPM®) journey!
Here are some of the benefits of being part of PMESN community –
- Answer sample PMP® questions every day – The #1 reason people can’t achieve PMP certification is lost momentum. Life happens after all, right? Once you miss your daily study for a week guilt sets in, which results in procrastination, and soon enough PMP takes a backseat. I should know, because I lost over 2.5 years to this very reason: lack of momentum. By taking few minutes to answer the question every day, you make sure you never lose study momentum.
- Find a study buddy – having someone to work with, to share progress and share knowledge is a fun way to work towards your PMP goal. Just share which stage of study you are currently, and timezone, and find your study buddy.
- Ask questions – you may have a question in Cost management that is bothering you, or you don’t know how stakeholder classification is done. Post your questions and get answers. Make faster progress.
- Get an accountability buddy – you’ll find people that are already PMP, or are close to getting there, or even just getting started like you. Ask anyone to be your accountability buddy. They may not be able to share study time with you, but will hold you accountable for your own study plan and schedule. Having someone to talk to helps a great deal.
- Get public accountability – share your exam date, study plan publicly, and share regular study progress. This act alone is a nice way to push yourself.
- Get free study resources and training – I post free PMP®/CAPM® study resources and training from time to time. And sometime these are limited to first X people. Grab and enjoy them.
Yes, Each answer will have a study-note link, so you can go ahead and read more about that topic from the PMP study notes. In most of the cases, a reference to PMBOK page also is given along with the answer. As you can see these communities are great way to enjoy and make faster progress on your certification journey.
Make it a routine to come to these pages once a day and you will notice a marked progress in your PMP preparation efforts.
This page, along with everything available on this blog, is in line with the goal of making PMP preparation as easy and effortless as possible, for you.
You can also get notified whenever any exam tip, PMP article, or career related post is published on the blog by signing up on this page.
Feel free to join (by LIKE-ing the page), post your questions, interact with other successful project managers, find study buddies – you can do lot of things in there to make faster progress in your study.
Click here to reach Facebook community page and here to join LinkedIn group today!
7. PMP® Lessons Learned!
Leverage study tips, techniques, strategies of over 153+ PMP students for free. Know what worked for them and what pitfalls to avoid. Access their knowledge goldpot from ‘PMP Lessons Learned’ link from the menu above or click here.
Look for awesome study tips under the Important Posts section on the right sidebar of this blog!
8. Don’t miss the Important Posts
There are a bunch of posts that are most read by our readers, and a bunch of posts that I consider important for you to cut the noise and head straight to your PMP goal.
I have linked these under ‘Important Posts’ section on the right sidebar on this blog.
We recently added ‘PMP FAQ Corner’ to answer those dreaded questions about any topic on PMP! We are just getting started so if you don’t find your questions in there, simply ask me! shiv(at)pmexamsmartnotes(dot)com
9. Shiv, do you have a curated PMP® study resource list?
Of course, I do. These include free resources that you can download/access immediately.
Access them from here, or from the main menu above.
Recently I wrote a comprehensive PMP prep guide for people starting from scratch. Click to read it here.
Grab this course for free – for a limited time!
Sign up now and get a huge head-start (if you are just getting started) or much deserved boost (if you have started with PMP study already) and get your PMP at the earliest!
If you have any questions related to your exam (including about any topic) write to me at Shiv@PMExamSmartNotes.com
Sign up today!
Note – Please share this page and help your friends who might be looking for a proven way to get their PMP certification.
That’s about it!
And yes, did you know about changes to PMP® exam in 2021? Click to read all about it, and what you need to do, here. Click to read all about it, and what you need to do, here.
Hope this blog helps you realize your PMP® goal and get ahead in your career.
Please feel free to write to me with your feedback, or even to just say Hi! I read and answer every email. So you will definitely hear back from me. 🙂
Thanks for your time, and good luck for what you are here for. Live abundantly!
Cheers,
PS: If you are on LinkedIn, tap/click the Bell icon 🔔 on my profile to get all the PMP content right into your feed.
On a side note, if you were wondering why images of famous structures are strewn on this page, well, wouldn’t we wish we were part of the ‘project management’ team that built them?!
These projects are just so amazing to even imagine being planned and executed in the bygone era without scheduling tools, Gantt charts, and sophisticated construction tools of the modern times.
PPS: If you think this page and blog will be useful to any of your friends please spread the word. A good way to start is to share this page on your social circle using floating social share bar on the left. 🙂
Icon courtesy: http://iconka.com
