PMP exam: preparation, audit, recommendations

On the Internet, it’s easy enough to find out what the PMP exam is, the formal requirements for admission to the exam, and the standard sequence of steps for passing the exam. For example, on the Habré .

However, in the preparation process, I realized that information on the practical issues of preparation and delivery is not enough, especially on the passage of the audit.

In this article, I want to share my personal experience with the preparation, filing process, passing the audit and passing the exam.

For a couple of years, as soon as I started going through the formal requirements of admission, I wanted to pass the exam and get a PMP certificate. We can say that this was my blue dream, although in Russia at that time this certificate was not so popular.

My first attempt to prepare for the surrender was a little over a year ago. I started reading PMBoK and some Russian-language books. The training was quite difficult - the dry text PMBoK was poorly perceived. So when I changed jobs last summer, I was not at all up to the exam.

Last fall, I matured for another call.
Having analyzed the past, not very successful experience, I decided to change the approach to learning.
I think that not only my digestibility is better in a joint discussion than just reading books. Choosing between full-time and online courses, I settled on the latter because of the flexibility of the schedule and cost.

I signed up for PMBoK online courses, which consisted of 24 lessons (webinars for 1.5 hours, 12 lessons - analysis of areas of knowledge, the rest - bringing the material together).

In December 2012, online training ended. Approaching the process of passing as a project (which is recommended by every second person who passes the exam), I planned myself one week for the head of Rita’s book (that is, 3 months, see the paragraph about books), one week stuffing my hands on questions - that is The exam itself was planned in mid-March.

Below I will describe in more detail the preparation methods.

Initially, I planned to take the exam in Russian (that is, an English text with a Russian translation), because, despite free English, sometimes I can read a long time into a large volume of English text. But, having started reading Rita, he quickly got involved, and, already reading Russian books, questions of terminology often arose.

In early February, began to fill out an application on the site pmi.org. Given the doubts, the collection of certificates and breaks to think and gather thoughts - the process took about a week.

After the final submit, I was glad that my profile was selected for audit . It took a week to collect the documents. Having sent UPS-mail to the specified address, two weeks later (early March) I received an e-mail that successfully passed the audit. In the letter was also my ID for recording for the exam.

At this point, I realized that I was out of time (I didn’t succeed in studying during the holidays), and that one planned week for questions would be clearly not enough for me.

As a result, I decided to sign up for the exam in late April, so that there would probably be enough time to complete the preparation.

In April, I passed the PMP exam successfully, received a beautiful certificate and a stylish badge.

Now in more detail on the stages of study / application / audit / exam:

Training


Online courses


  1. “Project Management Based on PMI” - trainer Ivan Selikhovkin.
    The course that gave me an understanding of the basic concepts of PMI. In general, the course is built according to Rita (see books ), a significant plus is that many questions are spoken out regarding Russian reality, and there is the opportunity to ask questions - in this form the material was learned much easier.
    In this course, we did not read PMBoK, did not solve the problem. But as a result, I got a general understanding, I can say that I was imbued with the "spirit of PMI". After the course, even the dry PMBok text was read much easier.

  2. He planned at the very end of his self-training to go to some intramural “official” courses to refresh his knowledge before the exam, and, in fact, exchange his money for officially recognized PDUs (see the questionnaire filling out ). But it was not needed, since there were enough hours of courses for submitting the questionnaire - therefore, I saved 15-25 thousand rubles and a week of vacation.


Books


  1. The PMP Bible “ PMP Exam Prep: Rita's Course in a Book for Passing the PMP Exam ” is written by Rita Mulcahy , who is also Rita in the Russian-language segment.
    The book is in English. Of all that I saw in this book, the test questions are closest to the real questions on the exam. The material is very clear and accessible. I think the best thing is from preparing for the exam. The only thing you need to do exercises in the text of the book really helps.
    Again, there are so-called PMIs in this book. That is, the correct settings for the exam, which must be memorized and kept in mind when answering exam questions.

  2. “Professional Project Management” by Kim Heldman . The book has been translated into Russian, and on this, I think, its merits end. Many praise this book, but I did not like it. First, when reading in Russian, one has to keep in mind a dictionary of correspondence of terms. Secondly, the structure is different - the narration is not in the fields of knowledge. In addition to what I did not like the most, the questions cited in the book as a refinement of the material passed have very little in common with what was then on the exam.


Training Question Lists


  1. pmprepare.com - I think that the most popular exam preparation program. A subscription costs $ 99 for the first month, and $ 30 for the next. All questions are in Russian and in English. In my opinion, not the best training program. Questions are asked on a different plane, and some “for sure” will not occur on the exam. For example, some formulas are not required for the exam (according to Rita and PMI). I took a subscription for a month, and did some 4-hour training sessions to get my hand up. In general, I do not recommend.

  2. " PM FASTrack " - a program from the publisher Rita . I think that the most appropriate questions that I met in preparation. By adequacy, I mean how much these questions help prepare for the exam. There are some drawbacks - there are not many questions, but the licensed version is quite expensive.

  3. I also tried a bunch of applications for a mobile phone (for android and iOS) - I searched according to the PMP exam .

    I almost did not find more than one normal free application, except for “ PMP Prep ” - it is only for iOS. Other questions had little to do with exam questions.

    I also liked the PMP Exam Free - Oliver Lehmann program - 30 questions, which for 100-200 rubles (I don’t remember exactly how much the application costs) will upgrade to the full version with 500+ questions. Useful to fill your hand. The questions, as it turned out later, are quite similar to the exam questions, and you can train in your free time (for example, on the road).


Group work


After studying in the correspondence course, I had the idea to study in a group. That is, to collect 3-4-5 people who want to pass the exam, agree on joint training and periodic discussions of the material passed.

In practice, to fully realize this wonderful idea did not work. Three people gathered, we agreed to read a chapter from Rita every week, and discuss issues on Skype over the weekend. Unfortunately, after 3-4 Skype conferences we abandoned this format.

Nevertheless, I am still convinced that this method of training is very effective.

The only thing needed was:
  • Search in a group of people with the same motivation, including those who are going to take the exam at the same time (in one month).
  • It is advisable that people have approximately the same experience, so that there are no situations where one understands everything and the other way around.
  • Recruit 4-5 people in a group so that at least three come to each meeting / skype chat. When only 3 people, then if 1-2 do not come, the wrong format is already obtained.


What you need to know by heart


As it was written in Rita, it is much more important to understand the “sacred meaning of PMI” than to memorize something. However, for this, apparently, you need to read Rita two or three times, so that everything itself will be remembered. For the exam, a number of things need to be known as a keepsake.

I managed to learn something right away. For example, after a card game from Rita, it is easy to remember which process belongs to which group of processes, or in what order the processes of the planning group go.

There were no problems with the formulas either. Having solved a lot of questions, I remembered all the required formulas (Rita has a list). And after 5-6 times I wrote out all the formulas on a sheet of paper in 1 minute.

On the recommendation of a colleague who passed PMP a month before me, he began to learn the ins and outs of planning processes. It didn’t work out very well, but in the end I came again to a graphic look. I drew a sequence of processes, what is required for each process at the input, and what is the output. The outputs of one were inputs of other processes. As a result, it turned out to fit almost all the processes on one A4 sheet. The process of drawing / remembering took about 7-8 minutes.

And the formulas, but most importantly, the process diagram with inputs / outputs learned in this way, helped me a lot in the exam (see Exam - what came in handy).

Applying for an Exam


I registered in advance at pmi.org and paid the membership fee.
Filing an PMP consists of three parts:
  • Proof of Education
  • Proof of work experience
  • Course confirmation


Education


There were no special difficulties, except for translating into English (and filling out the field) the level of my education. All the time I confuse what my degree of specialist is equal to in the English manner (5 years of study).

Work experience


I talked in advance with my superiors and agreed that they would give me recommendations if necessary for an audit.

Courses


To be admitted to the exam, 35 hours of study are required.

Hours of study are divided into PDU (courses at the "official" training centers that have passed authorization in PMI), and Contact Hours (that is, all other courses).

PDUs are automatically recognized by the PMI, and Contact Hours may or may not count. I heard that if Contact Hours is not counted, then it will be possible to attend more courses and apply again, but could not find where I read about it.

As I found out, there is no “expiration date” for the PMI. My first course was in 2006. I got 53 Contact Hours for 4 courses, including online courses.

Audit


Audit reasons


It is impossible to pinpoint the reason for the audit. Either I was just unlucky, or there was an inaccuracy in the questionnaire that confused the PMI.

I am inclined to the second option, because in the questionnaire with my data, which I downloaded for audit, for some reason, the specialty field in the education column was not filled.

If the questionnaire has been audited, then the PMI requires confirmation of the information specified in the questionnaire. It is important that at this stage, changing the information (providing other courses instead of those indicated) is no longer possible.

PMI gives 3 months to pass the audit. If you do not meet the deadline (although you can write them a letter asking for an extension), or refuse to audit, then the next time you can apply for an exam no earlier than a year later.

Education


PMI asks for a photocopy of the diploma with an insert (where the hours of the subjects are painted), along with a “free translation into English”.

I decided that the officially translated diploma would be useful to me myself, and ordered a notarized translation for 1,500 rubles.

experience


In the questionnaire, I indicated my experience over the past 5 years. Two of my three immediate superiors were in the city, so it was not difficult to get a confirmation letter from them.

The third went to America. You could either ask him to send the same letter by regular mail (you can’t e-mail it), or go to a higher level manager. Since I was not sure that the Russian Post would be able to deliver the letter on time, I went for the second option.

Courses


For the two courses I passed, I had certificates in English. I made photocopies from them.

One certificate was translated into English by myself, plus I attached a photocopy of the original.

At one course, I did not have a certificate. After reading on the PMI website what to do in such a situation, I contacted the trainer who taught this course and explained the situation to him. He wrote in a free form a letter (who he is, what kind of course he read, and what I really attended — a quarter page full text), printed, signed, scanned and sent me an e-mail. I just had to print it.

PMI letter


Having collected all the documents, I wrote a cover letter stating for each document how I received it (that the diploma was officially translated and certified that there was no certificate at the course - therefore I am attaching a letter from the trainer that instead of the boss my experience was signed by his supervisor for some reason).

All this was sent by UPS to the address indicated in the audit letter.

After 3 days, I received a notification that I received the PMI of my letter, and a week later I received confirmation that I had an audit and that I have one year to pass the exam.

Exam


The exam itself was very similar to what they say about it.

Not very large premises of the Prometric Center in Moscow. An explanation of the rules (what is possible and what is not), and, finally, access to a computer with questions and a 4 hour exam.

At the beginning of the exam, 15 minutes are given to deal with the testing program. Just 2-3 minutes is enough to understand how to answer or mark questions, and the navigation between them. In the remaining time, I wrote out the formulas on a sheet of paper, and also drew from memory a diagram of the planning processes with inputs / outputs.

I almost didn’t turn to the formulas written on the sheet, but the process diagram helped me answer some 8-10 questions. I think that I would be able to answer correctly without a diagram, but I would spend much more time on these questions, since I would have to remember the correct answer on the go.

Household recommendations


I recommend that you wear clothes with a minimum of pockets for the exam so as not to slow down the procedure for entering the room. Well, so that later there would be no unnecessary questions / suspicions of cheating.

4 hours without food / water is difficult. You can bring food and drinks with you, and take a break during the exam to have a bite to eat. To do this, go out. The exam time does not stop, so you need to calculate your strength and the remaining time. It is advisable to lay out the snack in a separate package so as not to unnerve the observers - they may be asked not to touch the package with training materials.

There are no vending machines with tea / coffee in the Moscow Prometric Center. I regretted that I did not bring a thermos with something hot.

Result


As a result, I spent 5 months preparing for the exam. I think that it would be possible to prepare faster, because I was preparing in a fairly measured mode. Three weeks of vacation, two audits can be safely deducted from this period.

In addition, my goal was not just to pass the exam mechanically (which is also not so simple), but also tried to understand all the nuances, therefore, in principle, I was even “overqualified”.

I hope that my advice is useful to those who are going to take the exam. If there are additional questions, I am ready to answer in the comments.

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