My experience getting PMP
Most recently, I became the proud owner of a PMP certificate - Project Management Professional . And in this article I want to share my experience with everyone who is going to take this exam, who is still thinking of passing or not passing, and with those who are simply interested in this topic.
I want to note right away that I passed the exam the first time and it seemed to me not as complicated as I expected, judging by the stories of those who passed it. In my experience, a large number of people are inclined to believe that the exam is very difficult both mentally, physically and psychologically. I agree about the last two, but I think about the first that not everything is so simple.
I think everyone has heard that the exam is positioned as testing not only the knowledge obtained from books (from the same PMBoK standard), but also testing the skills and experience of practical application of this knowledge in a working environment. That is why, one of the conditions for admission to the exam is the presence of 4,500 hours of work in the field of project management. I concluded that someone who does not have wide experience, and perhaps even who never independently conducted projects, can pass the exam. The main thing to understand and catch is imbued with the basic principles / postulates (PMI-isms), a complete and understandable list of which is given by Rita Malkakhi in her book “PMP Exam Prep”. And of course, this does not exempt from studying the standard itself and additional literature, as well as from training on tests.
So my preparation consisted of five stages:
I took courses from the company in which I worked at that time, in a rather famous specialized training center. The main motive for attending professional courses was to obtain the necessary PDUs. In fact, at the time I attended the courses, I was already in the “topic” for a long time, so I can’t say that I learned and discovered a lot of new things. In general, the courses are useful for those who are just starting to learn project management.
The first thing I did was read the standard PMBoK in my native Russian language. On the day, I tried to study one chapter (i.e., one area of knowledge). It happened that two and three days went to the chapter, since not all areas of knowledge turned out to be equally difficult for me. For example, “Procurement Management” I studied for three days. By the way, it was from this area, as it seemed to me, that I had the most questions on the exam.
Then I began to study the book “PMP Exam Prep” by Rita Malkakhi and at the same time read PMBoK in English. The study was built on the following principle: I read the chapter on a specific area of knowledge in PMP Exam Prep, and then I read the corresponding chapter in PMBoK. This allows you to faster, better and deeper understand and remember the material.
Another great online resource is the Deep Fried Brain project . There you can find many useful articles for a more detailed study of many aspects that you will not find in Rita and in the standard itself. There are also many examples of calculations using formulas.
You can find a lot of videos on project management and exam preparation on Youtube. However, in my opinion, not all of them are equally useful, and many take valuable time. I have identified for themselves a resource iZenBridge Consultancy Pvt Ltd . Firstly, there is a high-quality presentation of information, and secondly, a pretty good English speech, which is nice to listen to. In other videos (possibly equally useful), I was very stressed out by the stress and had to listen constantly, additionally overloading my brain (despite the fact that I speak English quite well and have been practicing it for a long time in my work).
There is also another very useful footage - CBTNuggets. Its only minus is that it is paid (I got it for free thanks to the courses about which I wrote above). This video material is ideal for “polishing” and organizing the knowledge learned in PMBoK and PMP Exam Prep. I remember how, after studying these two books, I had a feeling of being overloaded with knowledge. It seemed to me that I did not remember anything from what was studied. There was even a feeling of some helplessness and disappointment in myself, since enough time, and most importantly, was spent on studying enough by that time. Watching the videos gave me confidence in my knowledge, helped me sort through the “shelves” and systematize again all the material. Therefore, you need to treat this video material as one that provides the necessary, but insufficient knowledge for passing the exam.
I took up the test solution two days before the exam. Better to start earlier. Despite the fact that I passed the exam, I still recommend doing more test questions than I had time to and start at least 5 days in advance.
The most similar to the examination and quality questions, I find in the following tests:
There are many other test links on the Deep Fried Brain project website as well . Of course, some of them are no longer working, but if someone needs more tests for training, then you can search and find something worthwhile.
Applications on a smartphone / tablet are a very useful thing. You can always usefully spend time on the road. A lot of applications have been developed, but two seemed to me the most useful, convenient and high-quality: PMP exam prep and PMP Exam Mentor .
The PMP exam prep has good practice tests, and the PMP Exam Mentor has two particularly useful sections - Formula and Glossary. Formula contains all the necessary formulas; Glossary contains a list of more than 500 definitions. It is very useful to read, leaf through and repeat before going to bed.
To summarize the process of my preparation:
1. Read PMBoK in Russian
This item can be deleted. I believe that one could immediately read in English (if knowledge of the language allows). If reading in English the meaning of what you read is not entirely clear, then you can always see the option in your native language - this is very convenient. That is, the first point can be skipped.
2. We read PMBoK in English and at the same time we read Rita’s “PMP Exam Prep”
In the book “PMP Exam Prep,” it’s worth doing all the tasks qualitatively and be sure to do the tests at the end of each chapter, analyzing the answers to all the questions, including those that were answered correctly. This is necessary in order to understand whether you reasoned correctly when choosing an answer, whether you understood and interpreted the material correctly. During my preparation, there were cases when I answered correctly, but at the same time the reasoning itself was not entirely correct and this could not play in my favor on the exam. Therefore, do not be lazy and read the explanations to all questions.
3. We watch a series of videos from CBT Naggets, we recall and “kill” the acquired knowledge in the second paragraph.
Life hack: since there is never much time, to speed up the viewing process, I highly recommend using the video viewing acceleration function - the time spent is less, the result is the same.
4. We read Rita’s “PMP Exam Prep” for the second time and write it down in a compendium.
Reading the second time showed that some of the knowledge was lost and not deposited in memory. You can write a compendium on the first reading. I also “ran” all the tests in the book a second time. Abstract is perfect for repeating the material before the exam itself.
5. We solve tests.
I recommend doing at least one test on time, this will give you the opportunity to navigate how to better manage the time allotted for the exam. In total, before the exam I decided about 1000 questions, taking into account the tests in the book “Rita's PMP Exam Prep”.
By the way, I did not teach IO (Inputs and Outputs) processes. More precisely, I tried to learn, but nothing happened to me like that. Questions on the topic of inputs and outputs are simple and logical. It was easier for me to understand the logic and meaning, which is quite possible to do by studying the material according to the scheme described above.
Thus, it took me about 3 months to prepare.
As for the financial side of the issue - I paid only for the exam and membership in PMI, since the courses were paid by the company. In general, it turned out $ 544 = ($ 405 + $ 139).
I’ll also add a few words about the exam itself.
There is enough time in the exam, do not rush. I walked right through time and immediately answered all questions thoughtfully and did not chase to keep within the calculated allotted time (4 * 60/200 = 1.2 minutes) for the question time. For me, this was the best strategy that I understood while training. Therefore, I remind you once again that a training test for 200 questions and for a while is a very important part of preparation. Somewhere starting from question 50 (1/4 of the test), I began to feel that my head was a little tired. But I took a break for 7 minutes only after 140 questions, since by this time my attention had begun to disperse and it was already very difficult to concentrate on the questions. The last questions seemed easier to me, there was a feeling that all the difficult situational questions on the half page ended in the first part. Of the formulas were the simplest - for the amount of communication and from EVA (Earned Value Analysis). I also strongly advise you to take the Russian translation, it is especially useful when attention begins to fade away slowly and brains begin to “boil” from long mental work.
That's all. I hope I did not tire you and my experience will be useful to you.
Dare and do not be afraid, you will succeed!
I want to note right away that I passed the exam the first time and it seemed to me not as complicated as I expected, judging by the stories of those who passed it. In my experience, a large number of people are inclined to believe that the exam is very difficult both mentally, physically and psychologically. I agree about the last two, but I think about the first that not everything is so simple.
I think everyone has heard that the exam is positioned as testing not only the knowledge obtained from books (from the same PMBoK standard), but also testing the skills and experience of practical application of this knowledge in a working environment. That is why, one of the conditions for admission to the exam is the presence of 4,500 hours of work in the field of project management. I concluded that someone who does not have wide experience, and perhaps even who never independently conducted projects, can pass the exam. The main thing to understand and catch is imbued with the basic principles / postulates (PMI-isms), a complete and understandable list of which is given by Rita Malkakhi in her book “PMP Exam Prep”. And of course, this does not exempt from studying the standard itself and additional literature, as well as from training on tests.
So my preparation consisted of five stages:
1. Project management training courses
I took courses from the company in which I worked at that time, in a rather famous specialized training center. The main motive for attending professional courses was to obtain the necessary PDUs. In fact, at the time I attended the courses, I was already in the “topic” for a long time, so I can’t say that I learned and discovered a lot of new things. In general, the courses are useful for those who are just starting to learn project management.
2. Independent study of the PMBoK standard and additional literature
The first thing I did was read the standard PMBoK in my native Russian language. On the day, I tried to study one chapter (i.e., one area of knowledge). It happened that two and three days went to the chapter, since not all areas of knowledge turned out to be equally difficult for me. For example, “Procurement Management” I studied for three days. By the way, it was from this area, as it seemed to me, that I had the most questions on the exam.
Then I began to study the book “PMP Exam Prep” by Rita Malkakhi and at the same time read PMBoK in English. The study was built on the following principle: I read the chapter on a specific area of knowledge in PMP Exam Prep, and then I read the corresponding chapter in PMBoK. This allows you to faster, better and deeper understand and remember the material.
Another great online resource is the Deep Fried Brain project . There you can find many useful articles for a more detailed study of many aspects that you will not find in Rita and in the standard itself. There are also many examples of calculations using formulas.
3. View the video
You can find a lot of videos on project management and exam preparation on Youtube. However, in my opinion, not all of them are equally useful, and many take valuable time. I have identified for themselves a resource iZenBridge Consultancy Pvt Ltd . Firstly, there is a high-quality presentation of information, and secondly, a pretty good English speech, which is nice to listen to. In other videos (possibly equally useful), I was very stressed out by the stress and had to listen constantly, additionally overloading my brain (despite the fact that I speak English quite well and have been practicing it for a long time in my work).
There is also another very useful footage - CBTNuggets. Its only minus is that it is paid (I got it for free thanks to the courses about which I wrote above). This video material is ideal for “polishing” and organizing the knowledge learned in PMBoK and PMP Exam Prep. I remember how, after studying these two books, I had a feeling of being overloaded with knowledge. It seemed to me that I did not remember anything from what was studied. There was even a feeling of some helplessness and disappointment in myself, since enough time, and most importantly, was spent on studying enough by that time. Watching the videos gave me confidence in my knowledge, helped me sort through the “shelves” and systematize again all the material. Therefore, you need to treat this video material as one that provides the necessary, but insufficient knowledge for passing the exam.
4. Solution tests
I took up the test solution two days before the exam. Better to start earlier. Despite the fact that I passed the exam, I still recommend doing more test questions than I had time to and start at least 5 days in advance.
The most similar to the examination and quality questions, I find in the following tests:
- FastTrack from Rita Maklahi - in my opinion is more difficult than a real exam (I did 58%);
- Edwel 1 and Edwel 2 - for 50 and 100 questions. Questions of medium difficulty, but also help to once again recall and repeat what was learned;
- Oliver Lehmann test 1 and Oliver Lehmann test 2 ;
- Kaplan Selftest - need registration. A test for CAPM, but this is no less useful.
There are many other test links on the Deep Fried Brain project website as well . Of course, some of them are no longer working, but if someone needs more tests for training, then you can search and find something worthwhile.
5. Work with smartphone applications
Applications on a smartphone / tablet are a very useful thing. You can always usefully spend time on the road. A lot of applications have been developed, but two seemed to me the most useful, convenient and high-quality: PMP exam prep and PMP Exam Mentor .
The PMP exam prep has good practice tests, and the PMP Exam Mentor has two particularly useful sections - Formula and Glossary. Formula contains all the necessary formulas; Glossary contains a list of more than 500 definitions. It is very useful to read, leaf through and repeat before going to bed.
To summarize the process of my preparation:
1. Read PMBoK in Russian
This item can be deleted. I believe that one could immediately read in English (if knowledge of the language allows). If reading in English the meaning of what you read is not entirely clear, then you can always see the option in your native language - this is very convenient. That is, the first point can be skipped.
2. We read PMBoK in English and at the same time we read Rita’s “PMP Exam Prep”
In the book “PMP Exam Prep,” it’s worth doing all the tasks qualitatively and be sure to do the tests at the end of each chapter, analyzing the answers to all the questions, including those that were answered correctly. This is necessary in order to understand whether you reasoned correctly when choosing an answer, whether you understood and interpreted the material correctly. During my preparation, there were cases when I answered correctly, but at the same time the reasoning itself was not entirely correct and this could not play in my favor on the exam. Therefore, do not be lazy and read the explanations to all questions.
3. We watch a series of videos from CBT Naggets, we recall and “kill” the acquired knowledge in the second paragraph.
Life hack: since there is never much time, to speed up the viewing process, I highly recommend using the video viewing acceleration function - the time spent is less, the result is the same.
4. We read Rita’s “PMP Exam Prep” for the second time and write it down in a compendium.
Reading the second time showed that some of the knowledge was lost and not deposited in memory. You can write a compendium on the first reading. I also “ran” all the tests in the book a second time. Abstract is perfect for repeating the material before the exam itself.
5. We solve tests.
I recommend doing at least one test on time, this will give you the opportunity to navigate how to better manage the time allotted for the exam. In total, before the exam I decided about 1000 questions, taking into account the tests in the book “Rita's PMP Exam Prep”.
By the way, I did not teach IO (Inputs and Outputs) processes. More precisely, I tried to learn, but nothing happened to me like that. Questions on the topic of inputs and outputs are simple and logical. It was easier for me to understand the logic and meaning, which is quite possible to do by studying the material according to the scheme described above.
Thus, it took me about 3 months to prepare.
As for the financial side of the issue - I paid only for the exam and membership in PMI, since the courses were paid by the company. In general, it turned out $ 544 = ($ 405 + $ 139).
I’ll also add a few words about the exam itself.
There is enough time in the exam, do not rush. I walked right through time and immediately answered all questions thoughtfully and did not chase to keep within the calculated allotted time (4 * 60/200 = 1.2 minutes) for the question time. For me, this was the best strategy that I understood while training. Therefore, I remind you once again that a training test for 200 questions and for a while is a very important part of preparation. Somewhere starting from question 50 (1/4 of the test), I began to feel that my head was a little tired. But I took a break for 7 minutes only after 140 questions, since by this time my attention had begun to disperse and it was already very difficult to concentrate on the questions. The last questions seemed easier to me, there was a feeling that all the difficult situational questions on the half page ended in the first part. Of the formulas were the simplest - for the amount of communication and from EVA (Earned Value Analysis). I also strongly advise you to take the Russian translation, it is especially useful when attention begins to fade away slowly and brains begin to “boil” from long mental work.
That's all. I hope I did not tire you and my experience will be useful to you.
Dare and do not be afraid, you will succeed!