After 3,5 months of preparation I have finally achieved a big goal - passed PMP exam!
Here I would like to share what I have done to prepare for it.
Before starting I must add, that I have never before read anything about Waterfall Project Management. Companies where I was working prior to this exam did not follow PMI methodology. I was working as an Agile Project Manager and was very familiar with Scrum. So one can say that I have prepared from zero for this exam.
The requirements and price for this exam can be seen here: https://www.pmi.org/certifications/types/project-management-pmp
So the first thing you see is that this exam is not cheap. Also the 35 hours of training might not be so cheap. It can range from 10$ to 350$
Finally, here is how I have studied for the exam:
1. For the necessary 35 hours official course I have bought https://www.udemy.com/pmp-exam-prep-earn-your-pmp-certification/ for 10$ only and I must say that it is EXCELLENT course! With the course comes a book with all the slides that you can print and write comments next to them and also Flashcards (important terms with their definition that you have to know).
As this entire topic was new to me, this video material has greatly helped me understand all the topics. The instructor is doing an amazing job explaining the topics and structuring the lectures. I have watched this course at least 5 times fully.
2. I have printed PMBOK book (it is the book you get when you register to the PMI website). After I have seen the video material from Udemy first time I have read PMBOK once and have highlighted important parts.
I took 3 weeks free from work to go through these two materials fully for the first time.
After this I have left some time for the material to mature in my mind. Every day after work I would go through one of knowledge areas in a Udemy video course. There were still many things new and unknown to me. I did this for like 3 weeks. I really took some time and made breaks some days when I did not feel like studying.
After this once again I took a week off from work so in 9 days (2 weekends) I have gone through all the 10 knowledge areas and have made small brain dumps with all the most important topics and terms for each process. It was mostly just writing things down from the slides of the Udemy course in my own words and then reading the same process from the PMBOK and adding any data that was not covered by the course. I was using those brain dumps to try then to learn from them and not just to watch video lectures or read PMBOK that was too dry to understand/remember. At this point it was still all very blurry to me!
To be honest I have read PMBOK twice and now I believe one can prepare entirely for the exam without even reading the PMBOK.
3. I have bought Rita's PMP Prep book https://www.amazon.com/PMP-Exam-Prep-Eighth-Updated/dp/1932735658
This book is amazing. It asks you questions, makes you repeat what you have read... it really helps you understand and remember the most important things for the exam.
I have read and highlighted important parts of this book, while working at evening, every evening different chapter. Pay attention that Integration, Risk and Procurement Knowledge Areas are more difficult and more explained in the book, so leave one weekend when you are not working for Integraion Management and one weekend for Risk and Procurement Management together. On the other side Communication and Stakeholder Management are easier and you can do them in one day together.
After reading this book once, I have once again left some time for my mind to digest the knowledge and was reading the brain dumps I have created. Here I was still not trying to answer the questions in the book or do the tests there. I was just reading it.
After this I was doing a combination of reading my brain dumps and Rita's book and filling in the brain dumps with the knowledge from the book that was not already in there. To be honest at this point I still had a feeling like I do not know anything!
Then came a revelation when I have finally made myself learn and remember something fixed and those were the PMBOK Process Groups.
After I have repeated this for a week by writing it down on a piece of paper first thing in the morning I went a step further to learn one sentence for each of the processes, short explanation of what it does. Then I tried learning the brain dumps I have created. Last I took Rita's process game, cut all the activities and was practicing for 3-4 days putting them in the right group, until I knew them.
After this, one more time I took a week off from work and dedicated it to really learning what was in the Rita's book. After this I felt like I might be ready to start testing my knowledge. As it took me already three months to do the previous steps I have registered to the PMI finally and have booked the exam date for one month in advance. I needed this in order to make myself start studying and remembering seriously. First week I was still working and every evening after work was reading brain dumps for each of the 10 knowledge areas and was listening to the Udemy course at 1.5 speed (Joseph speaks really slow and once you know the material and just want to "catch" some things you did not remember). Then I took off from work until I pass the exam.
At the same time I was creating completely new brain dump for each process having only ITTOs (Inputs, Tools and Techniques and Outputs) for each process and the data that I did not remember when going through Udemy course or Rita. So it is only the things I needed to work more on to remember. Here is the document https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vEFawoz7idv04lAM31fYAl0gOatjQBe3uyM1JdccU8E/edit?usp=sharing I am sharing it only as an example of how I was studying, not for the purpose of anyone else learning from it, because here are only the things I needed to repeat more before the exam.
Last preparation was to read brain dumps, watch Udemy course at 1,5 speed and then read Rita's book for each knowledge area. After that I would do the questions at end of the Chapter of Rita's book.
4. I bought practice tests from the same author on Udemy https://www.udemy.com/project-management-professional-pmp-practice-tests/
Here I have scored:
Test 1 76%
Test 2 80%
Test 3 80%
Here I have added a new area to the brain dumps at the end Q&A where I was writing all the interesting questions and answers/explanation, which I did not learn using the materials previously described.
Explanation for this course are not so extensive and there are only 100 questions per test, unlike 200 how much is on the real exam, but it is a good start, to get in form. I was managing to finish every exam in approximately one hour.
5. Lastly I got Rita's PM FASTrack practice tests
Now this is really a good resource, expensive but good. My test experience would be quite different without this. The questions are very similar to the real exam, not in the content (do not expect to have any question from here repeating on the exam), but in terms of how the questions are written. If you do few tests here, you will not be surprised at the real exam at what you can expect and what you should focus on.
Here I have scored:
PMP 1 70%
PMP 2 74%
SuperPMP 64%
It took me 2,5 hours to do PMP exams and 3 hours to do SuperPMP exam.
Here the answers had really great explanations and one could really learn the fine distinction between few answers that seem correct, how to pick the most correct sounding one and on which parts of the question to focus.
I have booked my exam to start at 10AM. It lasts for 4 hours. It is very hard and exhausting. It was really super hard to focus for 3 hours on the preparation exams. That is why I have started with those Udemy tests with 100 questions, then did PMP tests and then at the end SuperPMP (the hardest one). I was preparing my body and brain to the routine of the exam day. Wake up at 8 AM, do yoga, have breakfast and go for a walk (as I would have to go to the test center on foot for 20-30 minutes). Then after I would do the exams, I would just see the final result, but would not go through the answers. I was going directly to swimming after taking the tests to get my body in shape. This helped me to increase my concentration.
For the relaxation part, I have just told myself that it is completely acceptable to fail. I did my best in preparation and now it is all about the luck. I have 3 attempts, so I will pass in one of them and if not... I will just do it in a year!
Day before the exam I just went once through all the answers I did wrong from the preparation exams (Udemy practice tests and PM FASTrack).
The test has started with the 15 minutes explanation manual of the software used for testing. Do the manual. It is nothing special, but still good to know. After the tutorial is finished your test starts. I decided not to make any brain dumps on the paper I got. I was super confident with all the mathematical formulas and very comfortable with the order of actions in planning of the project. They are the only ones that have a sequence. My first 10 to 20 questions were VERY hard and it has scared me that the test will be as hard as those questions. After those questions it seems that the questions got easier or I have got used to them already. For really many many questions I could not say 100% sure that I have picked the correct answer. I did not mark any question to review later. I have focused fully on the question and gave my best from the answering perspective. I do not see how I can be any smarter by the end of the test, so that is why I did not mark any for later review. I had a strong focus on not stressing about questions being so hard or more answers being the right choice and having to pick one. I was just focusing as much as I can on any specific words in the question which could eliminate one of the answers and then based on my choice I would pick the best answer and just go on. Once again... the test takes really long, it is pretty hard and stressing about any question just takes away your energy and concentration for the next questions. After 120 questions I have noticed that my concentration got weaker, so I made a 10 minute break, to drink some water, do some stretching exercises to get the circulation going and get some fresh blood to my brain. I considered doing headstand, but did not want to look weird :) After 170 questions I have noticed my concentration going down again. I would read one question three times and not figure what they want to say so I made second 15 minute break. After I returned I have finished the last 30 questions and.......
VOILA :) got a message CONGRATULATIONS :)
I have managed to finish the exam in less then 3 hours (including brakes) and with very good results. My personal feeling was that I have done it slightly worse then the SuperPMP exam I have practiced. So my guess would be that maybe even 60% of correct answers is enough for passing. Throughout the exam I had a feeling that I could very easily fail this exam, because for really many questions I was not 100% sure that I have picked correctly one answer over the other.
Here I would like to share what I have done to prepare for it.
Before starting I must add, that I have never before read anything about Waterfall Project Management. Companies where I was working prior to this exam did not follow PMI methodology. I was working as an Agile Project Manager and was very familiar with Scrum. So one can say that I have prepared from zero for this exam.
Requirements
The requirements and price for this exam can be seen here: https://www.pmi.org/certifications/types/project-management-pmp
So the first thing you see is that this exam is not cheap. Also the 35 hours of training might not be so cheap. It can range from 10$ to 350$
Finally, here is how I have studied for the exam:
Studying
1. For the necessary 35 hours official course I have bought https://www.udemy.com/pmp-exam-prep-earn-your-pmp-certification/ for 10$ only and I must say that it is EXCELLENT course! With the course comes a book with all the slides that you can print and write comments next to them and also Flashcards (important terms with their definition that you have to know).
As this entire topic was new to me, this video material has greatly helped me understand all the topics. The instructor is doing an amazing job explaining the topics and structuring the lectures. I have watched this course at least 5 times fully.
2. I have printed PMBOK book (it is the book you get when you register to the PMI website). After I have seen the video material from Udemy first time I have read PMBOK once and have highlighted important parts.
I took 3 weeks free from work to go through these two materials fully for the first time.
After this I have left some time for the material to mature in my mind. Every day after work I would go through one of knowledge areas in a Udemy video course. There were still many things new and unknown to me. I did this for like 3 weeks. I really took some time and made breaks some days when I did not feel like studying.
After this once again I took a week off from work so in 9 days (2 weekends) I have gone through all the 10 knowledge areas and have made small brain dumps with all the most important topics and terms for each process. It was mostly just writing things down from the slides of the Udemy course in my own words and then reading the same process from the PMBOK and adding any data that was not covered by the course. I was using those brain dumps to try then to learn from them and not just to watch video lectures or read PMBOK that was too dry to understand/remember. At this point it was still all very blurry to me!
To be honest I have read PMBOK twice and now I believe one can prepare entirely for the exam without even reading the PMBOK.
3. I have bought Rita's PMP Prep book https://www.amazon.com/PMP-Exam-Prep-Eighth-Updated/dp/1932735658
This book is amazing. It asks you questions, makes you repeat what you have read... it really helps you understand and remember the most important things for the exam.
I have read and highlighted important parts of this book, while working at evening, every evening different chapter. Pay attention that Integration, Risk and Procurement Knowledge Areas are more difficult and more explained in the book, so leave one weekend when you are not working for Integraion Management and one weekend for Risk and Procurement Management together. On the other side Communication and Stakeholder Management are easier and you can do them in one day together.
After reading this book once, I have once again left some time for my mind to digest the knowledge and was reading the brain dumps I have created. Here I was still not trying to answer the questions in the book or do the tests there. I was just reading it.
After this I was doing a combination of reading my brain dumps and Rita's book and filling in the brain dumps with the knowledge from the book that was not already in there. To be honest at this point I still had a feeling like I do not know anything!
Then came a revelation when I have finally made myself learn and remember something fixed and those were the PMBOK Process Groups.
After I have repeated this for a week by writing it down on a piece of paper first thing in the morning I went a step further to learn one sentence for each of the processes, short explanation of what it does. Then I tried learning the brain dumps I have created. Last I took Rita's process game, cut all the activities and was practicing for 3-4 days putting them in the right group, until I knew them.
After this, one more time I took a week off from work and dedicated it to really learning what was in the Rita's book. After this I felt like I might be ready to start testing my knowledge. As it took me already three months to do the previous steps I have registered to the PMI finally and have booked the exam date for one month in advance. I needed this in order to make myself start studying and remembering seriously. First week I was still working and every evening after work was reading brain dumps for each of the 10 knowledge areas and was listening to the Udemy course at 1.5 speed (Joseph speaks really slow and once you know the material and just want to "catch" some things you did not remember). Then I took off from work until I pass the exam.
At the same time I was creating completely new brain dump for each process having only ITTOs (Inputs, Tools and Techniques and Outputs) for each process and the data that I did not remember when going through Udemy course or Rita. So it is only the things I needed to work more on to remember. Here is the document https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vEFawoz7idv04lAM31fYAl0gOatjQBe3uyM1JdccU8E/edit?usp=sharing I am sharing it only as an example of how I was studying, not for the purpose of anyone else learning from it, because here are only the things I needed to repeat more before the exam.
Last preparation was to read brain dumps, watch Udemy course at 1,5 speed and then read Rita's book for each knowledge area. After that I would do the questions at end of the Chapter of Rita's book.
4. I bought practice tests from the same author on Udemy https://www.udemy.com/project-management-professional-pmp-practice-tests/
Here I have scored:
Test 1 76%
Test 2 80%
Test 3 80%
Here I have added a new area to the brain dumps at the end Q&A where I was writing all the interesting questions and answers/explanation, which I did not learn using the materials previously described.
Explanation for this course are not so extensive and there are only 100 questions per test, unlike 200 how much is on the real exam, but it is a good start, to get in form. I was managing to finish every exam in approximately one hour.
5. Lastly I got Rita's PM FASTrack practice tests
Now this is really a good resource, expensive but good. My test experience would be quite different without this. The questions are very similar to the real exam, not in the content (do not expect to have any question from here repeating on the exam), but in terms of how the questions are written. If you do few tests here, you will not be surprised at the real exam at what you can expect and what you should focus on.
Here I have scored:
PMP 1 70%
PMP 2 74%
SuperPMP 64%
It took me 2,5 hours to do PMP exams and 3 hours to do SuperPMP exam.
Here the answers had really great explanations and one could really learn the fine distinction between few answers that seem correct, how to pick the most correct sounding one and on which parts of the question to focus.
Nontechnical tips (Concentration and Relaxation)
I have booked my exam to start at 10AM. It lasts for 4 hours. It is very hard and exhausting. It was really super hard to focus for 3 hours on the preparation exams. That is why I have started with those Udemy tests with 100 questions, then did PMP tests and then at the end SuperPMP (the hardest one). I was preparing my body and brain to the routine of the exam day. Wake up at 8 AM, do yoga, have breakfast and go for a walk (as I would have to go to the test center on foot for 20-30 minutes). Then after I would do the exams, I would just see the final result, but would not go through the answers. I was going directly to swimming after taking the tests to get my body in shape. This helped me to increase my concentration.
For the relaxation part, I have just told myself that it is completely acceptable to fail. I did my best in preparation and now it is all about the luck. I have 3 attempts, so I will pass in one of them and if not... I will just do it in a year!
Day before the exam I just went once through all the answers I did wrong from the preparation exams (Udemy practice tests and PM FASTrack).
The day of the exam
Everything went according to the plan. I have went the day earlier to the city where the Prometric center is, checked the route from the place where I was sleeping to the test center. Did yoga just like every day, had good breakfast and walked to the test center. In the test center whenever you are entering the testing room you are examined and asked to pull up your sleeves and your pants, so I just went with bermudas and a shirt without sleeves, to make this process faster :)The test has started with the 15 minutes explanation manual of the software used for testing. Do the manual. It is nothing special, but still good to know. After the tutorial is finished your test starts. I decided not to make any brain dumps on the paper I got. I was super confident with all the mathematical formulas and very comfortable with the order of actions in planning of the project. They are the only ones that have a sequence. My first 10 to 20 questions were VERY hard and it has scared me that the test will be as hard as those questions. After those questions it seems that the questions got easier or I have got used to them already. For really many many questions I could not say 100% sure that I have picked the correct answer. I did not mark any question to review later. I have focused fully on the question and gave my best from the answering perspective. I do not see how I can be any smarter by the end of the test, so that is why I did not mark any for later review. I had a strong focus on not stressing about questions being so hard or more answers being the right choice and having to pick one. I was just focusing as much as I can on any specific words in the question which could eliminate one of the answers and then based on my choice I would pick the best answer and just go on. Once again... the test takes really long, it is pretty hard and stressing about any question just takes away your energy and concentration for the next questions. After 120 questions I have noticed that my concentration got weaker, so I made a 10 minute break, to drink some water, do some stretching exercises to get the circulation going and get some fresh blood to my brain. I considered doing headstand, but did not want to look weird :) After 170 questions I have noticed my concentration going down again. I would read one question three times and not figure what they want to say so I made second 15 minute break. After I returned I have finished the last 30 questions and.......
VOILA :) got a message CONGRATULATIONS :)
I have managed to finish the exam in less then 3 hours (including brakes) and with very good results. My personal feeling was that I have done it slightly worse then the SuperPMP exam I have practiced. So my guess would be that maybe even 60% of correct answers is enough for passing. Throughout the exam I had a feeling that I could very easily fail this exam, because for really many questions I was not 100% sure that I have picked correctly one answer over the other.
Please, feel free to contact me for any questions or help about passing this exam!
