I’ve been a Project Manager and Business Analyst for the better half of a decade. I’ve been on large and small projects in a wide variety of industries. Over the years I’ve had the pleasure of working with some incredible project managers. Most of the people whom I mentored under had their PMP certification, and it has always been a personal goal of mine to obtain it! As of April 10, I am officially certified! It was a long road to get here, but I feel very accomplished and happy for putting in the hard work. This forum provided some great resources for me as I prepared for my exam so I’d like to share my lessons learned with you all in hopes that you might find some of the information useful.

 

 

I decided I was going to finally go after the cert in the fall of 2014. I spent a few months gathering up all my past project info and PDUs. My only advice here is to be organized. Make a grid of all your projects with dates, durations, and project details before you start the application process. This is especially important if you worked on a lot of smaller projects like me. If you have a significant number of your hours in a certain project or program, make sure you reach out to your project contacts and let them know you are listing them. I was not audited, but I was fully prepared in case I was.

 

It took me about 20 hours to complete my application from start to finish. Your mileage may vary here. In any case, when I was told that my application was accepted, I was elated. This was in early January. I decided to give myself three months to study. After looking at my work and school schedule, I finally settled on April 10.

 

 

 

I started seriously structuring my study regimen after the 1st of the year. Before I get into this, you have to understand I am an awful test taker and memorizer. It takes a tremendous amount of effort for me to learn concepts that I can’t apply in real-time. That said, I think this approach works for those of you who are like me and can’t just pick up a book and absorb the information.

 

 I was lucky enough to have a few colleagues who were also interested in obtaining their PMP. We created a small group of around 4-5 people and decided to use Rita as our primary study aid. We went over one chapter a week. We would meet for around 1-1.5 hours, review the high level goal of the chapter, and go over the chapter questions together. We would refer back to PMBOK when necessary and we would occasionally read blogs and forums for additional clarification.

 

Let me just say that out of all the study methods, the group study was the best for me. Being able to talk through why certain answers were right or wrong helped drill in difficult concepts. We’d often come across a term we were unsure of and collectively would talk about what it means and how it applies to the current chapter. It was also great that we held each other accountable to do the reading and press on with our studies. I cannot stress enough how helpful this study method was and would highly suggest you use group study as a tactic for self-study.

 

 

While group study was a great way to dig into the content, it’s simply not enough to build the knowledge you need to sit for the exam. I did additional self-study from home. I’d read PM blogs on concepts that were unclear to me, I’d try to find sites that had good brain dumps (more on this later), I read most of the LL on PMZilla, but one thing I did not do was read the PMBOK from cover to cover. It’s a reference book, and the content is super dry. On chapters I had more trouble on, I’d read through it, but reading through it cover-to-cover is not a productive way to ingest the content, in my opinion. On the other hand, if you ignore it outright, you will miss very important concepts, and let’s not forget that the exam is testing our knowledge of PMBOK. If you ever find a discrepancy, always refer back to it so you know what the right answer is.

 

One particular area of focus for my home study was writing flash cards for formulas and difficult concepts. The cards I felt I needed for the exam became my brain dump. Since this is something I thought I’d find value in while I was studying, here is the outline of the paper brain dump I used when I sat for the exam.

 

Formulas

Estimated Activity Duration

Point of Total Assumption

Present Value

EV

EAC

VAC

ETC

TCPI

Float

 

I also was able to write table 3-1 (Process Group and Knowledge Area Mapping) from PMBOK by memory. There are plenty of different ways to try to memorize this (checksums, mnemonic devices, etc.), but for me it was just about repetition. I had it pretty much mastered writing it from scratch after around 3 nights of practice. I didn’t bother with all the inputs and outputs, but for areas I had trouble with, I made a point to know some of them. I believe I probably had 15-20 questions I was able to work through with ease because I knew this chart well. As far as ITTOs, I don’t remember more than a half dozen, but they weren’t anything you can’t work through by understanding table 3-1 and knowing how to speak PMBOK.

 

Here’s the thing. Your brain dump is for you. For some people, math comes easy, and they may need to have ways to understand the HR theories, risk response types, or contract types and for others there may need to be a heavier focus on formulas.

 

 

First piece of advice here, don’t bother trying to do any tests until you have read through Rita, PMBOK, Headfirst, or whatever study aid you’re using. You simply won’t understand how to speak PMBOK. This is the second time I’ve used this phrase, and I think it’s a very important reason on how I was able to get a lot of questions right. Knowing how PMBOK uses terms like Quality, Issue, or Risk, or their interpretation of data is extremely useful. If you see these terms enough your brain can immediately rule out other options. It’s tough to force your brain to forget generally accepted terminology you use in your line of work especially for seasoned PMs, but it’s not nearly as bad as people make it out to be. 

 

Here is a list of the tests I used to prepare for the exam:

 

Simplilearn – 200 Questions Free Test

Simplilearn – 200 Questions Paid Test 1

Simplilearn – 200 Questions Paid Test 2

Simplilearn – 200 Questions Paid Test 3

Headfirst – 200 Questions Free Test

Whizlabs 50 numerical questions of PMI-PMP

All 18 of Scordo’s 50 question tests on the PMI website

 

I tried a few iPhone/iPad applications and a few other tests, but they either felt out-of-date (PMBOK 4) or just not well written or accurate. I know others have had success with other providers, but I simply cannot speak to their accuracy or usefulness. If I was to do everything over again, I would do exactly the same questions again, but be a little more diligent on fixing gaps in my knowledge early rather than just get my score and move onto the next test. 

 

I was scoring in the 55-65% range toward the beginning and started trending toward 75-85% range with more practice. Scordo was pretty easy stuff, but I liked the structure of the exams. They were short so you could do one over lunch, but they also let you know why you got the question wrong in real-time and provided references back to PMBOK. Simplilearn felt more like sitting for the real test. I was finishing them in around 2.5 hours. I don’t know what the exact number you need to be at to be ready to sit for the test is, but I think you have that moment where everything clicks and you feel ready. For me that was about a week before the exam. Most of the questions I was getting wrong weren’t because I didn’t know the material, but instead were because I didn’t stop to think about what the question was asking. 

 

 

The night before the exam, I stopped studying around four hours before I went to sleep. Seriously, no flash cards, no brain dump practicing, no books, etc. I watched a movie with my wife and visited my parents for a bit. It’s really important to do things that put your mind at ease. Don’t think about taking the test or whether you will pass or fail. You just have to know that you’ve put your best studying effort in and that you’re ready! I packed a small bag of snacks and water to take with me in the morning.

 

The drive to the test center was around 15 minutes. My appointment was at 8 AM. This area of town is known for bad traffic, so I gave myself 45 minutes for the drive. I arrived to the test site 20 minutes early. If you’ve ever taken another certification exam or something like the GRE, you’ll know the drill, but many people don’t know what they’re getting into when they arrive at a testing facility. 

 

(Note: this is a US facility. Depending on what state or country you’re in, you may have different experiences)

 

Make sure you dress comfortably and wear layers. I wore jeans and had a sweatshirt I could take off if I got hot. I’m super glad I wore it because my center was freezing. I think I would have been super distracted had I only wore a t-shirt. They have you put everything in an assigned locker, and I do mean everything: keys, wallet, watch, bag, etc. The only thing on me was a locker key and my ID. 

 

After going over some ground rules, they took me to a cube and provided me with a calculator, two pencils, and some scrap paper. I brain dumped and started. I purposely stopped at 100 questions to eat a snack and use the restroom. It was nice to clear my head. At 200 I stopped again and used the restroom. I had about an hour left at the end to review my answers. I had around 30 marked for review. After going through all of them, I hit submit. 

 

Please fill out this survey. UGH!

 

Filled the survey out and hit submit.

 

Wait.

 

Wait.

 

At this point I closed my eyes and said a little prayer. Had I done the best I could possibly do? What am I going to do if I fail? I open my eyes…

 

‘Congratulations, you have passed your PMP certification exam’ flashed on the screen. I felt like all the air went out of me. I kind of just buried my head in my hands in gratitude. I got up and turned in my key and they handed me a printout of my results. Ended up with 4MP+1P. To be honest, I felt like I could have scored higher, but a passing grade is a passing grade!

 

I am thankful for where I am in my career and for having the means to sit for this exam. Tremendous thanks to my loving wife, family, God, my supportive study group, resources like this forum, and my company. Best of luck to those of you who are preparing for this exam. It’s not easy work to learn the material, but if I can do it, you certainly can. I hope you have found this write-up helpful!