Taking the Plunge

Well, this is it.  Tomorrow I find out if I am able to turn all of the experience and study into the correct answers on the exam.  I would say, “Wish me luck,” but it is not about luck at this point.  I won’t call it “skill” either, but if it were just about luck there would be a lot more PMPs out there.

I had a run in with pre-test anxiety earlier this week.  I started to get stressed out to the point that I could not study, and if I tried, I could not remember what I studied.  I am not going to go through a litany of stress relieving techniques, but I will say that sometimes you just need to step away for a little bit, clear your head, and then get back into it.  The key is getting back into it, and the longer you delay the harder it will be.

Am I going to do more studying today?  Contrary to advice in exam prep books I have been studying, I will.  I am going to practice Earned Value a little – EAC is the formula that will likely cause me the most trouble.  I am going to review contract types a little.  And I am going to take a practice exam.  To be honest, I could study the next 12 hours straight and still not feel highly confident, but that is just me and taking tests.

At this point, I really can’t expect to learn anything new that I will still remember tomorrow, so it is really about taking a relaxed approach to studying and reviewing what I already know to keep it fresh in my mind for tomorrow.  Perhaps the most important thing I can practice today is my memory dump sheet – the first thing I want to write down before I start my test, tomorrow morning.

After writing about this for the past several months, I better pass.  I would hate to have my next entry be about failing the exam.

There I go, creating more stress for myself.

Wish me plenty of sleep tonight and a clear head in the morning!

Alas, my poor study group is no more.  It is down to just one - me.

I can appreciate the reasons the others gave for leaving the group.  Not only are there a lot of high profile initiatives taking place, there has also been a lot of turnover, recently, leaving the rest of us to fill in the gaps without a lot of time for personal study.  In any case, when they do decide to pick things up again, they will at least have the study resources we were able to pool for our meetings.  I just hope they can make time for it before the exam changes, sometime next year I believe.

Speaking of the exam, I finished and submitted my application tonight! YAY!!!  I would celebrate, but I am too tired right now from staring at the computer and filling out the application.  I can finally get back to studying.

For those of you just starting out in the world of project management, I am going to remind you, again, to track your PM time and effort as if you were filling out the exam application, even if you are not sure whether or not you are going to take it.  It may seem like extra work now, but it will save you time in the long run.  Filling out everything in my Access database helped me find some minor issues I will be fixing, and some typos I need to correct, but overall, being able to copy and paste everything from Access to the application made it go pretty smoothly.

My target date for taking the exam has slipped a few weeks, as a result of having to track down and review old project information.  But the application is in, now.  Whew!  I think I'll wait to celebrate until I get the results.

Now that it is just me studying, I might have something new to write about every three weeks.  I'll make an exception and post a little sooner, once I hear back from PMI.  Assuming everything is approved, I will schedule my exam (most likely December) as soon as I hear back from them.

BTW, job hunting and preparing for the exam at the same time is NOT fun.