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A journey to the PMP Certification

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Janvier Ndayisaba Manager| Fuzzy International General Trading Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, United Republic Of
Hello, I am about to start a journey to the PMP certification, the material looks like an ocean to me, does anyone here have a better study plan for PMP and how long does it take to be ready?
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Janvier Ndayisaba Manager| Fuzzy International General Trading Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, United Republic Of
Sep 08, 2018 4:34 PM
Replying to Rami Kaibni
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Hi Janvier

Those are my recommendations to you:

1- PMBOK 6th Edition + Rita Exam Prep Book. Read each in details until you are comfortable with the level if understanding.

2- RMC Fast Track for simulation exams or PM PrepCast - Both are good resources.

3- Do not memorize, but understand because many questions are situational.

4- It might take between 2 - 4 months depending on how many hours you study per day and your PM experience. I assume of course you have the required experience to apply for the PMP.

You can refer to my blog for further details but I did my PMP long time ago:

https://www.projectmanagement.com/blog-post/18318/PMP-Adventure--

Good Luck.
Thank you very much, I have started reading the PMBOK it was looking so big to me, but now due to your experience I believe I will make it too
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RAJESH K L Project Manager, PMP| Bharat Electronics, Bengaluru, India Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Lots of userful discussion points made.
With lots of due respects, I find this topic is posted quite frequently by many over a period of time
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1 reply by Rami Kaibni
Sep 10, 2018 2:28 PM
Rami Kaibni
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There is no problem in that Rajesh. This community is for everyone even if the subject was mentioned earlier. Although what you mentioned is correct but I also noticed that every time there is a new discussion about this, new ideas and advice comes up.
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Sergio Luis Conte Helping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based Organizations Buenos Aires, Argentina
My recommendation is reading the related material inside the PMI´s certification website and understanding it, mainly the hadbook and the outline content. After that, the main source to study is the PMBOK. It does not mean to memorize it. It does mean to understand it becouse exam questions are situational questions. Just in case you do not find or you do not know a term or tool or technique and you do not find the definition inside the PMBOK then go to the basement.
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Tiago Romao Project Manager - PfMP | PgMP | PMP | ACP | PBA | CBAP | CSM | MSc.| Altice Portugal | Meo Sobreda, Setubal/Almada, Portugal
Hi Janvier,
as said
PMBok
Mock exams
Rita exam guide
RMC fast track

In PMI.com and projectManagement.com you can find additional info, books, webinars, people, etc.
Blogs and youtube videos

Find people near you also going for the certification or even a Couch.

all the best and good luck.
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Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Sep 10, 2018 12:51 AM
Replying to RAJESH K L
...
Lots of userful discussion points made.
With lots of due respects, I find this topic is posted quite frequently by many over a period of time
There is no problem in that Rajesh. This community is for everyone even if the subject was mentioned earlier. Although what you mentioned is correct but I also noticed that every time there is a new discussion about this, new ideas and advice comes up.
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Edward Hickland Owner| Hickland & Associate Merrick, Ny, United States
Janiver, first of all best of luck to you. It has been a number of years and a few PMBOKs since I took the exam. The content of the PMBOK has been greatly enhanced and the test made more practical with situational questions. I suggest you take a practice exam and determine your strengths and weaknesses. For example, earned value more than likely will be on the test and from tutoring people it scares them to death. I encourage a stepwise approach by examining how a schedule progresses through a project. Then apply how cost is applied. Now most PMs in IT do not work with cost, so, they have to work to understand how that fits. Once you understand schedule and cost the formulas and the logic become clear. Next find situational test questions on earned value and see how you approach an answer. Do this from all the major topics.


So how long will it take. Without knowing your background and abilities, I would venture six months.


Again, good luck
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DUYGU KATIRCI Senior Analyst| Medyasoft - ePlatform Ankara, Türkiye
Hi Janvier, here below belongs to my PMP experience;

For me, first and the most important thing is "the book" (V6); the times that you read it is not the case; it is interiorizing.
The second step is solving as many as you can do; be carefull that your problem set is from latest version (there are many exam sets on the net, however most of them are related to old versions).
Finally, donot occupy your mind with how much time to spend ideally since it is like projects: everyone is unique, thus time that you will need is unique too. The length of the preperation period would be better if it is determined by you..
Good luck!
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Mfon Enoidem Project Manager| HURIDAC Lagos, Nigeria
Read pmbok at least twice , then ritas book and also kim heildmans book they have a question bank you can use online of over 500 questions if you buy the book.

All the best
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Venugopal Vadapalli Mountain House, Ca, United States
Hi Janvier -

I've prepared as following. I echo Cindy's thought that everyone is different!!

1. I've read PMBOK thoroughly 3 times. The first pass was to understand the contents, second pass was to understand the relationship between processes from a logical stand point (without memoizing) + taking notes and the third pass i've prepared charts of my own by taking one process input and draw relationships of that input across all the processes.

For example, How is "Scope Baseline" used? (regardless of input/output)
What is the lifecycle of a change request?

These charts gave me a big picture of how each deliverable lives across several processes. I can confidently say this was the very foundation of my success in achieving PMP in under 3 months.

2. I did subscribe to PMPrepCast simulation exams. Those were really helpful in gaining confidence.

3. Discussing with other project managers about their experiences on-job. This is not necessary for the exam but it definitely gave me an insight on how each processes could be used.

For example, How is 3-point estimate used? How historical project data helpful while preparing the schedule etc.,

4. I've referred to Kim Heldman and Rita Mulcahy's book to practice questions after each chapter.

That's all :) Good luck to you!

PMP is not just a certification, it changed the way how i look at things. I hope that will happen to you as well.

Cheers,
-Venu
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1 reply by Janvier Ndayisaba
Oct 28, 2018 12:08 PM
Janvier Ndayisaba
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Thanks Venu and Kingsley for your great contributions
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Kingsley Okoye Structural & Construction Engineer| Lavoro International Limited Abuja, Fct-Abuja, Nigeria
Better focus on understanding the concepts seamlessly rather than memorizing because of the complexity and longevity of the situational questions
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