Pooja Singh AProgram Lead| HP IncBENGALURU, KA, India
I am incredibly thrilled to announce that I have passed my Project Management Professional (PMP®) Certification exam on my first attempt.
I hope that this accomplishment will open doors to new opportunities in my future endeavors, enabling further advancement in my career.
I would like to share my experience and learning journey here, hoping it would help the ones currently preparing for the certification.
I did the course from Simplilearn- attended the training course to acquire the required 35 contact hours to be eligible to apply for the PMP certification.
You have the recordings available on your dashboard, just in case if you want to go through the training videos.
Must complete Self-learning videos provided by Simplilearn- and don't forget to make notes.
PMBOK 7th Edition – My first read of this book was simply to read and second round was with PMBOK 6th Edition, actually digging in and understanding the basics. it gave me clarity, or call it the foundation for my preparation.
Mock test- I did not want to take long to get my PMP certification, so I parked 3 hours on weekends for the mock test
and went through all the incorrect answers. You get 3 chances to attempt each Mock. Don't stress if you score less than 50%, it's ok - remember to go through all the incorrect ones with explanation and understand. If required,you may make a note. I had maintained a dedicated notebook only for Mock tests.
Process group planning guide- Once you study the first two books I felt like I was forgetting topics again but when you read this book,it will be easier to categorize all the topics you read in the first 2 books into 5 groups. This made it easy.
Agile Practice Guide – A MUST read for the Exam Content Outline. It is really important to understand the agile and hybrid concepts for the new exam format. This has the concepts that we follow in day-to-day life. You may find it easier to understand.
Tip : 1. So whenever you start studying, always plan, I am someone who plans the day and puts the timetable on my desk before I start my day or I plan it before I go to bed a day prior. As i had to juggle between both my work life and Personal commitments along with preparing for the exam this was much needed, as it gave me a clear picture of my action items.
2. Reading books with too many pages might bore you at the beginning, to start with always start with fewer ones.
PMBOK 7, Process guide, Agile all could be covered sooner - This will boost your confidence on completing and understanding concepts a little bit, Remember PMBOK 6th guide will still give you a better understanding.
LO Choice and Study materials provided by the trainer- So once you have understood the concepts from all the mentioned books above, you will know how much effort and time the trainer would have spent to gather topics and make it easy for us to prepare. Going through this was like a second revision. And it filled the knowledge gaps as well. Most of the missing topics are covered in the materials provided by your trainer.
Don't forget to park 3 hours for the Mock assessment every weekend.
RITA Mulcahy 10th Edition- I came across this material and I enjoyed preparing at this point and this is where I could memorize and understand and relate each and every concept (You can also start with this book and then go through the PMBOK guide)
Before you attempt the exam at least take 2 months to revise everything twice- In your revision, all you have to include is - Self-learning videos (go through once), Study material provided by the trainer, LO choice, Agile practice guide. And at the end when you have 2 weeks left I would suggest you take only mock tests and read up on the knowledge gaps you identify. This will also help you learn to manage time to take up exams. It improves your ability to how quick you read and understand the questions and options.
The PMP exam content and concepts are voluminous, and could be difficult to remember everything.
So try to understand what each knowledge area aims to achieve, why, and how they do it. This way, you get to remember each concept, and when you see the options you will be able to identify the right option.
Visualize your goal- I have always visualized PMP credentials next to my name on Linkedin. This will give you positive vibes every day that you can do it!!!!!
Have a good rest a day before the exam.
Hopefully, the above pointers will help candidates prepare for the certification. All the best :)
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Thanks for sharing your experience, Pooja, this is my first topic i read after i joining this community and i can envision the goal i targeted for and reading this makes more confident. I think i just completed 20% of my PMP journey. can't wait to go through all the way to achieve this. Saving Changes...
