I recently became a Project Management Professional [PMP®], a certification wanker that the Project Management Institute [PMI] lords over. Further elaboration of this certification is moot since, if you’re "PM"-ing, you’d know it, & if you don’t know it, it means you’re not "PM"-ing, rendering redundant effort to explain it. Niche personified.
I planned to PMP certified in 30 days. I scored a T/AT/AT in People, Process and Business Environment respectively. This is how I went about it.
RESOURCES:
For the prep, following were the 3 primary content sources:
1. Andrew Ramdayal’s Udemy course to fulfil the pre-requisite of 35 PDU contact hours. Also the primary study material.
2. Third3Rock’s Notes & Cheat Sheet - can’t recommend it enough.
3. Study Hall Plus
Apart from these primary sources, I also referred to the following YouTube Videos
4. David McLachlan’s The Complete Process Groups Practice Guide in One Video (Previously the PMBOK 6th Edition)
5. David McLachlan’s The Complete Project Management Body of Knowledge in One Video (PMBOK 7th Edition)
6. PMPwithRay’s TIME MANAGEMENT for PMP Exam | How to manage TIME in your PMP Exam? New PMP Certification Exam Prep
7. 200 Ultra Hard PMP Questions 1-200
8. I also followed Mohammed Rahman’s videos on his YouTube Channel
STUDY PROCESS:
1. Andrew Ramdayal’s [AR] Udemy course
On ABV’s B’Day, I enrolled for AR’s Course. As the lectures are pre-recorded, I was able to study them whenever, wherever. He explains in a calm, engaging, tone and the videos are tightly edited, staying on topic. Importantly, Udemy allows students to study them at upto 2X speed. By the 28th December, I completed the course, answered all the quiz questions & gained the mandatory 35 hours PDU required to apply. He conducts livestream sessions on YouTube every Wednesday, at 12:00 AM [midnight] UTC, where 1 can get doubts clarified from him. He also releases a lot of useful content on his channel.
Then, for a period of around 20 days, there was a halt in my prep due to other commitments. From 22nd January onwards, I retook his course and appeared for his Mock Test on 2nd February - scored 65 percent, that was 5 percent below the his passing criteria.
Concurrently, on the 30th of January, I applied to take the test. On the 4th February, they approved my application & I immediately scheduled the test on the 25th February.
I continued referring to his courseware till the day of the exam. Travelling to & fro office requires +3 hours. So, I began driving the car to office, listening to his lectures en-route. During Lunch break too, I would listen to him for 1 hour. Osmotic learning, a concept much dwelled upon during the prep.
I downloaded and printed all his presentation slides. During the second study of his course, I would keep relevant note open in front while watching the video. It has a lot of empty space, where otherwise his face appears in the videos. So, I would write/summaries the notes there itself.
2. Third3Rock’s Notes & Cheat Sheet
Top quality notes. After scoring 65 percent in the mock test on the 23rd February, I decided against sitting for any more mocks. Having consistently scored in the 70s in the previous 3 mock tests, and spiking to the 80s in the mini-tests, an exam fatigue had started to set in. Instead, I spent entire 24th February studying and reviewing his Notes. Much recommended. His notes summarises the content very well. Studied it twice on 24th Feb. After reaching the exam centre, I glanced through his cheat sheet, for the first and only time.
3. Study Hall Plus [SHP]
Subscribed to SHP solely for it's mock tests. The base variant offers 3 full length mock tests, while SHP has a total of 5 mock tests. They also have lectures and teaching content for the exam, but it found it tedious, underwhelming. Completed all the quizzes, practise questions, 3 mini tests and 4 full length mock tests.
The nature of it's questions were the most aligned in similarity with the questions that actually appeared in the test
7. 200 Ultra Hard PMP Questions 1-200
Solved 41 questions.
Resources mentioned in Sr. No. 4, 5, 6 & 8
Passively listened to them multiple times in the 30 days leading to the exam.
9. Reddit's /r/PMP sub-Reddit
A good source for seeking guidance from other's user experiences and inspiration.
10. WhatsApp group moderated by the local PMI Chapter
Once you become a PMI member, it's local chapter adds you to a couple of it's moderated groups. One of them is the Aspirants group. Lacking an offline study partner, it played a fine role in keeping me on track. You post your queries, where others answer, & vice versa. A lively supportive, group, that. In fact, the rough cut of this post I first posted there immediately after clearing the exam, last week, as it is a practise for successful certificate-holders to share their process.
Folks after getting certified, exit that group. I, on the other hand, have decided to hang on, primarily to stay in touch with the queries and attempt to answer them, in the hope of staying sharp, or be a DeeJjayy incarnate.
EXAM DAY EXPERIENCE:
A) Questions 1-60 took around 83 minutes - MANDATORY BREAK - Questions 61-120 took around 78 minutes - MANDATORY BREAK - Questions 121-180 in the remaining time, with 10 minutes to spare. Reviewed around 20 questions in each of the 3 sections.
B) Encountered all types of questions multiple times - Heat Map, Drag And Drop, Point And Click, Visualisation interpretation. SHP did not have any of these types, neither did Andrew Ramdayal's courseware. They were not very challenging, per se, but my fingers did not have the muscle memory to answer such question, while my eyes were not familiar seeing such questions [there are plenty of question videos on YT for these, but I did not have time to review them]. Hence answering them took a a couple of second more to close. To SHP’s credit, as noted earlier, the nature of the questions they did ask were similar to the questions asked in the exam itself.
C) Very nice person invigilated the exam at my Centre. Put us at ease with calm comforting words of reassurance. Explains the process very thoroughly prior to us commencing the test.
WHAT I PLANNED TO DO BUT DID NOT DO:
The prep deviated greatly from plan. I initially though of scheduling the test by January-end, around 30 days from the commencement of prep. However, I finally took it towards end of February, instead.
1. Wanted to take all of Study Hall Plus's full-length mocks and mini tests, but missed a lot of milestones.
It is critical that one reviews all the wrong answers, as SHP provides an explanation why the right answer is the right answer, based on PMBOK concepts. It strengthens your PMBOK-ism.
2. Review and study all the following videos:
200 Ultra Hard PMP Questions 1-200
PMP DRAG & DROP QUESTIONS ON AGILE| PMP Exam New Format 2022|PMP New Exam Format Questions & Answers
100 Waterfall PMP Questions and Answers (now the Process Groups Practice Guide)
200 AGILE PMP Questions and Answers - the BEST Preparation for the Exam!
150 PMBOK 7 Scenario-Based PMP Exam Questions and Answers
For, this is how I was scoring in my Mock Tests, Mini Exams and Quizzes.
Godspeed