Approach to understand, prep and pass the PMP

Disclaimer: This article provides an approach on how to prepare and give the PMP exam based on my personal experience. It may work for some and may not for others. Do what you think works best for you. This article does not give detailed information on any of the topics, this is in the hope that you will use this framework and make an effort to find the details. If you need more help/details on any of the information please feel free to contact me and I will be happy to help you further.

Laying out my approach to understand, prepare and PASS PMP (in PMI format).

1. Initiation
2. Material Used
3. Planning
4. Execution
5. Monitoring and Control
6. Closing
7. Exam Experience

1) Initiation: I was clear to work on PMP as my goal

1. Inquired from the PMP expert’s about the approach to prepare for and pass the PMP exam.
2. Gather eligibility criteria required to be able to appear for the exam
3. Researched on materials and courses (online course, physical course, boot camps etc.) that would serve me the best based on my work — life schedule
4. Estimated the time required to understand PM concepts and pass the exam

Advice: Talk to experts who can help you. There is nothing better than getting knowledge from people who have experienced it, then apply that knowledge to frame an approach that works best for you.

2) Materials used:

1. Joseph Phillips — Complete course, flash card, quick reference guide, formulas, and tests.
2. Andy Crowe’s — Flash card, Quick reference guide, tests, exam tips.
3. Rita’s — Formulas, tests, exam tips.
4. PMBOK — Skimmed it in few hours.

3) Planning: After making sure my exam application was accepted,

1. Scheduled a good six-week window to prepare, as I knew, based on my work schedule I would not be able to take out a lot of time during the week (estimated 2–3 hours daily for PMP).
2. Applied Parkinson’s Law — “Work expands to fill the amount of time allotted to it” — by ensuring to giving myself an achievable but strict timeline. I took the exam date right away.
3. Identified, prioritized and planned my tasks (see listed below).
4. Progressive elaboration — My tasks for week 1 were planned in hour-level details, whereas my task identified for later weeks were planned in days or week level details.

Planned schedule

1. Week 1 — Complete all lectures once.
2. Week 2 — Read Flashcards and terms.
3. Week 3 — Understand the 47 processes and its relationship with 10 Knowledge areas and 5 process groups, ITTO’s (Input Tools and techniques, Output) and formulas.
4. Week 4 — Give practice tests per chapter (x2) and full test (x4). Do not just give these tests, learn from it as well.
5. Week 5 and 6 — Revision / Buffer / Mental preparations for the exam

Advice: Take exam date sooner than later. Update plan as needed, but your end date must not change.

4) Execution: If you have a good plan, execution is easy. Just do it! I Just started to follow my plan.

1. Iterative planning — Many time during plan execution I missed my deadline, which I think is ok, it is part of the process as long as you ensure to re-evaluate and update your plan to meet the desired tasks in the desired time to achieve the end goal.
2. Focus on milestones — I realized having a well thought out plan (especially after taking insights from experts) is the key, then you just need to stick to the plan, do not go too crazy doubting your plan, especially if you miss few deadlines. Just focus on finishing up the tasks.

Advice:

1. Do not wait for a long time to take the exam once prepping is done.
2. Have a little buffer if you are working full time as you will get burnt out and you might want to take a break from studying. As you can notice in my revised schedule (below) it took me much longer to complete the week 1 and 2 tasks, then what was planned originally. I took breaks; I did not study few days so that I don’t get overwhelmed.
3. Give your 100% — I made sure I understand the topic completely before I move on to the next topic. This way I just have to skim it through when I revisit these topics.
4. Be creative — If you are a visual person, do white-boarding sessions, teach people around you, join interactive groups. I had a large chart explaining 47 processes hanged on my wall with all the arrows linking each process (Also formulas, see image below). I use to see it, read it and write it daily.
5. Practice giving the test with time ticking on the screen so you can see it, I did not do this. Ticking time during exam made me very nervous.

Executed schedule:

1. Week 1 and 2 — Completed all lectures once
2. Week 3 and 4 — Flashcards / Terms
3. Week 5–47 process and formulas
4. Week 6 — Tests, mental preparations on how to give exam and Final exam

5) Monitoring and controlling: Few things I monitored during the entire process

1. The plan still holds true and the target will be achieved.
2. Understanding of topics by referring to various other resources.
3. Assuring daily that formula and 47 processes are accurately written.
4. Practice test results and what went wrong in it.
5. Quick revision and review before each practice test and the final exam.
6. Getting used to PMP style questions, how to read them, and answer them (You will find it in most of the materials you refer, do read the tips before appearing for the exam).
7. Thinking of time management approach for the exam.
8. Checking test center requirement, exam date and time, and do’s and don’ts’.

6) Closing: After passing the exam,

1. I treated myself with a scoop of my favorite ice cream.
2. I reached out to all the key people who helped me and thanked them.
3. I took pride in my achievement.
4. I decided to give it back to the world, and that’s when I thought of writing this article.

7) Exam experience: In the exam center,

1. I did use 5–10 mins to do my memory dump. (It was not very helpful, but it definitely gives you a confidence boost)
2. I took no breaks. (I used to complete my test in 3 hrs, it took me 3hr 40 min at the test center)
3. I did not require more paper sheet.
4. Calculation questions way less than expected. (not more than 6)
5. Most of the questions were situational. (This is tough, so please understand the concepts)
6. I paced myself to complete the exam — starting slow and then got into a faster rhythm.
7. I marked all the questions which I thought I should review again.
8. I used the strike-through feature (very helpful) and rarely highlight feature.
9. I felt seeing the ticking clock on the screen was very uncomfortable.
10. I did not have a chance to review all my answers so I just reviewed my marked questions.
11. I did not change my initial answer until I was 100% confident of a different correct answer.

I hope this would be helpful to you. Feel free to reach out for any questions or discussion.

Regards,

Ananya Jain, R.Ph, MBA, PMP

PMP® Number: 2172452

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ananyajain03/

Approach to understand, prep and pass the PMP