Tips for PMP AspirantsShefnaz Abootty, PMP

Date : 3/7/2013

1. Get the Required 35 Hours of Project Management Training

Formal training provides you with a overall view of project management. Not everyone has experience in all the knowledge areas(areas of management). With a formal training, you can pick up areas where you lack actual experience.

You can get both online and classroom training to satisfy the 35 hour requirement. Even though the online course might be cheaper, I highly recommend you to choose a classroom coaching. Nothing can beat the power of classroom interaction in increasing your interest in the course

2. Fill Your PMP Exam application & register for the exams leaving amble time for you to prepare but not despair!!!

A very well known fact is, most of the PMP Aspirants have never failed the examination because they never reach that far. Most of them just loose focus, or find justifications to put it off for later.

Finding out all about the PMP exam is not enough. If you are committed to attain your PMP certification, you need to take action.

Once you have filled the necessary application form filling, PMI will usually approve it within 7 days. Once you application is approved, you have 1 full year to take the PMP Exam. But I suggest you book your exams right away. Worst scenario, if you aren’t prepared for the D-day, you can always reschedule it. But you need to do this one month prior to avoid a fee deduction

3. PMP isn’t Rocket science but vast as space. Preparation is key.

First of all, the sheer vastness of the syllabus maybe intimidating. But the subject isn’t greek or latin.

Also remember, you have to sit for a straight 4 hour exam, with 200 multiple choice questions. The questions are quite lengthy in nature, and most choices are pretty confusing. This is what adds to the difficulty of the PMP exam.

You can’t have a lousy approach for this exam. You need to prepare for focus and speed. Most people would study for 6-8 weeks, and then prepare full-time for 1-2 weeks just before the exam.  

4. Bring back the student in you!!

As working adults, we may have gained a lot of skills than we had when we were in school. But one skill we have lost is the ability to instantly grab & retain the matter we are reading or listening.

Firstly, accept the fact you are a student preparing for an examination and so give the exam its due priority.

1) Establish a study place with your study materials. Don’t waste your precious time looking for stuffs around the house.2) Establish a timetable/routine. Which outlines your study period, your daily/weekly structure, etc 3) Establish major and minor milestones.4) Establish frequent progress reviews

It is worth it!!!. Take your time to jot down and plan out the above mentioned points

5. Don’t undermine the importance of MOCK TESTS.

Try your hand at as many PMP Exam Questions as possible.

You can go through as many books on Project management as you want, but nothing will prepare you more for the exam than doing mock PMP questions. The more the better. That’s because the actual PMP exam questions are pretty tricky. Look out for keywords that change the whole meaning of the question (discussed more in point no. 12)

I don’t know if it is a good method of preparing. Personally, I never sat and read the whole RMC or PMBOK end to end. After my 35 hour training where I got an overall idea, I started doing all the mock tests I could find. This way, when I reviewed the tests I could easily spot my knowledge gaps and read the specific topic to enhance my knowledge on it.

6. Establish a study group or join a PMP Forum

This is a good way to get community support & also helps you in staying focused. And most importantly, it is FREE!!

It is quite boring to study alone day after day. One of the greatest benefit of forming a study group is when you share your notes, and discuss, you tend to gain from others knowledge, and it is much faster than reading on your own. It is best to liaise with your local PMI chapter.

There are dozens of PMP forums online. If you have some doubts, you can post them online, and go to bed. By the time you wake up, you will find a few people have replied to your questions. Some good PMP Forums can be found at:pmzilla.com, simplilearn.com, pmbody.com, oreilly.com, pmhub.net, pmchamp.com

I’d also add, you can also find really helpful presentations at slideshare. Again for free!!

7. Read the PMBOK!! AND study other Project Management Books too

There are lots of good PMP exam preparation books. Don’t just rely on the PMBOK. There are many topics that the PMBOK does not even refer to.

Some of the best PMP books are :1) PMP Exam Prep by Rita – 7th edition - by Rita Mulcahy. A must read for a thorough learning of all the concepts.2) Head First PMP – 2nd Edition - by Andrew Stellman & Jennifer Greene. Very good for complex topics.

8. AVOID over-usage of materials

This is a common mistake among many aspirants. Accumulating a large amount of materials in form of flash cards, apps, slides, etc and getting confused on topics, wasting your precious time learning the same concept in different ways and mainly loosing focus.

Please don’t resort to such methods. Use a max of 2-3 textbooks excluding the PMBOK. Even out of the 2-3 books, don’t bother reading all of them end to end, just the topics you find hard to grasp

Personally, how I prepared was - I read the specific chapter in RMC if I had doubts in a specific area. If this didn’t help I would check in Head first. Sometimes reassure my understanding by posting it on a forum or asking my mentors (Shenin Hassan & Mohd. Ershad) or discussed it with my studymate (Leonard)

9. When in Rome act like the romans!!

This point is mainly for the 10+ year experienced PMs who can’t digest some of the concepts of PMI’s way of Project Management and stick on to the method they have developed over the years.

More importantly, though Project Management is an ever evolving science. The PMI takes much effort in structuring it and we also need to reflect on the point, they are a group of well experienced & retired PMs with vast amount of knowledge in Project Management.

10. Don’t try to memorize the ITTOs of processes without understanding the essence of the matter

I have seen many aspirants going crazy over trying to memorize ITTOs. This may get you few direct questions right, but pales in comparison to the number of question you’d easily get right if you take the effort to understand them.

11. Focus in understanding the process flow.

It is very important to understand: how the 42 processes fit into a project?, How the processes gel with each other?, how the output of one process become the inputs of another process?

Even though the chapters is according to the knowledge areas, we need to understand the process flows process group-wise. For instance, planning process of all knowledge areas should be done(even if not done completely) before the executing phase starts. Also we need to understand how the output of a process of one knowledge area becomes a critical input for another process in another knowledge area.

12. Look for keywords in the question, as they often change the meaning of the question.

Some keywords are listed below:BEST, WORST, EXCEPT FOR, MOST EFFECTIVE, NOT INCLUDING, LEAST, KEY ACTIVITY, PRIMARY, LIKELY, LEAST LIKELY

Double Negative Questions in PMP ExamA. All of the following are True Except 

B. All of the following are False Except

C. None of the following is True Except

I will be explaining these keywords with sample question in my next presentation.

13. Take a complete 4 hour Mock PMP Test

This will be a good test to see if you can sit in one place for 4 hours, and do a complete 200 question test without going crazy!!.

This is very important as more than just testing your focus and speed, it also test your knowledge of process across all knowledge areas. Initially if you notice, it is easier for you to get a higher score in a test that discusses only a single knowledge area than a test which covers the whole syllabus

Once you begin to score 75-85% in such mock tests, you can consider yourself ready for the actual PMP test.

14. Don’t Panic. As I said “it isn’t Rocket science”

Many aspiring PMP candidates panic, and get crazy over the PMP exam. This is natural but DON’T Panic. There is over 300K PMPs, can all of them be super geniuses??. You can pass it but with proper preparation.

View it as a project too. Initiate the actions required to be a PMP. Plan for it. Execute the required studying process. Monitor & control your progress. And hopefully it will close well, with the end result of you adding a “PMP” to your name!!

15. Developing PMIism – thinking the way a PMP certified PM would think!!

Never break laws, respect copyrights and other cultures

Bribe in any form and size is a complete NO

Disputes among team members should be solved among them. You as a PM needn’t always attend to that but need to assure it is sorted out for the benefit of the project.

Gold-plating, even if asked by a major stakeholder or is a task which requires very minimal work by the team SHOULD NOT be done.

PM should always attend to risks/events ASAP. Don’t wait to act on it till you have them in document like risk register, etc.

Changes raised by anyone even the most important stakeholder (like customer) needs to be attended (i.e. using the project resources for even analyzing the effect of the change) only after the changes request has been initiated.

One of the area where many go wrong is in confusing the situation in the question between risk and change and thus selecting the wrong choice of action

These points may not be making a lot of sense to you now. I would like to explain each of the above points with a sample question which I will be doing in my next presentation.

These are just few of the points that popped in my mind while thinking how a PMP certified and PM would consider acting in a certain situation. Please feel free to add more as comments below

DO LOTS & LOTS of mock tests!!!

I know I have mentioned this earlier but I feel the urge to emphasis it again!!!!!

Acknowledgement

I hope this presentation was helpful and would like to wish all the very best to all the PMP aspirants for their exams

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all who helped me in getting certified: Simplilearn Coaching Center – Ms Ruth(manager) My mentors & trainer–Shenin Hassan, Mohd. Ershad, Ashok G My former Senior PMs – Afnaz A, Abdulla, Suneesh S, Nishad S,

Anant S My study mates & friends –Leo, Arjun, Ullas, Jazarine, Shrikant Above all, god almighty and my dearest family members!!!