Wednesday, November 13, 2024

How I Attained my PMP Certification


Around three years ago, I decided to do the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification. As a first step, I ordered the PMP Exam Prep guide by Rita Mulcahy. I felt overwhelmed when I received the big fat book comprising over 800 pages, considering I’m a middle-aged family man with multiple responsibilities and a demanding job to take care of. I read through some pages, lost steam, and shelved the book. Hence, I temporarily paused the PMP plans and opted for the easier goal of taking the Google Project Management Professional certification course on Coursera to gain some basic knowledge on Project Management. The informative course built a strong foundation for my PMP preparation.  

Due to my constantly oscillating nature, I could not pursue it single-mindedly, and my efforts were also haphazard. As my career almost came to a standstill with no growth and the content writing job that I do was impacted by AI more than any other work, I strongly felt the need to transition to some other career that has better prospects. Finally, around six months ago, I decided to go for it single-mindedly.

With that intention, I retrieved Rita’s PMP Prep Guide from the shelf and started using it. I even registered for a PMP prep course to get the 35 mandatory PDU contact hours. The trainer gave an overview of the content to be explored for the PMP exam (PMP Exam Content Outline), along with some tips on answering the test questions. They even gave me access to a mock simulator, where I could do some mock tests, which enabled me to familiarize myself with the exam.

After doing all the tests on the mock simulator, I paid the exam fee, which was a hefty amount (at least for me). The hefty fee made me apprehensive that if I failed, I would lose the amount, and to retake the exam, I would have to cough up another hefty amount. These fears made me decide that failure is not an option. With that idea in mind, I intensified my preparation, spending my evenings and weekends on the exam preparation with intense focus.

However, I always felt that whatever I learned in the training course was highly insufficient and there was a lot more to learn. Hence, I kept exploring multiple books and resources to accumulate more knowledge. While doing mock tests, I invariably faced the problem of managing time. The long situational questions would always puzzle me. And most importantly, I was clueless about how much preparation was enough to pass the exam. However, at some point of time, I felt that no amount of preparation is enough for this exam and the best thing to do is to schedule the exam and take it. So, I went ahead and scheduled the exam. After I scheduled the exam, I further intensified my preparation and started doing more mock tests available on Udemy.

Throughout my preparation, I received great support from my family members, especially from my wife and children. For some months, I even competed with my children, spending long hours reading PMP prep books. I even took a lot of notes, filling an entire notebook. It is a welcome break from a paperless, penless life that I got used to.

On Exam Day:

On the exam day, I reached the nearby Pearson center at 7.30 AM and completed the required formalities before I got admitted into the test room.

After a thorough identity verification and pat-down search, I was escorted to the testing cubicle. After a short onscreen tutorial on how to do the exam, I started the test, and the countdown started showing up at the top right corner. The first five questions made me feel jittery, and for a while, my brain turned foggy. Unable to comprehend the long questions fully, I marked them for review and went ahead. I felt the first sixty questions very difficult, and for a moment, I was frozen into inaction. Negative thoughts laden with potential failure started hitting my mind hard. But I somehow regained my confidence to resume my efforts and kept making slow yet steady progress. I took almost 90 minutes to complete my first sixty questions and took my first break to regain my calm and composure and rehydrate myself.

Back from the first break, I resumed my efforts. This time, I felt that I was better and into a steady groove. I still felt the complexity of the questions and kept answering them at a slow pace with the clock ticking away. I was apprehensive of using up all the time with the prospect of leaving many questions unanswered.  That would be a sure way for failure and must be avoided. With that idea in mind, I changed my strategy. I stopped reading the entire question and all the answer choices and started looking for the keywords to try to make out the question from the perspective of the PMI mindset. My familiarity with the PMI mindset came in handy and enabled me to read questions at a faster pace and comprehend them in a better way. My new strategy paid off, and my speed picked up. I managed to answer the second sixty questions in an hour and availed my second and final break.

Back from the second break, things were far easier and smoother. I had only an hour left to finish the last sixty questions and kept pace accordingly. My new strategy of looking for keywords and employing the PMI mindset to answer questions made things easier for me. I managed to answer all the questions within the stipulated time and submitted the test to heave a sigh of relief.

After a short survey, I was escorted out of the testing room, and at the reception I was handed over the provisional report card, which stated that I passed the exam. I was on cloud nine and exited the test center with joy.

My Tips for PMP Aspirants:

Finally, here are some tips that I want to share with the PMP aspirants:

The PMP certification exam is not easy (at least I felt so). Hence it required a good amount of effort on your part.

Prepare well for the exam by using all the available resources including books, YouTube videos, mock simulators, and even mentors, if you have one.

I read the below-mentioned books as part of my preparation.

  • PMP Exam Prep by Rita Mulcahy
  • Head First PMP by Jennifer Greene
  • PMBOK Guide 7th Edition by the PMI
  • Agile Practice Guide from the PMI
  • Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time by Jeff Sutherland

Master the Project Management Institute (PMI) mindset

Use the elimination technique to narrow in on the best answer from the given choices

Do as many mock tests to familiarize yourself with various types of questions and the test pattern. It also helps you master effective time management.

Please don’t resort to memorizing things as it will not help you. Stay focused and bank on your reasoning and cognition. Mastering the PMI mindset will make your task easier.

No one knows the percentage of marks you must score to pass the exam. Hence every question is important and try hard to get as many questions correct as possible.

Finally, I conclude by saying passing the PMP exam is neither easy nor is it too difficult. The only things that matter is how much effort you put in and how focused you are.

If you are a PMP aspirant and planning to take your certification exam, I wish you all the best.

Sunday, September 18, 2022

Unconventional Wisdom in the Workplace

Unconventional Wisdom
Many people talk about wisdom and being wise. But wisdom is of two types — conventional and unconventional. Dealing with complex workplace dynamics certainly requires us to employ unconventional wisdom. Now, let’s explore more about the so-called unconventional wisdom and why we need to employ it.

Monday, February 7, 2022

Political Correctness Doesn’t Lead You to Truth

Political Correctness
Political correctness is ubiquitous in public discourse. When people engage in public discourse, whether they are so-called experts or ordinary mortals, they mostly stick to political correctness. Because they know they will not be subjected to unnecessary scrutiny as long as they comply with political correctness, and therefore it has become an instrument to play safe.

Wednesday, January 26, 2022

Twelve Steps To Go Agile

Agile Framework
A lot of discussion is happening about project economy. A project economy is where skilled people come together to transform ideas into products and services that offer value.

According to an article published in Harvard Business Review, the Project Management Institute (PMI) estimated that the value of project-oriented economic activity worldwide would grow from $12 trillion in 2017 to $20 trillion in 2027, in the process putting some 88 million people to work in project management–oriented roles. Therefore, the project economy requires many skilled and resourceful project management professionals to run it.

Saturday, July 31, 2021

Transformation in Education and Workplace

Transformation in Education
Recently I witnessed a conversation between Ravi Kumar, the President of Infosys, and Thomas L. Friedman, a Pulitzer prize winning New York Times columnist, which was live-streamed on LinkedIn. The event featured the two thinkers discussing the revolutionary changes that are happening in the fields of education and work.