PMP: Lessons Learned

7 years ago

PMP Lessons Learned: From 5 Below Proficient’s to all Proficients

Hi PMP Aspirants,

My Name is AK and today I would like to share my PMP lessons learned which were quite challenging but nevertheless fruitful

This would be a long post so do grab a cup of coffee and hop on

I am sharing some of the tips and tricks which went along well

And some which didn’t which could be a critical factor in belling the top Project Management certificate

When I first decided to venture into how I want to go about preparing I knew it won’t be easy

I was dealing with one of the toughest certifications in the world

I referred to the links below to get to know my opponent better

There may be hundreds of articles on the internet, but the idea is to not take this exam lightly

When we go to war, we should know what we are against!

Well, it’s said that if you haven’t failed you haven’t learned anything in life

It turned out to be true for me. Had not failed I won’t be PMP today!

I had been working as an IT Project Manager for long, so I was quite confident that I knew the process and procedure that a PM should know to pass the exam but boy I was so wrong

I would list them as below

My Failure Story: My Misconceptions about the exam which I learned the hard way

First, unlearn what you have learned in your professional career

The Exam expects you to answer the questions as advised in the PMBOK and not what you consider fit
I know it won’t be easy as you would keep questioning the fitness of the processes
Stick to what is advised in the book because that’s the way it is
I kept on following my personal Project Management Experience which led to my downfall in my 1^st attempt

Schedule the exam first

This is a mistake most aspirants make
They think PMI allows 1-year to get the PMP, so they don’t schedule the exam until the last moment
When their application end date nears they try scheduling
I was in the same boat as the others and I did not do it until I had a month to apply
If you don’t schedule your exam months in advance (at least 4 to 5 months before ) you take out the “exam urgency “factor out of context which is crucial for the preparation
Once you schedule it you know you have an end date and you need to prepare and brace for impact
On the other hand, you might not get the slot that you need as Prometric centers are limited and so are the seats
First, schedule the exam!

Prepare like a Professional and not like a student

PMI expects you to prepare like a professional and not like a 5^th grader reading the book from cover to cover thus the eligibility criteria
Ask yourself what could go wrong if you don’t have a Project charter
Or you didn’t identify stakeholders and their clout during Project initiation
I never thought along those lines and kept on preparing like a student
Most of the question will be situation-based testing your fervent knowledge and understanding of the fundamentals

Memorize less and understand more

Since I come from an Engineering background I have a habit of memorizing everything under the sun
Memorizing helped me sail through my college exams but let to my defeat in PMP
So, understand more and memorize less (Exception: EVM formulae)

Relying on just one study Source

I joined an online training institute initially and read the book they provided from cover to cover
But when I failed I figured out that most of the concepts were not explained to the extent they should be
So, join or read through other books like Rita
If you rely on just one, make sure it’s the best after regressive review and research about the institute

Number of attempts allowed

God forbid if you fail thrice in a calendar year PMI will disallow you to appear for the exam for the next year
So I would recommend trying only twice and then applying for the next calendar year

Time Management

This is crucial for anyone attempting to pass the exam( not for the sake of giving )
Nobody on this planet knows how long it may take to prepare as it’s subjective
Remember the harder you work the luckier you get!
Initially, I thought 1 month should be enough to prepare
I later realized that even if I study 48 hours a day it won’t be enough
You need time to relax, unwind, and reflect on what you have learned
I studied 150 hours in my pursuit of PMP which apparently wasn’t enough
Lot’s of people boast of passing the PMP in 2 to 3 weeks, but actually, they may have taken much longer to prepare
It would be a Guinness Book of Word record if a person can clear this exam in 2 weeks
So bottom-line stay clear from these folks
Be realistic and authentic to yourself when it comes to the time needed to prepare
On the flip side avoid people who make you complacent
People who advise you to chill as the exam is easy but believe me, it’s not
If you are in the category of people who want to study half an hour here, half an hour there and then go bird watching I would strongly recommend you not to waste your time trying this out
You will not result in anything substantial. Sad but true!
Remember what comes easy will not last long and what lasts long will not come easy!

Not reading the PMBOK GUIDE and Mastering ITTO’S

I cannot emphasize this enough
I don’t see many professionals doing this. PMP is based on PMBOK Guide
If you don’t read the guide and understand the I/P, Tools & Techniques and o/p’s be prepared to fail as I did
ITTO’s are the hardware and software resource managers for the PMBOK

Eligibility criteria for the exam

This is widely misunderstood
PMI doesn’t mandate you to have 16 years of full-time education and have worked only as a Project Manager for 4500 hours
You should have worked in any capacity in the Project Management team for that many hours
For instance, if a Church is running a project to help ‘flood victims “and you have been part of that engagement and it had 5 processes in place you can put that experience in the PMP application
Had I understood this I would have attempted the exam earlier in my career giving me extra months to prepare and get certified
I waited in the wings until the time I was promoted as a PM. My Bad!
Read more on the eligibility criteria https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Management_Professional

Over Confidence

- When answering questions and while preparing I was overconfident and that often resulted in my mock test failure’s
- It’s easy to be tricked by multiple-choice questions so think twice before answering

PMP Pass Score

Widely misunderstood

61% published earlier by PMI doesn’t stand true today

Psychometric test is used to judge so give your best!

My Exam result (Worst PMP result one can get)

MY PMP SUCCESS STORY

It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up: Babe Ruth

My Failure hangover, Reverse-Engineering, and Motivation

When you fail so miserably (the way I did) it’s difficult to pull up your socks and pursue the goal

One thing helped me – VALUE!

It gave me the much-needed impetus to drive my motivation to pursue it again!

PMP MARKET VALUE

- Human beings are designed to think monetarily so I constantly reminded myself of the benefit’s

PMP’s earn 30% more their non-certified peers ( open secret)
Many large corporations employ only PMP’s and some don’t even accept applications from non-PMP ’s professionals
Global certification where the exam is not only designed for IT professionals but also for various other industries
Automobile, marketing, sales, construction, Engineering all prefer PMP’s which makes it so lucrative unlike other certifications which target only one audience
In any event, If I prefer to work for a non-IT company the cert will stand valid!
I told myself If I can understand and harness the concepts I can motivate, coach and train others
Quite a possibility as I could work as a PMP Trainer thus creating my own niche
Thus making my own luck
PMP has been the No 1 Project Management certification in the world from the time of its inception
I have 3 other PM certs (CSM, CSP and Agile Coach) but I can bet on even penny in my account that there’s no cert that can take the might of a PMP
I don’t want to be a fence sitter but PMP still remains king. Period!
PMP’S are preferred in top Management level jobs
PMP Knowledge areas of the budget, stakeholder, communication, risk, and other areas are imperative to succeed at the top, be it in the capacity of a Delivery Manager, Director’s, General Managers, or VP’s

PMP Study resources and plan

I did some soul searching and started my preparation all over again figuring out the slips and cracks that went through my initial preparation
Since my first training institute did not get me results I joined a face to face training covering the entire PDU of 35 hours again
Studied the resources they provided thoroughly however when I started the mock tests I figured out that I was not doing well
My score read in the range of 50% – 55%
Classroom training is highly recommended rather than an online one
Interactive Face to face training is the best method to communicate
I read the PMBOK 5^th edition once to understand the training language PMI advocates along with the 2nd training center’s published book
Solved around 7K multiple choice questions, templates to figure out different types of questions and content and their relevance
By the end of my preparation, I read the Project Management Body of Knowledge(PMBOK) twice
To sum it up, the training book 4 times, solved 7K multiple choice questions and revised them thrice before the exam to give me the much-needed confidence

ONLINE HELP: PMP Lessons Learned

The Internet is a great place to learn things
At any point, there are over 2 billion people connected around the globe
I started joining online PMP groups who share the knowledge and approach towards the exam
The first thing I did when I logged into Facebook was to answer the mock questions they posted
Trying to solving them gave me the confidence to move along
Every time I read the interviews of the successful certified professionals it motivated me to try harder
I even visited some of the successful candidate’s notes and they were quite helpful
I would highly recommend PMP aspirants to join PM communities
Learn first-hand from the articles, templates, notes, interviews and best practices from an exam standpoint
Online YouTube videos are again a very good source of knowledge
Example – If you want to understand how the 47 processes interact with each other and their significance look into a video of Ricardo Vargas
Somebody should give him a medal for explaining it so well! Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wq28FwABNJk
The other gentleman’s videos who I regularly followed was Saket Bansal
He has been championing the PMP coaching process for years
Example: If I want to understand 7 basic quality tools I refer to the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXaMq2trk18

Study approach

PMP preparation is all about momentum, once you lose it it’s difficult to get it back
I would at least study for an hour after work to maintain that momentum
Gave myself 1 year to do so, On Sat/Sun or on holiday’s I ramped it up to 5 hours a day
Avoided any exceptions in studies unless until necessary
The mock exam was followed strictly as I would do under exam conditions
Since I am not a morning person I would keep the mock schedule from 12.30pm to 4.30pm
As I preferred an afternoon session in the real exam
Initially, I would score 60% but when I completed my 3rd and 4th revision I scored around 85% and 90% respectively
If you score 75% or above, you have a fighting chance but 80% would be better
I would recommend we review the mock exam results and retrospect in areas where we didn’t do well
For me, it was quality and risk, so I gave ample time to nail them
By the end of my preparation, they became my favorite knowledge areas
I would say one needs to study at least 400/500 hours (including you mock test) to give yourself a fighting chance
If you want to study more sky is the limit
I studied close to 800K to 1K hours
But I am a traditional person who likes to take the printout, marks the important ones so it’s subjective

Huddles and Bottlenecks Encountered

Like all PMP aspirant’s time management was my biggest challenge
Since most of us do this with a full-time job it’s difficult to strike a perfect balance between work and personal life and I was no exception
I advised my family/friends to understand my aspirations and excuse me if I could not attend a social gathering
Married aspirants should divide and conquer their personal duties to achieve excellence
This exam tests your ability to understanding the concepts/fundamentals and not your ability to memorize
I started a more practical approach and would tie jargons to stories
Example – Risk appetite would be How hungry are you? Risk tolerance – How much is too much?
I faced significant challenges in remembering the IITO (I/P, O/P, TT) for all the 47 processes
I came out with a plan to go through them every morning
The idea was to print each processes ITTO and stick them onto my bedroom wall, 47 pages in all
The first thing I would do getting up in the morning was to go through them once
They are very logical, many of them are repeated throughout the processes, in many instances, the o/p of one process would become the i/p to another
I always tried to visualize/study why we have SOW, Business case, Agreements, EEF and OPS’s as I/p’s to Project charter and why not others
Most importantly understand what information they carry and why they are used to create and approve Project Charter

Two Weeks before the D Day/Exam

Two weeks before the exam is very crucial as it can make or break your overall preparations
I gave 30 minutes every morning to go through the ITTO’S every day
Remember if you keep them for the last moment it’s a perfect recipe for disaster
Don’t give any more mock tests
If you score 65 or less depending on the difficulty level of the mock test your confidence will take a beating
You don’t want that at the last moment
Students have a habit of doing everything at the last moment(student syndrome) so stop studying anything new
I would typically practice writing down all the formulas (ROI, NPV, IRR, EAC, ETC, TCPI, VAC, Float, 3-point estimate, etc) every day
In under 5 minutes, I was able to write them down to avoid forgetting
Jotted lots of personal notes on things that I kept forgetting or was not able to remember easily. Please do the same.
Those notes may not make sense to another person but it’s a holy grail for you
I revised the Formula’s, ITTO, my notes, questions of the mock exams that I prepared earlier twice
My preparation was enhanced by the 7K mock question printouts that I collected over a period of one year
They gave me the much-needed impetus and confidence to sit and pass the PMP exam with flying colors

Exam Experience

First: Get 8 hours sleep before the night of the exam to battle out the grueling 4 hours the next day to stay focused
You did what you could so no point in worrying further
I started off well by answering 10 to 15 questions correctly and that gave me the confidence to carry on
It’s very important to start off well as it set’s the tone for the rest of the exam
So it’s imperative we stay focused and start off well
I got 5 to 6 numerical questions on NPV, Total float, CPI and those were pretty much situational
There were questions that tested my concepts on PMBOK
Example: I had a meeting with X people so what would be the resulting output?
I had Y things approved in which document will I update it?
The team is discussing X process/procedures in which process group they are currently in?
At the end of the exam, I was quite confident I will pass
But I never thought I will score a perfect 5 proficient/above average in all the 5 process groups
The simple reason for that is there are questions where PMI will provide more than 2 or 3 near correct answers and you need to choose the best one
So despite choosing the best answer we still cannot be 100% sure of the correct answer
Unlike the cost forecasting, CPI/SPI, ETC, EAC, VAC questions where we always have 1 correct answer
PMP Conquered!

Exam awareness

This exam trick’s you and it’s very easy to get carried away
Example: Which document will you update, your options are? a) Issue Log 2) scope baseline, 3) cost baseline 4) Project Scope statement
In such scenarios, we need to figure out that scope, cost baselines, project scope statements are part of Project Management plan
Once approved through the change control process it can be updated
They are NOT documents like issue log
The toughness context of the exam will depend upon your preparations
Since I was well prepared I thought it was moderately tough but it’s subjective
Think logically
Initiating and closing are the smallest processes so you need to make sure you score at least an average
If you don’t score average there would added pressure on you to score above average on at least one larger process ( planning, executing or M& C )
The same applies to the larger processes, you don’t want to score below average on one of the heavyweights
If you do you can hurt your chances even if you do well in Initiating and closing
PMBOK is a reference guide to PMP so always choose the answer what is best advised in the guide even if your experience tells otherwise

Additional Tips/Tricks for scoring higher

The first thing you want to do is to believe in yourself that we can do it
It’s one of the toughest certifications in the world, but you can take it on your Chin!
Answer short questions first and keep the long one for the last
Don’t waste your time giving a lot of mock tests
They will eat away one full day (4 hours of test and a couple of hours more to retrospect)
5 mock tests with a score of 75-80 should be good enough depending on the difficulty level of the exam
Remember your mock tests will never improve if your preparation is not up to the mark
Garbage I/P = Garbage O/P applies!
Stay away from Nay-Sayers who believe you cannot do it
Life’s too short to hang around with people who discourage and are not resourceful
Keep motivating yourself and remember hard work always pays
You will get very nervous during the exam if you are well prepared
Hundreds of hours of hard work are on the line (apart from your $555 fee)
But if you are not prepared you will convince yourself by telling “that’s ok even if I fail it will not be the end of the world “
Which is true but if you Pass you will fell on top of the world!
So go and get PMP certified and rule the world of Project Management!

My Exam result (Best PMP result one can get)

Giving back to the PM community

- My Fervent Goal now is to help fellow aspirants crack the PMP code

To do so I have designed my own website ( mentioned below ) to blog and help people prepare better
It would groom candidates on various tools and techniques, best practices, information sharing needed to scale up and ace the exam
Blog Page: http://projectmanagementwithak.com/blogs/
Website Name: http://projectmanagementwithak.com/
To conclude I will leave you with leadership thought that captured my imagination when I was preparing for the exam

I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheeps led by a lion

Alexander the Great!

keep Inspiring!

Regards,

AK , PgMP®, PMP®,CSP-SM™,ICP-ACC ,CSM® ,ITILv3

PMI is a registered trademark and service mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc. PMP is a registered certification mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.