At the commencement of 2020, I passed the Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification Exam with all 5 ‘Above Target’ score, which meant a New-Year present for myself.
I am engaged in project research and development and have been devoting myself to project management for ten years. In recent years I took part in some research and development project management training, which contributed to my great command of project management knowledge. However, I had never been proactive to know or even consider taking the Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification Exam. In July, one of my best friends showed her Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification in the Moments of Wechat and then I had a talk with her. Soon after that, I kept an in-depth insight on Project Management Professional (PMP) online.
I was really busy in working at that time. What’s worse, I had to accompany my son, a primary school student, on studying when I came home at nights, which were wits with a naughty boy stories. I had some hesitations in taking the Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification Exam. After all, the Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification Exam cost was so high that I was afraid of letting much of my money walking off into the sunset. Plus, I would be a taunt to my wife and son if I failed the exam.
I spent a week in analyzing my daily timetable by using the statistical method. As a matter of fact, I found that I had two to three hours to be made full use of every day based on statistical analysis last week. I could take advantage of spare minutes, lunch hours, accompanying time and the time after my mischievous son fell asleep.
However, I hesitated for another week. It would be much carefree and leisurely to play with my mobile phone and browsing around in the network in spare time. It would be much pleasing to relish a noon break. It would be much better to read a book in accompanying time. What’s more, it would be much satisfying to soak my feet in hot water and watch some TV shows after my mischievous son fell asleep.
Afterwards the reason why I made up my mind to take the Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification Exam was that I intended to be a good role model for my son and tell him that people can reap the rewards of all their hard work.
I suggest all of you to make a systematic training formally in SPOTO(SPOTO is an IT training organization with 18 years history, focusing on providing the Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification Exam learning materials, dumps and training courses, helping you pass the Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification Examination and get the Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification by 100%). Whether in terms of the comprehensiveness of teaching materials, an integrated overview of knowledge points, the formality and rationality of test paper topics, which is of great importance, or the plan of study, including PMP examination registration, it can be twice as effective with the help of SPOTO.
First of all, from the perspective of test preparation materials, I signed up for online courses. The major learning materials consisted of PMBOK 6th Edition, an about 300-hour online video course, a piece of video lecture notes, the reference material of how to successfully pass the PMP examination, a booklet of main concepts, several PMP examination practice questions, three simulated practice exams and a final practice exam. By the way, video lessons were all recorded and broadcast content, without live class.
Whether the course tutors, video class teachers, the head teacher in the group, or the predecessors who have passed the PMP exam, all of them emphasize the uppermost priority of PMBOK and it does indeed.
When you master the contents and all the process groups in PMBOK, or know all project management processes well, you will pass the PMP exam successfully no matter how the examination questions change or which knowledge point to test. Then what does it mean to grasp all contents? According to my experience, it means to remember all project management processes in mind, that is, to learn the 49 process groups by heart. In reality, to do the job as mentioned earlier is to locate the knowledge point and the process group on PMBOK quickly and accurately in the face of the PMP exam questions. Of course, what I want to express in not to just memorize the 49 process groups, but the real point is to understand the meaning of the 49 process groups and the connection between each other.
In the course of studying, you do not have to recite the 49 process groups deliberately. On the contrary, you should understand them. After you learn all the process groups, you can write down the majority of 49 process groups. Then on the basis of your own mode of thought, you learn to contact each of the process groups until you can write down all the 49 process groups from memory.
When you can write down all the 49 process groups from memory, know clearly the true meaning of each of them and understand core knowledge points originated from which process groups, it is no problem for you to pass the PMP exam basically. But if you want to seek for all 5 ‘Above Target’ score, you need to take a further command of the input and output of each process group and tools and techniques used.
It took me about three months to prepare for the PMP exam. To read PMBOK through for preview, then watch video classes to deepen impression, because videos were more vivid and did me a favor to remember and master for some difficult concepts more easily, and finally to go over OMBOK thoroughly once, which required you to take notes and mark the book.
After the first step, I began to do exercises, including chapter questions, simulation questions, assignment questions. At the same time, you could find your problems. During the process, summarizing was of great significance. When I finished all the exercises, I checked leaks and filled the vacancy on the chapters with high error rate. Later, I printed all the papers out directly and wrote down the knowledge points and analyzed the wrong questions on papers for the convenience of better review.
When there are two weeks before the exam to leave, I suggest you not to do new exercises but to repeat your own wrong questions. Then you should write down all the 49 process groups again every few days and take good command of the connections between each other.
You should take good care of your own body. After all it is a 4-hour exam and challenges people’s strength and energy a lot, especially for some senior candidates. You should adjust to take the exam with a full attitude.
No matter which exam, I always attach much importance to it. Even though I have taken part in numerous exams in the primary school, the junior school, the junior high school, the university and the post-graduate education, I still have a long way to improve my examination oriented psychological quality. Most of the questions in the first mock exam were basic and I got 145 scores. The second mock exam was harder with a great many of questions requiring thinking twice and I got 139 scores. The third mock exam was much easier and I got 155 scores. The final mock exam I took was provided by SPOTO when there were two weeks before the formal exam and I got 158 scores. Many of the learning group showcased their performances in the mock exams. Although none of them got higher score than me, I never flaunted my scores. I felt terribly insecure even though the head teacher in the group called me to feel free to pass the exam without problem. It was later that I analyzed the reason why I was so insecure. To a great extent, I had that kind of feeling on account of thinking in science and engineering, because the questions of science and engineering are always solved correctly by operation. There is only one right answer. You can either do it, or not.
However, PMP exam is totally different. When there are four options, there is only one false answer, even none of them. So how to choose the right one? Th trick is to select the most suitable one. It is usual that we are in the situation where four options are so correct that we feel uncertain.
A: Correct.
B: No problem.
C: Nothing wrong.
D: Make sense.
Whether the mock exam or the formal one, there are a large number of ambiguous questions, about 30 to 40. So for the science and engineering candidates, even though we choose the more suitable answer, we still feel insecure. Even the tutor tells us to follow our heart when finding many options correct. Perhaps we are not good at doing what we think is right.
If conditions permitted, you should be familiar with the examination room and your seat number, with which, you can be more relaxed.
I tried my best to simulate the actual test conditions in the previous three mock exams, in which I had to finish the whole exam in one breath, including timing, answer sheet filling in, drinking and eating during the process, in order to make myself more deliberate. In the day of examination, though I felt a little uncomfortable, for lack of less than two hours of sleep the night before the exam with low psychological personality, I could still take good control of my time. Every time I finished 50 questions, I filled in the answer sheet. All the time I took was within 200 minutes, which was almost the same as that of the mock exam.
After finishing the exam, I applied to go out for eating. When I went to the bathroom, the invigilator fellow through. After relaxing a little, I entered the examination room again and checked my answer sheet. When there were 30 minutes left, I marked the uncertain questions and did them once again. Before I handed in the answer sheet, I changed around 5 to 6 answers.
There are comments on the examination room and invigilation process at the back of the answer sheet, in which most of candidates in my examination room did not fill. Anyway, neither did I. I asked the invigilator with the answer that we did not have to fill in it.
Besides, my examination room projected time on the wall, so as long as I looked up, I could see the time.
Waiting for the results was very painful, although I felt similar to that of the third mock exam, I could not be down to the earth until the score was given. There was a heated discussion in the learning group, but I seldom looked at it.
About a month later, you can receive the message in the e-mail you have registered before from PMI. If you pass the PMP exam, you will be congratulated directly. Clicking the link to see your score, you will know how many A you have got, that is, your ranking in the exam.
if you can save 60 PDU points within three years, plus N USD, you can renew the certificate. Generally speaking, you can get PDU points by participating in some activities related to project management.
A wordy experience, I hope to be able to help those who are willing to participate in the PMP Exam.
If you have any other questions about the PMP exam, you can reach me without hesitation. Before the revision of PMBOK, you can also discuss topics with me.
