Speaking of the preparation for the PMP Exam, It is affected by the employment environment. I have worked in the IT industry for several years. What do we depend on for promotion and salary increase? Do we depend on our appearance? Do we depend on our eloquence? No! We should depend on certification. My colleagues who entered the company in the same batch have more experience in project management than me, who have taken the PMP certification. It’s very easy for them to be sent to other provinces by leaders to participate in an important project. In less than three months, they turned into true project managers from rookies, and I was still writing the base code. From then on, I swore that I would also take a PMP. Am I weak or what? Well, I’ll share my experience in the exam, and I’ll tell you about my preparation for PMP, which is full of good stuff!
PMP Exam is a magical journey. Me, as a 5A student will take you on a journey of PMP Exam.
I took the PMP Exam a few days ago. Fortunately, I got a 5A. So, today I’m very honored to share my journey of the PMP Exam. let’s go straight to good stuff!
Small goals before class: it’s better to read PMBOK more than twice. The first time is to read it through and the second time is to read it carefully. The point of time is about one month before the formal course starts. It’s necessary to clarify the key points of each chapter and content in the book, as well as the relationship between the contents. The relevance of these contents in the later stage can help to understand and remember.
(Attention: Be sure to finish reading the book before the formal course. When the teacher mentions a certain concept, you will have a reaction at least. In the teacher’s words, the PMP is the international certification of the project managers. So, you should set the international project manager’s standard to yourselves!)
Small goals during class: review the knowledge combined with handout, read PMBOK intensively, and watch playback video to deepen memory. Because of a long time departure from school, and my own work in my daily life, I felt that my study was a bit overloaded at the beginning. I tried to listen to the course carefully. But after all, with such a large amount of knowledge to memorize, I forgot the former when I was listening to the subsequent, so I had to watch the learning video repeatedly after work.
Small goals during the model test: do the model tests, and focus on reviewing the questions that we do wrong. Before the model test, we should lay the foundation by reading books, and think much. During the model test, we should focus on working on the questions, and the number of questions should be at least 2000. Moreover, we should do the wrong questions repeatedly, and ensure the correct rate of more than 90% despite of the wrong questions.
Here are some suggestions on how to prepare for the PMP Exam.
- The control of the rhythm of reading and writing
Focus on the books in early time. Knowledge will be dispersed if you do simulation problems too early, while each chapter exercises should be done in time. In addition, I suggest you don’t find some online questions and do them. The quality of those questions and answers is really hard to say, and I feel that spending time on that is kind of a waste. I sign up for many organizations whose online model problems are thousands and thousands, and I never worry about there is no enough questions to do.
- PMI registration and Foreign Experts Bureau registration
When it comes to PMI registration, I really appreciate the teachers who helped me to complete PMI registration, because PMI registration is very troublesome. Having a teacher to guide me to complete the primary registration of English website does save a lot of trouble and precious learning time for me. When I have to sign up for the exam later, there will be special teachers to guide me. If I don’t know how to operate, I can ask the teacher directly to connect and operate, which is OK.
Here I would like to talk about the general process of registration for the examination: First, sign up for training institutions to obtain training hours certification. Second, register in English on the official website of PMI. After PMI has passed the register, register on the official website of CFA, Then, sign up for the examination on the official website of CFA, pay fees, participate in PMP examination and obtain PMP certification at last.
The payment of the Chinese registration and examination are finished on the website of the Foreign Affairs Bureau, and you need to pay the examination fees of USD 596 by yourselves.
- Serious treatment for model tests
The students who have already started the model test have been away from the formal test for about a month. When they get the answer sheet and pencil eraser, they finally feel that they are close to the test.
The mark of my first mock exam is more than 130 points, that of the second mock exam is more than 150.
I’d like to introduce to you the learning methods and methods I used in the model test at that time: model test question analysis, group study, re-watch of the teacher’s video, ITTO hand drawing, and review of the wrong questions.
It’s very important to analyze the test questions of each model test. You can directly quantify the degree you have mastered and use the data to guide your study. It sounds very scientific, doesn’t it? After the analysis, you can know which chapter is the weakest and strengthen and consolidate it. Group learning mode is very useful for me. While reviewing the questions with the each other, we looked for the answers from the original words in the book. While expressing our own opinions, I had a deeper understanding of the examination and knowledge test points in classmates’ sharing. You people who have never tried group learning can give it a shot. As for the ITTO hand drawing, it depends on personal mastery. I felt that it was not enough to just do it once, so I drew it twice before the exam. You can listen to the teacher’s videos when commuting, so that you will have a flash on many small details during the exam, as if you have heard somewhere! Wrong questions should be consolidated in time. Review wrong questions repeatedly, and do it repeatedly to consolidate knowledge.
- Efficient use of the time 1-2 weeks before PMP Exam
You must remember to redo the model test questions. Wrong questions should be reviewed and consolidated. When I redo the model tests, the correct rate should be more than 90%. The relatively difficult thing is to find a large amount of time to do the model tests again, but I finally finished them before the exam. Finally, every day’s discussion of the wrong questions with friends, and excellent teammates are extremely important!
(Postscript: if you need to, remember to book the hotels near the test sites in advance, so as to avoid the failure in room reservations and the exorbitant price. if you have time, you can visit the test site in advance to have some recognition in your mind.)
It’s not quite difficult to prepare for the PMP Exam. It’s always rewarding to work hard. I wish all my friends who plan to take the exam and who are going to take the exam pass the exam smoothly! When I saw the younger students in a new period discussing, reading and doing questions in the learning exchange groups, I felt like I was back to the period of preparation for the examination. What I want to say is that you are lucky. You have the honor to sign up for an excellent PMP training institution like SPOTO. The teachers not only teach well, but also provide good services. Every detail is considered by the teachers for you. Besides, there are excellent teachers and excellent students around you to accompany you to grow together!