Preparing for your PMP exam

If you are now preparing for the PMP exam, I would like to share with you some  tips & tricks for a better exam experience or address any concerns. 

How the exam goes

There are 200 questions in 4 hours, out of which 25 are not rated. Yet you do not know which ones are not rated so this does not matter. The passing score is around 60% so you need to get 110-120 questions right.

How are the questions

The first 100-120 questions are average / normal / simple. If you have studied, you should get them right. They are straight questions from the text book. Eg. in what knowledge area / process group you are, what to do in a basic situation, how to initiate / close. There is only one obvious right answer.

The next 50 questions start to get complex. They have more than one right / wrong answer and you need to choose the best one, you should make sure you realize first in what phase you are before choosing the answer, make sure you apply the correct formula.

30 -35 questions are difficult / strange where you are not sure what they are asking. These are the long text questions with a lot of wording.

Only 2 questions I couldn’t tell what they wanted from me, what were they referring to.

On most questions with your current project management experience, you should be able to choose the correct answer.

All questions can be related from the PMBOK. If one concept is not in the PMBOK than it probably is not on the exam.

The formulas are not the complicated ones, in general they refer to the EVM (the simple ones). I had twice the communications channels formula. Otherwise I had about 20 math questions.

I had only one network diagram and about 3-4 simple follow-up questions after it.

There were not too many questions asking what are the Inputs, Outputs, what comes next, what is the tool for some process (the memory type question), but rather logical and common sense questions.

How to learn

Learning from the PMBOK is almost impossible.

Rita is a very good book. Go through all of it, do all the exercises from the first time, but to not scribble on the book, rather do the exercises on a piece of paper. Also do the end chapter questions every time. It is the best way to memorize what you learn.

The hardest topics are chapters 3 and 4. Try not to over stress with them from the beginning, rather go through the core knowledge areas and get back to these at the end. They will make much more sense when you have did everything else once.

The procurement chapter is very vast in Rita. For this one, maybe it is faster to learn from the PMBOK.

How to prepare

The saying goes that you need to have 1000 practice questions before going to the exam. You have 400 in Rita, 200 free questions on pmstudy.com I could share with you 200 more if you drop me an email. You can find more over here: http://edward-designer.com/web/list-of-free-pmp-exam-questions/

Start with Rita and pmstudy.com These are 600+ questions = 12 hours of your life. Be careful some online questions are idiotic and can confuse you more than clarify.

Try to go through Rita at least twice. The saying goes that you should do it 3 times, but twice if you already have PM experience should be enough to pass the exam.

How is the exam in Bucharest

In the Romanian-American university basement. You are not allowed with any personal belongings in the test room. They provide you with pen / papers / calculator. You have a small locker room to store your phone / wallet. You are searched like in the airport, do not worry about this.

The room is very quiet. There are 30 computers but only 2-3 people taking various other test. There are sound proof headphones available. There is someone checking up on you every 10 minutes.

When you sit on the computer you start a 15 minutes simulation, after that the exam starts automatically.

I have used the first 15-20 minutes for memory dump (from minute 3 of the simulation). I have written down all processes and knowledge areas and formulas. This helps you in the tricky questions to make sure you are not tricked.

There is a jogging rhythm of 50 questions per hour. But the latter questions become more difficult so keep up, just short breaks if you need, it is easier in the beginning so try not to waste too much time. I had 15 minutes left in the end for checkup and I found out that I missed a question.

When you close the test, there is a small survey and then your result is displayed: Congratulations you have passed!

Break a leg!

Eugen

PMP questions type and difficulty

Preparing for the PMP exam is a challenge that integrates many aspects.

If you are preparing for taking the PMP exam, at this moment you probably are aware that there are 200 question units in 4 hours and that 25 of them are not graded (yet this is totally irrelevant since you do not know which ones are not graded).

There is a heuristic rule that you should take at least 1000 sample questions before going to the exam. I actually believe that I have used in training around 1200 - 1400 different unique questions and some of them up to 3 times over. Surfing through an enormous online variety of question for this exam, I have inadvertently encountered questions raging from very good to very bad, targeted on the PMBOK or completely irrelevant to the exam.

So to share my experience and knowledge regarding the exam and preparation for it, I would like to recommend you the following regarding what to expect:

• If it is not in the PMBOK 99% you won't see it in the exam. I find this very important since scrolling the web for more questions you would at some point find unrelated questions (yes  journey to Abilene or words / minutes processed, I am referring  to you).
• About 100-120 questions were normal questions, you would expect anyone trained for the PMP to know as a basic.
• About 50 questions were average difficulty, where you have to find out what exactly is happening in the situation described. Again if you have sound training, these should not be a problem.
• Lastly about 30-40 questions are really difficult. These are those questions that you need to find out what the context is about, choose best answer from all 4 correct, or the least wrong answer. This is also important to be aware of when you prepare for the exam. I have seen some sample tests where all 200 questions were difficult or even much more difficult than you would encounter (negative float on the Critical Path for example). Your score in this kind of tests is also marginal relevant to what you would perform on the real exam. 

I think the key to evaluate yourself is to score that 75-80% in a full 200 QU test that mixes all knowledge areas and has varied difficulty questions.

You can find over 400 question units in Rita if you own the book. There are 200 more free questions in PMStudy.com and I have found 175 more free questions from Oliver Lehman. 

Best of luck!

CAPM - what, why, how ?

At the end of May 2014 I've taken and passed the PMI exam of CAPM. For this achievement I've only self studied, so if you are looking for some tips and tricks here you go!

• CAPM - what?

There are 2 main Project Management organizations that offer PM related certifications (and probably dozen of minor ones). One of them is Project Management Institute (www.pmi.org) and the other one is Prince2 (www.prince2.com). PMI offers a framework that is industry agnostic, while Prince2 offers a methodology that is related to IT mostly. 

PMI provides two level of certifications. The first level is Certified Associate in Project Management and the final one is Project Management Professional. Both certification are based solely on Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide 5th edition).

• CAPM - why?

Earning either of the two certificates involves a set of screening requirements and passing a high complexity exam.

• For CAPM you need 1500 hours of project experience OR 23 hours of training. The exam consists of 150 questions in 3 hours. (15 questions are not rated, but you do not know which ones, so it does not matter anyway)
• For PMP you need 4500 hours of project management experience AND 32 hours of training. The exam consists of 200 questions in 4 hours. (here 25 questions are not rated with the same observation as above).

The training programs are rather expensive (between 200 and 900 Euros) and I wanted to self study anyway, therefor I have decided to take the first exam first as a safe approach and I am now preparing for the PMP exam to follow.

OK but why? Well the certificate is very important for employment but most important is that you really learn how to handle a project, any project. Anything in this world that has a definitive beginning and an end with a defined set of results is a project. You will be able to handle your projects better, more efficient, less stressful and with better results. 

• CAPM - how?

I recommend you join pmi.org for 1 year. This costs 139$ and for this money you get your own digital version of the latest PMBOK Guide and discounts for taking the exam. For CAPM the discount is from 300$ down to 225$ so if you have to take the exam twice, or intend to take both exams within these 12 months, than the deal is great and you actually end up saving some money.

With your very own PMBOK Guide now starts the hard part. If you had no training, you will find it rather difficult, boring and maybe a bit too complex. Don't give up, it will get better! Get to the end of it once, the second pass will be much easier and the 3rd one is going to be a piece of cake. 

There are scores of materials on Youtube, preparation websites and others, but about this I will tell you in a future post. 

Finally when you have finished training and you evaluate that you are prepared, you come back to the PMI website to fill your exam application, pay the fee and schedule the exam. The exam is hosted by the Prometric company (prometric.com) in exam specialized test centers across the world. In Bucharest there were 5 test centers when I have taken this exam.

More about PMI certifications over here:

http://www.pmi.org/Certification.aspx

If you have any comments or find any of the information not accurate please leave me a message.