Skip to main content

Top 5 Tips in Getting Your PMP

For those of you familiar with the Project Management Professional (PMP) designation, you know it's not an easy thing to obtain, so when I share that I earned my PMP, I am usually immediately asked this question: "How did you do it?" It was a long road for me, and I'm proud to have come out better on the other side.

So I'm glad to share with you what worked well for me!
(A bit of a disclaimer: I understand that since I took the test in July 2015, the PMP test has been revised slightly. Regardless, I can still say with some level of certainty that all the tips below are still relevant despite the changes.)

1. Consider an online course to fulfill the PM education requirement. I know some companies have internal courses that you can take, so I'd definitely encourage you go that route if that's an option. I didn't have that option, so a seasoned PM recommended I fulfill the PM education requirement via an online course. I'll be even more specific: I took the course via the PM PrepCast (linked here). I would definitely recommend this over and over again. It enabled me to download video podcasts to my phone and watch them whenever I had time. I'd even watch a 15-minute segment while doing something like eating lunch at work. The PM PrepCast also offers an exam simulator, which brings me to my next tip...

2. Use an exam simulator. And again, I used the one that the PM PrepCast offers and loved it. An exam simulator provides you with questions similar to those you may see when you sit for the actual exam. The PM PrepCast's simulator is flexible in the fact that you can take a shorter 10 or 20 question quiz when you don't have a lot of time but also offers several full practice exams as well. These were invaluable in my studies, and I cannot recommend them highly enough.

3. Focus on what the PMP wants, NOT what you want. Okay, I'm going to say something that might be a bit controversial: I don't agree with everything the PMP has to say. Most of the stuff is good, but there are some things I would do differently. The writers of the PMP exam are pretty good about recognizing this and purposefully tosses in options to questions that sound right but are wrong according to them. Beware of this trap! Exam simulators also try to do the same thing, so again, practice with an exam simulator to weed out your expectations versus PMI's expectations.

4. Prepare yourself for an audit. I was fortunate enough to not get audited, but I have heard some horror stories from other friends of mine. For example, an Indian friend of mine sought to be as honest as he could with his experience references and included an old boss of his he worked for in India. When he got audited, it took him two whole months to track down this person. Because of this, I would suggest you do what I did: contact every person you listed as a reference prior to submitting the form to let them know of a potential audit. This will hopefully make your audit process go more smoothly, if you do get audited. (Side note: PMI says audits are random, and from everybody I know who has / has not been audited, that seems to be true.)

5. Tell other people you're going for your PMP. This might be an odd one, so allow me to explain. People are much less apt to follow through with something if they do not share it with anybody else. Perhaps this is because people rightfully or wrongfully feel socially pressured to follow through with something if it gets out there that you're going for something. This is pretty much true for everything, including things like losing weight, and it is especially true for the PMP. Not only will you have a stronger desire to follow through with getting your PMP, but you will pressure yourself to study harder so you don't have to share any potentially embarrassing news that you failed the exam.

So there you have it! There are other tips I didn't include here because I think they should come naturally, like not lying about your education or experience. The audit is a pretty serious deterrent against that, anyway. Even though I did qualify for the PMP, I was still extremely nervous when I first submitted my application. If you have any other questions about the PMP, feel free to get at me directly! I'm glad to help with anything.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Five Games to Play While Listening to Podcasts

I'm a big fan of podcasts. I regularly listen to at least two podcasts every day, ranging from business to comedy to video gaming. Speaking of that last one, the best time to listen to podcasts (aside from exercise) is while playing a video game. Now, you can't just play any video game while listening to podcasts because it's just not conducive in every situation. For example, I would never suggest you play something like Call of Duty online while listening to a podcast. All your brainpower will go to the game and zero to the podcast. So when coming up with this list, I held to these couple of criterion for games suitable for simultaneous podcast: Can't be heavily story driven (Looking at you, Telltale Games) Can't be something that involves a ton of strategy Can't can't CAN'T be multiplayer Keeping these criterion in mind, here are five games I'd suggest you check out.
Post a Comment
Read more

Key Competency #4: A Dash of "Not-Care-itude"

As an avid listener of The Tim Ferriss Show  podcast, I listened to a recently uploaded episode complementary to his new book Tools of Titans (review incoming) that covered a number of tough questions he encouraged everybody to ask themselves. One of the questions he shared was, "How would you run your business if you were only allowed to work that business two hours a week?"
Post a Comment
Read more

Everybody is in Sales

For as much as I love the show The Office , there was one aspect of it that would make me cringe any time I thought about it too much: what business those folks were in. This fictional company, Dunder Mifflin, sold companies paper and paper-related products on a recurring basis via a customer relations salesperson. Yup, this is what your favorite characters Jim and Dwight did every single day. Because when I think about a titillating career in selling something I'm passionate about, paper and paper-related products are the first thing I think about. ...I'm clearly dripping with sarcasm.
Post a Comment
Read more

Summer 2016: Top 5 Books

This has definitely been the summer that I got back into reading. Reading is a weird thing for me. I honestly love reading, but I am also a horrible reader. I tend to get distracted very easily, so I’m not ashamed to admit it probably takes twice as long for me to read a book as it does for a normal person. One quick recommendation before I get into the books I enjoyed reading this summer: if you’re into eBooks, consider getting a dedicated e-reader, like a Kindle. In addition to wanting a device I could easily lay out and read under the bright sun, I found myself getting super distracted by the other apps when reading off my iPad. I invested in a Kindle earlier this summer and have not regretted the purchase once. Here are the five books I enjoyed reading most this summer. In case you're interested, I've also placed a link to each book on Amazon. (Weird observation: Apparently I like books with short main titles and obnoxiously long subtitles.)
Post a Comment
Read more

Key Competency #11: A Sense of Urgency

Ten years ago... Barack Obama was not a president yet. MySpace was the most popular social platform. Smartphones were just on the horizon, and tablets and smartwatches didn't exist. CDs were still the primary way you listened to music. Netflix's core business was shipping DVDs with VOD only in its very early infancy. That was all only ten years ago.
Post a Comment
Read more