5 steps to prepare for PMP? certification spending less than 60 dollars
1. Study with consistency and take your time
The material you'll have to study is huge, so, don't try to rush your preparation, study in a consistent way and keep yourself motivated. A way to spend less money when preparing is to buy online asynchronous courses, you'll find several options in different platforms. I used the “PMP Certification Exam Prep Course 35 PDU Contact Hours/PDU” on Udemy, it was on sale and costed me only 6 dollars in Feb. 2024.
Be aware that you'll have to indicate 35h of training in project management and you may be audited. So, if you don't have other ways to prove the 35h (CAPM?, Specializations, etc), pay attention to take a course that can provide you the 35h/PDUs.
The difficult part with this approach is keeping the consistency once you don't have a scheduled class. What works for me in those scenarios is to study every day, it is important for me to study 7 days a week but I don't put a timer, if I just have 30 min that day it can be a short study session if I am felling ready for a bigger study session I can take 2h/3h in a row. For other people scheduling a time on the calendar can be super useful, some of the course softwares/apps have a feature to alert you about your study time. The best approach is the one who works for you.
2. Make your registration / Schedule your test
I saw a lot of people saying that they scheduled the test as a way to motivate them to study. This can be a good approach, but I don't feel comfortable with it, so I just started my registration.
Once you apply and include your information, the application will be assessed and if you fulfill the requirements (and pass the audition in case you're audited) you'll have 365 days to take the test before having to register again.
Its a lot of time but it is also a deadline. This is a chill approach to the schedule one but I was more comfortable taking this path. The important part is to find a deadline, a way to commit with the result.
3. Use the project of taking your PMP? as your study project, be the project manager of your certification
Use what you learn and implement everything you can, in you life, in your job or anywhere you can. It will help you solidify the knowledge.
4. Use simulators and answer questions
The content to study is broad and if you spend your time only watching classes or reading the PMBOK it will make it monotonous and will not prepare you for the questions you're going to face. Spending one day every week answering questions will help you see your progress and evaluate your strengthens and weakness.
During my course I used to do the quiz after the sections but when I finished the course I bought the Andrew Ramdayal/TIA simulator and did all the tests until I scored more than 80% in all of them. It took me about 3 months of study at a really cool pace.
Some other options below:
Tuesday transmission on Andrew Ramdayal youtube channel - He answers general questions from the audience about the PMP and always brings some exam questions to answer at the end of the transmission
ChatGPT (You can ask AI to create questions for you - Here is an example on how to do that)
Paid simulators
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Questions and simulators on your courses
Other youtube channels
5. Use free online content and mix it with the paid materials
Below you'll find some exemples but you can search and find a lot more:
Youtube Channels
Registration content
Extensive material with a step by step guide of the registration process
Spreadsheet to support the registration process (This one is in Portuguese but you can find similar materials in several languages, it was super helpful to have everything organized and just copy and paste to the PMP website)
Paid courses
Andrew Ramdayal course on Coursera (paid $6.00 in this very complete course)
Edward Shehab youtube course (45 total videos with the first 20 for free and the total access costing $ 40.00 - Content only includes predictive project)
Paid simulators
PM aspire Simulator (Prices starting at $ 70.00. They have a free test period, you can use 1 free simulation)
Andrew Ramdayal/TIA simulator ($ 45.00)