How I cleared the PMP

It was June 2019 when I decided I should achieve a formal certification which will also help me grow professionally. I set the deadline, arbitrarily, to December 2020, I assumed a year and half should be enough to decided what to do, study that and pass. This is how I intended to spend those eighteen months:

• Phase I: June-August 2019: Decide
• Phase II: September 2019- September 2020: Register, study and everything else
• Phase III: October-November 2020-: Revise
• Phase IV: December 2020: Appear for, and clear the exam

By August 2019, my project charter was clear - Pass the PMP by December 2020. Now begin the hunt for completing the prerequisites. You can get more details at many places, though I recommend getting it straight from the source: PMI.org. I found an excellent course named 'PMP Exam prep seminar' by Joseph Phillips on Udemy. Luckily, there was a sale going on; I got it for a reasonable amount. It also gave the 35 contact hours which are required to appear for the PMP.

Phase I - accomplished, within time. Awesome!

Folks swear by additional books, and there could be merit in that. But, I started with the PMBOK 6.0 guide directly. The course also gave enough resources, and you can always create your own. Project management is a part of my current work responsibilities too. Hence, I could study, assimilate, and apply to my job. So far, so good.

What I had not accounted for was - life happens. My workload suddenly increased, our family grew by one and, in general, I became much busier than I had foreseen.

Phase II, partly accomplished.

I was thinking of extending my plan by six months but, look, a new piece of information – PMP syllabus would change after December 2020. Not wanting my current preparation to be diminished in scope, I decided to crash phases III and IV and increase the intensity of studying. I found a few sites which had free PMP tests. I attempted those during the wee hours of Saturdays, while rest of the family slept. I was living the lines by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

While I am far from ‘great’ and I did not ‘toil upward in the night’, I was certainly doing some crazy hours. I scheduled a proctor-led online exam for 27 December 2020. I took a week off, studied for 12 hours a day. On the exam day, I doubted my preparation. The four hours did not seem that long and, after the final clicking of ‘Submit’ button, I found I missed the target by a sliver.

PMI was also empathetic enough to say, ‘many do not clear in the first attempt’.

Alrighty, then.

Phases III and IV – Disaster

In January 2021, I took a brutally honest look at my preparation. While I was doing great at initiating, planning and execution, controlling was lacking, closing was okay. I needed to read more about quality and procurement. Also, the syllabus changed – Predictive would be on equal footing with Agile. Joseph Phillips updated his course and PMI issued Agile Practice Guide. More material to study.

Sigh!

When the going gets tough, the tough get planning.

And executing.

Phase V was essentially the earlier phases II-IV crunched into six months. In the initial days, I was doing one knowledge area/day but, later, I was comfortably revising 4-5/day. I was consistently doing 70-75% in the practice tests, still falling short of the coveted 80%. However, I was feeling positive about my preparation. I chose, once again arbitrarily, the exam day to be 05 June 2021.

The exam was to start at 1000 hrs, I was ready at 0900. After solving 180 question in 209 minutes, I saw this:

Phase V – Victory is mine!

If there is a happiness equivalent for ‘five stages of grief’, I did not feel those. I remember just one - overwhelming relief. The first person I called was my wife. Her second sentence (after “Congratulations, Anant!”) was, “I am relieved.”

Of course, she was.

I was a largely absent husband and father for the second half of May 2021. During my waking hours, I spent majority of my time either working or studying. I did the bare minimum, she was handling everything else, giving me the time and space to study. I dedicate it to her; without her support, there would be no ‘PMP’ after my name. I could have tagged her here, but do not have her consent.

After I posted my certificate, many asked me for tips and tricks. Here they are:

1. If you have experience managing projects, resist the temptation to answer as per your experience. In my opinion, PMI wants answers as per the PMBOK and Agile guide
2. Read about Agile, absorb its manifesto. All questions based on Agile (and its derivatives) can be answered from the manifesto. The Agile guidebook is slimmer as compared to PMBOK, but questions will be divided almost equally among both. So, marks/page, Agile guidebook is more productive
3. You will get 210 minutes to answer 180 questions. Structure your time wisely. If you know you cannot answer a question right away, mark it for review, move on and return it later. Remember, since there are no negative marks, a guess is always better than no answer
4. Do not drink too much liquids (water/coffee/tea) before the exam. You may laugh at this but when your bladder is stressed, deciding between two surprisingly similar answers gets more difficult
5. Read 1

If you have read this far, thank you for your time. If you are a PMP seeker, my best wishes are with you.

Why am I writing about the time I failed? Why don't I let the world assume I cleared in the first attempt? Because, out there, could be someone who shares my first attempt results. It is okay. It is an outcome of your attempt, it is not you. There may be others who cleared in shorter time and in the first attempt; treat them as an inspiration, not comparison.

You got hit, brush off the dust and get up. Remember why you started. Plan, re-plan and then some more. Reach out to me, if you want a sounding board. Once you achieve your PMP, feel proud of your accomplishment.

I certainly do.?

Disclaimer: Views above are my own. This is my journey to achieving PMP, narrated retrospectively. You have to find what works for you.