My Road to #PgMP

Dear Friends,

I decided to share my full experience since I started my PgMP journey till earning it, it wasn't easy to know which is the best road, for several months I was targeting to get it, but so many times I got blocked due to different reasons, below points summarizes everything:

PgMP Application Tips:

- Make sure that you write clear and well-structured application that reflects your real experience in program management

- Make sure to provide real reliable references and their contact info

- Try to have trusted person to review it for you, in my case, my mentor reviewed it and gave me valuable tips in which I considered before submitting it

- You can download free sheet “PgMP APPLICATION PREPARATION GUIDE” from the below URL, it will help you to summarize entries for PgMP application

https://www.pmcerty.com/index.php?pid=cms&slug=freeresource

Study Tips:

- In my opinion, the best preparation for the exam is not to focus on the exam itself rather than understanding what program management is all about

- I spent around one month understanding more about PgMP and what it requires, decided to take a course after consulting many colleagues, it wasn't easy to find a good place to take my course, eventually I decided to enroll in a course at https://www.pmcerty.com (after referring to a friend who recently got her PgMP), the course included mentorship throughout and after the course till I got my certificate (depending on your local currency, you might find the course expensive, if this is the case, plan ahead to save the required amount and place a targeted date for the course)

- During the course, I tried my best to capture all info I could get, my target was to understand more about program management and how it can be mapped to my real work, tried to link it with real life examples to ensure I actually get what is being said

-  My study sources were

• PMI standard v 4.0 (in which you can download for free if you’re PMI member) https://www.pmi.org/pmbok-guide-standards/foundational/program-management
• PMCerty lectures, in which were recorded and available for us after the course 
• PgMP ECO         

https://www.pmi.org/-/media/pmi/documents/public/pdf/certifications/program-management-professional-examination-content-outline.pdf

• You need to have good understanding of PMP

- After finalizing my study, I worked on several review rounds with my mentor, where my gaps were identified and worked on covering them

- I didn’t take any full test before the exam, I used PMCerty questions bank (study mode), my purpose was to understand how questions may come, train myself to understand them, target was not just to solve them accurately (

-I would highly recommend as a lesson learned to practice a full 4 hours test, to prepare yourself for continuous 4 hours test with 170 question, each question requires good focus during the 4 hours

Preparing for the Exam:

-  Exam requires good understanding of the standard and program management concepts, so make sure you study thoroughly and understand as much as you can

- If you have limited test centers in your country, keep monitoring the available slots at your intended date, in my country there are only two test centers in two different cities, I had the assumption that I can easily book the exam one week before in which was not the case, eventually, I had to book the most recent appropriate slot in which wasn’t my planned date, I recommend that you keep checking the available slots and preferably reserve your exam early enough to avoid such situations

-  Try to take one week off before exam date, identify your gaps and work on them, refer to your mentor to “understand”, try not to memorize anything

Three days before the exam:

-  Try keep refreshing your info, focus on your weak points and work on them

-  Try to disconnect from everything, and focus only on your study

-  The day before the exam, try not to stress yourself and avoid any tensions

-  Exam will need focus, so try to sleep well according to your average sleeping hours

-  If your exam time is early, try to train yourself to be awake before that time, to adjust your biological clock and your mind to be fully awake during the exam

-  Contact your test center, confirm your exam date, time and your data as well

-  Try to use Google maps to check estimated time from your place to the exam location (I did that on several days in my same exam time just to know the average time needed to reach the exam location) and plan carefully to be one hour early

The exam day:

- Have a light breakfast before you leave heading to the exam (in my case, I was counting that I might have a small break and have a small snack, found out when I reached the test center that we’re not allowed to eat or drink anything during exam time , so make sure to be aware of what is allowed and what is not before the exam day)

- In case you have due medication time during the exam, try to take it before or after, preferably to consult your Dr. to ensure the medication side effects or changing its time doesn’t impact your health or your focus during the exam

- The usual advise, try go to the exam center early enough, at least one hour before the exam time, taking into consideration the time needed to arrive to test canter, in my case I was delayed around 30 minutes due to traffic and road issues which were not foreseen, arrived the center around 30 minutes before exam time

- Make sure you have enough IDs when you go to the test center, in my case I used my passport as an ID

During Exam:

-  Take your time in the tutorial before the exam, fully understand the tools available and how efficiently you can use them inside the exam

-  The usual advise, check your data and make sure it’s you

-  Read every question carefully, one word in the question might change the whole answer

-  Keep track of time

-  If you’re in the middle facing hard questions, be persistent and push yourself to solve all what you can

-  Four hours is not a short period, you will face your ups and downs, during the down times, try not to be emotional don’t let it impact you

-  If for any reason your seating or test room environment is distracting and you already started your test, try to ignore it, don’t let it stress you or make you nervous and stay attentive to the questions in front of you

I will keep updating my notes; please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Best of luck!

Eman