PMP Certified!

FINALLY! 11 months from the day the clock started, I am finally a Certified Project Management Professional. Y'all... this journey felt longer than my undergrad degree.

That being said, I wish I would have asked better questions leading up to the exam. Everyone said it was 8-9 on a scale of 10. I should have asked how was the actual exam AND the registration process.

The process to START the exam was a 9. I had to take everything off, including two tiny bracelets I wore for good luck. Nope. I had a dress on (made me feel less anxious) and had to shake the bottom as well as show that there was nothing up my sleeves. Flip my collar to check for small scrolls of notes or some other way to cheat that I can't fathom. Turn out my pockets. Open and lay my readers on a lazy Susan for inspection. Do you see how much hair I have? Welp... still had to show I had NOTHING behind my ears. Once inside, the nice proctor suggested I not go into my pockets. Ma'am... you just saw there's nothing in them! Anxiety on 10. I had to do some box breathing to calm down.

I start the exam. On a scale of 10, I'd give it a 7. I kept expecting to have more questions trip me up since the day before I bombed the last practice exam (I now think they are designed to be much harder than the exam itself). I had ONE question that required minor calculation and one question I needed to draw out to choose the right answer. Beyond that, I didn't use the calculator or scratch paper. When I decided I'd reviewed the questions enough, I had 34 minutes remaining.

My advice? Know how you take tests and focus on the hardest part. Understanding the information wasn't hard when I found the right teachers (Ricardo Vargas' process flows and Praizion Media's and David McLachlan's YouTube videos were lifesavers). What got me was my usual test anxiety. The two weeks leading up to the exam, I took a practice exam or quiz daily and worked on calming myself, slowing down while reading the questions and figuring out a strategy to review the questions that I wasn't sure about or needed more time to process. Looking back, those two weeks were invaluable. Had I gone in without preparing for test anxiety, I may not have scored as well.

Cliff Note version:

• learn the material in a way YOU understand
• know your triggers
• don't let the practice exam scores psych you out