PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROFESSIONAL (PMP) EXAM PREP STRATEGY

What is the PMP certification?

According to PMI, the Project Management Institute [insert pmi.org link],  the PMP® certification “demonstrates that you have the experience, education and competency to lead and direct projects.” You can find that on their website.

Hence, lots of professionals cutting across myriads of industries and marketing sectors desire to be PMP certified since this is likely to increase their recognition or remuneration base in their respective organizations.

Truly, the PMP certification is a really desirable accomplishment for any professional seeking the earlier mentioned plus more importantly the PMBOK framework helps a person to imbibe the attitude and mindset of a project manager. However, it better to seek knowledge than to crave for mere certificates. I have seen lots of so-called PMP-certified individual who flunk on very critical projects, especially those where their organizations have invested lots of project capital and funds. Before you take the exam it is better to ask yourself whether your purpose is just to add another acronym behind your name or to improve yourself as a person involved in handling critical projects. Hence, your objective should be to excel at your role of being a custodian of scarce resource, rather than just cram up your brains with jargons since your ambition of reaching increased pay may hit the rocks.


According to PMI, in order to qualify to sit for this test, a candidate must have the following

"■A four-year degree (bachelor’s or the global equivalent) and at least three years of project management experience, with 4,500 hours leading and directing projects and 35 hours of project management education.

 OR

 ■A secondary diploma (high school or the global equivalent) with at least five years of project management experience, with 7,500 hours leading and directing projects and 35 hours of project management education."

 You can visit their website for more information on these. They have a handbook that details the exam eligibility requirements.


My main gist in this blog is not to talk about PMP exam eligibility requirements but to help those who wish to succeed at their first attempt of this important exam. To be candid, I did not make it at my first attempt. Why? You are about to find out.

At my first attempt, having prepared for about over 3 months and having seen my confidence level rise to the skies, I sat at the end of my CBT test to an appalling result – a FAIL! I was surprised just as many of you who must have put in lots of time studying Rita Mulcahy’s PMP Prep 6^th edition. In fact, I studied using a combination of PMBOK 4^th edition, Rita and the PM FASTrack v.6. After more than 3 months of intensive study I only got a FAIL, it was almost demoralizing but there are few of us there who understand that a FAIL on paper isn’t really a fail in LIFE! Praise God.

One good thing about the new PMP CBT exam is that you will get a feedback at the end of the exam across the five(5) domains of the PMI project management life-cycle or phases, namely, Initiation, Planning, Execution, Monitoring & Control, and Closing. A snapshot of my first attempt looked like you see below

1.      Initiating – Proficient

2.      Planning -  moderately proficient

3.      Executing – Moderately proficient

4.      Monitoring & Controlling – below proficient

5.      Closing – Proficient

And at the end, the computer computes and averages across the five domains and assigns a FAIL.
I believe many of us would have faced similar disheartening feedback and a few of us geniuses made it on the first attempt. Kudos to the whiz kids amongst us!
My objective for writing this blog is to help those of us who are a bit weak at exams-like-this preparations and I hope this insight would help us. If you find my tips helpful simply send me feedback.

My first attempt pushed me to find out why my result was bad. The feedback from the computer directed me to an important piece of document which I FAILED to look at while preparing for my PMP exam. What is this piece of information booklet about? You are about to find out...

Take a wild guess . I took my time to read thoroughly the feedback note from PMI on my result. You will most likely see it as the last sentence. It directed me to look into the “PMP Examination Content Outline” which many of us do not ever mention while discussing about the PMP exam! It takes more than reading or studying to be successful after FAILING. You need to diagnose yourself and be courageous to make another attempt. It isn’t easy you might say. Of course and who promised you that achieving some useful endeavour in life is that easy?

Through this important piece of document, I discovered that the effort you require to put in to pass the PMP exam should not be the same for all the domains. Hence, I needed to put in more study time in certain domains or project phases that the others! It doesn’t matter how much time you put in totally to study for this exam, to be successful you have to exert your energies in the right direction and right proportions. This is a key for being successful at the first attempt.

From the PMP Exam Content Outline, you will find out like me that just like a real project, the efforts which a project manager is expected to put in throughout the Project life-cycle takes the form of a BellCurve.

The snapshot below will show you in percentages the amount of preparation efforts which PMI expects you to exert at each domain area.

to be continued....