I am Pradeep Pawar, working as a project management professional with an overall experience of 17+ years. I felt the need to learn a systematic approach to streamline large scale greenfield projects due to various complexities involved while its execution. One of my colleagues guided me to pursue PMP.
I enrolled for M/s Prothoughts for Feb 2021 weekdays online session. The trainer was Mr Saurabh Parikh. The timing was suitable after office hours. The sessions were interactive which were clearly explained with examples.
How long did you study for the PMP exam?
I studied for almost 5-6 months. Attended PMI.org study hall. Reading PMBOK, students manual and agile handbook were very informative and added to my knowledge of project management
What was the biggest struggle when preparing for the PMP exam?
Biggest struggle was managing time and staying focused on study. So, I joined Prothoughts which had a time bound online session which helped me complete PMP 35 PDU in 14 days.
How was the quality of PMP training materials?
Quality of the PMP study material was great. As Prothoughts was an authorized training partner, they provided access to pmi.lochoice.com which contained student manuals. Student manual is a handy document which is easy to understand. Also, access to mock test were provided on site of M/s ProThoughts
How much similar were the questions in the real PMP exam when you considered?
The review questions at the end of each lecture are great at reinforcing the concepts. The full PMP sample exam questions located at the end of the coursework were very much as difficult as the ones I faced when taking the actual exam.
How many sample PMP exam questions did you practice before the exam?
I practiced for almost 5 – 6 mock tests before going for the real exam. It helped to practice sitting for 4 hours for the examination. If you score around 70% in the mock tests, you are ready for the real PMP exam.
How was the support you received throughout the PMP training?
Prothoughts created a whatsapp group of students which kept on motivating for study and helped clear the doubts. Attended webinars on PMP. The question raised during session were well answered by the trainer Mr Saurabh Parikh
Recommendation for PMP success for future candidates?
After the course, initially I was focused on all lectures from the trainer. However, after a few days the time was slipping, and I was losing grip on study. This delay was increasing the stress of the exam.
Later, I determined to myself that I need to take it as a project, set a schedule, determine study and review milestones and don’t expect to learn all at the end. I booked my exam date for Dec 2022 for the center.
Set your own pace and maintain a daily routine to study for 1- 2 hours.
On the days of the exam, reach ½ hour before the time. Do deep breathing to calm down. Exam center has a good environment where you are provided with a locker to keep your belongings. Break in between the exams is a must for refreshing and having small snacks.
I am glad that I passed PMP with the above target in all domains and did have 15 min to review my answers at the end.
I would recommend all managers to have PMP certification which adds a feather to your cap. Best of Luck !!
