Hey, I am Ravi Chopade, a Senior Research Analyst at Nielsen with a total experience of 4 years, and would like to share my journey to the PMP Certification Training. So, it begins with my participation in the training sessions dated 15, 16, 22, and 23 July 2017 conducted in Mumbai by ProThoughts. I want to thank them for providing superb training on PMP. I genuinely enjoyed the group activities and a quick quiz which made the content understandable. Furthermore, I have attended several pieces of training before but I can’t recall any of them having such a strong impact. The discussions were truly inspiring.
Why Did I Opt For PMP Certification?
Trust me; I decided to join on 14 July, a day before the actual class date. I am a firm believer in the fact that we can make our daily project processes convenient, efficient, and effective by adopting the correct processes. In my current job profile, I played different roles at different stages of a project and had a perspective of an end-to-end project life cycle.
My objective in joining PMP certification was to gain a holistic approach as a Project Manager and get equipped with the required tools and techniques for successful project completion. I would like to build my career in Research / Project Management / Consulting and PMP certification will help me to fast-track it.
How Did I Plan For The PMP Exam?
I executed the whole exercise as a project of the “Crack PMP Exam” with a “Start Date” of 15th July and an “End Date” of 4th Sept. I did finish the first reading of all Knowledge Areas from the Rita Mulcahy Coursebook within 2 weeks after the classroom sessions. After that, I applied for the PMP exam as per the guidelines provided by ProThouhts.
My application was approved in five days. Meanwhile, I finished the second round of reading the Rita Mulcahy Coursebook within the next 10 days. So for the first 25 days, I studied 3 hours per day on working days and 8 hours during weekends. I immediately secured a slot for the PMP Exam on September 4th before taking any Mock Exams because I felt confident in my thorough preparation. I went on leave for two weeks before the exam and took 4 mock exams. I’ll summarize as follows:
Observations:
1. Preparation
I organized my study efforts with September 4th as the exam date in mind. I choose to just follow the guidelines provided by Ashish Sir, ProThought, and Rita Mulcahy’s book. (There are a variety of movies and study preparation resources available online. According to me, they are quite confusing and will make you believe that the PMP test is difficult! Better to avoid!
2. Study Material
The only study material that I referred to was the Rita Mulcahy book and booklets provided by ProThoughts. I did solve each exercise in the RMC book which helped me to grab knowledge quickly. I sincerely appeared for all Mocks and put efforts in their analysis which helped a lot to set the logical flow of the mind.
3. Study Pattern
On working days, I used to finish half a chapter per day, and on weekends, I attempted to finish three chapters. After studying each knowledge area, I used to prepare a mind map to recollect what I studied in the chapter.
I avoided solving questions immediately after reading the chapter. Instead, I used to solve questions the next day to understand how much I could retain. After each mock test, I emphasized the pain areas and put additional effort into filling the gaps in knowledge. For example, one of the observations was that I was scoring low in Monitor & Control and Closing. The simple reason is that these two processes appear at the end of a chapter in the book and by that time we lose focus.
While solving the questions, I used to think like a Project Manager working on a large project with many stakeholders from different countries. If we compare it to our day-to-day jobs, there is a higher chance that we will go wrong. First, two readings took considerable time and made me feel nervous at times. I slowly picked up confidence from Mock Exams and working on weak links. Studying immediately after the 4 days of classroom training helped me to maintain flow and pace.
4. Peer Learning
During preparation days I was closely associated with Pooja Sindwani, my batch mate from ProThoughts. We used to discuss study methodologies and how to improve them. I was lucky to get guidance from Sanket Gaikwad who recently cracked PMP. Discussions with both of them were always a valuable addition to my knowledge and their perspectives were refreshing.
5. PMP Exam
Around 150 questions were situation-based testing on how you can apply learning in real-time scenarios. The remaining 30-35 questions were direct questions testing knowledge about tools and techniques and 10-15 numerical.
Heartfelt Thank You To ProThoughts
I would like to thank the ProThoughts Team and especially Mr. Ashish Sadekar sir without whom I couldn’t have thought of cracking a tough exam of PMP in a limited time. All the Best to all PMP aspirants!
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