How to Prepare for PMP® Certification?

A lot of students ask themselves how they can prepare for the PMP^® exam with a guarantee that they will pass it.

Well, when they ask me I always say that
  - to comprehend the steps of this process, and how each step leads to the next,
  - be patient,
  - preserve your calm,
  - and keep reading this short article.😄

So, always remember to complete one step before beginning the next to avoid feeling overwhelmed. It will take daily commitment to study and comprehend the information to prepare for the PMP^® exam.

A crucial point to keep in mind is that earning the PMP^® certification reflects your dedication to the field of project management, establishes your reputation, and elevates your resume beyond those of non-PMP^® certified individuals. Therefore, don't give up during this procedure.

Don't panic now that you have confirmed your eligibility to take the exam. Unwind, take a deep breath, and start to concentrate. The first crucial point is to avoid getting overwhelmed because there is a LOT of material to comprehend and a variety of training options.

How long should I prepare for the PMP^® Exam?

You must consider time as the most important factor while creating your study strategy. How long do you have to finish your planning? How long a day can you dedicate to studying for the test? Do you prefer studying in the evenings or the mornings before you leave for work? By providing answers to these related questions, you can determine what functions for you.

There is no set duration to prepare for the PMP^® certification. However, the majority of PMP^®s advise at least 2-3 months of preparation time. You can however follow these strategies to prepare for the PMP^® exam:

1. Develop a plan

Create a study plan that fits your schedule and put it in writing. What exactly is a study plan? You will follow this clearly defined statement of work to learn the PMI^® way of doing things. Treat this like a project since you are a project manager! For that, you should also know who needs PMP^® certification?

Consider your study plan as a road map to ensure that you don't get lost or overwhelmed during your preparation. You must establish your objectives and make a plan for how to get there before you start studying for your certification exam.

2. PMP^® Exam practice questions

Practice questions are the most important thing to prepare for PMP^®. Since there are no interruptions during the 230 minutes PMP^® exam, you must develop the habit of responding to questions consecutively with the same degree of concentration. Therefore, it is crucial that you practice as many mock questions as you can while getting ready. In order to prepare, I solved all of the questions at the end of each chapter after reading it. That greatly boosted my confidence. You can use the same approach with whatever textbook you are using for preparation.

But it's crucial to make a sensible choice when it comes to choosing your source for practice questions. Don't use questions from random Facebook or LinkedIn groups as practice because:

1. They are unreliable and do not accurately reflect PMP^®-style questions
2. The explanations are inadequate and will weaken your conceptual foundation.

I advise you to practice the 200 real questions from the previous PMP^® exams that are included in the EduHubSpot question bank. In terms of their style and degree of difficulty, these questions REALLY reflect the kind of questions you might anticipate on the final test. To find out how to access them, view this YouTube video. These questions are a must-do.

3. Exam simulators and mock exams for the PMP^®

Before taking the actual exam, it is crucial that you get into the habit of writing full-length practice exams (at least three to four in a period of 12 weeks of preparation). The source of the mocks is crucial again in this situation. Choose a few well-reviewed mocks from well-known platforms.

Use the outcomes of the practice test instead of treating them as an indication of the probability of your final exam grades for:

• Identifying your areas of weakness and addressing them
• Establishing the practice of sitting for 4 hours straight and answering 200 difficult questions at once

Keep in mind that analyzing a mock after writing it is more crucial than being anxious or complacent about the grade. One key piece of advice is to always keep an error log to record your errors when analyzing mocks. Review them from time to time. Avoid making the same errors repeatedly.

4. Prioritization

The PMP^® test has a massive syllabus. As a result, it is easy to get frustrated and lost in the process of preparation. The trick is to prioritize the topics. You must now thoroughly understand the exam format in order to prioritize. If you look at the test format, you'll notice that the Planning, Execution, and Monitoring & Controlling process groups account for the majority of the questions. So prepare accordingly by prioritizing these topics.

5. Getting a mentor to help you prepare for the PMP^®

Having a mentor can significantly shorten your learning curve and assist you in setting priorities when you are preparing for the PMP^® exam. Of course, sometimes it can be really challenging to contact this individual (I guess he has a fairly busy life!) However, it could be a game-changer even if you only communicate with him/her once every two weeks to update them on your progress and get their input on your opportunity areas. I consider experience learning to be the best type of learning, hence I fervently urge every PMP^® candidate to make an effort to find a mentor. You can attend EduHubSpot’s mentorship program to get an idea of what a mentor can do to help you in your preparation strategy.

6. Strategies for memorizing and understanding

Just learning everything by heart won't be sufficient. Make an attempt to thoroughly comprehend things and study them with attention and concentration. This is crucial since the PMP^®® exam questions will gauge how successfully you can put these principles, ideas, and concepts into practice. Many questions describe a problem in terms of its context. They purposely offer irrelevant information while also providing you with sufficient information to get the best conclusion.

Although you can spend as much time studying as you like, it's a good idea to break it up into manageable portions to help you recall the knowledge. Take a break after finishing a chapter of the PMBOK^® Guide before reviewing it. With each read, your comprehension will improve because you'll already be ingesting the ideas. You comprehend all the knowledge areas, methods, ideas, and formulae needed in becoming a PMP^®, make sure to consult the most recent edition of the PMBOK^® Guide made available by PMI^®.

7. Formulas to learn for the PMP^® exam

Formula-based problems that require more than just calculating a value can be found in the PMP^® test. You will need to be familiar with roughly 50 PMP^® formulas, ranging from straightforward averages to more intricate probabilities and depreciations. To get the proper result, you must ensure that your calculations and formulas are accurate.

In order to be able to go back to formulas, charts, and other information throughout the PMP^® exam, you should use some of your time and write on paper the formulas (or the digital whiteboard if you are taking the exam online) at the beginning of the exam.

I advise taking a PMP^® memorization quiz sheet to gauge your speed at recalling information from memory. You can then concentrate on using your knowledge to decipher and respond to questions for the rest of the exam.

8. Process your anxiety

Exam anxiety is a typical aspect of taking an exam. Before the exam and on test day, all students will experience some level of anxiety. The important thing is to avoid becoming overwhelmed. To calm your anxiety both before and during the exam, concentrate on fully comprehending the material while you study.

Even if you took the effort to replicate the scenario for your mock exams, keep in mind that exam day can differ slightly from those examinations. The majority of us find it difficult to function effectively under pressure, and even the tiniest things can cause us anxiety, like finding the restroom farther than anticipated or having an overly strict exam proctor watching over your online performance.

Prepare properly, practice answering questions and sitting through the exam, and schedule your time to be as productive as possible in order to reduce exam stress. The most essential thing is to constantly remind oneself to be confident no matter what occurs throughout the exam. There will be circumstances that are beyond your control, and the test contains both simple and complex problems. Do not get stressed by a few challenging questions!

Conclusion

The PMP^® test is challenging, and passing it will take a lot of hard work. You can now begin preparing for the PMP^® exam in accordance with the guide and the access to the PMP^® boot camps you have now. Use the assistance of your instructors and others who have passed the exam to comprehend the crucial subject areas that you must master to succeed.