Summary of PMP exam preparation under the guidance of Anatolii Savin
In this summary, I will not go into researching the reasons for my choice to become a project management professional, I will leave that outside the realm of the known. And also I will not touch on the organizational arrangements for the exam itself, good thing there is PMP® Handbook and more reviews on the internet.
A little digression. In the spring of 2014 I learned about the existence of the entire Project Management Doctrine (PMI® PMBOK® Guide) of the American Institute of the same name. I was introduced to this “circle” of professionals by Evgeny Khryanin, who at that time had a PMP® degree.
From that moment on I started to collect information within the framework of process management theory, at the same time familiarizing myself with the reviews of those who had already passed this exam. As I immersed myself, I became convinced of the need to take the exam for this degree. The self-study phase lasted a long time – I read PMBOK® and the sixth edition of Rita Malkahi, with quizzes after each chapter of her book. But it was not enough – I could not reach a level higher than 60% (I set a goal for myself – at least 85% to guarantee success in the real exam). And at this point I started to consider options to improve the quality of my training by means of not unknown face-to-face group courses of one of the centers of preparation for such an exam.
Again a digression. Once upon a time, while comprehending the power of snowboarding, I tried both options of training – in a group of beginner snowboarders and individually, with a personal trainer. I’ll tell you right away, in the end, the second option wins on all counts.
And so it is with PMI – I started to explore the question of involving a personal trainer in my training. After studying several options, weighing all the pros and cons, I decided to seek help from a professional coach, Anatolii Savin, PMP®. The Internet told in detail about his rich experience of successful training of more than a dozen PMP® , so I did not think for a long time. By the way, the section of his resource with materials on the organization of project document management initially attracted my attention to Anatolii – PMDoc.ua. I should note that this is the only resource in Ukraine on the subject of project document management. And, since this topic was close to me, I began to study the templates and video instructions for filling them out with great pleasure. I can safely call it an additional source of knowledge for me, because the key project documents mentioned in PMBOK® in passing are covered in detail in this resource.
Anatolii accepted my proposal for cooperation and we quickly agreed on all the terms. From that moment on, I single out the four following months as formal training, as upon completion of which the relevant E class certificates were awarded with the required 35 “contact hours” credited.
In the first days Anatolii presented my training program, the calendar of which I, encouraged, printed out and hung on the wall behind the sofa. As I went through the program and earned “contact hours”, I had to adjust the program and the schedule twice, adding additional blocks on the theoretical part and on the practical part. Throughout the training course, I constantly generated questions, and Anatolii Savin meticulously and methodically chewed out the answers to them. This coordinated approach to working on my mistakes yielded positive results and helped me come prepared for the start of the final stage of training.
I spent the bulk of the testing in preparation at KnowledgeMap.pm where I could monitor my progress with the help of the “Knowledge Map“. It is very convenient, the Knowledge Map is corrected in real time, as tests are passed, and easily helps to identify weaknesses and gaps in knowledge.
At the final stage I was overly (as I can judge after the exam) insecure in my abilities, and decided to try other test options. The choice fell on the resource ampm.by author Alexey Minkevich where in the section of exams you can practice testing. The tests of both authors are not an exact copy of the official testing, but they are very close to it. In addition, they differ from each other, which allows you to use them in addition to each other.
In general, I approached the exam with a score of 82% on the resource KnowledgeMap.pm. Honestly speaking, it scared me and took away my confidence, as I realized that the exam would be lower and I might not get into the conditional 70%.
The last four days before the exam I didn’t touch neither tests nor theoretical materials. I forgot about everything and rested – I needed to “refresh” my head.
The exam itself was held in a very calm atmosphere and complete silence, there were few test takers, and those who passed, as I realized, even less. The result – I got 2 marks “Proficient” and 3 marks “Moderately Proficient”.
Summary. Preparing for the exam took a lot of time and effort, I had a hard time memorizing the tools and identifying processes. From the point of view of preparation my cooperation with Anatolii made a significant and decisive contribution, the constant and qualitative explanation of the information passed through me brought long-awaited results.
Regards to all.