Foghi Batarhe shares his exam success story.

Hello Obalim,

I made a promise to post this once I was done with the PMP exam-hopefully it’ll inspire someone out there who’s been putting it off. I completed the PMP training in September and sat for the exam on October 11.

A little bit about the PMP exam: It tests your knowledge at expert level so it’s easier if you already have real life experience on projects, especially in a structured project environment. Which is why one of the prerequisites is 3500 hours of experience if you have a 4 year degree minimum. PMI also expects you to have received some form of project management training. 35 hours is the minimum requirement. Good thing about this is it doesn’t matter when you got this training, it all counts.

Now in my case I’d spent a long time working in a structured project environment so I wasn’t really starting from ground zero. But even if your experience is different, with sufficient study time, you will be able to pass it.

How many hours of study would you require? Many people would say 2–3 months, but for me I actively studied for 19 days. Which is just under 3 weeks. In the first week I studied for 8 hours a day, 4 hours a day in the second and 2 hours a day in the third and final week. I also made it a point not to study the day before the exam to give my brain sufficient time to process the information.

Recommended study materials and training: Personally I studied using PMP Exam Prep 9th edition by Rita Mulcahy(based on PMBOK 6). This is the current edition and it comes highly recommended. But you can also use any other material you feel will work for you. I’d also recommend reading the PMBOK 6 which is the current edition at least once( although I didn’t). I read Rita’s book 3 times over that 19 day period. First time more thoroughly and then skimmed it twice for good effect. I’d also recommend you attempt all of the practice exam questions at the end of each chapter-knowledge area. One more thing I did was to attempt a lot of PMP exam questions on the internet using some free PMP exam simulators. There’re several free ones if you look. Some people would also recommend you go for the paid ones. I didn’t do so. But overall, attempt as many practice questions as possible. I attempted over 900 practice questions with an average score of 82%. Now for preferred training for the 35 contact hours, there’re many of them online. However I’ll totally recommend Ciel Consulting if you’re in Nigeria. They have training centres in a couple of places in and out of Lagos. I found their delivery very good and the learning environment conducive. Oh, it didn’t burn a hole in my pocket either and as part of what you’re getting for the course, you receive the latest version of Rita Mulcahy’s book, Primavera software and the Microsoft project software as well. So I’ll recommend Ciel Consulting. I’d also recommend after the training for you to attempt the exam as soon as possible, while the training is still fresh in your memory.

Exam day and the exam proper: To be perfectly honest the exam is gruelling. 270 minutes in front of the computer attempting 200 questions takes a lot out of you. But once you get into it, time goes by quickly. One tip to getting the right answer(cos for most of the questions, all 4 options will look correct) is to ask yourself, “what’s the next thing to do”? That will help you identify the right answer. So for example, you will try to resolve an issue first, failing which you can escalate to your project sponsor. You might find an option that says escalate. That’s correct but is that the best thing to do first? I’d also advice you spend the entire 270 minutes, don’t be in a hurry to leave. Personally I finished with 90 minutes to spare, I then spent the 90 minutes going over some of the questions( about 35) I hadn’t been certain of. That helped greatly. I would also advice as soon as you get on your seat to write down the formulas and a few important things on the writing pad cos you wouldn’t want to be ‘cracking’ your head trying to remember them in the heat of the exam. Again that helped me greatly.

Will I find some of the practice questions in the exam proper? Personally I didn’t find any one from the 900 odd practice questions I attempted before the exam, however you need to understand the logic. Once you understand the material, you’d see they’re really testing your understanding and you’ll be able to answer most of the questions correctly. This also brings me to the question of cramming or memorisation. It works for some people, but in my case I didn’t. I simply understood the material so it was easy to interpret and respond appropriately. So if cramming works for you well good. But know for the most

part, the exam won’t ask for definitions or straight forward questions, it will test your expert understanding, decision making skills. The only thing you’re allowed to memorise is the planning order. Additionally you might not get a lot of calculations, I don’t remember finding up to 7 questions requiring me to calculate.

Finally, if I could do it at the first attempt, you can as well. Give Ciel Consulting a call today to get you started on your journey.

Regards,

Foghi Batarhe PMP #2647163