Ever since I published my blog How I got my PMP cert in Singapore – A Complete Guide From Registering, Learning to Passing the Exam I’ve received numerous comments, questions and feedback. There was emails, blog post comments, and even LinkedIn adds (not recommended 🙂 ) First of all, I’d like to thank all the readers for your overwhelming responses! Many of the readers also told me Jeffery, my PMP instructor, shared my experience and my blog on his classes. Thank you Jeffery and I hope it can help more people pass PMP. I’d like to take this chance to write a blog specifically to answer some of the most frequently asked questions, so that it can help more people to clear your doubts.
Exam related questions
Q: Where could I go take REAL mock exam before the actual test if I am studying myself?
I took classes couple years ago in US but never took PMP exam. I currently moved to SG and planning to take the exam here. Could you please advise? Thanks for all the tips. It’s very helpful. (–Nora)
Answer: I don’t think Real mockup exam is available anywhere… the exams and the questions are always changing. So the best thing to do is still to really grasp the true essence of PMP concepts.
Here I still highly recommend the book: Head First PMP, this is the single most important book that helped me pass my example. While not sure about the others, it DID HELP me A LOT since I’m a very visual person, and this book not only illustrated all the complicated processes in graphics, but also it explained all the concepts in a simple and easy-to-understand way.
Q: During the first 15 mins tutorial, are you allow to do brain dump? That means scribble down all the formula on the piece of paper? (–Johnny Wong)
Answer: Yes I did and I encourage everyone to do so, it’s a must. Especially the things and concepts that you know you’re weaker at, just go in and write them down as soon as you can.
When I took the exam there was enough time to do a brain dump. What came as a surprise to me is that, it’s not an entire 15-mins that you can just let the on-screen tutorial run by itself — you still have to click the screen tutorial from time to time. And then I realised some of the tutorials are actually helpful. For example, you can rule out some answers by clicking your mouse plus a certain key on the keyboard (forgot which one), so on the screen it will display as the answer has been stricken out.
I’m ok with multitasking so I did the brain dump just fine while paid 10% of my attention on the on-screen tutorial.
Q: I just wanted to check how did you verify that you were eligible for the exam before registering with the course?
Answer: You can’t verify for sure. But you understand the criteria is as below:
- For degree holders and above – you have to list down at least 4500 hours of project hours (which spans across 3 years) and your roles/responsibilities in the projects – which ideally have to be leading the project work
- For diploma holders – you have to list down at least 7500 hours (for 5 years) and your roles and responsibilities
So you can self-verify first, and then go for the course. More information can be found at my original article under PMP Eligibility section.
Q: I’m an aspiring PMP as well, eligible for the exam, but due to tight work schedule I am having difficulty studying. Hope you can share your study plan e.g. did you read PMBOK, Rita, Head First 3 times? memorized Rita process? (–Raymond)
Answer:
Regarding the 3 books, here are the number of times that I read each of the books.
PMBOK, 0
RITA, 1
Head First, 1
I feel PMP head first is the most important book. Then you can understand RITA process better.
And yes, I tried to remember RITA process as well, I think it’s the most important part of the RITA book 🙂 RITA process game is a great way of learning and remembering. It’s not enough for you just to remember which item belongs to which of the five headings, but also which comes before/after which. There WILL BE exam questions relating to these concepts!
Overall, I think it’s much more to just memorising things, you have to truly understand the concept and why, how, when…
Good luck!!
Course related questions
Q: Hi Libai, I am going to take Next U PMP course and happened to read your blog. It was really impressive and I am inspired by you: not only this but also your other expertise. (This is not a part of the question, I put here because I enjoyed the feedback and compliments :P)
I am not sure if they still provide PMBOK any more as it is not indicated on their website. But the instructor will be the same as yours. Really looking forward to attending his class after reading your sharing (–Zhou Jihui)
Answer: Don’t worry about the PMBOK, I didn’t really read it at all! 🙂 Just read head first PMP will do, because it’s really the easiest and most visual way of learning the concept of PMP, and then you realised you somehow managed to understand and fully grasp all the processes and concepts. Enjoy your training!
Hi Libai, greetings from Jihui again. Hope everything is going well on your side. Happened to read this blog post 🙂 Would like to share with you that I passed my PMP in March. RITA and Head first PMP were really good materials for the exam.
Jeffery is an excellent instructor and I really enjoyed his humor, of course, as well as his teaching.
Congrats Jihui! 🙂 Thanks for sharing your experience.