Sharing on the PMP exam process

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On February 20th, I received a notification from PMI confirming that I had passed the PMP exam held on December 27, 2008. Although my score was average – 3P2M1B – I was still very happy. Having seen many classmates from the PMP course share their experiences with the exam, I have also written a brief account to share with everyone. 1. Purpose of the exam: The PMP can be considered a type of professional certification exam, and its purpose is quite simple – to help individuals advance in their careers. After several years of experience in managing construction projects abroad, I am now working for an engineering company in the United States. For me personally, the PMP certification is indeed very necessary; it also helps me to organize my past work experience. 2. Registration with a training institution: After deciding to take the PMP exam, I searched for several training companies online, got in touch with a few of them, and ultimately chose Xinxuan. Let’s relive what happened at that time. In August 2008, I first called Company W, which was said to be quite authoritative. After waiting for 5 minutes, I got the reply, “Our training cost is 5,000 yuan; there is one spot left for the class in December. If you want to sign up, come to our company right away.” (Heh, it was still August at that time – such deceptive marketing tactics were quite common in Shanghai back then.) I hung up the phone immediately. Then there was company Q, a large corporation. After the call was passed around N times, I finally spoke to a woman who was in charge of the PMP exam. But she didn’t mention the price of the training, nor the content of it, nor the pass rate from previous sessions – in short, she didn’t say anything at all. She just asked for my phone number and email address, then sent me an email asking me to fill out a registration form (which I immediately threw into my junk folder, losing all interest). As for the many people from company Q who called in November and December to “gently inquire” whether I was interested in their training, that’s another story; presumably they had changed their marketing team by then. Xin Xuan provided the most detailed answers to my questions, and was very honest – they told me what the pass rate for the exam in × year × month would be. Unlike some agencies that claim a 90% pass rate right from the start, Xin Xuan also urged me to register as soon as possible and start studying early. FRANCES also invited me to attend one of their free lectures (though I didn’t go), and then I signed up at Xinxuan. 3. Reading before the training: I read it once in Chinese and once in English. Since I have been working on international projects since graduating, English is the language used in my work; as a result, I am not familiar with many of the project management terms in Chinese. The PMBOK version in Chinese seemed like unreadable gibberish to me. It was only by referring to the English PDF version that I was able to understand some of it. Overall, 20% understand it, 30% are unsure, and 50% don’t understand it at all and are waiting for training. 4. Training process: In fact, many people have written a lot about the training process, so I will just mention it briefly. On the one hand, through Old Xu’s explanations, I began to understand the 30% of content that was ambiguous; I also grasped most of the 50% that was clear. On the other hand, since many aspects of the work carried out by American engineering companies align with the requirements outlined in PMBOK – such as COST, SCHEDULE, PROCUREMENT, etc., which I am familiar with – it was easier for me to understand these concepts. Concepts like SCOPE and RISK, which are rather abstract in nature, require more time to understand. It is recommended that future candidates, after the teacher has finished teaching these chapters, go back and review them by themselves 3-5 times. Of course, ETHICS&COMPLIANCE being the only subject I got a B on in the exams remains a source of pain for me to this day; I suggest that Mr. Xu spend more time covering this topic in future training sessions. Lao Xu’s explanations are indeed excellent; one seems to understand them in class, but still makes mistakes when doing exercises. This is because such understanding isn’t true absorption. Only through training, understanding, repetition, and transformation into personal knowledge can it become truly valuable. 5. Mock exams: It was fine; I met the requirements in all three mock exams. Xin Xuan’s exam questions were quite targeted. It is recommended that everyone go over the exam questions carefully after taking the test, examine each option in detail, and refer to the PMBOK from time to time to find the relevant knowledge points. Doing this is much more effective than simply reading the PMBOK again; it yields twice the result with half the effort. 6. Review before the exam: Make use of your time to go over the 5 practice tests plus all of Old Jin’s questions. Use the same review method – make sure you know which knowledge point each question is testing, as well as which knowledge points the other confusing options relate to. Also, check how that knowledge point is described in the PMBOK. Another thing that needs to be done is to identify patterns on your own and memorize the 44 process groups in an efficient way; don’t try to memorize them by force. Often, the elimination method can be used – for example,××× appears in N planning process groups, but not in one particular one. One should also read and think about why it appears in this process group rather than that one. It would be even better if one could use examples from actual work to help with memorization. 7. Exams: The examination venue is located across from East China University of Science and Technology. It is recommended that everyone get off at Jinjiang Amusement Park rather than at the South Station, as the Jinjiang Amusement Park station is smaller; there aren’t as many exits there as at the South Station, making it difficult to know which exit to use. It’s also much easier to take a taxi or motorcycle ride from Jinjiang Amusement Park, while there are many people waiting at the South Station. During the exam, those who are good at English can just read the questions in English; those who are not, should also look at the English version when encountering ambiguous questions. In many cases, reading the English text makes it clear which is the correct answer, as Chinese translations are often ambiguous themselves. Don’t rush; I finished it at 11:30. I spent a lot of time checking, but for the questions I wasn’t sure about, I trusted my first instinct and didn’t change my answers. I wish more people would take the PMP exam, so that more of them can improve their knowledge of project management through it. Author: Lin Xi, PMP, student of Shanghai Xinxuan Class 0812, who successfully passed the PMP exam on December 27, 2008; member of the Project Manager Salon