PMP Exam Lessons Learned by Frankie Chan from Hong Kong

Below is the PMP Exam lesson learned from a recent PMP, Frankie Chan who is a Hongkonger just like me.

This is Frankie from Hong Kong, who dropped a message on your website on 16 Jan 2018. It would be my pleasure to share my PMP exam lesson learnt with you and this is absolutely important that it is a component of the closing process group in project management!

Here are some personal tips that may help aspirants overcome the PMP exam!

Article Highlights

• 1 1. Don’t always treat it as an exam but your own interest!
• 2 2. Use of various reference materials
• 3 3. Intensive training is a must !

1. Don’t always treat it as an exam but your own interest!

The reason of earning the PMP certificate is not only for career advancement but also for my own interest. I really enjoy the study journey, despite the tough mock exam practice sometimes. To handle the situational questions, you always get the feeling you have dealt with it in the past. The reference books / exam questions pose you an opportunity to review your management sense and ability. This challenge really makes me feel excited.

2. Use of various reference materials

With the use of Head First PMP, PMBOK® Guide and Rita PMP Exam Prep, I gradually understand the whole concept of project management from a more interesting way, to a more conceptual level and then finally exam-oriented stage. When I did not understand some concepts when doing practice questions, I searched materials in these reference books and on the Internet also (Edward’s website did help me clarify lots of concepts!). This spent me 4-5 months reading these reference materials, around 1-2 hours per day.

3. Intensive training is a must !

As this is an exam, doing numerous practice questions is inevitable. Before the final exam date, I spent around 2-2.5 months intensively doing mock exams, exercises, etc., around 2-3 hours per day. The free mock exams online, the practice questions in the reference books mentioned above and PM FASTrack were very useful. By a rough estimate, I completed around 3000 questions as total (in average 70-75% correct). An extremely vital action is to verify all the questions, no matter you answer it correctly or incorrectly. Understanding the concepts and rationales behind would definitely help you pass the exam, not just by luck.

To conclude, the level of your own interest, your understanding in PM concepts and the amount of efforts you have paid can determine your final result in PMP exam. I hope this can help aspirants prepare the exam efficiently and effectively !

Thanks Frankie for sharing his PMP lessons learned! I especially agree that it is useful not to treat the exam prep as an exam prep but your own interest to understand more about project management!

Wish you PMP success!