1. What Is PMP Certification
PMP is Project Management Professional Certification released by PMI. It is divided into five process groups and ten major knowledge domains. The exam lasts four hours.
2. Sign up for the Exam
After training, I did not register PMP exam immediately. Instead, it was listed as something that was not urgent. I decided to start study after I made a plan. In 2019, I jumped to a new company belonging to a state-owned enterprise. The regulations and procedures of the company are very formal. There is a PMO office where project group members ask about progress and risk regularly, particularly when versions are upgraded every quarter. Before the upgrade, there are corresponding procedures that need to be gone through. Only when approval is given, can implementation be carried out. My daily life is to work in the project group. The words I most frequently hear from our department head is “We should make plans to do things. During the process, we should control the progress and assess the risk ahead of time, thus making a corresponding emergency plan.” At that time, I have realized that systematically learning project management is urgent I regretted that I had not learned the knowledge structure of project management and acquired PMP certification in 2017. Therefore, at the end of June last year, I did not hesitate to sign up for the exam.
3. Diligent Learning
The second day after registration, I got the textbook PMNOK. My teacher said we should at least read one time this book before classes begin.
We should do the chapter exercises after each class, listen to ITTO and join in online review courses. We should also do regular reviews ourselves. The more you learn, the more information covered you will discover. Once distracted, you are easy to lag behind.
As time went by, we should do more exercise. SPOTO would assign five sets of PMP sample questions plus two sets of mock exam questions. We were required to finish a set of sample questions within three hours. At the very beginning, we felt that it was hard to control time. We always spent 3.5-4 hours and the correction rate was not ideal. As we did more exercises accompanied with the explanation of teachers, however, we have a good understanding of PMP tools, techniques, knowledge points, and the holistic structure. At the later stage, as soon as we saw some keywords, we could be reminded of the rules of PMP test questions. (Note: When you are reviewing or doing exercises, do remember to allocate your time properly. Besides, you can arrange your mistakes according to five process groups.)
4. Get 5A Result
I was so happy to receive the email from PMI, telling me that I have passed the exam and got a 5A (Above target) result.
If you ask me why learning PMP, I cannot give you a definite answer since everyone has different understandings. No matter what you are aiming for, continuous efforts can increase the possibility of success. Every return needs accumulation.
