Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

I  obtain the PMI’s Project Management Professional certification.

It seemed that every request for proposal that we received from the government wanted the same thing: a certified project manager.  It didn’t matter that a person, like me, had years of experience, three degrees, and had written several books on project management (like these). No, they asked for a certification. Many specifically called for the PMP (the Project Management Professional certification from the Project Management Institute).

I first encountered the PMI and PMP while working in Lagos, Nigeria (West Africa) in 1995. I followed its development and growing popularity over the years. Several times in the past ten years I have grabbed a PMI book and started reading with the idea of maybe going for the certification. I stopped reading after a couple of weeks. I just didn’t want to do the memorization required.

That has been the catch with the PMP for me – the memorization. I never learned anything about project management with the PMP. I did memorize the PMP definitions. Different groups of people define “budget” and “risk” differently. When going for the PMP, you memorize the PMP definitions and hope that you forget all the all definitions.

Requirements

The PMI has a few requirements to meet their certification. The first is experience. No problem there as I had a couple of decades of managing projects that I could cite.

The second is passing the PMP exam. That was the problem. I didn’t know the PMI’s definitions. Hence, the next step,

Preparation

I went to the Internet to learn how other people had prepared for the PMP. I found pretty good advice, so I followed it. This comprised two tasks: reading and taking practice tests.

The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK)

I went to the local Barnes and Noble and bought the PMBOK, the Project Management Body of Knowledge. I read it through one time highlighting what I thought were key terms and sentences. I will not kid you, it was boring. The PMBOK doesn’t have any questions in it, so there was no practice testing.

I went to examcentral.net. They provide free exam questions. I did a 20-question test every day (the study period lasted two months). I was able to score in the 70s every time. Whenever I hit a question that made absolutely no sense, I took notes.

My Second Book to Study

I went back to the local Barnes and Noble and bought a book that was written for test prep and exam questions. I found this one by Andy Crowe. I read it and highlighted key terms.

I read Crowe’s book a second time, highlighting more text, and then taking the 20-question exams at the end of each chapter. I scored in the 80s on those tests.

I continued every day to take a 20-question test from exam central dot net.

I went back to the PMBOK and read it a second time.

This all took about 60 days. I studied about an hour a day. No more than that. An hour a day was all I could take. This is boring folks.

Memorization

I memorized a lot. I didn’t like that, but I did it.

There is one table in the PMBOK that must be memorized. Across the top are five Process Groups. Down the side are nine Knowledge Areas. Inside the table are 42 processes. Every day I wrote that table from memory.

Each of the 42 processes has (1) inputs, (2) tools and techniques, and (3) outputs. I memorized the outputs of the processes. I was too lazy to memorize the other things.

Practice Tests

I took my PMP exam on a Saturday. Two Saturdays before, I took a 200-question practice test. One Saturday before, I took a 200-question practice test. You have four hours to complete the 200 questions. I finished each test in two hours. I scored 78% on the first practice and 88% on the second practice.

A 200-question test is no fun. The practice sessions were essential. I learned to notice when I started daydreaming and when I became tired. At those times I stood and walked around.

I took a 20-question short practice test every day. In all, I think I did 1,500 practice questions. I highly recommend that.

The Exam

Oh boy, that was an experience.

I went to a local “testing center.” This is a place where a company administers all sorts of tests. There were a bunch of 10-year-olds going through taking some kind of test from Johns Hopkins or something. I don’t get it.

Anyways, we were given a locker to put everything. I could not take my pencil, my watch, my bottle of water, my peppermint candy into the test area. I had a cold and was taking medicine and sucking candy to keep from coughing.

“No problem,” the nice lady told me. “You can come out here as often as you want for a drink of water.”

Great, come out every half hour and gulp water.

I have to admit that I may have “cheated” on the exam. At break, I would put two or three peppermints in my mouth, walk into the test room, keep one in my mouth and put the others on the desk. That way I wouldn’t have to go out as often.

The test room contained a bunch of cubicles with computers. The test is on a computer and is multiple choice. It is boring. I mean it is really boring.

Oh, get a good night’s sleep, eat a good breakfast, and all that. Sometimes life gets in the way. I slept four hours the night before the test and sat in meetings all morning before the test. The meetings had nothing to do with the test material. I also ran an errand on the way to the test center, so lunch comprised two cold hot dogs from a gas station.

I Pass

I went slowly on the exam. I took three hours instead of the two I needed for the practice exams. I don’t know what my score on the exam was. They don’t tell you that. All I know is that I passed and am now a PMP.

…and I don’t have to memorize any more definitions.

What did I Learn?

I guess my brain is not dead yet as I can still memorize a lot of stuff. And I can sit in a test center for three dehydrating hours and pass a test.

One Final Tip

The Book that Helped Me Memorize Everything

Something that helped me memorize all this stuff was a book I bought years ago. This book contains lots of memory techniques. I used many of them during study and during the test.

I highly recommend it, even if you aren’t cramming for a test.

Tony Buzan wrote it years ago.