Shyam Krishnan, a mechanical engineer and senior project engineer, shares how he passed the PMP exam. He discusses his study approach, time management strategies, and the exam format to help other candidates prepare.
Foreign.
I'm a mechanical engineer by profession so I'm in Vadodara, Gujarat for the past seven years. I work in a company called Nellis India Private limited so we are into manufacturing of valves. I work as a senior project engineer. So I basically do have this project management understanding maybe vocabulary and terms and all means I haven't used before but processes and understanding is there actually means in the way of working the predictive style. So that's about me and I enrolled for this course as you mentioned on January 2021. I know like I knew this on January 9th I had my first class and we completed session for that batch on 21st of February. Okay so it took like more than a month and we completed it on February 21st. So after 21st I took two months time basically March and April and I felt by the end of April I should go for the exam. It was there inside me like I contacted you by end of April. So how should I proceed? I completed all the test in ISE leaves and you guided me to go for some extra agile questions since my background is different so you asked me to go for that and gold pack of this mock exams means four packs. So after my first mock you told me like you are ready for the exam and you can schedule your exam.
So okay.
I luckily got this date 10th of May. Yeah, that's how it happened and successfully I completed.
Very good, very good.
How was the exams tell us little.
About exam scenario based or a situational based questions like I don't think even I studied all the material for another two, three months it would have helped There is a limit for reading and memorizing I believe so and basically the understanding of the concepts that that will help us to clear the exam. I am not saying like we should not read or memorize which it's a basic part of that starting procedure means I have gone through all the materials you have provided from Info Career and all the other books provided. So I read that maybe twice I gone through that. I didn't do the memorizing of any of the processes or anything like that just I used to read many books so I read like a book and I got that understanding actually and the exam, exam is mainly based on situational and scenario based. It was. It was tricky actually means even though I could able to eliminate two choices but out of the other two I was not sure actually on many, many questions. So it was. It was very tricky but somehow I gone with intuition and got cleared the.
Exam actually now that's a practice okay. So the practice what you are done. So that that would have been helpful even though you feel that randomly selected. But the the way you practice it that would have been given you edge.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I just. I just got my scorecard.
Very good.
I'm just reviewing my scorecard and I got a boat or get in all three.
Yeah. That's not your preparation.
Okay.
Yes.
Yeah. Now always it look like a surprise. Okay. So all the people will when they see above target they get thrilled.
Okay.
So that's what the kind of a brain preparation you are done. See if you are not ready that mock exams you will not get 60 plus that is the key. And then you that mock exams will tell will make you to sit for four hours. And that itself is a breakthrough. Okay, people miss that. Sitting for four hours and taking is a breakthrough. So that is where people miss that.
Very good.
As you mentioned, the timing part means it was a high completed my exam with 30 seconds left actually.
Very good.
It's very close. Actually means I for the first part of 60 question I took like 80 minutes. And so I feed in the second part and I could able to complete the third part also well within time. And I was having like. I spent like six, seven minutes reviewing my questions actually which I have marked flag.
Okay.
So which that's. That helped actually means time management actually helped me and I could able to complete the exam actually on time.
Very good, very good.
So how many questions you got? Multiple choice questions Overall approximately multiple choice.
Questions I got 6, 7 questions. Match the following match the following 3, 4.
So any fill in the blank questions?
I got one fill in the blanks. Okay, so and I got some graph also.
Graph. Graph.
Okay.
Interactive.
Interactive gap.
Yeah, I need to click on, click on that the graph. Yeah.
Okay.
Where you got more questions. Okay.
I believe it's mainly agile hybrid.
Okay.
And after that it's mainly into this changes. Those were the major questions actually it went in a flow. I was not thinking about anything like I'm seeing the questions and answering. And to be frank, I didn't realize from which area or which process or anything which I'm debating the question. And based on the question I was.
Answering the questions actually you start solving the problems. Okay, got it. Okay, so what do you want to tell to other PMPs people who want to go for certification? What do you want to tell them?
Yeah, I said this when I had your first training session. Like it's not going to be easy. So if it is easy, then everyone would be with the PMP certificate. All the preparations and understanding of concepts and clearing this exams which makes this journey worth actually So I, I felt complete actually when I saw that final message like congratulations. So I felt it's a complete journey. Like means I enrolled for the course and I, I did the preparation. I understand the concept. It's not mainly for the exam point of view. Also practical point of view since I'm from project management background. So it helped me on a whole. Actually it's not about only clearing the exam and I didn't prepare in that point of view. So it's a. It's overall understanding. And I believe this understanding of the concepts and methodology will help me to go further in my career.
Sure, sure.
For others I would say like yeah, you basically need an interest. Like it's not, as I mentioned, it's not a simple course like for fun, you enroll and you can clear. So you need a dedication and commitment of going through this process and journey to see the final result.
Thanks Shyam. Thanks for sharing that.
Okay, so whether the. The resources, whatever we are given, is it sufficient or anything else you want to us to enhance like road to project success, IC leave all these things, whatever we are given after taking exam, do you feel that the resources, whatever we are given is sufficient or anything else we need to go for?
Actually it's. It's pretty much sufficient. Actually means it's more than what is required to clear the exam. So that's the best part with the Info Career. All this material means as I mentioned, I did one training earlier in 2016. So they gave me one book and that's it. So it didn't go further. So with all these interactive sessions and WhatsApp groups and daily knowledge updating like providing one question answering with the team, so all these things helped me. So whatever Info Career has given on material point of view, coaching, mentoring, so it's. It's. It's pretty good and it helped me a lot.
And thanks Shyam. Thanks for sharing your experience and I'm very happy to congratulate you once again on the behalf of Info Career team. And please be in communication.
