ExamsPM Success Story & Review - How Shahil Pass His PMP On His First Try

Okay, okay. So today we're welcoming, welcoming Shaheel here with Examspm. And Shaheel, I want to welcome you today and thank you so much for spending some time with us and our students to kind of give them an overview of your PMP success. So congratulations, first of all, on getting your PMP. How does it feel?

Thank you very much. Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity. to share my experience. It's an honor and a privilege to be interviewed by Examspm. It feels great. Definitely, it feels great to be a PMP. I think it's worth the effort.

Awesome. Awesome. And it's pretty new for you. So this happened a couple of weeks ago, I think, when you actually passed. Maybe share with us a little bit about, first of all, why did you want to take the PMP? What brought you to that decision?

Thank you very much for putting up this question to me because this is quite important in a sense, just to get the context as to why do I write this exam. While I was doing my PhD, And even before that, this was way back in 1996. I decided, uh, I, somebody from Mumbai gave me a bunch of journals, the PMI journals. And I saw this, I saw this crisp, beautiful articles. I remember that article very clearly, vividly as possible. It was about, uh, it was about the oil and gas company, a project. And this, this was this, I saw the profile of this person with a picture and he wrote PhD PMP. I mean, it sounds very impressive and I was wondering what this PMP was about. That's when I started sort of, you know, searching the web and I came across PMP. It's from PMI. I ordered the first PMBOK. Those days it was just a thin white book.

Yeah.

Yeah, it was just, it had the ITTOs only, let's say.

Right.

And, um, I was very enthused about this. So I joined the PMI as a member, those days $10. And, um, I became a member of the— we also have specific interest group, group for manufacturing. I come from an agricultural process engineering background. So I'm a tea, coffee, that sort. So I became a member of that. And while I was doing my PhD, I was having a very, very difficult personal life as well. With all the pressure, academic pressure, personal life pressure, I just couldn't study for the PMP to write the exam.

Right.

But it was a goal I had in mind that one day I will write this exam. Life went by, I finished my PhD, I took up jobs, and I continued, life went on. Then last year, then I I came across, uh, because I joined a European company and they said that, you know, if you work for European companies, in fact, Mr. Hula, uh, from Human Dynamics mentioned that all our project managers are PRINCE2 certified. So I, I took the PRINCE2 Foundation exam and I told my team leader, look, I'm PRINCE2 Foundation. They said, great, great, but you're not a practitioner. So next I did the PRINCE2 Practitioner. I got the practitioner exam. Then I got interested because I have some portfolio management experience in the past. So I took the MOP Foundation, but PMP was always in my mind. And I thought, and when I saw the latest PMBOK and the whole system and the approach, it was quite intimidating actually at the first shot because I thought this is really going to be real hard work and a lot of work to do. But fortunately, I took up the challenge and I said, okay, let's do it. So I actually took up a course with another company.

Okay.

Oh, I didn't like— yeah, but I really didn't like the course very much. Not because of— it had very good, you know, sections for the test sections, but the presentation was not the way I expected. While I was just thinking, contemplating to have a change, then I received this mail from Helena. And then, then I got in, got linked to Helena. And then Helena actually asked me, are you doing something, some other course? I said, yes, but I need something, you know, that's more crisp, to the point. And I'm looking for, because I'm not only an audio learner, but I'm also visual learner. So I wanted my slides to be— I didn't want someone to drag on while in the lecture. I wanted something coming crisp.

Right.

And I thought Helena's videos were perfect for that. And I enrolled in your course and I started my work study. And I started my study then. I told my wife who lives in Moscow now, So I said, look, Mariam, I'm going to take this exam. She said, wonderful. She's a trained civil engineer herself. And she said, that's great. All the best. And I'm sure you'll do well. So that was a good encouragement from her. And I said, okay, let's do it. And I started off my studies.

Fantastic. Fantastic. Now it sounds like you had a lot, you have a lot of background, not just in, You know, in doing the PMP, but doing the PRINCE2 and also being a project manager for a number of years. How do you— how did you find— I'm really curious about this— how do you find PMP versus PRINCE2? Because I think a lot of people would be interested in that.

Yeah. Let me— there's a motivation to take both the exams, I guess, and I think the motivation For me, and I'm sure for many other aspirants as well, the PMP actually is sort of an elite certification, as they say. They say it's the gold standard in the circle.

Okay.

And you belong to an elite group of professionals, and PMI resources are abundant. On the other hand, and it's an old institution which I was introduced when I was studying, there was no PRINCE2, right? There was only PMI when I got introduced to project management, as I just mentioned. And the most important thing is that while I was preparing, and okay, that's one reason I chose to do PMP and why not? And why PRINCE2? Because PRINCE2 mattered because I was working for European company, for Europe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's mandatory that you have the standard. But the urge, I would say, the motivation to do this, to get this PMP, the premium gold standard certification, and to be a part of this team, to be a part of this community, and the amount of resources and the learning opportunities you have is just phenomenal. Not comparable to PMI, sorry, PRINCE2.

Okay.

PRINCE2, on the other hand, is just building its resources.

Yes.

Exolis is building its resources. In fact, they wrote to me. Somebody informed that I became a PMI member before I had my PMP, and I had this PRINCE2. So maybe someone from Exolis came across my name with PRINCE2 without a PMP. So they wrote back to me, what about us? So I said, yes, I will be. I have no time to write a white paper to contribute and get my PCDUs, but because I did an MOP, so it contributed to my points in this. I said, I will come back to you all, but at the moment I'm preparing for the PMP. So that was the basic motivation for why I chose these 2. Now, just to give you a basic difference between the 2 systems.

Yeah.

The PRINCE2 is basically, it's a process knowledge. It's an entire process and it's, it's a very systematic process that they embarked upon. And this actually happened, this, this thinking about PRINCE2, that they would come up with something like this, the British system, happened during around that time when I was actually contemplating to write the PMI in 1996, '97.

Right.

There was a lot of, there was a lot of discussion within the construction management faculties and institutes around England that they wanted something, you know, because they had project management courses, right? But they didn't have a certification. And here were British students rushing for American certification and Britain had nothing to offer.

Right.

So that motivated them. And they went through, they followed the American semester system to do a midterm, that is PRINCE2 Foundation, and then to do an end term, the PRINCE2 Practitioner. So they broke it up. They mimicked the American system because we were trained. I went through the American system through my graduation. So when I did a PhD in the British system, and I used to say, you know, this British system writing exam after 1 year is quite a thing for me. And we would like to do this, you know, all these guys who went from the system used to complain that, you know, this 1-year exam, it's too much.

Right.

Let's do it quickly. So they adopted that system. So PRINCE2 is a process. So they test you in the entire systematic process. On the other hand, the PMP is a body of knowledge and they test you, your rigor. And I see the test in PMP is far more rigorous because it's testing your experience.

Yes.

It's testing your ability for you to blend your experience with the knowledge, a body of knowledge, and try to address solutions. Number 3, also testing your endurance. That's 4 Rs. It's stress, mental agility, endurance. That's what it is testing. That's how I felt. But the principle is the process-based. If you know the process very well, you're sound. You can answer any of those questions.

Yeah. Yeah. Now you, you, you, uh, you mentioned some stuff that, uh, I find a lot of students ask, you know, questions about Well, do I have to memorize this or that, or, you know, to write, to do well in the PMP exam? And often we tell them, listen, it's not so much about memorizing. It's more about how do you apply the knowledge and the experience that you have in a given situation. So I think that's a real key for our students to know, you know, we're not there just to memorize ITTOs and think we're gonna, we're gonna pass the exam. We really have to apply our skills and knowledge to the questions.

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Yeah, that's great. And thank you for distinguishing— like, I didn't even know that distinction between the PRINCE2 and the PMP. So that's very helpful as well. Thank you.

And the PRINCE2, the Foundation is a 1-hour exam. The Practitioner is about 2 hours 40 minutes. Yeah, nothing—

the stress level is not comparable with Yeah, the PMP is quite a lengthy exam.

It's a lengthy— it's a tough exam.

Yeah, yeah. Okay, very good. And you passed it. So let's go— let's move on. Oh, just one other thing I want to hit on. You mentioned that you had taken another course, you liked it, it was good content, but it really didn't boil things down as concisely as Helena's presentation. I did find that myself when I did Helena's course. That the presentation is very concise and it gets to the point very well. So thank you for pointing that out.

Yes.

So the next thing I'd like to ask you about is, is the exam itself. So, um, are there any tips or things that you might offer the students that helped you to prepare and write the exam? What would you offer, offer the students as sort of takeaway? from this discussion.

Sure. Just before I get into that, I just would like to tell you why I like ExamPM for a number of reasons, and I'd like to give 3 cardinal points as to why I like ExamPM. First of all, Helena's presentation, I think her voice modulation, the way she emphasized— there's something very interesting about her voice and the modulation. in which she tries to disseminate the content. That's really excellent. I have taken courses for the PRINCE2 as well, MOPs, but I haven't seen this sort of voice modulation. Secondly, she is very good in summarizing and conceptualizing things and breaking it down. That's brilliant because she herself is a PMP and she has that knowledge very well. Very sharply she puts those. Thirdly, the exam questions, the practice exams that you all give, those 5 practice exams, the content, it's just superb. It actually, it's not, I wouldn't say that it mimics. Honestly, I found about, I traced about 7 to 9 questions which were very similar to your questions.

Yeah.

But what is important is not the similarity, it's the mental agility simulation that your 5 tests does, which I found was, you know, the other ones didn't have that, you know. And that's the second reason. And the third reason, I think this bit of the knowledge area questions, that's— and you'll give us quite a good number of about 50 questions. for every knowledge area, and there is the cross-cutting 2 themes you have.

Yeah.

In addition to the 5 tests, I think that's a very robust amount of practice tests, which I thought was brilliant. And that really helped me. And I also liked some of the seminars I attended, you know, something like this where people spoke about their experience. Okay, now let me give you the takeaways. Number one, guys, I just would like to say, first of all, the very fact that you have enrolled in Examspm is that you're motivated to take the PRINCE2— sorry, the PMP exam, and you will never regret it if you work hard. Number one, it's not an easy exam. Please try to understand, no matter how brilliant you are, what your, you know, OGPA, CGPA has been in the past, no matter how much experience you have in project management, this is a tough exam. It's going to test you very thoroughly. So be ready to work hard and prepare. Number 2, when you— I personally, I would feel that You need to do one reading of the PMBOK, the guide, the body of knowledge. One reading is very good. What I did, I did one reading and I underlined everything. And then when I went back to Helena's videos, it was much easier for me to relate a lot of things. You must go to, at least the second thing, you need to go through Helena's presentations at least twice. I went through, I did 2 rounds of that, 2 iterations of Helena's presentations. Number 3, you should stop the video and take notes of important points. I think that's very, very essential. That's what I did. That's number 3. Number 4, if possible, now once you must Do all the test exercises in all the knowledge areas, including all the 5 tests. In fact, I took my, my last test, that was test number 2. I actually didn't follow the sequence 1, 2, 3. I did test number 1, then I jumped to test number 5, then I did test number 4, and my last test was the day before the exam, and that was test number 2. And I scored about 78, so I felt I was okay. If you score 78 in Helena's test consistently, I think you're good to go. Yeah. When I make mistakes, what I do is, you know, I have— I use these— I'll show you this bunch. I use these cards, this bundle of cards. Yes, these are reference cards. These reference cards, I have actually written wherever I failed a question. I go back to the answer, go back to the Prem book, go back to Helena's explanation, and then I would write them down. And I also wrote down all the processes in the chart and some of the related processes. For example, as you can see here, this is something I wrote. I like using colors.

Oh yeah.

I showed the entire relationship between From how the— for example, this is about work performance data, how it is generated, how that is, which process converts it to work performance information and from where, and which process converts it to work performance reports, and which is the process actually disseminates the work performance report. So I had done this sort of interrelate, and this really helps during the exam. And also, I like these cards because I use them to revise just the day before the exam because you will have no time to go through Helena's— at best you can take a test.

Right.

And you'll have no time to go through before the exam, at least 2 or 3 hours before the exam if you want to revise. I think it helped me a lot because even when you're studying, I'm having a cup of coffee in a I would take these cards and just run through it. Revision, repetition to get the concepts and the understanding.

Yeah, that's a great idea.

Yeah. Number 4, one needs to drink a lot of water while you're studying. You need to be hydrated. And I always— you have to put in at least— I took about 8 to 6 weeks. Actually, I took around 8 weeks to prepare for this exam. And I worked about 3 hours on an average. But as you approach the exam, you need to work even harder. I think I put in about 4 to 5 hours just about a week or 2 before the exam.

4 to 5 hours on a weekly basis or a No, every day. Every day. Wow.

Yeah, you have to, you have to really study. I mean, because, you know, my memory is not that fantastic and I had to really— and studying at my age is quite a challenge because I know I had to keep up with guys at the age of, you know, the 30s bracket. And the cutoff mark is about 68 to 70%, I think. So that to I was very determined to get the PMP, very motivated. I am like that.

Yeah, no, I can see like you are an exemplary example of a student, I'll tell you, because I don't study quite so good as you do. That's amazing. It's amazing.

So what I did, I actually took leave for 5 days before the exam. And those days it was just, I shut my house. Actually, no one lives here. My wife and my kid lives in Moscow. I'm here in Swaziland. So I had all the time to myself and it was just studying.

Wow.

Number 2, and you have to really dedicatedly study. This is a serious exam, I tell you. You can easily fail this exam. You can fail very easily. I can tell you that. And when you're there, it all— that everything will come back. The other thing I also would like to advise you is try not to go out of the examination hall. I didn't. Do you need to go to the toilet before you sit for the exam? Ah, well, they— the Pearson centers, they will check everything. Behind the collar, they will make me put up the collar like this.

Wow.

Open my, you know, my shirt thing. I had to self-frisk myself up to my toes. So that nothing you can carry there. Nothing. It's really serious.

Very, very serious.

I never went through that yet. Very, very security-wise. It's just, there is, don't even think about it. Uh, and then they won't let you take anything. And I just took a swig of water before I entered, which meant that, uh, I decided I will not get out because I knew, and frankly, the 4 hours will just fly. Just like that. So try not to get out as much as possible. Be there. Secondly, my test— testing time was at 12:30 noon afternoon. So whenever I took Helena's tests, ExamPM's tests, I took all the tests, even the knowledge area tests, around 12:30 in the afternoon.

Okay.

You have to condition your mind because, yeah, because, because it's, it's, it's a crazy thing because 12:30 is lunchtime.

Yes.

I never study. I don't even read newspaper. I eat and I relax and my brain is tuned not to memorize, to work and, you know, activate during that time, at least till 4 o'clock. And all my meetings I have, or normally have after 3.

Right.

So because I find my morning hours very precious, you know, I invest that in doing concrete work, you know, creating deliverables. So, um, so I had to condition myself, and I think that's a very good idea. Whenever you have your exam, you should do all the tests so that your mind and body is conditioned to take the exam during that time span.

Correct.

4 hours is not easy, I tell you. 4 hours sitting, your body is in a, in a, in a stable situation, and you need that. And, and I had 3 minutes to revise about 10 to 12 questions and I corrected 5 questions and I had 30 seconds to submit. I submitted 30 seconds before the clock stopped because I didn't want the clock to beat me and I submitted my test and it was a wonderful feeling when you get that congratulations, you've got your project management professional.

Oh, it must have been great.

Yes, it's really worth it. So these are the 5 things I would say. you should remember. Please work hard. And please follow the calendar that— if you follow the calendar given by Helena, very useful. Try to read all the materials that is downloadable from the course. Very useful. The course itself, Helena's— go for at least 2 iterations.

2 rounds. Yeah.

2 rounds, yeah, of Helena's course and 2 rounds of that and 1 round of the PMBOK cover to cover and try to go through those definitions at least 3, just about 3 days before the exam. All the definitions.

Ah, yes.

That's in the flashcard section of Examspm as well as you'll find it in the PMBOK. I also downloaded the digital And sometimes I would go back to the digitized book because it's very easy to find things once you have downloaded the Exam PMP Digital Set. So these are important tips for the exam.

Very, very good. Thank you for sharing that. And all of the sort of all the tips and knowledge that you've given us today is going to be very helpful. I think one of the takeaways too that that I might add here is is that you know you really hit on something important. It it isn't an easy exam. A lot of people can can and do fail the exam, so it's important to really take it seriously and and do what you need to do for your own mind to train for it. You know some people I I don't know I had friends in university that that could just. breeze through information and knowledge very quickly. If that's your study style, then it's your study style. But really, don't take, you know, if you don't take it seriously, you may not come up with the results that you have. So it's very, very important, like the training your mind. You even went to the training like at the right time of day, which is like something I never would have even thought of. So that's really interesting. Really interesting information. Yeah.

Yeah, you need to plan to do this exam. It is really strategic planning. Yeah, actually set aside time for studies and how you would study. Like, I prefer— I usually use these to— I've been doing this since I was in school, using these to mark. I use a lot of colors. If you see my cram book, it's full of color. Any exam I do, the book is full of colors. I like using colors in the flashcards as well, so there are a lot of colors here. And all this actually leads you to learn and to have and structure the entire knowledge in your mind.

Yes.

The one final thing I would like to say, if you write the formulas for the exam every day, Yes. And all of it. And you do that, Helena's repetition of the process groups, every day. You don't need a brain dump. Please don't waste your time doing a brain dump.

Right, right.

I never did a brain dump. They gave me 2 sheets of glossy paper. I just used about half of that paper just to do my maths. That's it. I got all my maths right. And please don't waste your time. This is just like, uh, it's, it's in fashion to say let's use a brain dump, but you don't realize that 5 minutes is a lot of time you're wasting. Every second counts in that exam. Every second, trust me.

Yes.

So if you work every day, repeat, repeat the formulas, you better dump it in your head here instead of on that paper because you don't need it. That's, that's my honest comment. I find it ridiculous to do a brain dump. You waste 7 minutes of your precious time.

Yeah, exactly.

And I, and I heard one lady got disqualified because she started the brain dump as soon as the clock started and she was disqualified.

Oh wow.

And as a result, she had an argument and at the end she failed the exam because with that 20 minutes of that argument, the argument with the invigilator. And this was in one of Helena's interviews. This lady was commenting. So I, I, I, I, so I thought, yeah, I mean, why do a brain dump? I mean, if you, if you know it in your head, that works absolutely well.

Yeah. Super. Well, thank you so much for your time today and sharing with us. I think it makes a real difference when, when people come forward and And really just share their knowledge. You know, I modulate the Facebook page and there's a lot of people that have a lot of questions. So someone like you coming and sharing the experience really helps. So thank you so much for that.

And thank you very much, Alan, for bringing me in. I was really willing to share and I wish all the aspirants and all those who are taking the PMP all the best. Let me tell you, once you get your results and you can put that PMP next to your name, I already have a PhD, but I still feel proud of having the PMP.

Wow.

You'd really feel good and you really feel nice. You'll feel good about yourself. I feel very good about myself. This is not my age to have taken this. I should have done it a long time ago, but it's never too late to learn and learning is a lifelong process. And I really enjoyed, truly enjoyed the course with ExamSPM. And I think all these guys, y'all are very lucky to have very good trainers, and the course material is super. If you work hard and if you commit, I'm sure you'll get your PMP. All the best. Thank you very much, Alan, for giving me this opportunity to share my experience.

Thank you. Thank you so much, Shaheel. And I'm just gonna