Pass PMP exam: The Secrets

Hello and welcome everybody. In this video, I am going to show you the secrets to passing your PMP exam. Many people fail the exam because they don't prepare properly, and you can avoid these mistakes when you follow these simple advice. So let's jump right into it. So the first thing you need to know is that the PMP exam is not simply a test of facts. If you just know everything in the PMBOK, that's probably not enough. People usually say that up to 80% of your PMP exam is actually all situational questions. So you need to know how to apply the exam topics in real-life situations. So here's what I mean by that. You probably heard this advice before, but it actually took me a long time to even realize what this actually means. So let me give you an example. So there are 3 different types of contracts. Fixed price, cost reimbursable, and time and material. In the PMBOK, it will show you the different types of contracts. Inside fixed price, there's other subtypes, and inside cost reimbursable, there's other subtypes as well. In total, there's 7 different types of contracts, but on the high level, there's just these 3 different types of contracts: fixed price, cost reimbursable, and time and material. So this is what the PMBOK would say. However, on your PMP exam, you will not get a memorization question where they just ask you what are the 3 different types of contracts. Usually they will put it into a situation and you will have to identify which type of contract is used. For example, they will give you a situation and they will ask you what is the best type of contract to use in this case, or they may give you a scenario and you have to identify which type of contract they used in the scenario. So I hope from this example you can see see that you not only need to know what's in the PMBOK, you need to be able to apply it if you are given a short situation, a short description of situation. Additionally, when you are in your PMP exam, you have to keep in mind why the PMP was a designation, a credential that was developed in the first place. It was developed because there wasn't a standard on how to manage large scale projects. And so when you're answering the questions on your exam, you have to assume that you are a project manager working on a $10 million project spanning across multiple different countries. You have multiple stakeholders from all over the world. You have to put yourself in the mindset of a project manager who is managing a very large project. The next tip I have for you is to do a lot of practice questions. Like I said earlier, because so many of these questions are situational questions, the only way you can really prepare for them is to do a lot of practice questions. If you just know the facts, it may not be enough if you don't do the practice questions to know how to apply the concepts that you saw in the PMBOK in scenarios. And also be prepared questions that are very long paragraphs. Don't be surprised if you see a huge long paragraph as one of the answers. In these paragraphs, usually you'll be given facts that are useful and some that are useless, and you have to be able to also identify which facts are useful and important in answering the question and which ones are not. And PMI does this on purpose. The reason PMI does this is because in real life, when you're actually working as a project manager, you'll be given facts that you don't need to make a decision, and you'll also be given facts that are important and critical to make the decisions you need on your project. And that's why they do this in this practice question, so that they can test you to see whether or not you'll be able to identify the important facts from the unimportant ones. A good way, a good technique I found to do this is to read the last sentence of the question first, and then look at the multiple choices you're given, and then read the entire question in its entirety. This way you'll know what is asked at the end, and as you're reading through the question, you'll be able to identify the stuff that, that it's relevant in the question. Now the next tip is to write in advance all the notes that you want on your cheat sheet. So this is an exam strategy that you can use before you walk into your testing center. You'll be given 2 pieces, 2 blank pieces of legal-sized paper, so 8.5 by 11 inches, and you can write whatever you want on these sheets of paper. You'll be given 2 sheets of paper in total, so you can use the front and back. So in essence, you're given 4 sheets of paper. Now, if you wanted another sheet of paper, you would have to exchange it for one of the sheets you're already given. And if you already have important notes on here, then you probably don't want to exchange that sheet, sheet of paper for another one. So for all intents and purposes, assume you just have 2 pieces of paper. Now what some people like to do is to use the first 5 to 10 minutes of their exam to create a cheat sheet for themselves, to have this brain dump, to write out all the important stuff on the sheet so that they have it with them throughout the entire exam. Some people don't like to do this. I've seen people pass their PMP exam with or without a cheat sheet. So you can try this out and see if this is something that you want to have on your exam. If you do decide to create a brain dump, then I would suggest trying it out maybe 10 times before your actual exam so you really get it down to the 5 to 10 minute mark and you get to decide what you want to have on your brain dump. So here's an example of someone's brain dump. They have all of the important notes here of what they wanted to remember during their, their, their exam. They have the formulas here, they even have the little chart, they have the forward path, backward path on here, and then they have all sorts of different formulas, the important tools and techniques, and then all of the procurement contract types and their associated formulas as well. So here's one example of someone else's cheat sheet. I'm just showing you this so that you get some inspiration on what you could put on your cheat sheet. Another great thing you can put on your cheat sheet is It's a process chart. Okay, the next advice is to plan your test strategy in advance. So what I mean by this is you can decide if you're going to take breaks or not. So some people may say they're going to do 50 questions straight and then they're going to take a 10-minute break and then they're going to do another 50 questions and they will take another 10-minute break. You can take as many breaks as you like during your PMP exam. However, whenever you take a break that does count towards your 4 hours of exam time. So the more breaks you take, the less time you have for your actual exam. So a great way to test out your test strategy to see what works for you is to do full-length exams before your actual exam date so you can see how long it's actually going to take you to do 200 questions and if you can afford to have any breaks in between. So some people like to do it methodically, so doing 50 questions or 100 questions then taking a break. Other people just take a break whenever they want to, but if you do take a break, do give yourself enough time to finish the entire exam. And if you come to the end of your exam and you notice that you still have like 5 or 10 questions that's not answered, please don't leave it blank. Please make sure that you fill something in into those answers because there's no negative marking on your PMP exam. So even if you put in something, you still have a 25% chance of getting that question right because all PMP questions are multiple choice and there's always 4 answers given. The next tip is to visit your exam center once before your actual exam. This will help you figure out how long it's going to take you to get to the exam center, what the traffic looks like, get familiar with the environment that you will be in. So it's a good idea to just visit the center once before your actual exam. And of course, arrive early. You don't want to get stuck in traffic or something like that because that will count towards your actual exam time. And lastly, there is a chance that the exam center will not be quiet. So once I had a student who had a construction going on right outside of the building that he had to write his exam in, and so that could happen. So be prepared for that. Other students have said that the person next to them was writing a different exam and that required a lot of typing, so they could hear typing throughout their entire exam. So just be prepared for that. Your actual testing environment may not be absolute silence. silence. However, depending on the exam center that you go to, some may be able to provide you with earplugs, so you can check with the exam center before that as well. And lastly, if English is not your first language, the PMP exam also has a number of language aids, so be sure to check out the language aids beforehand, and you have to request for this before your actual exam, and they will have it ready for you. Essentially what this means is that you'll have the English and the exam questions in a different language. So being able to see it in your mother tongue and seeing it in English could help some people be able to understand and interpret those questions. Okay, so those are my— I think that was about 10 tips for passing your PMP on the first try. If you want more tips just like this, be sure to check out our free training where I will show you exactly How you can pass your PMP in the next six weeks. The URL to sign up is examspm.com/free, and there will also be a link in the description below as well. So be sure to join us for this free training, and I can't wait to see you there. I hope you found this video helpful. Thank you so much. Be sure to like and subscribe, and I can't wait to see you again very soon.