Wayne's way to prepare for your PMP® exam

If it has been years (decades perhaps?) since you took an exam, and are now preparing to take the PMP® exam, then these tips will help you to prepare for the exam. I have passed more than twenty computer based tests, and followed these exam preparation tips for over fifty exams. Hundreds of students in my classes have used some of these tips to pass exams. Due to frequent requests to share my exam preparation tips, I decided to consolidate them for your benefit.

Working adults are usually anxious while preparing for an exam such as the PMP® exam. Don’t be alarmed if you experience feelings of anxiety and self-doubt – it is normal and hundreds of thousands of other working adults have survived them. Use these tips to prepare for your exam, calm your nerves and build your self-confidence.

These tips assume that you have attended the required training courses for the exam, and are now preparing to take the exam. Tips are bulleted, not listed as there is no priority order. Use the tips that work for you and ignore the others.

- Look for other students who are also preparing to take the exam and meet with them every other week to measure progress and motivate each other. You can meet in-person or over the phone. Support each other to keep on studying your work and discuss solutions to obstacles that you face. You can join/from a study group, or just team up with another student to encourage each other.

- How can you stay motivated? Who can support you in taking the exam? Your spouse? Professional coach? What do you need to ask people to do in order to support you? What must they do, or not do to support you?

- How to prevent yourself from being sidetracked? How can you reduce distractions and commitments so that you can stay focused on passing the exam? If TV is distracting you, can you suspend the cable service for a while or cancel the TV channels altogether?

- Create a project plan to pass the exam. Your project plan is an aid to help you stay on track, as well as practical application of the work you are learning for your PMP® exam. Make sure that you have weekly checkpoints to measure progress.

- Use colored index cards to study the processes and inputs and outputs of processes. Group the processes together by color as you lay them out on a flipchart.

- Use various shaped indexed cards and free-hand drawing of the study material. Tony Buzan’s work reveals that our minds find it easier to remember information if we can make it distinct, such as free hand drawing of mind maps and using one color for each concept that we are grouping together.

- Draw mind-maps of your study material. Invest one or two hours learning the basics of drawing mind-maps as a study technique. (I recommend drawing mind-maps by hand, and not using the computer based mind-mapping software. My experience is that you retain more knowledge when you draw the mind-map by hand on a flipchart sized sheet of paper than from entering it into a software program and printing it out).

- Build your self-confidence. Remind yourself that you have taken exams in the past, and passed them. Don’t focus on your nerves – focus on past successes.

- Explain the concepts and material that you have learned to someone else. Explain it in as much detail as possible, because when you explain it, you will find the gaps in your knowledge. (Hire someone to listen if you can’t find a personal friend who to listen).

- Use flashcards to test your knowledge. You can purchase flashcards to help prepare for the PMP® exam from vendors on the Internet. You can also make your own flashcards with questions and answers to carry with you and quickly brush up the material when you have a few minutes during your day.

- Place index cards (as flashcards) with the study material around the house. Then, when you walk into your lounge you can pick up the pack of flashcards and quickly review a few points from the study material.

- Map the new knowledge to something you already know. List the new study material and create a list of topics that you already know about project management. Then think about and document comparisons, conclusions and differences between them. Use color and lines with arrows if you map knowledge points on these two lists on a flipchart.

- Brush up on memorization techniques that have worked for you in the past. Use mnemonics to remember lists of facts. Make up a story using the facts and make it easier to remember. For example, Little Red riding hood went to visit her grandmother (project sponsor) through the woods (bureaucratic procurement department). Have fun making up your stories to remember inputs, outputs and processes. Consider purchasing a book or audio CD set to improve your memory techniques.

- Create a game for yourself. Choose a topic, and give yourself a score as your recite the key concepts. Write down your score and compare it to the score you gave yourself in prior attempts. What other games does the material remind you of? What would it be like if your study material was a game show and contestants were being paid for project management jeopardy?

- Set specific study goals each day and each week. Be realistic – will you really study the entire body of knowledge in one sitting on a Sunday afternoon? Set a schedule and goals such as “Study for one hour each weeknight”. Then, reward yourself for reaching your goals. Perhaps you can take the dog for a walk, or enjoy a guilt-free cookie?

- Make audio recordings of your study material. This is easier than ever before with digital recorders and MP3 players. Record your study notes and listen to your recording on your daily commute or while working out. You can also purchase audio recordings to prepare for the PMP® exam from vendors on the Internet. I am an auditory learner, and have significantly reduced study time and increased effectiveness from audio recordings when learning new material.

- Internalize your learning by applying it to real-world projects. When you see a new building under construction or new software package released, imagine what the project plan looks like. Imagine who the stakeholders are. Imagine what it would feel like to report status on the A380 Airbus project.

- Do trial runs and simulation tests at home. If you are allowed to have paper in the exam room, plan how you will use the paper. Do you need to memorize formulas until you enter the exam room and will write down the formulas as soon as you walk into the exam room? Practice doing this at home, so you know how long it will take to write out the formulas as well as identify formulas that you need to learn. Similarly, practice using simulation tests for the exam if they are available.

- Create your own exam questions. If you were an examiner, what questions would you ask to test a student's knowledge of the topic?

- Plan your exam taking strategy. How will you deal with questions in the exam? Will you second guess yourself, or go back and correct questions you have already considered the first time? Or will you simply take your best guess and move on to the next question? Will you always choose option B if you don’t know the answer to a question?

- Plan your time in the exam. How many questions does the exam consist of? How much time do you have to take the exam? After one hour of the exam, how many questions should you have answered? Where should you be after 3 hours in the exam, to know that you will finish within the allotted time? What will you do if you get behind or ahead of schedule?

- The key to preparing for the exam is to regularly study in bite sized chunks. Don’t attempt to study in leaps and bounds. Schedule time every day, or every other day to study. Go to the public library directly after work for an hour if you need time where you will not be distracted. Keep on revising what you have already learned to cement your understanding, and continue moving forward.

- Schedule to take the exam at a time when you are at your peak. Schedule the exam in the morning if you are a morning person. Schedule it after lunch if you are at your peak in the afternoon.

- Drive to the exam center a few days before the test, to check it out. Plan the best route to get to the exam center, how long it will take you to get there and where you will park at the exam center. You will feel more prepared by knowing the location and setup of the exam center.

- Get exercise and sleep in the days leading up to your exam. Don’t drink excessive coffee before the exam – help yourself to be in best possible physical shape to be relaxed.

- Some exam centers are reputed to be noisy. Bring ear plugs in case you want to reduce distraction. 

This compendium of study tips for working adults was acquired over the past twenty years in my journeys as both student and instructor around the globe. Feel free to use these tips and share them as you prepare for your professional exams. I wish you good luck with your exam preparation.