PMP, Baby!

Don't you love it when people use acronyms and expect everyone to know what they mean? Me neither. It's just easier to say PMP instead of Project Management Professional because even the long description doesn't help people figure it out what it means if they don't already know.

Basically, it's like a CPA for Project Managers. You are awarded the designation by a combination of experience, specific education and passing an arduous (200 multiple choice questions with a four hour time limit and it's super secret how many questions you need to get right but everyone seems to say try for 80%) exam. Just as you don't need a CPA to be an Accountant, you don't need a PMP to be a Project Manager but it adds a level of credibility and legitimacy that was certainly appealing to me for my upcoming employment change.

The short story is that, as of yesterday morning, I am one!

The official description according to the Project Management Institute (PMI).
Yes, PMI are three more initials that need explanation.

The long story follows (I always have a long story, don't I?). Also, scroll to the bottom to see my summary of recommendations on how to prep for it all if you don't want the full long story.

Qualifying To Test

You don't get to just jump in to the test and see how it goes. You have to officially qualify first before you can even see the testing schedule.

Experience - If you have a college degree, the requirements are 4,500 hours of leading or directing projects over a non-overlapping minimum of 36 months. The good news is you have the last eight years to pull from. When you have a job like mine where you're a department director and work on a lot of corporate activities that aren't necessarily projects, that eight years is golden. The other challenge besides finding hours is that you have to designate which process group you spent those hours in (for example, Planning or Executing). Tough to reconstruct.

Specific Education - You must get 35 contact hours in Project Management. In the old days, that was a several thousand dollar class taken over multiple days. Thanks to the interwebs, you can do your study online and much cheaper. My colleagues turned me on to Udemy where I took this class from Joseph Phillips. It was great. Mini lectures that you could re-watch as needed, section quizzes and casework and a ton of additional study material. There are also two practice exams. Bonus is that the class is usually $199.99 but I got it on a sale for $10.99. They love their sales at Udemy.

Potential Audit - Once you fill out your hours and submit your class completion information, you may be subject to an audit by PMI. It's completely random. If you get tagged, you have to get everyone you worked under for your projects to sign off that you accurately reported your information. Man, I was so glad I didn't get tagged as it can add a month to the process. I wasn't worried about the hours as I was conservative in my estimates.

Studying

Obviously, taking the online class alone counts as studying but it's not enough. I took advantage of Phillip's materials and made flash cards out of his term/definition lists. Lots of terms, lots of flash cards. I learn by writing things down and taking notes so I knew, for me, just reading his sheets wasn't going to be as helpful.

Killed some trees.

In addition to the class and the flash cards, I also read the PMBOK (Project Management Body Of Knowledge and more initials). It's not what I would suggest for light non-fiction reading but it is a good resource for "wait, what were the inputs to that process?" questions. I don't think it's sufficient material to help you pass the test on its own. A class is paramount as you get more explanation of what's behind the edicts.

With my class scheduled for Saturday morning, I took Thursday and Friday off to study/review/cram/however you want to describe it. I thought that was sufficient. Thought being the foreshadowing word in that sentence in case you need more foreshadowing.

I took the first of Phillip's practice tests on Monday night. I had just finished reading the PMBOK and gone through my flash cards several times but hadn't reviewed my class notes at all and managed to score a 73% which I thought was respectable for a first try.

I got up early on Tuesday morning and took the second of Phillip's practice tests. And scored 53%. Or something around there as I was traumatized and blocked out the actual number. I furiously blinked back tears as my stomach started churning. I continued to fight the tears most of the day. I'm not a crier, it was just that emotional. Looking at what I missed, it was a lot of rote memorization material. I'm old. I'm not sure my brain can store and recall data at the level needed for that.

I continued to have near crying episodes until I recalled what a friend had sent me about someone who had passed the test. That person had said there was really more about the process and less about strict memorization. I took that to heart and immediately felt better.

However, I still went into full blown problem solving mode. I canceled my plan for beers after work on Tuesday with a colleague and blocked off Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons to add more studying time. I  reread all of my class notes and all of the slides from the class (that were nicely in Phillip's extra documents). I studied the questions I missed on the first practice test and hit the flash cards. And, I started memorizing.

In looking at a formula on one of the flash cards, I suspected I had written it done wrong so I looked at Phillip's term lists. Where I found I had missed several sections in creating my flash cards. Sections which coincided with what I missed on the practice test. Son of a...

Even more tree killing.

I made the rest of the cards and did a run through of them all again. I honestly don't know how many times in all I did the mass run through but it was a lot.

Once more through the first test and I scored over 80%. Sweet. I then moved on to retake the second test. I scored 67%. Much better but still not the magic 80 that everyone was talking about. I had to let it go and moved on to some other practice tests. I did another retake of the first test later in the week, though, and got 88%. That made me feel better.

Based on what I missed on all of the tests, I added some specific cards to my list of things I suspected would be on the test and that I was weak on. Spoiler - my instincts were sound.

I didn't leave my house except to run some stuff out to the recycle. I didn't drink any alcohol to keep as many brain cells alive as I could. I didn't read anything but study related material. I didn't have any prepared food and cooked everything from scratch. My only study breaks were cooking and eating and the only TV I watched were two episodes of Chopped and one of Iron Chef that I spaced over my eating time.

To say I was all in would be accurate.

Test Day

My appointment at the test center was for 8 AM. I woke up, without the alarm, at 4:30. Sigh. I gave in and got up and showered then did one last pass through of my flash cards and creating my "cheat" sheet. The latter is a brain dump you can do once the test starts on the blank paper they give you to work with. 

There are lots of rules with the test center. You need a photo ID (makes sense), can't wear any jewelry except a wedding or engagement ring, have to show your empty pockets, get a metal detector run over you, store all of your belongings in a locker and have your glasses examined for a camera. You also are filmed during the final process. I looked at it all as validation that my certification is legitimatized.

I took several deep breaths before starting the test. It's all online and you can mark questions for further review. I probably marked a little over 30. After going through all 200, I reviewed the marked ones then briefly considered reviewing all of them as I still had 90 minutes left. That path leads to second guessing folly so I clicked on "Submit" instead. Then confirmed that I really meant it. Then sat back to see it calculate my results.

My heart in my throat, I waited for the results. And saw, "Would you like to take a survey?"

WTF? No, I don't want to take a frakking survey, I want to see my results!

I did the survey. It was about the test center and I understood that they wanted responses unbiased by your success or failure at your test.  I clicked on Submit then confirmed then waited again.

"Congratulations..." 

That was the heart stopper and I paused to take some deep breaths to throttle back the adrenaline before reading the rest. They broke the potential results into four categories. They were You Suck, You Were So Close Why Didn't You Study More, You Passed, and You're A Rock Star. Well, they were described a little differently but that's how I looked at them.

I was a Rock Star in case you were wondering. They may have called it Above Target.

An added bonus is they also told you how you did in each process group so, in case you failed, it told you what you needed to focus on studying more. I was Above Target in all of those, too, so I guess I was an efficient subject matter prepper.

I must confess two things. One, I was pretty sure I passed before I clicked on Submit. I would have been devastated if I hadn't and doubted my judgment for years going forward. Two, I really, really want to know what I scored and what I missed. Alas, I will never know. Super secret, yo.

The final step from the test center is they print out the sheet with your scoring information on it, emboss it with their info and initial and date it. I collected my sheet, got my stuff out of the locker and headed for the washroom. I was in the testing center for almost three hours so nature was calling.

Once I was at my car, I started sending the "I passed!" messages out. The first one was to Shorty who couldn't be more proud. It's super sweet because he really doesn't know what it all means but is just joyous with the effort and accomplishment.

Summary Recommendations

The test itself has Fight Club Rules so I can't say what specifically was on it. Sorry.

• If you're considering going for the PMP, start tracking your hours now for your projects and time spent in each process. It will make filling out your experience information so much easier.
• Take an online class so you can watch key pieces again if you need a refresher.
• Watch the online class at increased playback speed. I didn't realize this until near the end but I was able to understand and retain the info even at 2X playback. Big time saver!
• Read the specific PMBOK sections right after you watch the online section lectures. It's a nice reinforcer.
• Take as many practice tests as you can but make sure they're for the right version of the test. They just changed it in March and I found some old ones that were steering me wrong. 
• Use all of the material you're given.

Be sure to recycle!

• Read the questions slowly and more than once. There are clues and "trick" phrasing in some of them.
• Don't have this jerk help you study:

• Finally, don't let that same jerk get a hold of your official test results.

Current mission accomplished! Next up, finding a new job. I suspect I'll stress a lot less about that, to be honest.