The Project Management Professional (PMP^®) exam has been passed by over 389 726 active PMP’s. One of the latest additions is Burger Swart who wrote the CAPM exam. ProjectPro encourages the candidates trained on its PMP exam preparation workshops to share their experience. Here is some of their story.

Hi guys,

Just a quick e-mail to say that I passed the CAPM exam yesterday. It was bloody tough and I only scraped through. New baby did not let me sleep or study much the weekend so when exam time came I was knackered.

I have to say that if it wasn’t for the course we did last week (September 2010), I sure would not have made it.

I have set up a profile on http://www.linkedin.com and if you are interested please connect me on the site. It is very useful for networking.

Please let me know how your studies are going and how the exam went.

Regards,
Morné Beeslaar
Projects Lead Planner
Certified Associate Project Manager (CAPM)

I attended your PMP preparation workshop in February 2008. Yesterday I wrote and passed the Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) exam at the first try.

I would just like to thank you (a little belatedly) for the course you presented. Your course provided me with the necessary information and tools to not only obtain the credential, but also make a success out of my project management career. I am full of confidence that my decision to become a project manager is a wise one and I will one day look back at the ProjectPro course as the turning point in that decision.

The exam itself was rather difficult. I read through the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) a few times and made sure that I knew what all the terms meant. I also did quite a few online tests (mostly PMP though). I must have had a lucky day, as the exam focuses 95% on the processes, inputs, outputs and tools/techniques. Situational questions were limited to a handful (which I thought I would be stronger in). I must say that had I not studied the definitions in the glossary of the PMBOK, I would not have passed. In short though, if someone wants to pass the CAPM, they have to learn all 44 processes and in which knowledge areas they occur, together with the inputs, outputs and tools/techniques.

Good luck with your training courses and I hope to one day attend another one of them.

Kind regards
Burger Swart

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I recently obtained my PMP certification (11 September 2007). This was the most testing exam I ever had to take but I was well prepared for it, thanks to the ProjectPro Prep Course. I attended the in-house Prep courses (ABB) with Terry Deacon, and read a couple of books together with the PMBOK^®Guide. What I realised is that the PMBOK does not sufficiently get one ready for the exam, it is only a basic guide line and indeed good knowledge foundation for Project Managers.

I would suggest Burke, Kerzener and RMC's Rita's notes and CD ROM, for preparation for any Project Manager who would like to undertake the test and make it first time

I would like to thank ProjectPro for having been instrumental in getting me the valuable qualification. I can now look forward to a long and prospective future in the field of Project Management.

Regards,

Zakhele Dube
Project Manager - ABB (PTMV)
Utilities, Mining & Exports

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Hi Terry

Just a quick note on the exam. I passed! It was one of the most stressful things I've gone through in my life. I got stuck in traffic on my way there and made it with 2 minutes to spare (2 hours later). My advice is to leave enough time for travel if you stay in Pretoria. Also keep in mind that you can phone them and indicate that you will be late and they will try and accommodate you. They give you a locker for your stuff and they provide everything you need including head sets so don't worry. Best form of identification is either passport or driver's licence.

The questions I got did not include a single network diagram although there were questions on GERT, PERT, AON, etc. A lot of the questions just doesn't make sense but what did help me was that in a number of cases the same answer were offered as two choices (different wording or shuffled) which immediately indicated that they weren't the correct ones. You have to focus on the order of processes to do well and a lot of the questions were around conflict and how to solve it. They also mix sponsor, client and senior manager in some of the questions which could be confusion. There was some questions about inputs and outputs but mostly one can figure those out without studying them in detail.

How I studied:

I bought Rita's book and worked through it once before attending your course. During your course I made certain that I read the PMBOK^® Guide (early morning waiting for the course to start). It meant that I got maximum value from the interaction because you clarified a lot of issues and I could then spot areas not well covered by Rita. I couldn't afford the software, which in a way was good, because it forced me to work through Rita stuff a second and then third time after your course. I also did two 200 question exam simulations. One from Rita. Between you and Rita you covered enough to pass although there were concepts which I didn't know such as Expected Present Value vs. Net Present Value (something about risk being taken into consideration).

How I wrote:

I answered everything I could as quickly as possible leaving those which I had no clue and marking those which I wasn't certain about. Took me about 2 hours. I then went back and did the ones I left open (you can select to do only those) and then revisited the marked ones. I then went quickly though the whole thing again and spotted one where I missed the "EXCEPT" bit. Then finished (40 minutes to spare) and waited the painful 30s for the result. I did well and averaged around 80%.

Thats all for now. Thanks for the help.

Regards
Cobus Nel
Principal Engineer/Research Group Leader: Mathematical and Computational Modelling
Research Group Leader: Systems Engineering
Defence, Peace, Safety and Security
CSIR

Andre Harington
T-Systems

I did my PMP^® exam yesterday and was successful.

Thank you for the input received in your course, it assisted me greatly and enabling me to pass.

You requested feedback from your students. Please find email attached that I sent to one of my colleagues'. This hopefully will also include some of the type feedback you requested.

Regards
Richard Luis
Project Manager

I am writing to inform you that I have recently taken and passed the Project Management Professional (PMP^®) exam in Johannesburg.

The training and support received from ProjectPro was highly valuable for my preparation for the exam. In fact the strategies and tricks learned throughout the PMP preparation workshop proved very useful to tackle the questions. The basis laid during the workshop allowed me to plan and structure which areas to concentrate on, as I could identify weaknesses and strengths.

The exam was tough with many questions preceded by less clear or confusing statements. There were very few short questions but even these had very similar and almost correct answers to choose from. There were hardly any questions with clear-cut answers - all required reflection. Those expressions "best", "most", "first" and "except" appeared most of the time as well as situational questions. Therefore, a blend of knowledge (training) and practical experience was crucial to answer the questions. Long questions were a concern for me because I had to read them two or three times to understand and respond. This took me more time than expected. However, the strategy of marking these questions for later review was very useful. I finished the questions 30 minutes before the time and I went back to check marked questions until the end.

I would like to thank ProjectPro very much for providing high quality training programme as well as keeping me informed on the developments of project management through the ProjectPro Newsletter. The training is well thought out, objective and addresses the main issues of PMP^® exam. I would recommend ProjectPro PMP training to anyone who wish to write PMP^® certification exam.

Regards,

Daniel Baloi
Universidade Eduardo Mondlane
Maputo
Mozambique

Hi

I attended the July 2010 workshop and it is with pleasure to let you know I passed PMP EXAM on my first attempt at Prometric Centre in Parktown yesterday morning. I think there is enough time (4Hrs), I finished the exam in 3H:40 mins.I read PMBOK twice in between answering the questions that are in your file that is supplied at the workshop. Preparatory workshop covered all the necessary focus areas, your recomended websites are relevant. I referred to them and I further used the following websites, as I could not afford RITA's book & CD.

• www.pmperfect.com, $49.00 (811 questions & answers in all the knowledge areas)
• www.oliverlehmann.com, 75 free questions and answers
• www.techfaq360.com, 220 mock eam questions

The exam was not difficult but there are question that shook and took me by surprise in particular in the beginning, but I assumed those were just detractors. After the first 30 questions in between the exam was better and on the last 50-60 questions I was on a down hill. The key is the to reasonable know & understand PMBOK not word-word but the processes, inputs & outputs. Be able to know application of different charts & diagram, run chart, control chart e.t.c and lastly the Ethics, Social Responsibility and Professional conduct. After joining PMP the material that is enclosed with the certicate is important, I gave away one question there.

The questions are not difficult someone need to know in projects you don't just escalate matters, discipline people, take unilateral decions, e.t.c you will never come alright in the mock-exams and in the real exam. The last thing you need to go with the attitude that you will get some questions right and others wrong, then gain momentum and confidence as you progress otherwise you won't reach even the first 50 questions and you will waist time. There are option to mark a question and go to it later after you have finished.

Regards
Menzie Sithole
Project Manager
Eskom, Matimba Power Station

I attended your Project Management Professional preporatory workshop on
7-9 November 2007.  I registered for the PMP exam shortly thereafter and wrote the exam on 20 December 2007.  I am thrilled to report that I passed and want to thank you for putting me through the paces at the prep workshop.  It really made me examine areas of project management that I did not necessarily use on a day-to-day basis and helped to identify my strengths and weaknesses.

I spent a lot of time on the costing and scheduling tools and techniques and went through all of the questions and answers that you provided.  The actual exam had quite a few questions on Earned Value which I am pleased to say I was very well prepared for.  I am waiting for my certificate so I am not sure what my overall pass mark was. However, the scores I received on the 6 Domain/ Knowledge Areas ranged between 63% and 87%.

Once again, thanks for the thorough preparation – I will certainly recommend ProjectPro to other aspiring Project Management Professionals.

Regards
Jacqui Baldwin Jarvis, PMP

Dear Terry

My apologies for writing this email a week late - but such a lot has happened in the office in my absence and I had to catch up on some work. Now that I have managed to get all issues under control I decided to write you an email as requested in your course notes. I am pleased to announce that I wrote the PMP^® Exam on 11 September 2007 and passed!

The exam experience is not something I enjoyed doing J. I must admit that I was not convinced of a pass during my session – I marked 120 questions for review! I wrote the four hours (with only 5 minutes to spare) and submitted the exam – exhausted and in a state of anxiety . What an experience – I don’t think 30 seconds felt that long before! It was such a relief when I got the feedback… I felt like doing a cartwheel out of the centre, but I think I would have hurt myself in the process.

Thank you for the part you played in my preparation. Your course work and notes were of great assistance (chapter questions and Super PMP document). In addition to this I used the Kim Heldman CD and the ‘dummy’ exam on www.pmstudy.com (can recommend this one). I would further recommend that one should attend the course after scanning through the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK ^®Guide) to get the most out of the ProjectPro sessions and then aim to write the exam as quickly as possible thereafter.

Thank you once again. Good luck with your endeavours in inspiring even more people to get involved in Project Management. Project Pro's PMP course definitely achieves this.

Kind Regards
Johlene Nel
Johlene Nel
Bigen Africa

• All of us experienced that the exam focussed a lot on the input and output processes of the knowledge areas.
• Questions on calculations was at a minimum and most of the questions were situational based.
• We further found that Ritas PMP® Exam prep questions are not close to what was experienced in the exam, although it was good preparation.
• We are also of the opinion that experience helped a great deal in finding the correct answers.
• A lot of focus was also placed on good governance and integrity of the PM

Thank You & Proudly AT your service
Johan Helberg
Operations Manager
Robotic Automation, Applications & Products

I finally did the inevitable and sat for my PMP^® exam at the Prometric Testing Centre in Johannesburg. I completed the ProjectPro exam prep course in May at Centurion in preparation for my studying, and I found that most valuable as it prepared me mentally for what was expected and areas where I should concentrate on.

When I completed the workshop I registered as a member of the Project Management Institute (PMI^®) and purchased Rita Mulcahy’s exam prep and CD for study material. I found these items most useful especially the CD in which I did numerous simulation tests where I could gauge my knowledge and concentrate on certain knowledge areas where I was lacking. The main benefit of this CD was that it prepared me for the way PMI would ask questions, as for quite a few there were more than one correct answer and also I could tell what they were asking, as I was a little more prepared for the PMI’sms and the ambiguity.

After summarizing the PMBOK^® Guide and reading Rita’s Mulcahy’s study guide over a few times and doing numerous exam simulations I felt quite comfortable for the exam, although the nerves were starting to set in.

The morning of the exam I just read through 400 exam type questions and answers to get my mind in that state. Well, got to the exam and they were running about 15 minutes late at that stage. The nerves were on high level alert, but eventually I sat down and skipped the 15-minute exam tutorial and went straight to the exam.

I got a fright as the first 30 questions were long, intense and to say the least, hard! I thought, how I am ever going to get through this if all the questions are like this, but I plodded on. Sometimes I got a question and I had to read it over and over again, not seeing what they were asking, as they gave so many facts.

I had a lot of critical path questions and possible outcomes of what the PM would do next, questions. There was also a lot on the order of the PM framework and the order of the knowledge areas which I’m glad I studied that in detail. In fact they actually ask you which one precedes or follows an item of work or they would list a few and say which one in the list below is missing in the order above. I had to rack my brain for those and use quite a bit of PM logic.

Anyway the exam seemed to get easier as time went by although I spent 2 hours on the first 80 questions, then I needed to take a pee break. I came back and knuckled down and completed the next 120 questions in 1,5 hours giving myself 30 minutes to review previous marked (not sure) questions which I’m glad I did as I made quite a few changes (approx 10 for the better). So future students must spend time reviewing their exam.

Well the crunch time came, the time had expired and I had reviewed and answered all my questions. It is the most nerve racking thing ever waiting for the exam to be scored as the screen just goes white. I was quite nervous and crossed fingers as I was worried about the first 30 questions -and then the outcome!

Congratulations you have passed, whew what a relief! That was a little tough for my liking. My scores came up on the screen and I did quite well in some areas as I got 100%, in most others ranged from between 65 and 80 so on average I got about 76.

Although I’m now awaiting my certificate in the post in which I think they give you a final mark.

Anyway, just in closing I’d like to say thank you to ProjectPro for your courses - they gave me a tremendous advantage and edge helping me in my studying.

All the best to future students with the new syllabus and the new requirements.

Thanks again.
Andrew Williams
Retail maintenance and projects supervisor
Shell South Africa Marketing (Pty) Limited