Recently, we brought one of those aggressive PMP exam prep boot camps onsite to prepare roughly a dozen folks to take the PMP exam. Unfortnately, a handful of the attendees failed. And that makes me question the advisability of this exam prep approach.
The boot camp style training is very up front about its approach. It’s not about learning project management or even learning PMBOK. It’s about preparing for and passing the certification exam — drills, memorization, and test taking techniques. You show up Monday, and you take the exam on Friday.
And maybe you take it again.
And maybe you repeat the class later and then take it again.
This approach doesn’t resonate with me. Still, it does resonate with some of my very highly esteemed colleagues, and it has been successful for some of them. But not for others. One colleague took the course, took the exam, repeated the exam later, retook the course, and finally passed on the 3rd try. That’s about $2,500. Twice.
I took a prep course, too, mind you. It was a weekly long training at the local university professional training extension. I made some valued professional contacts. The course was not a rigid exam prep course, however. It was most valuable it explaining PMBOK terms, logic, and approach and helping the students to translate their considerable experience into that language, to identify holes in their experience (none of us practices every PMBOK principle, it would be wrong to in most cases), and to plan out our study to learn PMBOK material and fill in those knowledge gaps. I took the exam 6-8 weeks later and passed. That was about $1,000.
In hindsight, I think I’d have fared better using the PM Prepcast about which I’ve written before. For about $100, you get the same benefits of the course I took: PM knowledge presented in PMBOK language. You take it at your own pace, letting you translate your experience into PMBOK language. That time also helps to reinforce your core PM knowledge and explore and expand some new PM skills while you’re preparing for the exam. Finally, Cornelius offers some complementary materials for those who like memorization drills.
I’ve written about all this before here. As I start working on my 2nd 3-year PDU cycle, I’m reminded of my own exam prep experience, the learning that I enjoyed, and the struggles that some of my colleagues have gone through by trying to take some exam shortcuts.
Hopefully, some of the reminiscing will be helpful to you if you’re getting ready to take the PMP exam. Good luck!
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