Your study is a marathon, not a sprint.
So, don’t aim to cover all the ground too quickly. Set out a plan for the duration of your campaign.
Then, treat your study plan like a project plan.
Commit to your study plan. Monitor your progress. And don’t be afraid to review it.
Track your progress as you go. And revise your plan if it is not working for you.
But, crucially, celebrate milestones in your progress, just as you would with any other project.
The Best Approach to Your Plan
Of course, everyone is different. We all do have different learning preferences and habits. And so, almost every pmp study plan will look different compared to others. However, there is a structure and a logical order and you can utilize templates (like we do provide later in this roadmap) and customize them to your own needs.
But to be able to do so, you need to know your needs and your learning preferences, right? If you don't know what will work for you at the moment, start with the principle of '"little and often". Create opportunities to study as often as possible – even if they are short reviews of a single small topic. This avoids burnout and builds a routine. And it will show you, what might work for you ... and what not. habits
Preparing to Create Your Plan
Before you create your plan, I do recommend reading the other modules in this roadmap regarding study plans. They will give you ideas for what you need to include. The other preparation for creating your plan is to review your work and home-life commitments. Think about:
- Your daily routines
- Your weekly routines
- Major events within your preparation time scale, like holidays, work project go-lives, social commitments
All of this will help you to build the framework into which you can schedule your learning and practice.
Things change in the Run-up to Your exam
If you can, schedule big chunks of time in the run-up to your exam, for studying. If you work, try to get either:
- Study time from your employer (best)
- Unpaid study leave. If you can’t get either, consider
- Annual leave
Plan to complete all of your learning around 2 to 4 weeks before your exam, so you can spend that time practicing questions and mock exams and checking the details.
Build Quizzes and Exam Simulations into Your Plan
You should plan to regularly spend some time doing sample exam questions, based on what you have studied so far. Start this early in your preparation - maybe from the beginning. Doing such a validation test before even started learning can give you some valuable insights. At least you should do a sample test after each chapter/topic you have studied to validate if you have gained the essential knowledge that you will need to know for the exam.
The nearer you get to your exam, the more important this will become.
So, in the last few weeks or so before the exam date, the focus of your preparation should be on practicing questions and looking up the aspects you don't understand well.
In the last month, you should schedule for yourself one or more (ideally three) full mock exams, which you would take as near to real exam conditions as possible. Work to the PMI's timings, so you get a sense of the pace of the exam and also, if you do more than one, build up the stamina for it.
After any test questions, always review and analyze all of the questions. Yes, not just your wrong answers, but also the ones you got right. More on this later ...
Outline PMP Preparation Plan
Here is a first 10-step draft as an example of how you can outline your Plan...
- Read and study the PMP Handbook
- Review the PMP Exam Content Outline (ECO) and highlight the parts you know, the parts you know a little about, and the parts you do not know
- Do a 'familiarization review' of the PMBOK Guide (6th & 7th Edition ... yes) and the Agile Practice Guide - this is not a detailed reading - it's just enough to allow you to know the scope of what they contain
- Take a PMP Training course.
- Now review and study the PMBOK Guide(s) in detail, and use one or two prep books in companion for better understanding
- And study the Agile Practice Guide in detail,
- Also study the Agile Manifesto and 12 Principles, and the Scrum Guide
- Start taking some timed quizzes to find the areas to focus your learning and revision on
- Move up to a professional PMP Exam simulator
- When you can get continuously 75%+ on every NEW mock exam/exam simulation you do, you'll have a good chance of passing your PMP exam
In the next chapter of your roadmap, I will guide you through every single step of the sometimes overwhelming application process.
See you there,
Markus