I’
ve been around the block a few times. I am currently in my fourth career. I’ve seen and done a lot. So I somewhat surprised myself not too long ago when I decided to pursue the PMI Program Manager Professional certification (the PMP). This was partly because I have an educational objective for my current work place (City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department) but also it is something that I once began to pursue during career number two and I long felt it was unfinished business.
Long story short – I passed the test and got my certification two days ago. Whew!
It was probably the toughest test I have ever taken. In preparation, I attended a four-day boot camp, spent many nights studying and memorizing, worked tons of EVM math problems, learned to think “the PMBOK way,” and generally ignored my wife Vicky for three weeks. But it paid off and I am now a certified PMP.
When I say it was a tough test I am not kidding around. It is 200 multiple-choice questions that must be completed within a four hour period. You can take a break, but the clock does not stop ticking. And the test is administered at Prometric, wh
ere they practically strip search you before letting you into the testing room. I kid you not, all you can take into the test room with you is the key for your locker (where you have stored all of the belongings that you tote around with you) and your official ID. You must sign in, and sign out if you do need to visit the loo. When you return from the bathroom, you have to go through all the sign in, turn out your pockets, pull your pants legs up, and finally get wanded by the gate guardian. The TSA could learn from these folks. This is all necessary of course to prevent cheating and to preserve the high quality of the certification.
The test itself was nothing like the sample tests I had been taking. The wording of both questions and answers was obfuscated and I had to really concentrate not only on what the question was actually asking, but what the various answers were actually answering. Very time consuming and it threw off my timing. I finished with only 20 minutes left for my second pass – to review those questions I had reservations about or had simply skipped as they would take a long time to answer (math questions). I raced through the marked questions and with just a few minutes left I clicked on the “End Test” button. At that point I was just second guessing myself and probably changing right answers to wrong answers.
The test system is supposed to grade the test immediately and present you with the results – either you pass or you don’t. But of course, before providing me with my result, I had to take there survey about how much I enjoyed the testing experience. Don’t these guys realize that I had just spent four hours agonizing over weirdly worded questions and several answers that all looked like winners to me. But I was honest and patient and did their bloody survey.
Then a screen popped up saying “CONGRATULATIONS – You have successfully completed the…” I stopped reading at that point and simply focused on the word “CONGRATULATIONS.” I was really surprised. At the end of the test I had figured my chances were, at best, 50/50, and honestly I believed I had blown the test. Many of the answers I had ended up choosing were simply guesses because a lot of them boiled down to two that seemed as correct as the other to me. But I must have been guessing right, because the machine told me I had passed.
One thing that John Sanderson, our boot camp instructor, had said time after time was that you had to think the PMI way. That the test took place in PMI land which may bear little resemblance to the real world. We had to find the answer that most closely resembled what the PMBOK would say. I thought of that advice many times during the test and I believe that John’s words got me through it. I suspended what I thought “I would do” and focused on what “the PMBOK said to do.” It apparently worked.
So, I have a new document to frame and hang on my office wall plus the satisfaction of achieving a much sought professional achievement. It goes to show that it is never too late and an old dog can learn a new trick or two.
