In the spring of 2020, a sudden new crown epidemic broke the order in all aspects of Chinese society. After the resumption of work and production, business operations are under great pressure. Many companies have laid off employees to reduce costs, and the IT industry is no exception. Colleagues around are panicking, for fear that in Huizhou, a second-tier city in Guangdong, which is also one of the Greater Bay Area cities, there will be no good job opportunities. Coupled with the fact that I have been a programmer for 6 years, both technology and career have encountered bottlenecks, and my life will soon come to the threshold of the standing year. I can't help but start to have middle-aged worries, full of confusion and worries about the future. If you continue to work on software development, programmers who "eat youth" can work for a few more years; if you transform, you have no experience and no chance, the direction of the transformation will be even more difficult to start; if you change careers, forget it. What else can the IT industry do. In the circumstances of such a coincidence, one day in May, I swiped the course advertisements of the course bar and 51CTO in the circle of friends, and spent a lot of 9.9 yuan to buy the course bar. There are many different types of courses, including technical aspects, product managers, Data analysis and so on. However, what attracted me most was the PMP trial class of 51CTO. I tried to listen to a section from Teacher Wang An. I had a preliminary understanding of the related content of project management, and I also learned about PMP preparation and exam-related issues. , Let me have a simple but in-depth understanding of PMP. Not only that, but Wang An's language is humorous, clear and standard, rich in content, and clear in knowledge. Gradually, the idea of wanting to take a professional certificate in hand and give myself more confidence in my career development appeared. It seems that PMP is a very suitable choice. But you can’t just buy a course when you see an advertisement, after all, courses are not cheap. For this reason, I consulted my classmates and colleagues, learned the value of the PMP certificate online, compared the courses of different training institutions, and finally found that although the PMP is expensive, the value is quite high, and the 51CTO platform is quite good. Give a lot of praise. So I bought the course and started my journey to prepare for the PMP exam.
Preparing for the PMP test is generally recommended for 2 to 3 months. However, due to the epidemic this year, the June exam was cancelled and I can only take the September exam, so I have plenty of time to prepare for the exam, plus the final September exam was postponed Half a month, so I have a full 5 months. But just like the psychology of student syndrome and project management investment curve mentioned by Mr. Wang An, there was a huge enthusiasm for learning and a wealth of time at the beginning, so the first half month had great enthusiasm, and also spent a lot of passion and time investment. When I was preparing for the exam, but afterwards, due to laziness and work, I couldn’t bring up the enthusiasm for learning for two or three months. I wasted a lot of time. I didn’t catch up until a month before the exam. I finally did the basics before the exam Learning to prepare for the exam, I have a little in my heart. In the end, I got 3A2T in the exam. Although it was too far away from the 5A goal set before preparing for the exam, I finally won the certificate. Now I will share the summary of my test preparation experience with you. Although it is not a 5A experience, it should be helpful for students who are based on the test.
1. First of all, Mr. Wang An, who strongly recommends 51CTO, follows Lao Wang's study plan. Not only does it get twice the result with half the effort, and can get the certificate smoothly, but it is more than just getting a certificate, but can really learn the thinking and knowledge of PMP . Lao Wang often shares his experience as a content explanation. Combining theory with practice can make PMP integrate into daily life and work and benefit a lot.
2. Not just follow the progress and plan of the course blindly, but also constantly modify the methods and methods in the learning process, so as to form your own learning plan and learning progress, and constantly adjust the learning rhythm. After all, most people who take the PMP exam are classmates with busy work and life. Everyone has different living and working environments and different learning and accepting abilities. They should not blindly cram it mechanically, but should pay more attention to individual learning. For example, I prefer to learn written knowledge, so the teaching videos are often watched at double speed to increase the speed, and the live broadcast is less involved. But I spent more time in pmbok and handouts.
3. Pmbok must be read once, at least in a rough reading. It is necessary to understand the knowledge of pmp from a macro perspective, and then to memorize the fifteenth supreme picture. In the later stage, it is necessary to master the input and output of each project activity, and master Input, think of tools from input, this step can solve at least half of the problems.
4. The video explanation should be listened to at least 1 or 2 times, because the video has sorted out the key and difficult points of the book, sorted out the entire knowledge network, and can master the exam content from the whole to the details after reading it. Of course, the video can be watched at double speed. I like to play it at 1.5 times speed. Teacher Wang An’s teaching rhythm and wording are very clear and clear, and I won’t feel awkward when watching it at double speed.
5. You need to brush more questions, practice hand feel, and do wrong questions twice. 51cto provides wrong question books, which is very good. A student in the exam preparation group said that the wrong questions in the later mock exam can basically be answered in seconds, but the exam failed in the end. I don't think it is necessary. The second answer just means that the answer is memorized. This is meaningless. If you don't understand the question, the new question with the same knowledge point will still be wrong. Wrong questions should be analyzed and understood the test points of the question.
6. In the middle and later stages of preparation for the exam, you must focus on the lesson of "Analysis and Debate on Confusing Concepts". Some knowledge points are relatively similar, and you must understand the similarities and differences. Such as quality seven tools: cause and effect diagram: root cause; checklist: avoid omissions; flow chart: show a series of steps; control chart: monitor any process; scatter diagram: relationship between two variables; Pareto chart: main reason; histogram Figure: Determine frequency. This often-occurring observation point is too easy to confuse, it must be linked to memory. Another example is calculation questions. The examination room originally provided a calculator, but the policy of one month before the examination did not provide a calculator. According to Yankee’s calculation ability, it is impossible to have complicated calculation questions in the exam, or even calculation questions, so I gave up the memorization of calculation formulas in the later stage of preparation for the exam. As a result, the exam did not produce calculation questions, only 1 to 2. Tao has something to do with simple calculation.
7. Recommend my memorization method: I used an excel sheet to focus on writing the fifteen supreme diagrams, the definitions of 49 project activities, input and output and tools, the formulas, terms and common abbreviations of calculation questions in the late preparation period and the surprise period. The point is that everything is done by hand, not copy and paste. The advantage of this is that it can deepen the memory by typing it once, and it is also convenient for the last few days to quickly review and check for missing holes.
8. Answer the questions with a rhythm, usually practice answering questions on a computer or mobile phone, which is completely different from filling out the answer sheet in a written examination. Before the exam, I followed the answering speed of the mock exam questions, and basically it took only half an hour for every 50 questions. Therefore, I prepare to answer every 50 questions in 30-40 minutes and fill out the answer sheet, so that all questions can be completed within 3 hours. In the test, it took 50 minutes to finish the first 50 questions, and I was a little flustered, but after I stabilized a little bit, I gave up the strategy of filling out the answer sheet every 50 questions, and just did 50 more questions. It took nearly 110 minutes to complete the first 100 questions and the card. I need to make a point here. Now I usually write less, and the pen for the exam is not easy to use. The color is not dark enough when I paint the card, so I need to paint a few more times, which leads to a lot of time spent on the card. In the end, it took me more than 3 hours to finish all the questions, and I checked it roughly and re-determined the answers to a few circled questions. Of course, I still maintained the original choices, and finally rushed to advance before the last 30 minutes. Handed in the paper.
9. About the exam:
--When filling out the answer sheet, you must be careful and attentive, correct the question number and options, and do not fill in the wrong question;
--When answering a question, when you encounter some uncertain options, first choose one quickly and intuitively according to the rhythm of the answer, then mark the question, and then think about it after you finish it, but if you are finished, you are not sure if you think about it again. It is not recommended Revising the answer is often the first instinct to be right;
--English translation has people complaining every year, but there is no need to be too entangled in the translation and understanding of individual topics. Too much time is wasted on individual topics. If you don't understand it after reading Chinese twice, you will focus on the key words in English. Yes, one or two questions are not too important;
--The test paper can be written casually. The first time you read the question, you can boldly highlight the key words, write the calculation process, write the answer, and mark the question. It does not matter. If there is no calculation question, the draft paper is not necessary;
--When you take the exam, you should be calm, don't be too nervous, keep a little excitement, 4 hours will not be too long, and you will not feel hungry or sleepy when you are fully engaged;
--My strategy is to apply for the toilet with the teacher in the examination room after completing 100 questions, take a sip to regain my mood and adjust my thinking. I insisted on this when the tempo of the exam was completely different from my plan.
10. Finally, PMP is more about cultivating project management thinking. At all times, it is necessary to maintain the premise and assumptions of PMP, follow the Yankee's treatment of people, follow the thinking of the teacher, and many problems can be solved easily. Don't bring in too many personal experiences and emotions. I hope that after you finish PMP, you will not only get a "flattering" certificate, but also learn the essence of project management and apply it to your daily work and life.
Finally, I would like to say that for me as a programmer, this certificate does not have much practical value for the time being, and I may not have the opportunity to transform into project management in the future. However, with a valuable certificate in hand, there will be more possibilities for the profession and more opportunities. When opportunities arise in the future, this is the best preparation. This is also the best self-improvement I can give myself when I am in confusion. Of course, what PMP brings me is not just a certificate, but also a kind of ability to deal with work and life, because everything is a project.
In the end, the certificate still needs to be dried~
