What other PMP Exam Providers Dont want you to know..... (Exam is mostly Agile)

Disclaimer: This blog is an opinion piece and Coach Dan has strong opinions, as often the case with people who know what they are talking about and have little time for the white noise associated with pretenders that misdirect PMP Aspirants in the wrong directions over and over.

Furthermore, the content you will read below is speculative in nature and if you are looking for scientific and provable data perhaps you should stop reading right here. Don’t worry I won’t be offended. On the other hand if you feel good reading materials from someone who has personally trained over 10 thousand PMP test takers one by one, carefully integrating their feedback into his PMP training materials than you should read on by all means.

Let me make you aware of a reality that many people do not know about: the PMP exam is mostly agile. While you may see online that the exam is 50 percent agile and 50 percent waterfall, the reality of the feedback from test takers is that the exam is more like 75 percent agile. Now, I am not stating this as a fact. As I mentioned this article is speculative in nature and only one persons opinion -- what I am suggesting -- is that if 500 people tell me day after that that the exam is mostly agile, then I am responsible to my tribe of followers to make MY simulator accurate per this feedback. That is why I updated all my resources over a year ago to be more reflective of the feedback I have received. The result is student after student telling me “Dan, your simulator is just like the real exam!” 

Studying the PMBOK isn’t just not enough – it’s not needed at all.

In my professional opinion, studying only the PMBOK is a complete waste of time, especially after training 10 thousand students personally, live over zoom. It is impossible for a student to glean from reading the PMBOK 6 just how much emphasis the PMP exam actually places on Agile. The Inputs, Tools, Techniques, and Outputs (ITTO) dominate the PMBOK 6 by amount of content yet show up exactly nowhere on the real exam per my students feedback. So why in god’s name would you read PMBOK’s 700 pages to cover all the ITTOs from predictive (i.e., waterfall) project management methodology? Because you saw it on Reddit? That leads me to my next section.

Don’t trust the online PMP Community “experts” which is guaranteed to set you back.

While online communities such as Reddit can be focused, engaging, and supportive toward PMP candidates, they can also sidetrack you with terrible crowd-sourced "wisdom" around training courses and materials. For example, there one simulator that seems to be the favorite go to suggestion for helping PMP aspirants prep for the exam, but it is totally out of step with the current exam, including hundreds of questions on ITTOs, formulas, network diagrams, all of which are totally absent from the current PMP exam. Another poor choice is the constant promotion of Udemy courses which is also based largely on outdated materials and weak supporting YouTube videos. You know the old saying, “Garbage in, Garbage out”

My PMP Coaching Program is a cut above – Because I take the time daily.

My PMP coaching program does not require the reading of any books, but if you do choose to read, you would be better served reading small texts like the Agile Practitioner guide, the scrum guide, and other resources. Many simulators on the market are still based on PMBOK 6 from a few years ago, which is not ideal. If you're currently using a simulator filled with formulas, ITTOs, and Network Diagrams, you are being totally misled.

Preparing the Right Way for the PMP Exam – With a free realistic simulator preview

Since the exam now focuses more on Agile and Scenario-Based questions, I have designed an ascending quiz challenge with three levels to help you prepare effectively. They will make your head hurt and they are supposed to. What should the PM do next? What is the best thing the PM can do?These are the things you see on the exam not things like ‘All of the following are inputs to the WBS except?”

The proof is right in the pudding. Take these three free quizzes that get increasingly harder, and you will get a real view of what you will face on the exam day. You may breeze right through level one and you may even do “OK” on level 2. Level 3 will be very tricky. They quizzes work like this.

• Level I - 35 Simple Questions
• Level II - 35 Medium Questions
• Level III - 35 Hard Questions

All levels require a 75% passing rate, and answer keys are available. Taking these three quizzes will allow you to see what the PMP exam is really looking like TODAY. It can be hard for many providers to update their simulators as quickly as the exam changes, but as someone who has met with PMP test takers every day for the last seven years, I know what they cannot know and I want to share the truth with you.

The best way to prepare for the exam is to work LIVE, with a coach who prepares you properly and not by sending you off to study dinosaur material all by your lonesome. Grab the free quizzes HERE and when you are done book a private meeting with Coach Dan and I’ll help you get certified in as little as 30 days with a real study plan.

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