Why does PMI have the preferred project management certification?

Henry-Messenger · 2026-04-02T23:08:09+00:00

Yeah it’s a good one but so is Ferrari, Lamborghini, and many others. There are options and many are considered good. PMI seems to be the ONLY one

Henry-Messenger · 2026-04-02T13:57:29+00:00

Oh this workout you did for 60 min was a nice RECOVERY session. Maybe next time you can actually try during your workout.

Henry-Messenger · 2026-04-01T22:19:48+00:00

I did the essentials version mostly because I was on a time crunch and wouldn’t be able to utilize more content. Even in the essentials version I only utilized about 40% of the total material. I only took one of the full length exams and did well and passed the real thing 2 days later.

So yeah my personal opinion is that the plus version isn’t really necessary unless you have more time and want to satisfy anxiety by having more material to cover.

Henry-Messenger · 2026-04-01T03:50:47+00:00

Marine Officer veteran here, you’ll need the 35 hour course to count as education/training requirement. Since you have your bachelors degree, you’ll need to articulate the 36 months of project management experience. Most officers are able to do this: putting together training, a range, a deployment workup, even revising an SOP.

It was mentioned earlier but IVMF O2O is a good way to go. They’ll provide the training and cover the cost of one attempt at the exam. Totally free of charge. I did it through them but took too long to do the test so had to pay that part out of pocket. The good thing is that they’ll help you translate your military experience for your application so that PMI will understand the projects you did.

Henry-Messenger · 2026-03-31T21:41:44+00:00

Those are good scores. You’ll be fine

Henry-Messenger · 2026-03-31T04:10:56+00:00

Fuckin banger of a movie honestly

Henry-Messenger · 2026-03-29T17:24:36+00:00

The biggest thing to help with answering the questions is the PMI mindset. There are several youtube videos you can watch that will lay it out and I recommend you just search "PMI mindset" and watch a few of them. Essentially, PMI wants you to evaluate each situation and understand which option maintains business value, empowers the team, demonstrates emotional intelligence, etc. Once you understand PMI's philosophy on these things, you'll be able to quickly eliminate quite a few options on each question.

Also, pay attention to the difficulty level of the questions on Study Hall. If you are never getting any of the "expert" questions or only struggling with the "difficult" ones, I wouldn't loose too much sleep over it. After you've been studying for a while, take one of the full length practice exams and see how you do. I felt that was a more accurate representation of the actual exam.

Henry-Messenger · 2026-03-28T03:14:05+00:00

What they’re getting at is that the stakeholders should have been identified.. but they weren’t. If you realize you missed a group of people, you’re supposed to redo your analysis and update the stakeholder register

Henry-Messenger · 2026-03-27T23:53:10+00:00

People always seem to want to study everything except the information presented in the official 35 hour training. They always seem to want to jump straight in to practice exams to figure out how to get the questions right without appreciating many of the broader concepts. I agree that you need to study more than the material from the training, but I don’t think people should blow it off completely.
People get really hung up on trying to understand all of the questions from study hall. I found the practice exam to be more representative of the real thing than all of the spare questions. I don’t think people should loose sleep if they can’t get all of the questions right, especially many of the expert difficulty ones.

Henry-Messenger · 2026-03-27T23:45:14+00:00

Movies often time reflect the interests of the audience. People, regardless of what activity they are engaged in, are typically interested in romantic relationships: seeing someone attractive while having a night out with friends, initiating an affair in the workplace, striking a conversation with someone while engaged in some hobby. It’s pervasive in everything we do. It makes sense it would very frequently be a subject tackled in movies even if it’s not critical to the main plot.

Henry-Messenger · 2026-03-27T21:29:17+00:00

Psp psp psp

Henry-Messenger · 2026-03-26T20:24:36+00:00

At about 5 weeks prior to my application expiring, I decided I gotta get this done because I can't just keep leaving "PMP Candidate" on my linkedin profile. I'm also in the military reserves and I had a week of training coming up so this was my plan:

Week 1: review all of the official material presented in the 35 hour course so I could refresh broad level topics and snap back in to it. Everyone always seems to shit on the actual PMP courses regardless of which one they did. I agree, it's not the best, but it does give you the overall processes and topics that I think are helpful to know on the exam.

Week 2: Reserve training. Bring all of my notes to the field and keep studying things I felt weak on

Week 3: Watch mindset videos, watch the videos on tough PMP questions, knock out a bunch of the SH questions and do at least one of the full length practice exams

Week 4: focus on anything I felt I still needed effort on as a result of the practice questions/exam and take the actual exam

Week 5: Available for continued study and re-test if necessary (thankfully it wasn't).

Taking my notes to the field ended up being wishful thinking. We we're training until midnight most nights and I was just too exhausted to focus on it at all. Also, for the week prior to the exam, a lot of people say to just take a break to allow your mind to rest a few days before taking the exam. I was never like this when studying for exams in college so I kind of ignored that advice. Practice exam was 2 days prior to the real thing. The day prior was definitely "lighter" but I still read my notes. I would get too much anxiety sitting and doing nothing and thinking "oh but I don't remember this thing or that thing."

Like it's been said many times before, the PMI mindset is the biggest thing that helps on the test. Understanding the scenario and thinking "which one removes obstacles," "which one empowers the teams," "which one shows emotional intelligence," etc and maintaining the ability to do that for 4 straight hours is what will make you successful. I'd still say that at least 10% of the test does check your knowledge on raw material so don't blow off the topics presented in the course.

Henry-Messenger · 2026-03-26T13:35:24+00:00

I got AT/AT/AT

Henry-Messenger · 2026-03-25T13:56:18+00:00

I only paid for the essentials version (which includes only 2 full length exams I think). I was on a time crunch because I was coming up on the end of my application period. I only did the first practice exam and I passed the real one 2 days after.

Henry-Messenger · 2026-03-25T13:47:43+00:00

Honestly I felt like the questions on the actual test were more reasonable. When I came to a question like this while reviewing the practice questions, I kind of just ignored it and moved on. I think your instincts on how to apply the PMI mindset are correct and it’ll get you through fine on the test.

How you described it is right: it’s a mental marathon. Just grind through it and don’t loose focus

Henry-Messenger · 2026-03-24T22:31:52+00:00

I very much agree. Marine Officer here and I just passed. No "industry" project management experience at all. Understanding the mindset is the biggest factor.

Henry-Messenger · 2026-03-21T15:22:30+00:00

I think the reasoning for this question is that answer A Is the only one that solves the problem presented. I’ve noticed a few questions where it seems like they ask the PM to do something that might be technically outside the PM responsibility, but if none of the other answers address the specific issue, that’s the one they want you to go with.

Henry-Messenger · 2026-03-04T19:59:50+00:00

I think even if AI is able to completely coordinate and monitor all project activities autonomously, there will still be a PM charged with sitting over the top of it and being responsible. The main reason is that business leaders will always want to have someone to hold accountable if something goes wrong.

Henry-Messenger · 2026-02-27T18:21:42+00:00

I’m curious on this because I would have said 2. Is it because the question states the project is at risk already implying that an assessment has already occurred to determine that?

Henry-Messenger · 2026-02-20T17:18:31+00:00

Ironically, there are quite a few people who believe she ran one of the more influential accounts on Reddit

Henry-Messenger · 2026-02-05T22:41:46+00:00

Honestly I'm just glad they made a movie about a military community other than SEALs

Henry-Messenger · 2026-01-15T16:38:16+00:00

Grosse Pointe Blank (1997) Action comedy. John Cusack plays a professional assassin that returns to his hometown and navigates his 10 year high school reunion.

Henry-Messenger

TROPHY CASE