PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)

Your Why is more important.

Why choose PMI-ACP? 

Before I answer that, let me quickly take you through my Journey towards preparation of exam and exam experience.

Preparation: I chose both online training classes and self study.

I took the online training classes through knowledge hut.

I felt I can take up exam in 45 days and  paid for the PMI-ACP exam in February 2020.

Started to prepare,

Book used for reference: PMI-ACP Mike Griffiths. 

Due to so many reasons, the preparation was more or less like on and off and I could not take up exam as planned. 

**I am not going into details, but I had meantime every now and then tried my best to understand agile in general and agile mindset. I was asking so many questions to my friends who had prior experience in agile work environment and colleagues at my work place about why they do whatever do. All of it also helped to develop the agile mindset subconsciously. **

Finally in November I decided to take up the exam. This time my approach was like, Week1: reading the reference book for 3 days continuously. Week2: Tried similar second iteration of 3 days of Continous study. Week 3: Gained the confidence about the flow,  I scheduled the exam in a week and continued my preparation based on time left.

Note: In the reference book, we have chapters and in the end of each chapter you had sample questions 

I would have roughly studied the book 3 times. Honestly the 2nd and 3rd time, I skipped topics which I was comfortable about.

tried the sample questions all the three  times which helped me to decided which topics I can skip.

Important Note: Sample questions are totally different from the actual exam questions.

Final stage of preparation was trying out the Mock exams provided by Knowledge hut.

I took two Mock exams and they were taken 2 and 3 days before the actual exam, it helps in two ways.

(May be helpful tip for some, try taking these exams around similar time of a day compared to actual exam.

Say you have exam on Wednesday at 9am, try taking the exams on previous week any day but around same time 9am.

Why? I think, it helps to tune your mind) 

1. To assess your time management for the exam.

2.To gain confidence about your understanding of Agile and Understand your mindset.

As I already highlighted, please do not solely depend on these exams and also do not try to memorize the questions and answers because the actual exam questions are totally situational and it will test your understanding of Agile in general and Agile mindset.

One tip before I move on to the exam section, please avoid preparing a day before the exam and on the day of exam.

Keep yourself fresh and energetic, because believe me the exam will drain you out otherwise and you wont be able to read the questions with clarity. Especially the language used in the exam is not only tricky but also critical to know key words to be able to answer them. The day before the exam I slept nicely as I knew the importance of sleep.

Online Proctored Exam:

I took an online exam as it was convenient for me.

(I would suggest others to go for it as well, provided you fulfill the needed requirements).

I would advise as per the guidelines log in 30 minutes before the exam.

Exam:

The exam started and clock started ticking.

Key take away here was. Although, I knew about it, I did what I should not have done. Got stuck to a question and soon realized the time was ticking.

I almost ran out of time for last few questions. 

Some of the questions were short and some were long, so we may need to read 2 to 3 times both the questions and answers.

Considerations for the exam: 

Be aware that in most work environment have tailored work process to suit their need, in exam focus will be on the plain-vanilla version of agile processes.

self organization is highly valued in Agile.

For some questions, It may help you to know the responsibilities of the people in different roles working in agile environment.

while reading the questions considering time constraints its easily possible to miss out the key words in exam ex: which of these is "NOT" related to kind of questions.

You must look out for the words that are against the Agile principles in the list of answers that help to eliminate options.

Some questions, I was able to answer straight away, some needed to eliminate the options in the answers.

Even then some places you will left with two probable answer options. Read the question again and see for the key word. 

You will then be able to find the best option.

Now to important question, Why PMI-ACP?

My dear PMI-ACP Aspirants, If you genuinely put in the effort to prepare for the exam, I am sure the journey for each one of you will be transformational not only career wise but also in personal life because of the minor mindset shift you will embrace subconsciously.

Good luck for your exams, believe in yourself, you can do amazingly.

Jagadeesh #Purity in thoughts and deeds.

It's been 2 years since I completed PMI ACP certification and thought of sharing some inputs/pointers regarding the same:

> As soon as I cleared my PMP during the month of March'18, started with PMI ACP application and submitted for review/approval
> Started with preparation in parallel
> Gone through the Practice tests and material while application is under review.
> Within next 3 weeks, got a confirmation for application
> Picked up next available slot for the exam and that's in the month of May'18. Booked the slot
> Continued with going through the practice tests
> There's few differences with the terminologies used which needs to be reviewed and made a note of, to avoid confusion with those.
> Did at least one practice test per 2 days, during weekdays. Weekend's 1 or 2 per day as the time is very less.
> On the D day, gave the exam and got the result as 'Above Target' for all the sections.

PMP exam questions are mainly focused on formulae, logics and reasoning, whereas PMI ACP exam questions are mainly focused on scenario/situation based.
A Suggestion for whoever wants to give the PMI ACP exam, you can get prepared by yourself and give the exam.

I was always confused on what certification is good for Scrum. I started analyzing various option such as  PSM-1 by Scrum.org or CSM by Scrum Alliance. I picked PSM-1 as this credential stay good for lifetime and doesn’t need any renewal. I started reading Scrum guide from Scrum.org and it helped me have a better understanding about scrum. I was able to pas PSM-1 in first attempt with 97%. After PSM I started looking for certification for Agile not just for Scrum, thats where I ended up thinking of PMI-ACP.