CAPM Exam Preparation: 7 Sure-Fire Steps to Pass the CAPM Certification Exam

CAPM is the entry-level project management certification provided by PMI. Increasing demand for the project management profession in the job market made CAPM certification more valuable over recent years.
To get the CAPM certification in your first attempt, you must have a regular CAPM exam preparation plan to learn the exam content.

In this article, I have listed the CAPM exam preparation tips. Before jumping into CAPM exam prep tips, it is better to know the fundamentals of CAPM certification.

CAPM Certification in a Nutshell

PMI offers PMI Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) certification for aspirants who are joining the project management profession or those who wish to acquire the fundamentals of project management awareness.

In any typical project, there are team members who share their expert skills such as software testing or coding in a software project or landscaping in a building project.

CAPM is proper for such individuals, who can think this CAPM certification as an entry-level to acquire the relevant skills and knowledge. It will help them to work better in a project environment, understand the challenges, and work with the project manager in a more aligned manner.

CAPM exam preparation requires a considerable investment of both time and money. Therefore, it is essential to prepare well to clear the exam in the first attempt and avoid the pains and effort of return.

Understand the CAPM Exam Structure and Content

As part of CAPM exam preparation would be to know the structure of the exam and what is the content of the exam and the proportion given to various chapters of the PMBOK.

Eligibility:

• To appear for CAPM, you want to have a Secondary Degree-High school diploma. You require to have either 1500 hours of Project experience or 23 hours of Project Management education. You can get the 23 hours from CAPM Exam Preparation Training.

CAPM Exam Cost:

• You require to pay $225 or $300 depending on whether you are a member or not. Membership is always fit as you get not the only discount on exam fee but access to a host of resources from PMI.

We will discuss various CAPM Exam preparation tips. It will help CAPM aspirants to be well informed, plan better, and pass the CAPM Exam in a single attempt.

Steps to Pass the CAPM Certification Exam

#1. Prepare a CAPM Study Plan:

As a CAPM aspirant, once you do the groundwork and understand the CAPM syllabus content and structure of the exam. The next most crucial phase would be to create a personal plan for the CAPM Exam preparation.

Based on your work plan and available time for study over the weekdays and weekends, determine the time available for allotting to CAPM Exam every week. You may not be in a position to decide how much time you want to cover the portion at the start of the CAPM Exam preparation.

Try reading the book randomly and check your convenience level with the subject and consider the overall time required.

#2. Scheduling the CAPM Exam Carefully:

Scheduling for the CAPM exam and booking a slot without a baseline plan may be risky. It is necessary to assess where you stand and what work needs to be put in before an exam date is decided when everyone wishes to pass the exam in the first attempt.
Before scheduling the date for the exam, It is always a good idea to spend a few early hours of preparation in understanding the exam, knowing your knowledge level, estimating the available time for study. This initial planning will vastly increase your chances of passing the exam in the first attempt.

#3. Learning Project Management Principles:

Specific principles discussed in the CAPM exam include learning project management and processes in context, as well as integration, scope, time, cost, quality, human resource, communication, risk, procurement, and stakeholder management.

Each of these principles is covered in A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge. You must know them individually and how they work together to assure overall success in project management. It is required to use the most current version of the PMBOK Guide for studying and review.

#4. Take the CAPM Practice Exam:

CAPM Practice exams are available from a kind of test preparation website. Practice exams ease with becoming familiar with the style and format of questions and allow for the practice of taking a three-hour exam.

It is usually suggested that consistently scoring above 80% on practice exams is a reliable indicator of success for the real thing.

#5. Know Your Strengths:

Depending on their background, abilities, learning, and experience CAPM aspirants tend to be comparatively stronger in specific areas. Strategize answering in a method so that you answer the questions of your strength at the start and gain confidence.

During the CAPM practice exams, make a summary of the areas of your strengths and weaknesses. While it is good to practice hard the topics, it is equally, if not more important, to combine your active areas and assure good scoring in the test.

#6. Go Through the PMI PMBOK:

While CAPM exam preparation makes it easy to go through the concepts in a friendly way. The importance of reading PMBOK and referring it as often as possible throughout the preparation. It is necessary to spend sufficient time for reading PMBOK as a CAPM exam preparation plan.

As CAPM is for those practitioners who are starting their career in project management, there is more focus on an examinee’s knowledge of PMBOK. Whereas, in PMP, which is for experienced project professionals, there is an additional focus on the application of the experience.

#7. CAPM Exam Day:

Specific tips for test day strategies involve sleeping well the night before, eating a healthy breakfast, wearing comfortable clothing, and arriving early. Before starting the exam, many like to use the paper given to write out things like lists of processes with their inputs and outputs, formulas, tools, and techniques that will be useful throughout the exam.

Breaks are not built into the three hours allocated for the exam but think planning on practicing one or two. Don’t waste too much time on a single question; if you get the mark it for review and move on.

The durable finish of the CAPM depends on your capacity to learn and apply project management principles, to adequately prepare with a solid study plan, and to make everything smoothly together on a stressful exam day. Preparation is the key to decreasing stress and assuring success.

Assess your progress each week to determine how comfortable you feel with each topic area. Arriving at the test canter with reliance on CAPM exam day means half the battle is already won.

Apply for the CAPM Certification Exam

Once you are much confident that you are eligible to take up the CAPM certification, the next step is to fill the application form and take up the exam.

After lodges of your application, PMI needs 5 to 10 days to check your application. Once your online application has been processed and prepared to be complete, PMI will send you a message requesting for the payment.

You can then take your examination delivery mode computer-based or paper-based and make the payment. Once PMI has received the amount of the certification fee, it indicates your application is ready for the audit process.

Read: Is CAPM Certification Worth It?

Apply for the CAPM Exam in the online which is available in the PMI site. A printable version of the application is also available. Once you begin filling the form, you can save it unfinished so that you can edit the information whenever needed.

When you are filling the application form, you require to give four essential details, which include:

1. Fill General Information like Name, address, and educational background, etc. in the application. It is the necessary information that an applicant should provide while filling up the application form.
2. Document your 23 contact hours certificate in Project Management while filling your application. Be assured to always keep your 23 contact hours certificate with you.
3. Document each project you require to use for your experience requirement. For this section, you need to be careful and fair. Gather all the Project names, the organization for whom you did these projects. Brief the work and the main jobs which you have done.
4. Make the payment for certification exam CAPM. Always be conscious that PMI verifies received applications at random in such cases, they will inform you and audits your forum.

Final Views

The CAPM exam is complicated. But you can succeed in it by following decent preparation. To start with, you should prepare an appropriate strategy and exam preparation plan. You should not skip any of the above tips.

Over to You            

What plan are you following for CAPM exam preparation? Which tip do you think is least important for the CAPM preparation?