The PMP Exam 2021 Booster Course

$59

Did you study for the PMP Exam in 2020 and not meet the deadline to take the exam before it changed? This booster course may be perfect for you.

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This article is an honest PM PrepCast review and gives you the lowdown on one of the top courses I recommend for PMP prep. Let’s get you started and on the way to certification with the PrepCast!

Scroll down for the latest PM PrepCast coupon code to get a discount on your training.

The changes to the exam content from the 2020 version don’t actually look that sweepingly different, but with any new exam comes a period of adjustment for candidates and examiners, and testing how the questions score. The student reports I’m hearing are that the 2021 PMP exam is a different experience.

It can be insanely difficult to find time to study, especially when you are working. That’s why I love the Project Management PrepCast as an exam prep tool for both PMP prep and the Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)®, because the learning comes in bite-sized chunks. I’ve been doing the PMP prep course myself, albeit incredibly slowly!

I’m a Fellow of the Association for Project Management in the UK and hold several other certifications relevant to project management in the UK, so I’ve never really felt a need to get PMP certification as well. But 2021 might be the year to do it!

So, what’s this course I’m doing and recommending to you?

What is the Project Management PrepCast?

The Project Management PrepCast is an incredibly popular, formal, online 35-hour training course from Cornelius Fichtner, PMP, CSM. His company is a Authorized Training Partner for PMI, so you know the course has been vetted and is top quality.

Currently, the online course is provided as part of a package of training resources that are complimentary to the official PMI PMP course. PMI mandates that official training providers have to provide 35 hours of classroom learning that fits a particular syllabus, and the PrepCast team do that.

However, they also give you access to the popular online learning course as supplementary materials to help you when the classroom experience is over.

The course meets the PMI requirements for formal project management education and provides you with a certificate for evidence in case your PMP application is audited.

The online course is delivered via video and audio, through an online course platform. You login, and everything is there for you inside one website.

When you login for the first time, this is what you see:

What’s included in the PM PrepCast Official PMI PMP Training?

The course comes with:

• 35 hours of classroom learning with a live instructor (at various times and dates to suit you, including weekend and evening options)
• Over 50 hours of webinars
• Access to the online forum to discuss your study plans with other students
• A free email course to help you stay on track
• Access to an exam simulator with 2,100+ questions, which is fully updated for the 2021 PMI PMP exam changes

And most importantly:

• A 35 contact hour certificate!

Having the certificate is a must if you want to apply for the PMP® exam and either don’t have any prior project management education or can’t be bothered to dig out all those certificates from years ago to evidence your education.

Recommended

The PM PrepCast

The self-directed PMP Exam course is not currently available. They are still offering many PMP study prep options though and we continue to recommend them.

Buy Now Learn More

We're pleased to be affiliates for The Project Management PrepCast #ad

What the course is like

Here’s an image from my iPad of what you get when you login to the PM PrepCast online training materials. You can use the contents list and mark items as complete. For me, that list acts as my study plan. The live classroom training element of their course package uses Zoom for the interactive sessions.

Who is the Project Management PrepCast for?

The PrepCast team offer a full exam prep course for PMP® aspirants, compliant with the ever-more-strict PMI guidelines. Yes, you can still buy old online training courses, but at the time of writing, PMI mandates that training companies that are Authorized Training Partners offer a live course experience.

If you want to prepare for and take the PMP® exam, this is the course for you.

PM PrepCast Exam Simulator Review

I recommend you get an exam simulator. It is so hard to pass a 4 hour exam with no exam practice. Even if you know all the topics inside out, you need to have exam skills to get you through the hours in the exam room.

The last time I did an exam it was an essay paper. Test taking online is a different skill set. You need to be able to navigate through the questions, confidently skipping the questions you don’t know and then going back to them at the end when you have more time.

The PM PrepCast offers a 5-star rated PMP Exam Simulator that has been fully updated for the 2021 Exam.

And don’t worry if you think it is going to take you a while to get round to using the exam simulator. Your 90-day access to the test exams only starts when you start your first exam, so you can study, and then test yourself when you are ready.

I have used the exam simulator too, and I think it’s very realistic. It includes the new exam question formats including drag and drop, multiple choice, multiple select, hotspot questions that ask you to interpret charts and graphs and the statistics that help you track your progress are GENIUS. So much time saved by helping you identify and topics where you need to spend more time.

Pros

I found the course easy to use and very comprehensive.

The course content has been designed by PMP® certificate holders. The material is clear and easy to understand, presented in a logical order.

I liked that I can do it in my own time, without the effort of going to the classroom. With my job, there is no way that I could take a week out for study, which is effectively what you’d have to do (at least) to get through all the material in a classroom setting.

It’s reasonably priced.

The customer service is amazing and the team is really helpful.

And… I probably shouldn’t judge a course on this but…Cornelius’s voice is lovely! And I enjoyed his gentle sense of humour too.

Cons

I wish PMI would let training vendors sell their own online courses for PMP prep. The challenge is that non-Authorized Training Partners (and PMI themselves) have online courses, so I personally don’t think that makes for a fair marketplace, but there you go.

Some of the videos are quite long. I am more used to studying with videos that are more like 10-15 minutes. That says more about my attention span than the course material, and you can obviously pause the videos and go back later to watch the second half.

Many of the lessons are split up into multiple videos, but they are more like 20-30 minutes long. That’s still short enough to fit one into a commute or lunch break.

You have to remember to do the work. Having access to a classroom tutor helps while you’re in that part of the course, but with any online training materials, it’s your responsibility to login and study.

I think the design of some of the slides for the webinars is old-fashioned.

Here’s an example slide so you can see what I mean.

I mean, it’s OK, but it doesn’t look modern to me. So – know you are getting the course for the content, not the style! Wouldn’t you rather the price was low instead of funding a fancy design team?

Claiming PDUs

If you are not yet a PMP, you do not need to claim PDUs (Professional Development Units – PMI’s scheme for continuing professional development).

However, if you want to brush up your skills, for example, refresh your knowledge against the latest version of the PMBOK® Guide then you can claim PDUs if you take the PM PrepCast. It could be a fast, interesting and relatively cheap way to gain all your PDUs for one recertification cycle in one go.

There are better options though for earning PDUs and I have a couple of articles about that, like this one on how to earn PDUs fast, and this one on getting those hard-to-earn leadership PDUs.

Refund Policy

I know buying a course is a big deal, even one as reasonably priced as this. The Project Management PrepCast comes with an iron-clad refund policy. If it isn’t for you, you can ask for a full refund at any point in the first 90 days. No questions asked.

That makes it a safe bet!

PM PrepCast coupon

Summary & Recommendation

If you’re on the fence, there are three options as I see it:

1. You carry on as you are, looking for a way to finally get your CAPM or PMP
2. You buy the Prepcast training package, you don’t like and you’ll get a refund (full 90 day refund, no questions asked)
3. You buy the Prepcast training package, do the course and (hopefully) pass the exam (of course you will, be positive!).

I recommend this course, if you are prepared to be self-motivated and do the work.

If you need someone else to hold you accountable, or you are too busy to find time to schedule your study, then this course isn’t going to work out for you.

Check out the course now!

What are you going to do with your next few months? I’ll be squeezing in some study time! I hope this PM PrepCast review has been helpful to you, and you know now what steps to take next in your PMP exam studies.

Recommended

The PM PrepCast

The self-directed PMP Exam course is not currently available. They are still offering many PMP study prep options though and we continue to recommend them.

Buy Now Learn More

We're pleased to be affiliates for The Project Management PrepCast #ad

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