How I Passed PMP And ITIL 4: A Practical Playbook For Busy Parents

We share how a firm test date, simple study rules, and servant-leadership thinking led to first-try passes on ITIL 4 and PMP. Between sick days, snow, and late-night classes, we found a way to study smarter, manage time, and stop waiting for perfect timing.

• passing ITIL 4 with targeted mock questions
• choosing a firm PMP date despite life chaos
• using the 200 hardest PMP questions video by @AndrewRamdayal
• servant leadership and “best answer” mindset
• practical time buffers and flagging strategy
• balancing study with parenting and work
• credentials versus experience in real careers
• regret about waiting and why action wins

Thanks for listening coffee with a twist.

Email me at: coffeewitatwist@gmail.com

Note: I don’t own copyrights to any music you hear in any of my episodes. 

Transcript

Big News And A New Format

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey guys, welcome back to Coffee with a Twist. You're here with Madame Belleau. I hope everyone had an excellent weekend and looking forward to their weekday. Uh so this particular episode will be a little different than I have ever done in the past. The reason being, so my last episode, I told you guys how I was working on the PP exam and you know told you about that 10-year journey of mine. Yes, please, crazy, you know, go listen to that. But I am happy to say I took my exam last Wednesday. Um, you uh I took it at home so you don't get your um results right away. Takes like up to 40 48 hours or so. So I found out Thursday that I passed. Finally, I finally did it. First try, super excited. So, what I decided to do for this particular episode, I want to run through what I did to help me prepare for this. Um, so again, my normal listeners, I know I have like certain topics we discuss, I ramble. Feel free to sit in and listen to this if you like, but I figured that there's probably some other listeners that might be working on their P or their um ITIL, I call it ITEL, I don't know if whatever, um, foundation for. So I figured I will take this episode and take you know 20-30 minutes to kind of break down what I did to help me study and make me feel good about it. So let's get into it. And by the way, I'm drinking coffee right now. I know last time I think I was drinking my water, so you know, I got my coffee going, I feel good. Um, you know, I just feel really good, guys, because this test has been over my head for a long time, and like I told you guys before, I was very tempted to move it because I was like, maybe I'm not prepared enough. And again, it goes from what you've heard about the test. That's so hard, it's so this. Not saying that it's not hard, I'm not saying that, but it's not, I guess, as hard as I thought, and that goes, I've had episodes where perspective, you know, everyone's different. What is expensive to you might not be expensive to me, and vice versa, you know. So it's all like wow. So um over the weekend, uh my husband's birthday was the 13th. So we already had a trip planned to go to New York, and we were leaving Friday. Uh was am I right? No, Thursday, Thursday after evening we were leaving. So it's so nice to have taken my exam. So I purposely, when I scheduled my exam, I purposely scheduled it that way in in hopes of like I'll pass and have a good trip. Because I'm not gonna lie, I was a little depressed, like, oh, this test and this on my head. So it feels so good to have gone away, had an excellent trip, and not have to come back and worry about studying. So here we go. I'm gonna jump into it. So, for anyone listening, I'm gonna go over my I Till Foundation 4 stuff first, and that will be quick because I didn't prep much for that. But anyways, so I took a class, um, I took it with the Knowledge Hut um or Knowledge Hut Academy, I think that's the name of something like that. Uh, if you want to know, give me give me a comment or so if you like want to know who I did my training through, and I'll give you like you can get referral codes, so I can give it to you, but I want to make sure I give you the right name, but I believe it's Knowledge Hut. But, anyways, um, so I took a class. I think I told you guys last episode, like my contract was coming due on my regular job. My boss reached out. Hey, do you have ITIL? I'm like, No, can you get it? So, anyways, um, I took that class overnight. My husband was away, which you know, so that means I was like up all the time because my son was home as well. So I took the class from 11:30 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. Don't get me wrong, uh, the professor, the teacher, instructor did not keep us on that whole time. He did, you know, we would do our work and kind of get off at a reasonable hour, so it wasn't too bad. He gave us study material and he was like, Look, study this material and you'll be good. And boy oh boy, he did not lie. So I took like two days straight of just studying like the mock exam stuff he gave us. It's only 40 questions. I studied, I think he gave us like 180 questions. I studied all of them, just back to back, and even right before my test. The last two tests I've taken have been on Wednesdays. So that test was like the Wednesday before I took the PMP. Turned out I did great. Um, he was like, You're not gonna need the full hour, and I was in a panic because my thing wasn't working right when I signed in. But the test when I took the actual exam took me maybe 20-30 minutes, if that. So if you prepare and do what the instructor says, you'll do good with that. I can't speak for any other instructor, I can't speak for any class, but that's all I did. I went through, studied all of the like mock exam questions and answers that our professor gave us, along with the ITIL textbook. So don't have really much to tell you with that for prepping. That's really it. Simple. So um, you know, just take it right away. Best advice I can give you. I finished a class on a Thursday morning, Friday morning. I took the test that following Wednesday, and the only reason why I had to wait to take it is because my son was home all weekend, and you can't have noise and stuff in the background. So it's the only reason why I took it, you know, when I did. So on to the P and P. So, um, as you guys know, my journey with this. So, what I did with the PMP was of course, you know, all the prerequisites that you take, which is sorry, I'm cooking a little. Um, what I did was, you know, you take the PMP course like 35 um hours so that you can, you know, fill out your application and all of that, get that accepted. So, anyways, when it came down to me actually scheduling the exam, because I actually took the class, hate to say this out loud, but I took the class last year, last January, February, and my goal was to take it shortly after. That didn't work out. Some things came up with work and just different things. Again, it's an excuse, but really not a good enough excuse, in all honesty. Um, I you know, listened to a couple episodes back, you know. You really have to find ways to um ensure that you do the things that you have set out to do, you know, don't let things block that. I know life gets in the way, and it really does, but looking back on it right now, I should have gone on ahead and taken my exam. But you know, here or there. Um, anyways, what I did, so we are in February right now. So in January, was it January or December? I think it was January, yeah. January-ish, like the beginning of January, like after vision board season for me. Um, I went ahead and scheduled my exam because my you you have one year, and my one year would come up, I think, in May, June time frame. So my husband was going away for work for about a month. My son was home. Um, you know, I figured, you know, it's after the Christmas break, I can take a month to study, etc., etc. Um, told you guys about kind of the twists and turns I had, uh, work-related stuff, and then also um it was crazy because we ended up getting a snowstorm. So my son was out of school for a whole week. Um, my son also had got sick um like a week or so prior, so he was home for that whole week. So I'm the only parent home of my child, you know, to where everything's on me. Uh, feeding, walking the dog, you know, cooking, cleaning, just my normal stuff, plus some. It's not like, oh, I can go do this. So, anyways, I scheduled for the test to take it on February 11th. That was the day before my husband was gonna come back in town. So I did it that way, kind of on purpose, because it was right before his birthday, right before we would go away. Figure it'll be behind me. So my husband goes away, and the first week of him being gone is when my son got sick. So I'm like, okay, cool. I still got like three weeks to study, no big deal. So he was home for the week, kind of focused in on him. He went to school the following week. Cool, no problem. So he went to school. I was able to get some studying in. I'm not gonna lie, I didn't study the way I should have, but you know, I did get some studying in, and you kind of don't know where to start, to be honest with the PMP. It's kind of like, what do you do? They just keep saying, do it, do mock exams. Well, the test is four hours itself, so mock exams are just as long, and that's just taxing, it's just crazy. So, anyways, um, I did some studying and I kind of switched gears towards the end of that week. That's when I think I told you guys about the eye till I had to take. So that week goes, so you're talking two weeks, then you know, two weeks. The third week was the snowstorm. So I'm like, okay, all right, and I'm counting it this way because again, guys, I did a month out. So the first, so what I did, I set my exam date like a month out, so I guess you could say like January 11th, in a sense. Um, I set that out um for you know to take it on the 11th. So I'm going like week by week, like the events that happened to me, and I'm purposely kind of doing that, guys, just to kind of encourage you guys. Like, you know, things do get in the way, but do what you can and and believe in yourself as much as you can, or you or at least take it just to see how you do. So we're going into the third week, and into that third week, one, I wasn't feeling the best, and two, um, I was taking my eye till uh training, which was in the middle of the night, and I'm up pretty much all day and stuff because my son was home from school due to the snow, so he's still waking up the crack of dawn. So remember, my class isn't over till between somewhere between 3:30 and 4:30. I get to sleep, and then he's waking up at like 7, 7:30. So I'm like, okay, and I'm up all day until you know 11, you know, and that class was four nights, four, three or four nights, something like that. So, anyways, whatever. So, during that third week, into the fourth week, okay, I um had to take that test. So, because I was like, I don't want to study two things at a time, so I studied, you know, I till got that done, um, studied that through like the weekend. I just kept doing those questions, which I said earlier in this in this episode. Um, passed that on a Wednesday. So the following Wednesday was when my exam for the PMP was. So got through the one, got my results right away, pass, boom, great, 93%. So I'm like, oh my god, okay, it's Wednesday, and then we had Thursday, Friday, and I wasn't feeling the best, you know. I I kind of was like really pushing myself, you know. I was up all night and things like the week before. Took me forever to catch up on my sleep, just little things. So, anyway, so I the week as the weekend went through, I got a lot of sleep. I I was like, I gotta rest. So then Sunday approaches, my migraine and stuff was getting a little better. My sister and them they came over, and I was like, Oh, I should really move my exam. I haven't studied like I wanted to, and you know, kind of like what I said last episode, like I've been at this for like 10 years, and I've worked in the field and I've done the job. But working the job and textbook are two different things. What you do in the real world, and what the textbook and exam wants you how how it wants you to answer are different, they want it textbooks, so that's where it could get a little hairy for some people, and I could see like some very seasoned PMs potentially not doing well because the way it works in the real world is nothing like it should, you know. So my sister's like, just take it. I'm like, Yeah, I should just take it. I said, you know, at the very least, even if I don't pass, at least I know what I'm up against. You know, that's kind of was my attitude. It was$70 to move the exam because I would have been moving it within um uh you got when you get to the 30-day mark is when you can move it for free. I was past that, and be within 48 hours, you can't change it at all. So I'm like, well, I have till Monday morning to decide. So Sunday, I did a little bit of studying, whatever. So I found the my instructor that I had had this um link. He's we've been doing these uh as a group in this uh like WhatsApp group of like he'll send questions every day, but he had a link in there to Andrew. I forget his last name, it starts with an R, but if you reach search like PMP Andrew R it's like Ramada, something I sorry, I should have had it up, but he has an exam prep, it's called the 200 hardest PMP questions. So make sure you look this up for anyone that's doing it, and again, everything I'm speaking about is before is the current PMP, not the current, not the PMP exam that will start taking place in June, July. This is if you're taking it between now and I guess June, before the new exam, because for him here it's a new exam coming out. So I took his exam, it was a YouTube video, it was 200 questions, and the video was almost seven hours. So what I did was Monday and Tuesday, I did three hours, a little over three hours. So while my son was at school, I played the video on my big screen TV, I would read the question and answer it, you know, myself before he answered it. So the great thing about this particular um the great thing about this particular video is when he's going through it, he's giving you the answers, he's giving you explanations, but also through that whole video, he's giving some really good tips that I didn't hear before, or or shall I say, he's saying it in a way that it's resonating with me. So I was going through each question, I'll read it. I had everything off in the house besides you know this YouTube. Read it, read the answers, I would select an answer and then see if I'm right, you know, he'll give the right or wrong answer. And you can always pause the video if he's like going too fast, that way you can see if you know if you're getting it correct. I was getting a lot of it correct, but also if that the tips he was giving, he was like, if anything of the responses or the answers A through D is typically it's like A B C D is like multiple choice. He's like, if anything ever seems negative or malicious or fire or reject, he's like, that's typically not the answer. PMP is like for you to be a servant leader, that's kind of what it teaches on collaboration, servant leader. Um, that's the style for PMP, agile, hybrid, that's kind of what this exam's about. So he kept saying that if something he's like, even and it's not about being the right answer, he said it has to be the best answer. Those things were so helpful to me because what I did during the actual exam. So let me back up. So the day one, Monday, I did about I tried to do like the halfway mark. If it was the video, it was like six hours and 49 minutes, something like that. So I did like three hours and 25 minutes the first day, and I was feeling good, and those tips he was given was making really helping me. So then the second day when my son went to school, I finished the video, okay. And um, it was again more tips, more this, and it's total of 200. That's what I did. So I was feeling really good. There were some I got wrong because I was like, that's not the answer, and that's when he was like, it's not about the right answer always, it's about the best answer there. So sometimes the answers you're like, it should be this, but but it's the best answer. So really, you know, try to take your time and read through it. So getting to exam day. So exam day, which was one day for me. I'm not gonna lie. Like I mean, that makes sense because the way that that was one example. Every sixty one like, hey, you know, are you completed, etc. Yes. So he was telling us how to break it down. And what I did. I don't know what to tell for anyone else. But what I did for the way that he broke it down for us. He was saying like your first one in thirty minutes. So he was saying the first set of questions, the first one it should be your time. You shouldn't let it go below one fifty-five if you can help it. Maybe one, you know, forty-five. So what I did I did advice and I offered it by ten minutes before I started thinking. So if you said that, oh, you should be at one fifty-five for your birth break. I said to myself, I need to be at one fifty-five for my birthmark. The reason why I didn't like that is what I did maybe you told anyone. So I did all my questions. And that for that I gave myself answering those sixty questions for that first that I did this way. I'm in some areas I was like. So I would go back and do that. And don't get me wrong, if I had a chance, I kind of read reread the question, but I started with the answers first and kind of narrowed it down even more. Because sometimes I had noticed for myself when I read the question, it would make me um I don't know what the best way to say it, but it would make my what I would feel the answer would be different, if that makes sense. Versus when I looked at the answers at at themselves, I'm like, oh, this definitely can't be it, without reading the question. Like, it doesn't go with the format of of PMP, because some things were negative. You could, you know, or rejecting, or this. So I did that, and I think that was very helpful for me. So try to read like review both of those videos. Um, definitely that time management one, and find a way to buffer that time. So that's what I did. I really buffered my time. I will say my last 60 questions um had a little bit more like math in them. It took me a little longer. Um, I wasn't able to get through all of my flagged questions um when I did my buffer. Like I was done my 60 questions like I was supposed to in a timely manner, but I had a lot flagged. Um you know, I guess I just wasn't feeling sure about myself. I'm not sure, but I didn't get through all the flagged ones. But it's okay. I mean, I pass. But those little tips I think would be help is helpful, and they were helpful for me. I really hope they help you all because, you know, I know the PMP is a big one, and um it's one of those exams you hear a lot about it, um, and how hard it is and things like that, and it can discourage you, it really can, or I feel like you're not prepared enough. Um, at least I can speak for myself. That's how I felt. That's partly why it's taken me so long to take it. In all honesty, I hate to say this, my only regret is that I didn't take the t exam sooner. Um, I wish I didn't let those things get to me because um I I could have had it already. Um, you know, hopefully it helps me. You know, it's one of those things, you know, when you're in the working in corporate or working world here, you know how it goes. We've all been there. You've been performing the job. You've been performing the job probably for years. I know myself included. But it's just, you know, companies and and management, they find ways to, if they can, you know. Oh, you know, when you try to go after the money for it or even the title for it sometimes. Oh, well, you don't have this and you don't have that cert. Really? Really, we're gonna throw that when when I'm performing. Just because you get a piece of paper doesn't mean you know how to execute it, or doesn't mean that this changes you as a person. It really doesn't. I mean, we've all had managers that probably have a lot of things behind their name, you know, not bashing the mercy, though, but not everybody knows how to be a leader or a manager or or you know, that sometimes is character traits, personality, um, and teaching, having r the right mentor, you know. I've had people, and you know, a lot of times I have found too that people that are kind of dictator, ish a lot of times they don't even know. They dictate it to you because they can't help you, because they don't know. And that's okay. You don't have to know everything, but your approach could be different. So, you know, it it it's just crazy to me, you know. I I have felt through my career I've always had to go above and beyond. One, I have a very young voice, a young, a younger face, and I have been in my career, I started my career younger, you know. I've been working really since the age of 14. So I've been in the work world a long time and kind of felt my way through, and you know, I've been in those situations where it's like, well, you know, it's like, oh, but I'm doing the job, so you know, um, it it sucks that you have to go above and beyond like that, you know, but it's just how it is. So I'm happy I finally got it. Um, I'm happy I've even, you know, put in the time to do it, and I'm so thankful that I didn't listen to my first mine and move my exam. I I really am. But you know, but yeah, that was my experience. I hope it's helpful to someone. I'm gonna sign off now. Thank you for listening. You're here with Madame Balou, Coffee with a Twist.