today I'm showing you how to pass the new capm exam this year I'll be revealing my entire study plan so you can be capm certified in the next 8 weeks and you can download it completely for free at alvinthe pm.com capm study now before we get started drop me a comment down below are you planning to take your capm exam this year and if you are what's frustrating you the most with studying for your capm exam let's engage each other and let's build a community right here so we can share our experiences and let's help each other win so the key to passing your capm exam resides with one master document kind of like in The Lord of the Rings there's one ring to rule them all and it's called the capm exam content outline your exam tests every single concept that's listed inside this document across each domain but luckily for us not every domain is weighed equally 35% of your exam tests you on basic project management fundamentals now 27% covers in business analysis Frameworks agile then covers 20% and then the remaining 177% that's covered by the predictive approach so what exactly does this all mean Alvin listen here's my advice you want to apply the Paro 8020 rule where the majority of your results come from 20% of your efforts I would focus more of my time nailing down and understanding the basic project management fundamentals and business analysis because those two areas combined equal at least 60% of your exam and then let's say you know if you score at least a passing score on the remaining two domains for predictive and agile then you're guaranteed to pass and score at least Target on your actual capm exam so to help you master what's inside the capm exam content outline I have prepared a free notion studying template which you can access for free by using my link in the description bar Down Below in this dashboard I have an image of what your actual capm certification would look like that way every time that you log into notion you're visualizing yourself becoming a certified project manager and to the right of it I've included a countdown for how many days are left until your exam as well as an inspirational quote that way you're always in that positive mindset before you actually start studying now right below this I've created different pages to capture all of your study notes the first page is for the capm exam content outline and inside of that I've already created different tables for each domain so that it ties back to all the tasks that are inside pmi's document you'll see here that I've already written each one as a question so when you click on the toggle feature you can insert your notes right below below it and it's a great way to store all of your notes in one single location for example let's go to The Domain for business analysis if we click on the first cell for BA roles and responsibilities notion will open up all the relevant tasks that you need to know when you click on the left toggle arrow button it'll open up a panel where you can insert all of your study notes now for me what I love about using notion is that if you directly already understand the concept you can mark that section green by typing the forward slash key then type in the word green and what you'll see is this little popup menu and if you select green background then that section will appear colored green and it gives you that visual indicator of how well you know that topic if it's a section that you're struggling with then type the forward slash key and then type the word red select the option for red background it's such a very quick easy way to see what you need to refer back to later when you're studying now inside each table are different columns for reps meaning what dates did you study each section you want to fill out each cell with the date that you studied it and then the color status of how well you understand the material and over time you can see at a quick glance when you're skimming which topic that you need to focus the most on so to get started with my study template create a free account with notion using my link down below duplicate my template and then start using it for your study study notes let's now talk about the 8we study plan to get ready for your capm exam the first phase is establishing the groundwork where you'll build all of your knowledge in project management and all areas that's inside the exam content outline for the first two weeks I just recommend going through an exam prep course to meet pmi's requirement of the 23 hours of project management training I recommend using Joseph Phillips capm exam course from udemy and I'll include links for you to check out out right down below because it's super affordable and when it goes on sale you can grab it for around $20 Super budget friendly now what I love about his course is that every single section they align exactly with pmi's exam content outline it just gives you that satisfaction that you're only studying the most relevant topics that you'll see on your exam I do want to point out here that sections 23 to 44 of his course are not as relevant to the new exam so do not focus your efforts on those parts I encourage you to just fast forward through those at two times of speed because the new exam does not test you on itos you can easily watch this entire course at 1.5 to even 1.75 xas speed and finish it in less than two weeks you know it can feel overwhelming when you see all of the lessons in Joseph Phillips course but if you break it down by domains and tasks as I've done inside my notion template it's going to feel so much easier to study so I recommend writing all of your study notes using my notion template that way all of your notes are stored in one location and you can access them anywhere now since business analysis does play a much Huger role on your exam I encourage you to grab two resources first is the business analysis practitioners guide this is a pretty deep read so instead of reading it from start to finish I recommend having this as a reference Aid when you need to go deep and understand specific Concepts that are tied to business analysis let's say you're solving practice questions and there's something you don't know then look back to it the second resource that I recommend is Joseph Phillips business analysis course it'll give you that highlevel overview of the roles and responsibilities of a ba so they'll be more well prepared for your exam now in your third week this is where you submit your application to PMI and finally get approved afterwards I want you to dedicate the rest of the week to read through two books you have the agile practice guide and the pinbot guide seventh edition they're both thin books I personally finished the adro practice guide in less than 3 days and the same as well for the pinbot guide seventh edition they'll teach you everything you need to know about predictive and agile and you'll have a very strong foundation in project management by the way if you're getting value out of this video be sure to smash that like button so I know you like and appreciate my content so now the next phase of our study plan is to Pivot one of my all-time favorite shows is friends and there's one episode where Ross is leading Joey Chandler and the rest of the gang to bring a couch up a flight of stairs and Ross keeps yelling to everyone to Pivot so in this phase we need to Pivot we need to start practicing questions to test your knowledge the best and most affordable study solution that I have used to pass my capm exam is pocket prep which is the kind sponsor of today's video I am incredibly excited to tell you about pocket prep because it contains 1,000 practice questions and prep material that's written by industry experts to help us pass the new capm exam it also offers an easy to ouse interface so that we can have accessible learning anytime anywhere especially when we're juggling a busy schedule at work and raising our family so when I was studying for my capm exam pocket prep made it very easy for on the- go stud studing and it gave me such a seamless study experience so that I could study during bricks at work while I was rining errands or even right before I went to bed when you're just starting out to maximize your study time during your day I recommend doing question of the day first thing in the morning every day you're going to get a new question it's actually quite refreshing because you can quickly test yourself while you're eating your breakfast now throughout your day I recommend using the quick 10 quiz or timed quiz modes to test yourself on specific domains and then at night that's when you use the build your own quiz to test yourself on all areas that's inside the exam content outline for example if you want to practice 15 questions on business analysis you can create your own custom quiz and at the very end of it pocket prep provides very robust answer explanations so you know which question you scored correctly or incorrectly I also love the fact that it includes references to the source material in case you want to learn even further and the best part about pocket prep is that it's extremely affordable costing around $20 at the time of this recording we don't have to overspend on high cost traditional prep classes to grow in our careers so if you want to pass your capm exam on your first try join all the other project managers in our community and sign up to pocket prep today using my link in the description bar down below thank you pocket prep for sponsoring today's video as we're continuing our practice phase it's very important to also do exam simulators so you get in the mindset of taking a 3our long practice exam the ones that I have personally used and highly recommend is called the prepcast capm simulator and I'll link it in the description bar down below now prepcast has three practice exam simulators and I recommend dedicating each weekend to go through one simulator dedicate a portion of your Saturday morning to go through one ful length practice exam and then on Sunday that's when you would review all of your questions and see where you scored correctly or incorrectly and figure out what are your weaknesses you want to keep on practicing pocket prep and combining this with your exam simulators through weeks 4 through 6 and now we're moving on to the last phase which is the Sprint during these last two weeks this is where you're going to continue using pocket prep to refine your knowledge and review all of your study notes keep an exam log of your weaknesses the questions you're missing and hone in on them use these last two weeks to touch up on all the areas that you're scoring the weakest in if you're not doing as well with business analysis then you need to dive deeper refer back to the business analysis practitioner guide or even the pinbot guide for topics that you need just a little bit more support on so you understand all the concepts that you're struggling with now you might be wondering Alvin how do I know if I'm actually ready for my exam if you complete understand all the concepts that are tested from pocket prep then you're absolutely on the right track to passing your exam if let's say you're not sure about something make a note of it using my notion template so you can refer back to it and study later and of course make a habit of continuously studying and reviewing topics that you're struggling with so for me I took my capm exam in a physical testing center because I wanted to avoid the risk of having any computer or network connectivity issues it also just made things so much less stressful on my end since all I had to do was physically drive to a testing location when it comes to the actual day of your exam just keep in mind that your exam is 3 hours long with a total of 150 questions which means that you have a little over a minute to answer each question there's also a 10minute break that you'll be given after you finish question 75 so before you hit that submit button at question 75 make sure to review all the questions from 1 275 that you flagged or that you weren't sure about because the minute that you click on submit you absolutely cannot go back and also don't forget take advantage of your 10-minute break after you hit submit just to re-energize use a restroom and even just be more mentally focused for the last part of your exam if you follow the step-by-step plan you're going to have everything that you need to pass your capm exam on your first try if I can do it then I ask absolutely know that you can do it too earning your capm certification will be one step towards changing your entire career to becoming a project manager and earning the income that you've always wanted just imagine yourself becoming a certified project manager you can do it I absolutely believe in you and I know you're going to crush it I hope this video inspires and motivates you because you can accomplish anything that you set your mind to now if you're still not sure what resources to study for your capm exam watch this video next and I'll see you in the next video