Project Management AcademyReviews of projectmanagementacademy.net

I had the opportunity to take the PMP boot camp in El Segundo. Dr. Mike Ikona was the instructor and I have to say I was very impressed with the teaching style that he used. Being new to program management I was unsure of what to expect or what I would retain. The course material was unprecedented and will definitely help me pass the PMP exam next month. Mike kept the whole class engaged and exercised our minds during the 4 days. If you are thinking about the course I highly recommend it versus studying yourself. Mike was both personal and professional, and knew how to mix it perfectly. Much appreciated Dr. Mike

Great course! Really prepared me for the PMP which I took two weeks after the completing this boot camp.

Great experience. The instructor was outstanding!

I passed the PMP! The training course has an excellent format. Lot's a great material. Loved the practice questions and exams. Would recommend.

The PMA boot camp course and all the online study material helped me accomplish my goal of becoming PMI certified. This was not an easy task, but PMA gave me all the tools and techniques necessary to pass the exam on my 1st attempt. All it took was commitment from my part and execution. I would highly recommend this course to anyone who is serious about becoming PMI certified.

PMA did a fantastic job preparing me for the PMP exam. The 4-day "boot camp" course was definitely like drinking from a fire hose, but gave me everything I needed in order to take charge of my study plan after the course was complete. I walked away from the course with content knowledge, exam knowledge, and a baseline of where I stood. I took 2 months post course to prepare on my own. I adjusted PMA's suggested 30 day study plan to my needs. I found success in reading the PMBOK chapters that corresponded to the video course content, and taking the mini quizzes at the end of each section (I did this during the first 2 weeks post "boot camp," to serve as a deep dive in to what was covered during the 4-day course). In my opinion, You SHOULD read the PMBOK (PMA advised) and take notes (I made a lot of charts and visuals as I read). I used the practice questions, practice exams (I took 2 full length exams), flash cards and completed the exercise packet (this was very helpful!). I also attended 3 Friday afternoon tutoring sessions, and EXHAUSTED the 200 scenario based questions. I passed the exam on the first attempt, just last week! The only reason I did not give 5 stars is because there is room for improvement. I LOVE how PMA provides explanations for the right and wrong selections to the questions, and where you can reference the PMBOK to review the concept, please keep doing this! My critique/suggestions for PMA is/are as follows: 1) Adjust the way that users are assessed when completing practice questions. I like the idea of providing progress feedback, however, I felt it was misleading because if I did not complete all of the questions in that bundle during that session it would judge my performance based on what I had answered out of the entire bundle, rather than on the number of questions I attempted during the session. So it would seem like I was performing much lower than I actually was when practicing. I LOVE that you can focus the bundle of questions based on knowledge and process areas, so keep allowing for this, but perhaps include a function where the user can declare that they would like to attempt a certain number of questions at a time (for example: Planning, Risk Management, 25 questions...go) 2) Focus more on the scenario based questioning. The PMP exam is solely made up of questions in this format: a scenario is given (where the details DO matter), followed by..."as the project manager, what would you do next, or you should..." PMA cautions to watch out for "tricky multiple choice," which is helpful to mastering PMA's practice tests and materials, but I did not find that the actual PMP exam had questions in these "tricky" formats. Questions were not formatted with "all are true except," or "all are false except." Rarely did they blatantly ask for an input or an output to a process, rather you need to know what process you are in and be able to apply the knowledge of inputs and outputs. Also, the details given were pertinent to understanding the call of the question, whereas in many cases the PMA practice questions were loaded with irrelevant details that were there as a distraction. There are places in PMA's materials where cautions are made about the PMA questions not matching the test question format, but I do not feel like this was emphasized enough. I also feel like MORE scenario based questions and full length practice exams with only scenario based questions should be developed to truly give the experience necessary to pass the exam. Admittedly, I sought out resources outside of PMA to get more practice on these types of questions, and I do believe if I had not, I would not have been successful on my first attempt at the exam. Even in the areas where I've identified ways that PMA can improve, I do feel very confident that PMA offered me the support I needed to master the material for the exam, and I would recommend this product to others. All the best to PMA as you adapt to the new exam, coming soon!

PMA provided a highly talented teacher, Mike Strachan, for our Project Management Professional Exam Prep Course (Portland, OR). The course was entertaining and valuable from start to finish, which is largely due to the way PMA provides the materials and Mike's ability to provide real world examples that were entertaining and helped the material stick. I am now more confident and my practice test scores have shown vast improvement. The class is actually held in Vancouver, WA which is the reason I did not give the class 5 stars. The location of the course eliminates public transportation as an option to get to and from class.

Very good instruction for the PMP exam and they provide enough support material to make sure that you pass and continue your career growth.