🧠 PMP Exam Mindsets (Your Secret Weapon) by Nav Eskand
Now that we’re friends and in this together, here are a few powerful mindsets 💡
If you truly understand these, you could walk into the exam today (Literally today; without reviewing rest of the tutorial) and score ~50%+

 

✅ Mindset 1: MIAT (Your Go-To Framework)
Most PMP questions are scenario-based — there’s always a problem

👉 Follow MIAT:

  • M – Meet 🤝 Facilitate or meet with the person/team involved
  • I – Identify 🔍 Understand the root problem or concern
  • A – Analyze 📊 Assess the impact on the project
  • T – Take Action ⚡ Work with the team to resolve it

👉 Always look for answers that include all or part of MIAT

 

🚫 Mindset 2: Avoid Escalation (Most of the Time)

  • If you see “escalate” → eliminate it most of the time
  • As a Project Manager, you are expected to handle problems yourself

👉 Only escalate when:

  • The issue is extremely serious
  • It threatens the project (cost, timeline, safety, etc.)

 

💪 Mindset 3: Look for Strong Positive Actions
These are usually good signs in answer choices:

  • Facilitate / Joint Session/ Meeting/ Negotiation/ Engage
  • Coach / Support / Guide / Educate
  • Team
  • Collaborate/ Engage
  • Empower / Improve
  • Align(ment) / Reach consensus
  • Assess / Evaluate
  • Root cause analysis
  • MVP / Demo
  • Value
  • Knowledge Sharing
  • Shared Ownership
  • Review / Feedback

 

👉 Don’t rush to eliminate these — The options with strong positive words are 99% of the time are the correct options!

 

⚠️ Mindset 4: Eliminate Strong Negative Options
Watch out for these 🚫:

  • Enforce
  • Reject
  • Escalate
  • Mandate
  • Immediately / Always / Never
  • Only / Solely / Just
  • Do nothing
  • Pause the project / Delay / Defer / Wait / Continue
  • Overtime
  • Increasing Velocity / Effort
  • Extending Sprint Length

👉 Also eliminate options that focus on only one area (like just cost or just schedule) Because in reality, all 9 + 1 pieces are connected

 

🙅‍♂️ Mindset 5: Don’t Give Away Your Responsibility

  • If an option says: “Ask someone else to do it” → eliminate it
  • As a Project Manager, you lead and take ownership

👉 You can collaborate, but you don’t pass your responsibility

 

🚀 Final Note
Don’t stress about memorizing all of this right now —
You’ll practice these mindsets again and again throughout the course (100 million times)

👉 This is just to give you confidence:
You’re not just learning theory — you’re learning how to think like a PMP!

 

We’re gonna Get It Done Together 💪 !

Nav Eskand | PMP Coach

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