In each issue, Cheetah News features a newly certified PMP^® who shares his or her ideas, insight, and experience with potential PMPs considering certification.

What IS it about Cheetah?
Mahmood Sonday was curious. What gives Cheetah Learning such a high level of confidence that it offers a money-back guarantee to everyone who completes the Cheetah Exam Prep^® for the PMP^® class that they will pass the PMP exam? He discovered the answer when he took the course himself.

“I wanted to broaden my Project Management knowledge based on current best practices, and I knew that would translate into expanding my PM skills as well,” says Mahmood, a project manager in the oil and gas/energy business. “It goes without saying that the PMP certification is highly regarded, which makes me more attractive to my current, and any prospective, employer.”

Mahmood reviewed The PMBOK^® Guide – Third Edition and spent time learning the memory map as instructor Richard McBride suggested before the Cheetah class began. And he continued to wonder about that Cheetah confidence. On the first day of class, he began to understand where it comes from.

“I think the Cheetah approach is extraordinarily dynamic in the way it brings together various approaches to learning in a sharp and fun manner. The course essentially immerses you in the material, using all your senses and focusing you on passing the PMP exam,” Mahmood explains. “Richard thoroughly understands the material and is very good at applying the Cheetah approach, which is key to passing the exam. I’d like to see more training delivery adopt the Cheetah approach to learning.” Once he was part of the class, Mahmood realized it’s Cheetah’s accelerated learning approach that’s behind the money-back guarantee.

Mahmood tested the success of Cheetah’s learning approach with his own challenge during the four-day class. His exam-prep course was during the month of Ramadan, considered the most venerated, blessed and spiritually-beneficial month of the Islamic year, which is observed by fasting. “I couldn’t follow the Cheetah diet, and I knew that fasting sometimes leads to fatigue and low energy,” he explains. “But it also leads to a calmness and strong sense of confidence, which I think helped me to pass the exam.”

Shortly after passing the PMP exam, Mahmood’s work group was recognized for its accomplishment and congratulated by the manager of the PMO Center of Excellence and the group’s CIO. “I have a much better grasp of the PMBOK and a framework for understanding my own abilities now. Not only does this help me to better use the PM tools and techniques on my projects, but it helps me understand what areas I need to develop in order to convert my knowledge into skills.”