Parallel Project Training Reviews

The delivery of the course was done very well, and the presenters we had was the best thing. They were very good at explaining things and engaging. Personally I used just the notes I made in the session with the slides, and practice questions. I have found it difficult to dedicate myself fully to the course in terms of time for revision, as it would have been good to have fully understood that personal time at in evenings and weekends was needed. I didn’t refer to the study guide much or use the podcasts, as I would have struggled for time and I worries about information overload.

My tutor Ruth was excellent. I cannot fault her knowledge or teaching style. She was generous and kind on her approach and made me feel free to share my answers and suggestions. Ruth adapted to different learning styles and did not belittle any students if they were struggling. Overall I found the course extremely stressful as an experience. I love learning, but I did not realise before the course that it was so focussed on the exam and this style of course was very panic inducing for me as a learner. I found the volume of work we covered added to my stress levels and I found covering so much content in 6 weeks really stressful as I did not have time to embed the knowledge (some topics we spent less than 10 minutes on!). I recently studied for an MA through distance learning and I did not find that experience nearly as stressful as this (I managed to achieve a Distinction so it's not that I am not able to learn). In both instances I was working full time and with childcare responsibilities. I also found the style of the course stressful as many of the questions seemed designed to trick you. I found the distractor questions added stress and upset. Sometimes I felt in such a panic with the time restrictions I struggled to read the question. This style of course clearly did not suit my learning style. This course was very theoretical and I would have learned better with more practical examples. For example, I found it odd that the text book starts with the Snappy App case study and I spent quite a bit of time learning about the people and the project pre course - thinking we would follow this through the course, but in fact we barely even touched on it after the first session. In the future I think it would help students to complete the PMP components for the case study. I certainly would have learnt much better if the homework were to create a comms plan for Snappy App for example. I also found it difficult that we never seemed to see an example PMP so it still feels nebulous in my mind. I found the course stressful as I was trying to cram the revision in around full time work. In retrospect as we joined as an organisation I think it would be better if APM advised organisations to allow their employees more time away from work to revise (this was cited on your website from the woman who scored 90% as one of the reasons she was able to do so well). I felt I was at a disadvantage as a FT employee compared to colleagues who work part time as they had more time to study. There are a lot of acronyms and formulas to learn off by heart and again this learning by rote style is not to my advantage and made me feel stressed. I didn't know if I needed to know everything - and fear of not being able to retain every formulas made me anxious. I also felt stressed that my organisation was paying for me as I was so worried about failing and it being embarrassing and also for the money to be wasted. I did like meeting other students online and I did think the variety of the chat, podcasts, online sessions and handbook to be great. The podcasts are an excellent resource to complement the learning - I listened whilst driving to work - but I wasted time at the beginning listening to the wrong versions as it wasn't clear to me that the 2024 versions were the right ones. The handbook is excellent but a clearer list of learning objectives as a tick list and tabs to help navigate the tome would be great. I would have benefitted from having the chance to try more mock exams and also to try them in the exam format. I do find the course strange in a way as I'm sure one could do well on the course but not necessarily be a great PM and vice versa - as the team working techniques are only tested theoretically - whether a candidate actually can do any of the model in reality would not be known. There is a lot of terminology to absorb and sometimes I found the terms became a bit like 'word salad' and even now I'm not clear on what 'cost function' and 'cost function analysis' are. I also found most of the examples were from an alien environment - primarily IT or construction projects - whereas I work in heritage (museums / galleries) where many of my projects have a capital element but are mainly about transformational change with people. I think we only had one example from a museum setting, and one in a school. I appreciate that the case study is often irrelevant to the question, but it would have made the course feel more comfortable. On a positive note, I embraced the Chat GBT tool and this was amazing! This really helped me to go back to basics and embed the knowledge. It took away the embarrassment of not knowing and asking the tutor in the group environment / holding up colleagues (which I was very conscious of). Using Chat GBT has been a revelation so I am grateful for that. I hope I do well in the exam and pass. I hope the subjects I feel confident with (leadership, teams, stakeholders) come up. If I fail I will be bitterly disappointed after the amount of time I have put into studying.

Carmen was amazing, really informative and supportive. The course was really good and engaging as there was a lot to go over but it was done very well.

It was a good informative session.. Enjoyed it.

Well thought out and structured. I enjoyed meeting & learning with others.

V good and effective course with brilliant learning tools online

I am very happy after taken the course - the combination of the elearning platform, the podcasts and the chatgpt platform helped in my learning. The material and presenters were all excellent and knowledgeable. As I am waiting my exam results, it is hard to know how successful my learning was, but I feel confident that I understood the material. I would recommend the course to others looking for a professionally made course. The team supporting the course (administration, etc) was very responsive and helpful (it was one of the main reasons why I chose Parallel in the first place)

Really good and interactive.

This has built up my knowledge and will help me develop much faster

The course facilitators were very engaging and able to answer questions. They allayed our fears and gave us confidence going into the exams.