How I Passed the PMI-PBA Exam (and How You Can Too)

After months of juggling work, family, and study sessions squeezed between client calls and baby naps, I’m proud to share that I’ve officially passed the PMI Professional in Business Analysis (PMI-PBA) exam.

If you’re preparing for this certification — especially while managing a full-time job — here’s how I did it using modern tools like ChatGPT and NotebookLM to study smarter, not harder.

Why I Chose the PMI-PBA

In my role as Director of Professional Services at Strategix, I constantly move between solution design, customer engagement, and delivery execution. I wanted a structured, globally recognized way to sharpen my business analysis skills — particularly around stakeholder alignment, requirements management, and value delivery.

The PMI-PBA was the perfect framework to bring structure to what I was already doing — and elevate how I lead project success.

My AI-Powered Study Approach

Instead of relying solely on thick textbooks and bootcamps, I built a more personalized, adaptive study flow using AI tools.

1.ChatGPT – My Personal BA Coach

I used ChatGPT to:

• Break down complex topics like stakeholder analysis, requirements traceability, and monitoring performance.
• Generate full PMI-PBA-style exam simulations with explanations for each option.
• Create scenario-based questions that mirrored real business analysis challenges.
• Simulate interviews, stakeholder workshops, and exam logic traps.

Having ChatGPT gave me instant feedback, helped me catch blind spots, and kept me accountable every day.

2.NotebookLM – A Smarter Second Brain

I uploaded PMI guides, training notes, and my own summaries into NotebookLM, which allowed me to:

• Ask targeted questions like “How do planning outputs relate to solution evaluation?” and get grounded answers from my own material.
• Search and surface key terms across all my documents instantly.
• Track where I was weak — and focus my time efficiently.