Is Master of Project Academy Worth It? Honest Reviews (2024)

In this review, we will go on a thorough tour of the Master of Project Academy.

The objective is to see whether it lives up to what it says about itself.

One of Master of Project Academy’s boldest claims is that more than 99.6% of its students pass their PMP exams on their first try!

One could wonder if PMI (the body that sets PMP standards and gives certification) has lowered its standards to make its exams easier to pass.

Well, the answer is no. Project management isn’t something that is taken lightly.

So when a PM (project management) prep platform gives you an almost 100% guarantee of scaling PMI exams on the first try, that’s enough to turn heads.

I will now put the platform to the test to see how well it holds up to its challenge.

Sit back and enjoy.

Master of Project Academy Overview

Master of Project Academy or MOPA is an online course platform for aspiring project managers.

Scanning through to its roots, we find that Resit Gulec developed it in 2012. It first started as an online PMP course on Udemy.

MOPA is anything but shy about flaunting its achievements. You only need to jump on their homepage to see all sorts of catchy phrases that they use to hook customers.

One of their marketing slogans includes guarantees of getting PMP certificates on the first try.

They even say that they’ve only had a one percent refund rate for the over 200,000 people they have trained.

But if you look past those glossy statements, POMA does seem to have a lot going for it.

To start with, the program is geared toward providing an affordable yet premium learning experience for PMP aspirants.

To that end, they have a lot of free content alongside the paid ones.

The free courses and the paid ones cover a wide range of standard project management practices.

The only difference is that the free training will not earn you certifications in that niche.

Much training is provided on topics like

• Certified Agile Project Management (CAPM)
• Agile Project Management and Principles
• Scrum Framework, Gantt Charts, and Kanban boards
• Microsoft Projects
• IT Service Management Framework (ITSM)
• Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA)
• Six Sigma

And that’s just the beginning.

MOPA also makes provision for renewing your PMP certification through PMI-approved professional development units (PDU)

Courses Offered in the Academy

MOPA has over 150 courses. Most of them are PMI certification courses, so you should be in good stead of passing the PMI exams after taking them.

The courses are arranged into various categories depending on the certification you’re talking about.

PMP (Project Management Professional), CAPM (Certified Agile Project Management), and PMI-ACP (PMI-Agile Certified Professional) are just some of the categories available.

The way the courses are built into categories can be summarised this way:

You can choose to learn everything there is to know about project management at once in one combo package or you can decide to do so in bits.

Read on for the full list of the certification categories along with details of the courses under them.

1. PMP

This is the first category you’ll see in Master of Project Academy’s catalogue. It contains three PMP online courses.

The PMP category like the rest categories below has several packages you can choose from.

Depending on which package you choose, you can enrol for self-paced courses that consist of pre-recorded video lectures in every branch of PM.

And if video lectures are not your thing, you can enrol for instructor-led classes.

The PMP Certification Training is an example of the first option while the PMP Online Class Virtual Training is the second scenario in action.

The former consists mainly of practice questions, a PMP certification mock exam, project cases and more.

Virtual training as the term suggests is mainly interactive and has a preset structure you must follow.

Mind you, any course labelled with “so and so certification training” is strictly preparing you for the exam of that branch of project management.

For many people, it is not enough to gain knowledge on just one branch of project management.

They want to be scholars in all the arms of project management.

If you feel that’s your calling, MOPA has you in mind.

You can opt for their PM Master+ package that combines all of MOPA’s courses into one bundle.

Get it? In other words, you will not just treat project management on a general basis. The course bundle will let you diversify into other domains in PM such as the ones mentioned as you go down the list.

Other features of the PMP category include:

PMI-approved Professional Development Units (PDU).

PDUs are points you must get to be able to renew whatever certificate you have.

The number of PDUs a certain certificate requires for renewal is determined by the PMI (Project Management Institute).

These points are earned by attending courses or attending events. In MOPA, there are four project management courses you must finish to earn at least 60 PDUs.

PMP Exams and Maths Lectures

This package is for when you have prepared hard and all that is left is to try your hand at practice questions.

It contains PMP practise exams and supplementary maths lectures.

PMP Exam Simulator

It’s always a good thing to have a simulation of an exam you want to take if possible.

That way, you wouldn’t be thrown off balance in the actual exam.

That’s the purpose of PMP’s exam simulator. Though recently launched, it consists of nine exams with over 1600 questions in total.

 PMBOK—7th edition Exam Prep Book

This book is a guide to passing PMP exams. It contains amongst other things more than 100 key points for passing the PMP exam and a 550+ page PMP eBook PDF for download.

PMP Flashcards

Flash cards are an excellent memory aid in any subject.

They help you remember important information when you need to store it for long term use.

You can use the 1,500 PMP flashcards MOPA provides to memorize vital facts with as little effort as possible.

Free PMP training

Finally, there is a free training that gives you the basics of some of the things covered in the paid courses.

It’s a good resort if you don’t have the funds to pay the hefty prices of the paid packages.

 2. Agile and Scrum

Agile and Scrum both refer to methods of project management.

Scrum is a method built on Agile principles.

Agile and Scrum principles are extremely popular in project management

They are that popular because they reduce rigidity and emphasise human interactions over predefined arrangements.

They allow teams to respond quickly to issues while still being involved in other engagements.

Under the Agile and Scrum category, it is left to you which package you want to explore.

Remember, Agile and Scrum are simply concepts in PM. You can decide to learn them alone or to go all out and learn everything there is in PM. You’ll pay more of course.

Let’s go over what you’ll see in the Agile and Scrum Category.

PM Master+ All Courses Bundle

PMI-ACP (Agile Certified Practitioner) Certification Training

Project Management Training Bundle—6 Project Management Courses

Scrum Master Certification Training—Self-Paced Online Course

Certified SAFe® Agilist Online Course

And more.

The courses mentioned above also have their free equivalent, so you might want to try them out first before going for the paid packages.

PMI, the governing body for project management, requires 30 PDUs before you can write its certification exam. There is a provision for that as well.

3. CAPM

CAPM codes for Certified Associate in Project Management. It is an entry-level certification for project practitioners.

The certificate is given to those who are new to handling projects.

That means anyone handed this certificate has a good understanding of the basics and processes of effective project management.

CAPM exams are usually based on PMI’s Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK ) book.

Think of the PMBOK as the holy book of project management. It contains all the PMI’s standards and laws on project management.

Back to MOPA, the following packages are what you get for the CAPM section:

CAPM Certification Training

Aside from video lectures, there is plenty of CAPM practice questions along with a sample certification exam.

PM Master+ All Courses Bundle

Like I said earlier under the PMP section, you might choose to learn all the aspects of project management instead of just learning a single aspect.

If you do that, you will be more than ready to face the CAPM certification exams which is one of the lowest in the project management hierarchy.

CAPM Exam Simulator

Another bonus at your fingertips when you sign up for the CAPM certification training is the exam simulator.

It mimics real-life PMP examinations. The nine exams it contains have over 1350 CAPM questions.

CAPM Exams and Math Lectures

Maths is in every sphere of life. It is here too in project management.

Taking statistics of trends in your projects or programs involves more than a bit of maths.

Free Training

No doubt, you want to play a safe game and get an inside view of any course before betting your hard-earned income on it.

You can do that by trying out the free CAPM course. If you like it, you can move up to the paid courses.

4. Microsoft Project

As a project management professional, you will very often find yourself working on and managing software.

The Microsoft Project is just one example of project management in software applications.

Microsoft Project is a PC-based project management software produced by you guessed it, Microsoft.

It is a widely popular tool that every company today, tech or otherwise cannot do without.

Little wonder why every project management professional must know how to use the tool.

MOPA offers students four options for learning Microsoft Project depending on how deeply they want to go into it.

They are:

Foundation—for beginner understanding of MSP

Advanced—for aspirants of senior managerial positions.

(Bundle) Foundation+Advanced—if you want to learn MSP from the ground up and become a pro

Free—basics, free MSP study tips and tricks, and more.

And lastly, you always have the option of going for a PM Master+ bundle that gives you access to all of MOPA’s courses.

5. Project Management

The project management category is like an umbrella tab. It combines all the categories we’ve talked about and introduces more to the family.

Some of the other domains of project management it covers are:

PM Core

PM Core is project management in the real business context.

Its main purpose is to help the key figures in organizations make rational evaluations and apply them in their decisions and actions.

On MOPA, the training features instructor-led virtual or on-premise coaching.

The information is very practical and can be applied in different roles for various positions within an organisation.

Critical Thinking for Decisions and Data (CTDD)

Collecting data is a big part of making good decisions but if the data is not properly evaluated, it is almost useless.

That’s where critical thinking skills come in.

The course contains many lessons on critical thinking such as:

• Solve the challenges you encounter daily.
• To isolate important premises, ask questions.
• Frame issues in a logical manner.
• Make decisions based on facts rather than opinions or political considerations.
• Inspire rational debate among teams and organizations.
• Separate what’s important from what’s not.

Like other courses, the CTDD features instructor-led classes that can be virtual or on-premise.

Data Analysis Bootcamp

The data analysis boot camp shares valuable insights on how to data analysis practices with Excel and R.

The boot camp is a three-day instructor-led class.

It can be virtual or on-premise.

Among other things, students will learn data quality and data management.

They will also learn how to communicate data and insights to stakeholders who need to make quick business decisions to drive your organization forward.

Microsoft Power BI Training

Microsoft Power BI is a collection of software services and tools that reconcile unrelated data together into meaningful insights.

From these insights, you can have a good idea of the next steps to take for your organisation to move forward.

MS Power BI has an entire desktop toolset. Together, they form your business intelligence platform.

Six Sigma

Six Sigma is a management technique that tries to improve business processes by reducing any possibility of risk or defect.

Six Sigma professionals are in high demand in quality management departments in every organization.

MOPA offers Six Sigma training in two categories, certification training and free training that earns you no certificates.

And a lot more.

It is noteworthy that MOPA meets up with the 35 contact hour requirement for qualifying for PMI certification exams.

• Master of Project Academy Cost

So, we now know a lot about Master of Project Academy. And if anything, it seems to be pulling its weight as a very comprehensive academy.

It’s an early verdict, but you might overlook that given how much free content is allowed and loads of practice exams.

And it all seems designed not to burden you. Many of the courses are self-paced so that even working professionals won’t complain.

But those features make more sense when they come at a reasonable price. Now that’s what we’ll be looking at.

First, the billing you get depends on whether you’ll be taking one course from a bundle at a time or all the courses in a bundle at once.

Let’s say you want to take the PM Masters+ —All Courses Bundle. This bundle combines all the courses on MOPA.

You’ll be paying,

For the monthly plan—$397 per month.

For the annual plan—$1497 every year.

For lifetime access—pay once and for all time—$2497.

The other way you can be billed is if you choose to pay for individual courses.

In that case, you’ll only pay the price(s) of the course(s) you selected.

Pros of Master of Project Academy

Master of Project Academy has many strong points that have helped it garner many positive reviews.

Here are its main strengths:

• You can choose how you want your training to be—virtual in-person, on-premise, and self-paced.
• The syllabus is very comprehensive. Whether you take just a single course or a bundle, you will not be lacking in any area.
• There are plenty of real-life cases throughout the curriculum.
• If you can’t afford the paid courses, you can still enjoy a lot of free content in almost any aspect of project management.
• The learning management system helps you keep track of your progress.
• Risk-free—there is a 30-day money-back guarantee if you are not satisfied with the experience.

Cons to MOPA –  The Downsides

Although MOPA is not a bad platform to learn project management, it definitely has its own share of weaknesses.

While these weak points may or may not be deal-breakers (depending on what you consider important), it is good to have a way to temper our expectations.

In my review of the platform, I discovered the following:

• Credibility is prone to questioning as MOPA is not a PMI ATP (Authorized Training Partner). That said, the content is very relevant to what is asked in the PMI certification exam.
• Customer support isn’t the best—queries are usually handled by regular support staff instead of subject matter experts. Nevertheless, they are quick to respond.

Master of Project Academy vs Prepcast

Master of Project Academy is not the only project management prep platform there is.

While it delivers a respectable user experience, it has its share of flaws that some people might not want to cope with.

The hefty pricing is an example.

So if you want to look elsewhere, that’s perfectly understandable.

One of the alternatives that readily comes to mind due to its popularity is Precast.

Prepcast is like a podcast library. And what I mean by that is, that it is a video course that you can download on your device and watch anytime, anywhere.

The platform is a subsidiary of OSP International LLC, a leading body for PM courses and prep.

And the person behind it all is Cornelius Ficthner. He has over 20 years of experience as a registered PMP (project management professional) in many industries.

He has been a PMI Chapter President and is now a founding member of PMI’s New Media Council and Social Media Advisory Group.

The major (and probably the best) difference between Prepcast and Project Management Academy is that the former is a PMI partner.

Specifically, OSP International and Prepcast by extension are a Registered Education Provider through the PMI.

So, when it comes to sheer credibility, Prepcast knocks Project Management Academy off its feet.

Below is a summary of what Prepcast provides:

• 50 Hours of Webinars.
• Recorded Video Lessons.
• 2,100+ Exam Questions and 6 Practice Exams.
• 90-day Money Back Guarantee.
• Live Coaching Available.
• Podcasts & Recorded Videos.
• Downloadable Study Material & Printable Quizzes.
• Email Course Options Updated. PMBOK Guide Formula Study Guide.
• eBook Bundles.

Prepcast comes in four pricing plans: Basic, Elite, and Elite Plus.

Each is billed at $279, $349, and $389 respectively.

Reviews from Master of Project Academy Graduates

Many who’ve used the platform have one or two things to say about this platform. Check out past users’ comments in the screenshot below.

Wrapping Up

All along, we’ve taken a tour of Project Management Academy to see what it has to offer.

What have we learned so far?

Firstly, the platform has a very comprehensive syllabus that features self-paced virtual or video lectures.

The courses are expensive but there is also a lot of free content.

And of course, the platform awards certificates that are PMI-recognised.

Those are certainly nice features that your go-to project management course must have.

But remember that it is not a PMI Authorised Training Partner. It’s not exactly a deal-breaker, but if you need that PMI stamp for an extra layer of confidence, then Prepcast is no farther than this link.

And most times, it’s cheaper as well.

FAQs

I’m pretty sure this review has been dissipating your questions about POMA one after the other.

But it happens sometimes, some questions just manage to slip by.

Hopefully, this section of the review will hunt down those questions.

Is Master of Project Academy legit?

Master of Project Academy is one of the world’s largest online course providers for project management.

Although I’m not one to trumpet the organization’s claims, judging by the number of positive reviews on reliable review sites like Google and TrustPilot, it is clear that the platform is here for serious business.

How to get access to  Master of Project Academy Coupons?

Once in a while, Master of Project Academy runs promos on their courses.

You have to keep your fingers crossed on them by regularly checking this link

Is Master of Project Academy a PMI Rep?

For now, no. Master of Project Academy is not a PMI partner.

That said, their contact hours rhyme with what PMI requires and their certificates can also allow you to sit for PMI certification exams.

Related

Project Management Institute Review