I passed my PMP exam today with 3 ATs. Sharing what worked for me.

I took the exam today and couldn't believe I got 3 ATs! For context, I'm a dad of 2 small kids and have a 9-to-5 job. After work, I have to attend to daddy duties and, by the time the kids are all tucked in for bed, I'm just too exhausted to devote time for study.

I'm a classic example of student syndrome. I applied in December 2021 but kept rescheduling the exam until the last possible date. I didn't have a structured review approach and only had ad-hoc study times when my personal and work schedule permitted it. I took 2 days off work prior to the exam to do a deep-dive review.

What really helped me is this subreddit. So shout out to all the anonymous folks here who have selflessly shared their exam tips.

(Also a special shout out to my wife who made a hearty breakfast for me so that I had the stamina to go through more than 4 hours of grueling, mind-numbing project management questions.)

As my way of giving back, here's what worked for me during the exam. You would probably find most of the things here are a rehash of other posts awhile back but I'm reiterating them since they proved to be extremely helpful to me.

  1. Learn Andrew Ramdayal's PM mindset by heart. For the uninitiated, this is part of his PMP Exam Prep Course at Udemy (Section 27), which outlines your way of thinking as a PM if you're working on a traditional/predictive or an agile project. This is helpful since almost all of the actual PMP questions are situational. If you do have the time though, go through the entire course.

  2. To reinforce your mastery of the mindset, invest on the PMI Study Hall or the TIA Mock (or both) and practice answering as many questions as you could. Between the two, I would recommend investing on the SH for exam conditioning; the questions there are more like the actual PMP questions than the TIA questions, both in structure and content. On average, I was hitting 65-70% on the SH mock exams. Without the expert questions, I was 85-90%.

  3. If you have time, also watch this guy's practice questions, answers, and explanations. Helps you solidify the PM mindset.

  4. Watch Ricardo Vargas' PM processes video. THIS IS REQUIRED READING WATCHING! I was struggling with all the processes and ITTOs and how they all fit together but the way he explained it totally made sense. If PMBOK only structured them the way Vargas did, then this would have helped more people tremendously. Once you have a good grasp of the processes, it would be easier for you to eliminate choices that look okay but are, in fact, wrong because they're not part of the project phase that the question is asking about.

  5. More on the mindset: The prescribed approach is to always think it through BEFORE you act on something (unless it deals with dire consequences like health and safety or mandatory regulations). So questions about what you should do first or next almost always calls for thinking it through (i.e. assessing the situation, evaluating the impact/ root cause, or reviewing the plan) BEFORE doing the actual action.

  6. The rule of don'ts (not absolute but in general): Don't remove a team member or a vendor. Don't escalate to sponsor or PMO or product owner. Don't ask for budget increase. Don't add more people. Assess the situation, evaluate the impact/root cause, review the plan, meet with the team, then come up with the best solution.

  7. If a team member is deficient in skill, put them on a training. If the stakeholders or the org are new to agile, show them the benefits of agile (i.e. workshops, trainings).

  8. If a stakeholder complains about a missed or incomplete/incorrect item, revisit the agreed criteria and walk them through it. If a stakeholder complains about comms or status report, revisit the management comms plan/stakeholder engagement plan then find out where they're coming from (i e. what do they need?). If a stakeholder wants to know more about the project status, invite them to sprint reviews.

  9. You are a servant leader. Your role is always to support the team. Team conflict? Put them in "one room" and facilitate mediation. Demotivated? Find out why, then act based on their personal motivations. Erring team members? Remind the team about ground rules. Shared resource? Talk to the functional manager and figure something out.

  10. Changes? Assess and evaluate the impact on the project then go through the formal change process, including approval. Never put a change through without approval.

  11. If project is delayed, follow the following (in order of priority): a. Check risks and re-estimate b. Fast-track c. Crash d. Cut scope e. Reduce quality

  12. Take note of cue words: May/might/could means revisiting the risk register and risk management plan. Will/would/has (or any event already done) means revisiting the issue log and requiring an issue resolution.

  13. MVP is the way to go when there are just too many wish lists from stakeholders but limited resources. Use prototype when demonstrating the product's value.

  14. Face to face communication is always the best unless team is dispersed geographically, in which case you have to settle with virtual meetings.

  15. In the process of closure? Get formal acceptance of the project deliverable with stakeholders BEFORE lessons learned, BEFORE handover to Ops, BEFORE releasing team.

  16. SPI is Schedule while CPI is Cost. To remember if it's good or bad, treat 1 like 100%, which is the ideal baseline. Anything above 1 is good; anything below 1 is bad.

  17. Lucky to have stumbled on this terminology post before my exam. They appeared as a drag and drop question in my exam; be sure to understand the terms.

  18. PearsonVUE onsite exam tip: Use the highlight function to mark key words. Use the strikethrough function to narrow down your choices so you could focus on the 2 most plausible answers; this ups your chances of getting it right.

EDIT: Some users here advise it's better if you don't use these options and just mentally take note of the 2 most plausible answers. My answer is it would all depend if you're a fast test-taker or not. In my case, I had at least 45 minutes to spare to go back and review my marked questions so the highlight and strikethrough functions proved really useful. But if you think the 4.5 hours is just enough to answer 180 questions, then this tip won't work for you. Size up how you're doing with the time through your mock exams and then decide.

  1. COVID tip: If you have even the slightest cough, reschedule (or opt for virtual exam instead)! My seatmate was escorted out after 30 mins. because she was constantly coughing. o_O

  2. Take your 2 breaks even if you're on a roll. I was feeling good during the first set (60 questions) but figured exam fatigue would set on me soon so I took the break to keep calm, refresh my mind, and stretch a bit before going back to the exam room.

  3. Sub to this subreddit. r/pmp is truly a treasure trove of insightful advice and PMP exam tips. Indeed, crowdsourcing is one of the greatest gifts of the Internet! Thank you!

Go break a leg! Good luck!