How I Passed PMP Exam in 90 Days
Tips and strategies that helped me to pass PMP exam in 3 months
PMP stands for Project management professional, a certification provided by the Project management institute. Worldwide industries consider PMP to be the gold standard in Project management certification. Hence most of the industries employ PMP-certified project managers to get the most benefits out of their projects.
In short, Project management is about managing the triple constraints of a project that is scope, time, and cost. Many organizations were unknown of this skill a decade ago, but today they understood the importance of this skill to thrive as a business. As per PMI, research indicates that employers will need to fill 2.2 million new project-oriented roles each year through 2027. Hence this shows the value of project management in the future. Now, you cannot become a good project manager by passing the exam and attaining a credential, it takes more effort than that. But PMP will provide the roadmap to begin a project management career.
Being a PMP myself, I know the difficulties a person faces while preparing for the PMP exam. PMP exam is one of the toughest non-technical exams and the exam passing rate is somewhere around 30–40%. This means out of every 10 persons attempting the exam, only 4 persons could successfully clear the exam. PMP exam is a closed book assessment where the participants are not allowed to take any notes, reference material, and calculators. It does require a bit of self-discipline and dedication to come outside successfully on the other side of the PMP exam.
It took me around three months to successfully clear the PMP exam on the first attempt. Although later I realized that it could have been done in 2 months, but to be on the safe zone 3 months was a good decision. The PMP exam I faced was full of situational questions, only 5% of the questions were based on formulas, so the four-hour test was intense. The situational questions determine the psychology of a project manager on solving a project management related problem, also checks the ethical standards of a person. Below a step-by-step process is shared which I followed to clear the PMP exam on the first attempt.
1. Become a member of PMI: This step is not necessary, but I would recommend doing so. By joining PMI membership, you will get access to all the PMI knowledge materials for free, most importantly the PMBOK guide. Also, you will get access to the PMI community where thousands of successful project managers share their stories and help each other to give back to the community.
2. Try not to refer to more than two books: I have referred to only two books during my PMP exam preparation. One is the PMBOK guide and the other is PMP Exam prep from Rita Mulcahy. Now we need to understand that the PMBOK guide does not cover all aspects of project management knowledge as it is just a guide to the project management body of knowledge. However, the PMBOK guide covers all the basic aspects of project management and most of the questions from the PMP exam are tailored as per the PMBOK guide, hence we should not avoid the PMBOK guide. Rita Mulcahy’s book should be read, only after reading the PMBOK guide as this book gives practical examples of project management scenarios, practice tests, and sample questions.
3. First-month preparation: in the first month, join for a PMP Bootcamp or any other reliable PMP online course to understand the basic concepts of project management from a PMI perspective. Ensure the online course or Bootcamp is aligned with PMI/PMBOK methodology as most of the PMP questions are based on PMBOK. Dedicate 2 hours every day on weekdays and 4 hours on weekends for PMP preparation. Utilize one hour for studying PMBOK guide and another hour for attending an online course. Attending the online course will help to understand the concepts of the PMBOK guide better as reading the PMBOK guide itself would feel very dry. Plan in such a way that the PMBOK guide and the online course is finished in the first month itself.
4. Second-month preparation: By the beginning of the second month, you would have understood the basic concepts of the PMBOK guide. Now it is time to refer to the second book, which is PMP exam prep from Rita Mulcahy. While learning the concepts from Rita Mulcahy’s book, try to solve sample questions and practice tests of the same chapter. This will help you to remember and understand the concepts better.
During the second month, start reading the PMBOK guide again. After referring to Rita Mulcahy’s book, now the PMBOK guide will seem like a cakewalk because you have now learned the concepts from real case studies of Rita Mulcahy’s book. Plan your second month in such a way that you understand project management concepts completely from both the perspectives of the PMBOK Guide and Rita Mulcahy.
5. Practice Brain dump: Also practice PMP brain dump which is a dump of all PMP exam related formulas and the 49 PMBOK process. Another important step is to understand how the 49 project management processes interact and related to each other. This concept is explained by a PMBOK data flow video by Praizion Channel on Youtube, you can check the same.
6. Third Month Preparation: By now, you should have absorbed the concepts and ideas from both PMBOK & Rita Mulcahy’s books. This is the time to test your knowledge. Take any free mock test which is available online or you can get the paid ones.
The idea behind taking a mock test is to understand your stress handling capability while giving a PMP exam. When you sit for a mock PMP exam of four hours, you will understand what the difficulties are you are going through, how much time you are taking to answer each question and how to tackle those issues. The real PMP exam will be for four hours and the break time is also included in the four hours itself, so take care of how you manage your time during the real exam.
You should give at least three mock PMP exams. I was confident by giving three mock exams where I attained around 65–70% in the last mock exam. Some people may get confidence by giving 7 mock exams, some may take up to 10 mock exams. But I prefer you should not take more than five.
After giving a mock exam for four hours, you should spend two hours assessing your mistakes and also the right answered questions on why they were right. Once you assess the answers after a mock exam then you get the idea of answering a situational question and also the psychology of why that particular answer was right.
7. Never leave PMBOK guide: Always ensure that you are referring to the PMBOK guide throughout the third month as you should answer the PMP exam questions from the PMBOK perspective. This is very important, and I would repeat it again and again. People always do the mistake of answering questions from their real-life experiences and not from the perspective of PMBOK. Hence, I would recommend answering PMP questions on the real exam from the PMBOK guide perspective.
8. Ready for the exam: How you will know that you are ready to give the real PMP exam? your confidence will tell you. When you get at least 70–75% in the mock exam, then you should book a date for the real exam as soon as possible.
9. One day before the exam: you can revise but you should not read anything new on this day as it would confuse you and you would probably forget what you have studied till now. Listen to music, watch movies if you have time, and get adequate rest. Adequate sleep is very important on the day before the exam.
On the day of the Exam: reach the test center at least 45 minutes before the exam time. Carry some fruits/snacks with you, drink some water before the exam as it is not allowed to take inside the test room. You can take breaks during the exam. I took one break for eating snacks and drinking water which took around 12 minutes but that was worthwhile. Security checks are done before and after the break So be careful in managing your break time as break time is also included in the four-hour time of your exam
Conclusion
PMP is a highly recognized certification, however, passing the PMP exam is not the end of the journey. You have just started your project management career. I have seen great results by applying the knowledge of PMP in my profession and so can you.
I always believe that PMP should not be seen as a milestone for achieving a credential but should be viewed as a platform to learn something new about project management.
