PMP passed: 1st attempt - Full journey details

Dear All,

Extremely happy to announce that I have cleared my PMP certification exam in my 1st attempt securing 'Above Target' overall.

The score breakdown was - Business Environment - AT / Process - AT / People - T

Long post alert - as I want to share my experience how I did it to aspiring PMP candidates hoping it will help in their journey and also inspire them.

Study materials used -

AR PMP guide

PMPBOK guide 7th edition

Agile Practice guide

AR Udemy course

TIA exam simulator

PMI study hall (lower version)

Study duration -

2 months - of which the 1st month was just watching the 35 hour Udemy course and glancing through the above books just to understand the surface and gradually gauge the depth.

Full on study effort was the last 4 weeks wherein I spent almost 4 hours everyday focussing completely with zero distractions trying to understand every concept in detail.

Booking the exam -

The moment I knew after completing the Udemy course that it would take me at least 4/5 weeks to completely prepare, I booked the exam. I initially booked it for 08th Nov but realized that I can actually do it a week earlier so re-scheduled it to 01st Nov.

Remember you can reschedule without penalty only if your original exam date is 30 days away. Of course before booking the exam, I applied for PMI membership which took around 3 days for approval.

Study plan

After completing the Udemy course and booking the exam, I knew I was locked into this which was a great thing to do as there was no looking back now unless I wanted to spend more money.

5th week - I had earlier just glanced through the AR PMP guide and PMBOK guide in the first 4 weeks of the study plan. Now it was the time to thoroughly read and digest, not memorise. There were however some terms which I had to memorize as I was unable to recollect what they were - example: pareto chart, monti carlo simulation, DISC behaviour etc.

6th week - Once I finished thoroughly reading the guides, it was now time for practicals. I purchased the TIA exam simulator and started with a full length mock exam first to gauge where I stood. I scored around 77%. I minutely reviewed every wrong question to see what was the root cause. Then started doing the practice questions and shorter mock exams. I think the TIA exam simulator along with the 2 AR YouTube videos from the Udemy course have in total approx. 1000 questions. This entire week the effort was to complete as many practice questions and short mock exams as possible.

7th week - As soon as I completed all the practice questions and shorter mock drills, I took the 2nd full length mock exam. I scored around 73%. Upon reviewing the questions, I realized that most of the wrong answers were because there were 2 best answers and my choice, though I thought was the best, was not what the examiner agreed. Frankly I disagreed with many and still disagree as I felt that is not what a project manager should do in that situation. I think this is where I got the sense that I am good with processes but situational questions would be tricky. But I also knew that in the exam, just a few such questions would be asked unlike the mock exam where almost 90% of the situational questions were tricky.

8th week - Once again took to reading the AR PMP and PMBOK guide thoroughly. As soon as I finished, I bought the PMI Study Hall to take more mock exams. In the 1st full length mock exam, I got 80% which calmed my nerves and this was the pointe where I knew I would crack the real exam. Continued with practice questions and also kept reading the PMBOK guide glossary at the end every night before sleeping. Even though the idea was not to memorize, constant focussed reading ensured I was actually able to recollect every term and its definition quite easily. Also this week I read the Agile Practice guide thoroughly (but only once).. I had finished all my learning tasks 2 days before the D day. I took the 2nd and final full length mock exam from PMI Study Hall and scored 73%. I wasn't really worried at this point as overall between TIA and Study Hall, I had solved close to 2000 questions scoring average 70% which was around 1400 correct answers.

Day before the exam -

As I had studied really hard for a month and had done everything I knew needs to be done, I just relaxed. All I did was watch the AR mindset YouTube video and glanced through the PMBOK guide and Agile practice guide. I slept early knowing I was completely ready for the next day.

Day of the exam -

Revised my notes and did not attempt any practice questions as I didn't want to get any burnout feeling solving questions right before the exam. I took the exam in the morning at home. The rules are quite strict regarding webcam and rightly so.

Results -

Got the result via email the next day. Incredible feeling and to be honest, not at all a surprise. The only surprise was, I thought I would be AT in all 3 domains. After checking the exam analysis, I realized I missed AT in one of the domains just by a few questions.

Takeaways -

For processes and systems of traditional and agile, understand to the T how the flow is. You should know even when half asleep, which process / stakeholder comes in at what point and does what.

For situational questions, digest the mindset and get it into your bloodstream (literally). Be prepared to face a few wrong answers even after applying the mindset.

Be prepared to fail early (one of the PM mindset) when studying. So initially, if you score less in your mock exams, just take the lessons and be happy that you got to know what's lacking. Try not to repeat the mistakes.

Do not get overconfident by one off mock exam high score as it could just be a fluke with the options you selected. Your scores should remain consistent (if above 70%) or trend higher with every mock exam.

Lastly, whenever you read a question, ask yourself what is the problem statement, Your answer must address the problem and provide the best possible solution from the list laid out while staying within the realms of the PMP mindset.

I think if you are scoring overall above 75% in mock / practice, you are good, 60% to 70% you are on the border, anything below that, you really need to study harder.

Tip -

I used the AI Assistant feature in AR's Udemy course to the max. The bot was like my personal tutor and answered all my queries and confusions. It would have been tougher to get clarification otherwise though there are forums but the bot gave me instant responses.

You can also use chatgpt for getting PMP questions but personally if you ask me, TIA and study hall are enough. If you cannot pass after solving 2000 questions, don't think more will help but yes do checkout a little bit of other avenues just for variety but don't overdo it.

All the best. Please feel free to post your questions if you still have any.

You can also connect with me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ravikumarputhran/

Dear

@Andrew Ramdayal

, cant express my gratitude enough for all your guidance though multiple videos on Udemy and YouTube. Thank you!

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