How to Pass the PMP Exam in Two Months: Tips and Resources
On December 19th, 2022, I achieved my PMP certification, surpassing the target in three domains after just two months of preparation. In this post, I aim to share my experience and offer tips to anyone who plans on taking the exam.
What is a PMP certificate?
According to PMI (Project Management Institute), PMP is a Project Management Professional certification that represents an elite group of project managers. Having the certificate means that you have proven project management skills such as leadership, negotiating, and communication.
The Exam
The Exam is 3 sections, 60 minutes each with two 10-minute breaks in between each section. The exam will test you in 3 domains: people, process, and business environment. You will need to submit an application to qualify for the exam before scheduling the exam. A full list of requirements can be found here
You can either take the exam online from your home using your own laptop or in person at a test center.
Material to Prep for The Exam
Velociteach PMP Training Bootcamp:
This was provided by my employer and by the end of the Bootcamp week, I got the certificate that satisfy the 35 hours of project management training/education.
The book also comes with a final exam. I personally didn’t like the final exam question. I find it hard to read from the book. Some final exam questions are helpful but many of them are based on ITTOs.
Do I recommend it? Yes and No… the boot camp week was intense and you will learn a lot. I think it is useful to know the material and ask some questions in person. Take the boot camp training if it was offered for you but don’t pay for it yourself.
Andrew Ramdayal Udemy Course. Link to the course
The course always goes on sale (purchased it for $19) and it satisfies the 35 hours PMP application requirement.
I enjoyed the course. I used it as my main material when I started studying for one month after I scheduled my exam. Andrew is a slow talker, I speeded up the records by 1.5.
The course also has tips on how to apply for the exam application and a mindset section is key to passing the exam in my opinion.
Practice Tests and Mock Exams
Andrew Ramdyle TIA exam Simulator
It is $44.99 with 6 mock exams each exam is 60 minutes. The questions are not long but they are similar to some PMP exam questions especially. It also has a recorded video for each question teaching you how to eliminate some of the answers and how to use the mindset to pick the right one. Highly recommend it
PMI® Authorized Online PMP® Practice Exam
The PMI offered a practice exam for free in 2022 (the regular price is $99). The exam is not timed and offered around 250 questions. Some questions were really long and some of them were worded weirdly. I read somewhere that the questions are written by PMs and that’s why some questions were hard to understand and some were Grammarly wrong. This PMI practice exam was useful to practice answering long questions. I would recommend using it if it was offered for free but I would not recommend spending $99 on it. The exam also shacked my confidence as I wasn’t scoring high. The Exam can be found in your PMI account dashboard. Link is here
David McLachlan YouTube Videos - Free
David McLachlan's YouTube videos are free and helpful for answering Agile or Waterfalls exam questions. McLachlan provides insight into how he thinks about each question and answers it correctly. His YouTube channel can be found here
Tips and Exam Experience
Schedule the exam before studying. Two months are enough to prepare; don’t overthink it.
Use the first month to go over the material and save the second month to solve as many practice exams as possible
Don’t tell anyone about your intention to take the exam. This will help remove the social pressure and you don’t need to justify if you fail. Also, sometimes when you tell people you are prepping for the PMP exam, you get validation when you hear “That’s great” or “You are doing awesome” and this a weird reason will decrease your enthusiasm.
Check Andrew Ramdyle YouTube channel frequently. Sometimes PMI added some questions that are not in the book and Andrew mention them. In this video, there are some definitions that I got two questions from during the exam.
Try to take the exam in person if possible to prevent running into technical issues or internet issues during the exam.
I also heard that sometimes the moderator may question any noise
Schedule it in the morning - 10 AM was best for me to avoid waking up super early and remove the morning rush stress.
Manage your time - make sure you are not spending more than 1 minute and 20 seconds on each question. if you find yourself spending more, mark an answer and flag the question. This video was helpful to watch before the exam
Don’t get frustrated if you were not scoring above 75% in practice exams. The main point is to understand why you didn’t get the answer right and practice. I was not scoring high before my exam and I passed with the above target in 3 domains.
The exam was all scenario based with a lot of Agile and remote work with no travel scenario-type questions. I got zero calculations. Memorize the equations but don’t stress about them.
Follow the PMP subreddit. This subreddit was so helpful. I learned from other people's experiences. The link to the subreddit: is www.reddit.com/r/pmp/
During the exam:
You may get a feeling that you are failing. That is normal, don’t panic.
Take your breaks, bring water and something simple to eat (banana, apple, date).
After every 60 questions, you need to do your reviews, once you finish them, you will not be able to go back.
Final Thoughts
I truly enjoyed studying for the PMP exam as a junior project manager. I enjoyed learning about some terms and techniques. I planned to study for 2 hours after work and rest on the weekends but I wasn’t strict about it. I think practice exams are very important and you probably can learn about the material from practice exams. I hope this will help you in passing your PMP certification exam.
