12 Tips to crack your PMP certification exam in the first attempt

I recently passed the PMP certification and a lot of people asked me to share my experience. Well let me start by calling a spade a spade, the PMP exam isn’t an easy one and requires effort, diligence, and focus. It works only if you work, it does demand your time and support from those around you.

For the uninitiated, “Wherever you are in your career, the globally-recognized Project Management Professional (PMP) certification tells employers, peers, and the world you know what you’re doing in project management.” (PMI, 2020, Read More to understand if the certification is right for you, the pre-requisites and the steps required to earn your certification.)

Here are my top tips around the preparation, the actual examination, and how your attitude matters:

#1 Living on planet PMP

The very perfect PMP approach to management can be seldom seen in REAL life. The framework is extremely powerful, but it needs to be constantly customized to suit the needs of your real-life project(s). For this reason, read the books with a pinch of salt – many a time you will feel that this can’t be right/this sounds too idealist/perfect (especially if you come with many years in a projectized environment) but as you read along and solve Qs, you get accustomed to this way of thinking.

#2 Are you on the edge?

Taking the date for the exam and working towards the deadline is an important activity during your preparatory process. Call me a nerd, but I applied the “top-down” approach which consisted of a "milestone chart" that I followed till the day of my exam. I did have a few rough days, and I did miss some intermediate deliverables, but I had built a contingency reserve into my project management plan ??

#3 How much is too much?

The ideal preparation time is around 3 months, especially for full time working professionals like most of us. However, I can say that my main study period was for about 5 weeks, I did work pretty hard on the material and solved countless sample questions.

You might never feel 100% ready, hence, it is important to take a date and work towards it. This journey cannot be made on an endless note; that goes against the principles of project management itself.

#4 What to study from?

I am not going to advocate any particular material, but I had 2 main sources that I used. I read the PMP Exam Prep from Rita Mulcahy from cover to cover and I highly recommend it. The tone of the book is sometimes a little bit discouraging, but I urge you to ignore that and work through the main content. If you’re new to project management – I would advise you to go through the content multiple times, it is very important to understand the concepts. Some are straight forward, and some require repetitions.

Since the certification process was organized by my company, I also attended a virtual Bootcamp (thank you Corona) from Delta Ace which was wonderful and gave me access to a Q bank. If you’re doing a self-prep, I advise you to go through the PMBOK as well as the Rita Prep material.

#5 Theory or Questions?

Both. But I recommend you do a lot of Qs, I did not just do the ones that I had access to, but I also did sample Qs from various online sources. Find some here: PrepCast, Oliver Lehmann, Exam Simulator, PMStudy Circle, and many more through simple google searches.

In general, the actual Qs are a little bit easier as compared to the ones after every chapter in the Rita book.

An important tip that I have around solving sample questions is to review every Q that you get wrong. This tip was given to us during the boot camp and came in very handy. Randomly doing the Qs, and not reviewing the ones that you get wrong does not allow you to progress on your prep consistently.

#6 Notes, Flashcards, Other(s)

I did make notes, while you are making these, it does double up your prep time, but it helped me concentrate more given the distractions we all have, alongside, these proved extremely helpful during the last week of the exam for quick revision/references.

If you think you don't have the time to make notes, I found this website quite helpful as the notes here were really on-point.

#7 The Online Exam

Given the uncertain times, we are in, I took the exam online and I must say that this is a great option - provided you have a peaceful set up at home, a good internet connection, and a personal laptop. The online check-in was quite smooth, you need to take the pictures of the room you are in and upload them to the link provided along with your ID. Once, you are through; an online proctor asks you to show the desk and sometimes even the room you are sitting in. This is to ensure that you do not have any PMP related material in proximity.

Make sure you do a system test in advance and login 30 mins before the actual exam time. The online proctor will let you know that you should not leave your seat for 2 hours until the break, this is something you are generally prepared for. The break is not mandatory but highly recommended.

#8 The Online Exam Software

The software blocks all other applications, you can see yourself through the small window on the top, the software has a whiteboard, a highlighter, an option to strike through as well as a calculator. Since the only permissible items on your desk are your ID and a bottle of water, these tools are quite useful. You also have an option to chat with the proctor - press the chat button and someone messages you in less than a minute.

#9 Need for Speed

Do not compare the 2 experiences – doing sample Qs and doing the actual exam, you need to constantly pace yourself as your nerves take over and a 4-hour exam is exhausting for anyone. Keep a good speed throughout the exam and do not mark too many questions for review, trust me you don’t have much time to go back to the questions and review them. I felt the first part of the exam was harder than the second part, but this could be my perception.

#10 Go with your gut feeling

After all the prep work you do, unless you’re 100% sure, do not change your answer - go with your first impulse.

#11 Stay in the moment

Even if you feel things aren’t going too well, trust me, there is no way to tell that till the end. Keep your focus through the Qs (be in the moment), and don’t think too much about the results or get stuck up on one Q during the exam.

#12 Memorization

A lot of people told me that you need to memorize a lot, but I don’t think that is true. Of course, you need to memorize some of the formulae for the calculation-based Qs but memorizing each input/output/tool(s) for various processes under the knowledge areas is not a must! What is important is - understanding how the processes, knowledge areas, and process groups are integrated together.

Bonus Tip: The exam tests you on your project management acumen and skills, none of the Qs are straight forward, most of the Qs are situational in nature.

As you might already be aware, there isn’t an absolute score for this exam, but you are given a range that you fall into when you review your exam results. I was “above target” in all the process groups except for closing, which was a little bit of a surprise!

If you’re up for a challenge, then go ahead and sign up for it, feel free to ask me Qs in the comments sections – I will try my best to answer.

All the best!