PMP Exam Prep Tips
Posted by [email protected] on Jul. 27, 2023 / Exam Prep / Subscribe 0
Are you thinking about or preparing for the PMP exam? We’ve compiled some tips and resources to help you prepare.
- Treat preparing for the exam like a project. You have a current state and desired state. Identify the steps you need to take to achieve the desired state (as well as the budget you’re willing to spend) and schedule time to complete the steps. You can find a lot of free and inexpensive study resources.
- Schedule breaks from your studying. Don’t stress yourself out and allow time for the information to sink in. This can be especially important in the last day or two before the exam. If you’re not the type that can stay up cramming the night before an exam, you might be better off giving your brain a break.
- Don’t try to learn anything new in the last few weeks before taking the exam. This is your final review time.
- Understand how you best learn and retain information. There are a lot of study options and you should use more than one approach, but spend the most time on the ways that you best learn and retain information. For example, if you can read the PMBOK guide straight through (without falling asleep), go for it. If you’re like me, you might be better off using an exam prep book, like those from HeadFirst or Rita Mulcahy, to guide your studies and help you focus.
- Another approach to focusing your studies is to start by taking a practice exam that identifies the areas where you need to improve. This establishes a baseline. Then, when you’re ready, take another practice exam to identify the topic to focus on next. Do this until you’re comfortable with your exam scores.
- Flash cards and quick reference guides can be a great way to study; you can get even more out of them by creating your own (assuming you learn and retain things that you read and write down, not just read.
- PMP Prep classes can be a great way to prepare. It’s important to keep in mind that they are intended to teach you how to prepare for the exam, not how to be a project manager.
- Many of the multiple-choice answers can be broken into three categories – two of them are obviously wrong, one of them may resemble how you’ve seen it done but it’s not the PMI answer, and one is the PMI answer; there may be some overlap between the last two.Take the test in-person if you can. Many people are successful taking the exam online, but if you have network issues or can’t remain visible on-camera for the proctor the whole time, you might find yourself unexpectedly ejected from the exam.
- Use your risk management skills to determine how early to leave for the exam; you don’t want to be too early, but you also don’t want to be late due to an unexpected traffic snag.
- Bring snacks and take the allotted breaks during the exam.
A lot of PMPs on the r/pmp sub reddit have shared the following resources that they used to pass the exam:
- Andrew Ramdayal’s PMP Certification Exam Prep Course on Udemy (wait for a sale; Udemy has sales on a regular basis)
- PMI Study Hall (supposedly, the test is easier than Study Hall)
- David McLachlan’s YouTube content
- Free content from Cornelius Fichtner’s Project Management PrepCast (the paid content is good too, but there is plenty of free content to get you started)
There are more resources available than we can list. These are just a few that we’ve heard favorable reviews about. Best of luck on the exam!
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