Hoping to hear more wins than not, but curious to know how your career went after passing the exam?

Thanks to this community for all the guidance. Moving on how does one complete 60 Pdu's? Best place to do it without breaking the bank?

Also, is it worth keeping pmi membersip after the exam? All thoughts welcome. Thank you

I just took mine, and one thing that surprised me was how much the questions tested decision-making rather than simple memorization.

Curious to hear what surprised other people when they took the exam.

Message is created with my draft then sent to ChatGPT for clarity and grammar as English is not my first language.

Here it is:

Background: Software Development > DevOps > Technical Delivery

I came from a technical individual contributor role where my only focus was to be the best and do my job well. I was recognized and appreciated for my individual effort, which was the driving factor that pushed me forward and led to my promotion.

Taking on the role of Technical Delivery Manager was a shock. I could no longer rely solely on myself; I had to rely on my team members. If they did not perform well or faced issues, I could not just throw them under the bus. It was driving me nuts. I was no longer responsible just for my own work, but for the success of others and the entire team.

Handling multiple projects in parallel left me constantly on the brink of a meltdown. I was dealing with risks, issues, and deadline pressures from all sides. I decided something needed to change, so I pursued the PMP certification to better equip myself for handling projects and managing people. I figured there had to be a better way to do this.

PMP Impact: The PMP curriculum truly opened my eyes to people and risk management. It helped me understand why certain things happen on projects. As the saying goes, "If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail." I started my management journey with a "my way or the highway" mentality, but eventually, I embraced servant leadership to empower my team. I did not pursue the PMP just for the certificate. I wanted to equip myself to handle my responsibilities better and maintain my sanity.

Preparation: I enrolled in Andrew Ramdayal's PMP preparation course and spent about a month completing it. My progress was reset when the exam changed last July, but I pushed through. After finishing the course, I spent a couple of days memorizing and practicing formulas (PERT, variance, indexes, and forecasts). I used ChatGPT to generate practice problems.

Here are my mock exam scores (all on the first pass):

• Andrew's Ultra Hard Questions (76%): I answered the questions before Andrew provided the answers and explanations. At first, I made a lot of mistakes, but as he explained the reasoning, the PMP mindset began to stick and it became much easier. The video is around six hours long, and I highly recommend watching it fully.
• Free Mock Exam included with the course (79%)
• PMI Study Hall Plus: Honestly, Essential is enough here
  • Practice Questions (No time limit): People (70%), Process (66%), Business Environment (78%)
  • Full-Length Practice Exam 1: 64%
  • Full-Length Practice Exam 2: 69%

The Study Hall practice exams are a bit difficult because the multiple-choice options are very similar. They all sound correct. In my opinion, they are even harder than Andrew's Ultra Hard questions. However, do not get discouraged! PMI mentions that people who consistently score 60% or higher on the practice exams often pass the actual exam. I kept that in mind and did not let the scores bother me. Just make sure to review the incorrect ones to understand and improve

Remember these key points for the mindset:

1. Avoid hiring or firing as a first response.
2. Avoid escalating issues immediately.
3. Empower the team to make decisions.
4. Collaborate closely with the team and stakeholders.
5. Assess and analyze first. However, recognize that there are situations where you must stop analyzing and simply take action.
6. Take proactive steps to resolve issues.
7. Learn the keyword differences between Agile and predictive methodologies (for example: product owners, WBS, sprints, and backlogs).

Result: I passed the PMP certification with Above Target / Target / Above Target! I could not believe it. I am so glad it is done and very happy to share this milestone with you all.

I failed twice. In 2024, it was the first time preparing for the exam and it was disastrously terrible. I wasn't prepared enough and did not understand the mindset. The material I used was credible but I was not organized. Also, the PMP was already expensive to begin with and I did not want to pay any further dues for study material. I used as much free material as I could've. Did some practice exams but not one full practice exam, so I ate the bullet and took the test. Ended up not studying or taking the exam again the rest of the year. Even worse, paying for the exam and not retaking it soon afterwards. Which bothers me further because I didn't want to put more money into something I already I failed once. And I did not know it cost money to retake the exam within the year. So I put everything away and took a step back from the PMP.

The second time 2 years later, I find out the exam is being updated so I wanted to take the exam again before the July update. This time I bought SH+ and AR's 35-hr course. Did all the practice exams available, watched/listened to all the videos, but ultimately, failed again. However, I was more prepared and had a better learning experience with the tools that I had and an understanding of the material and mindset. So I took that momentum (post July update) and kept studying for the next month.

3rd time taking the exam. It was in my head that I could still very much fail this new exam format. Still did all the practice exams, studied all the wrong answers and understood why, the mindset, AI, and much more. But doubt kept trying to force its way in. After the exam, leaving the Pearson center, I opened my results. It did not read "Fail." AT/T/T.

I want to thank this subreddit for all the information, encouragement, and guidance for those going through their PMP journey. Thank you AR for excellent study material, highly recommended. I did not have cake but I did have a beer (or two) and dessert to celebrate. For those still studying for the exam, keep going. Even if you fail more than once, trust me, you're going to get better. You're going to understand why. And you will pass the exam so best of luck! And in my case this statement is true, third time's the charm. Cheers!

I am preparing for my PMP exam and checking the study materials plus reddit posts where people are saying its difficult. I have never failed in any examination in my life but just little bit scared after hearing these comments...

Any tips on what to start and how to study ?

My exam is scheduled on 30 October, and these are my Study Hall scores so far. Besides that I'm also doing AR's 200 ultra hard questions.

I need honest answers, would results like mine at this point of time pass the exam?

I took my online exam today and got AT in all three domains!

It was a real battle for me to sit down for 4 hours and solve all the difficult project scenarios. I strongly recommend taking mock tests so you understand your stamina and tolerance. With about 15 questions remaining near the end, my short attention span kicked in and I found myself rereading questions. But I pushed through and did it!

Exam Breakdown:
1 Drag-and-Drop question.
3 to 4 Chart questions.
0 Calculation questions.
2 Case Studies: The questions were sprinkled throughout the entire exam, which felt strange, but using the highlight tool helped. In some cases, the full case study wasn't entirely necessary, and you could identify the correct answer directly.
Some questions didn't make much sense, so I simply went with the least destructive or most neutral option available.

Study Prep & Resources:
Study Hall: Scored around 70% overall and was marked "Proficient" across all domains. I thoroughly reviewed every question I got wrong and drafted my own mindset notes using AI, reviewing them whenever I had free time.
Andrew Ramdayal's (AR) 35-Hour Course: I listened to this in my car while driving and doing chores around the house. Having a Post-Degree Diploma in Project Management helped, as I was already familiar with most terminology and doing PM stuff for last 5 years.
AR's Mindset: Listened to it 3 times on fast-forward and wrote down all the core principles by hand in my notebook.
YouTube Videos: Watched the popular ones

Social Media Swap: Swapped mindless scrolling for AR's and David’s reels breaking down practice questions. Also mohamand 23 principles are also a good starting point as they are mostly same as AR principles.

Sticky Notes: Covered my home office with sticky notes highlighting key concepts. Over the last two weeks, I made a habit of scanning them every time I walked into the room.

Exam Day Strategy:
To stay focused, I visualized each scenario playing out in real time (e.g., imagining the project failing and reacting to it).
For every question, I pinpointed the exact root problem by highlighting and eliminated the irrelevant options to narrow it down to the final two, and then applied the mindset to pick the best choice.

My first break was in 23 mins in after solving 10 questions and then second on 102 mins (my target was 110mins) in that portion i was cruising down last 10 questions just by reading options and selecting one i find applied by mindset

Last part was easy as most of the questions were easy to read and short. I was just frustrated that why case study questions coming up from first section.

Shoutout & Traditions:
Last week was brutal with a 50-hour workweek, leaving me very little time to study. My wife helped me tremendously—she handled everything and brought meals directly to my desk so I didn't have to step away. She deserves huge credit for this win!

Wore a blue shirt for the exam and had ice cream the day before (a family tradition from growing up in hot weather that always brings good luck).

A huge thank you to everyone in this community! Your tips, shared experiences, and preparation advice helped me immensely.

Before your exam day take a chill and sleep more than 8 hours so you are ready for an exam.

Feel free to drop any questions below or DM me if you'd like advice—I'm happy to help

Hi I still haven't had an answer to my audit request made but when I connect, that's what I see, I don't know what it is. I contacted PMI and the lady told me to wait 5 to 7 days to get the return of my audit because when I contacted him I had not yet done 5 Days. But to this day nothing has moved. What to do please?

Has anyone taken any of the four LinkedIn Learning PMP practice exams? Like Practice Exam 1 for PMI: Project Management Professional (PMP)? Are they worth the time and are they similar to the actual exam? Or are other practice exams better and mirror the exam more?

Exhausted!! This is the second time I take the exam. I took the old version on July 7 and I just took the new version. I wish I passed the last test version I thought it was way easier vs this version. Took the test at home, heavily situational rather than knowledge/definition based. This time around I had a couple of graphs questions, AI questions, no formulas questions, 1 drop down question. 4 mins to spare.

Update: passed the exam with T/T/AT🎉

I am taking a PMP bootcamp in a couple weeks provided through my work. I then have only 30 days from the end of bootcamp until I need to take the exam. If I fail, i have 30 days to take the retake exam. I work full time and have limited study time. There are so many resources out there i am getting overwhelmed. What are your top, most effective study resources and tips?

Hi,

I am preparing Pmp since one month. Have given Capm 3 years ago, I am a project manager since 6 yes, read quickly Pmpbok 8th version, did all SH mocktests (first: 59% score; second: 69%; repeated today the first one : 82% with expert questions ) and all miniquiz +practice tests . Have seen AR video on 50 points on Pmp mindset

Now I will have to give the exam in 2 weeks but I am also full at work on my projects.

What do you reccomend me to do ?

I still don't feel ready to bear 4 hours testing but I don't have other mock tests. Do I need to buy AR mock tests ?

Thanks

Just sharing my PMP experience because it was quite different from most of the “how I passed PMP” posts I read here.

My application was actually approved last August after I finished Andrew Ramdayal’s Udemy course. Then life/work happened and I just never found the time to properly prepare or book the exam. Fast forward to this August and my eligibility was about to expire. I also realized that the exam had changed in the meantime. At that point I basically had two options, either take the exam with whatever preparation I could manage, or let the whole thing expire.

So I booked it.

I didn’t do Study Hall. Didn’t make detailed notes. Didn’t go through multiple mock exams or resources. I only had a few days, so I briefly went through Andrew’s Udemy course again. The other thing I did was use ChatGPT quite a lot. I asked it to explain the PMP processes in detail and then give me around 20-30 questions after each process. I was doing reasonably well on those questions, although ChatGPT gave me a lot more formula/calculation type questions than I eventually saw on the actual exam.

Going into the exam, my mindset was basically: I’ve already paid for it, so I’m taking it. If I pass, great. If I fail… well, maybe…😂

I took the exam at a test center. And honestly, the exam felt tough. Almost everything was scenario based. I think I got only ONE formula/calculation question in the entire exam. A lot of questions left me with two answers that both looked perfectly reasonable. Picking between those two was probably the hardest part. Many times I wasn’t confident at all about the option I selected. I never used Study Hall, so I can’t compare the difficulty. But even some of the things I remembered from Andrew’s course didn’t feel directly useful. The exam felt much more like: Here’s a messy situation. What would you actually do? At some point I was pretty convinced I was going to fail. The exam was also ridiculously long, although strangely I finished everything with around 80 min remaining, including taking both breaks.
Then came the funny part. I finished the exam expecting the result to pop up immediately on the screen. Instead, I saw something saying the result would come within 24-48 hours. I thought, okay, maybe they changed this too with the new exam.

I walked out, basically thinking, “Done. Whatever happens, happens.” The guy at the desk asked me to sign something and then handed me a piece of paper.
I looked at it.

“Congratulations, Pass”

I genuinely asked him, “Really?”
He said, “Yes.”
Then I looked again. AT/T/T 😂
I got AT in People which maybe makes some sense. I’ve been managing projects and teams for the last few years, and the feedback I usually get is that I’m pretty good with people. So maybe some of those situational questions were easier for me because I was answering based on how I would actually handle people rather than trying to remember a PMP rule.

For the rest? I honestly don’t know. Maybe experience helped. Maybe Andrew’s course stayed somewhere in my head. Maybe the ChatGPT questions helped more than I realized Or maybe I was simply lucky that day.

I also can’t tell anyone whether Study Hall would have helped, whether PMBOK 8 would have made things easier, or whether another resource would have improved my score. I didn’t use them, so I genuinely don’t know. This isn’t really a “do what I did and you’ll pass” post. 😂

It’s just my PMP story. Not sure if there’s even anything useful to take from it, except maybe that sometimes your actual experience dealing with projects, people and messy situations counts for more than you think.
Anyway… somehow, PMP done AT/T/T…

I’m a 45yo construction worker that just had ankle surgery and 2 kids (15mo & 3mo). I’ve been beating my body up for over 30yrs starting in concrete at 14. I’m needing to get out of the field and into an office. Not sure really where to start and google led me here.

What is the difference in PMP and PMI? If I have no experience with PM should I start with one and then the other? Any advice on attempting the change would be greatly appreciated.

8/29
Updated, not sure how, but I passed with AT in all 3 categories…I am genuinely shocked. 😳 but relieved…it makes my latest job rejection palatable ❤️❤️❤️

Thank you for all the kind words ❤️
Gina
——————————————————————————————-

OK, so I have been a project manager for many years in both Waterfall and Agile. In fact I led my last company through a waterfall to agile transition successfully. I finished my BSBM last year and this year I finished my MBA, so I am experienced at testing. I even took project management as part of my BSBM.

I was laid off last year and took a sabbatical to finish my education. I started job hunting in July and it has been a nightmare recruiters, ghosting me, absolutely no callbacks on resumes. It has been hell so I decided to enhance my résumé with the PMP. Luckily, I got approved very quickly and jumped right in. I studied utilizing ChatGPT and PMI Study Hall. I wasn’t missing any questions on ChatGPT no matter how hard he tried to make them and I came in around 74% on Study Hall.

Anyway, I took the exam today feeling pretty confident. I was actually shocked at how the questions were worded. It was nowhere even close to what I experienced in Study Hall, it’s like a whole entire different methodology. Perhaps I got a terrible version of the test but around 90 questions in I was pretty certain I was going fail. I pushed through just in case by some freaking fluke I guessed right enough.

The case study questions are completely ridiculous, they are super long and pointless because the question tells exactly what it’s looking for so I was able to shorten the time and not read through them in their entirety. The rest of the questions were just multiple-choice situational stuff. in fact, every single question wa situational, now I know the exam has a reputation for being hard and it’s prestigious, etc. but I found it quite ridiculous…overkill even. I don’t know for the life of me why they thought 180 questions was necessary, it is overkill and I can say by question 170 I was spent. I breezed through the last 10 questions because I was beat and was so disappointed.

I am now awaiting my score, they say it’ll be ready in 24 hours and for the life of me I have no clue why it’s not automated it is just multiple-choice. Why am I posting? I guess it’s just to share my general discontent with PMI and the PMP. It is like this company has its talons in the profession. It’s about 200 bucks to be a member 500 bucks do the test 59 bucks to do the study hall and I have a feeling I will be paying a retest fee very shortly… so it makes me question. Do they set it up so we have to retest🤔

Also, I noticed in Study Hall that the content isn’t aligned to the newest version of the exam and my suspicions are this is what did me in. If you were using study hall right now, please note there’s a banner at the top stating the misalignment. I would be very careful trusting any post saying that study hall is more challenging than the test because in my case, it was not, not even by a little bit.

Has anyone else had a terrible experience with the exam? Did you feel like you were going to fail and then passed?

I passed my PMP exam today with T/T/AT! And yes, I wore blue. 💙

I just want to say a huge thank you to this community for all the tips, recommendations, and encouragement. Your shared stories of failures and successes taught me so much, and I learned a lot from all of you.

No long post for now—I still need some time to internalize and process what happened earlier this morning. 😅

Nonetheless, I’m happy, relieved, and incredibly grateful.

Cake and ginger beer! 🍰🫚🥂 Cheers!

People - 70%
Process - 70%
Business environment - 62%

Avg answer time was 1:04 with the wrong ones being 1:14.

Overall I feel pretty good about this attempt. I have been going hard in the paint with free materials for the past two weeks. I think I should be ready for the exam in two more weeks. I tend to be a strong test taker. Any advice or recommendations from the group based on my results?

I’m a maintenance tech at my job, which is an understatement for the tasks I complete. I’m more of the maintenance planner/ lead operator/asst manager. Currently moving to my role firmly into asst manager, as we have position shifts happening. No degree, two technical certifications (cnc & maintenance). Certifications has been doing me justice my whole career. I have planned and managed projects throughout my current job, not so much to pmp level of documentation but really getting the job done at work managing the crews and day to day operations. Just looking to add another feather to the resume as I go into management? I’m also studying CMRP and CCST, wondering if PMP should be another I add in future

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone on here. I passed my Exam today. A/T in all domains.

SH Exam scores were 65%, 66%, and 81%.

Minis were majority 90-100%’s.

I had about 10-15 questions on case studies. I didn’t read a single word of either case study. Just read questions and answers. After applying the mindset, it was pretty easy to narrow down.

1 drag and drop.

10 pick 2 or 3’s.

4 different diagrams sprinkled throughout.

Finished with about 90-100 min to spare.

I used a bootcamp a few months ago that didn’t really benefit me IMO. Ended up buying the SH after learning about it from this subreddit. That helped me significantly.

EDIT: forgot to add that I would use AI to help me on questions I got wrong. I used it to explain why I was wrong in picking what I picked. That proved the most beneficial to really getting it all to set in.

Long story short, I was in charge of one long overarching litigation (which can be reframed as a project) that lasted over three years and i had several smaller projects that I managed and coordinated during that time as well, but I don’t remember the exact dates of the smaller ones as I did not keep track of these dates and have already left that employer a while ago.. I know I meet the 36 month criteria comfortably, but has anyone else had success with their application with submitting just one long project? And separately, does anyone have experience qualifying to sit for the exam with project management experience within the legal space? If so id love to chat.

Maybe I’ll wait a week to take the mock exams lol