PMP Exam Tips

I’ve put together some exam tips and recommendations for those planning to take the Project Management Professional exam (PMP). I earned mine exactly four weeks today with an above target performance in all the domains.

If you need information about the exam you can visit PMI

The first book I used to study for the PMP was the PMP Exam Prep by Rita Mulcahy (Ninth edition). I got it on Ebay for about $60. It has quite a volume and is filled with exercises and some practice questions. I studied it three times. The second and third weren’t as detailed as the first. Generally I think the book gives a good opening to what the exam is like.

For my 35 Contact hours I made use of the course, PMP Exam Prep Seminar – PMBOK Guide 6 by Joseph Philips. He keeps encouraging you throughout the videos and he kind of let’s you sense a pattern in the knowledge areas. I recommend you have your PMBOK guide by your side when taking this course. His resources are also very helpful. As far as the price of the course, well it’s Udemy so you know.

Next is the PMBOK guide sixth edition (Project Management Body of Knowledge). 592 pages and 13 chapters. You might be wondering why this didn’t come first because this is what you’ll be tested on but I won’t really recommend hitting the PMBOK guide directly. Going through the others makes this kind of a breeze. I strongly recommend you go through the Glossary and chapters one to three (important!) from here though. You get a free PMBOK guide as a member of PMI which is how I got mine or you can buy it from any platform of your choice.

The Ricardo Vargas ITTO chart was very helpful, I came across it after I had finished the Rita Mulcahy text book the first time and was about 85% done with my couse. It changed the pattern I used to read it the second and third time. I recommend you watch his video PMBOK® Guide 6th Ed Processes Explained! on YouTube and check out the link in the description too.

Parizion is an amazing channel. I came across the channel about a week to my exam. I think he just started a few days before I came across it. I took his daily PMP drills seriously and answered along. it was very very helpful especially with confidence and he is awesome! I think you should check him out.

Aileen Ellis’ channel was also awesome. I literally played her videos in my headphones to sleep and while eating. She really breaks it down very well too.

Final Tip:– Learning is really achieved by repetition, I got a board and wrote out the EVM formulas and other formulas every morning when I wake up and every night before I slept. Because I like seeing what I do, I made a copy of the process groups and knowledge areas and kept around the house and recited them whenever I walked passed one. I’m still taking them down till this moment.

Finally, for the exam you don’t need to know everything in the PMBOK guide, just have them at the back of your mind and be a good project manager but always think about what the PMBOK guide says before answering.

Generally I’d say it took me 6 weeks to prepare and it all depends on different factors so it might take you longer or shorter.

I really want to say don’t forget to take breaks but I don’t think I’m the right one to say that cause I always had something related to PMP playing but make sure you take breaks. 🙂