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Passed my PMP exam, sharing my journey and experience.

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Navjot Walia Project Manager Sydney, Nsw, Australia
Hi All,

I am thrilled to share that I passed my PMP exam yesterday on my first attempt with AT in all three domains!

I am sharing my experience and learning journey here, hoping it would help the ones currently preparing for the certification.

- Training course to acquire the required 35 contact hours to be eligible to apply for the PMP certification - I did the course from Simplilearn https://www.simplilearn.com/. It wasn't the best course provider out in the market but gave me the required contact hours. I have heard good reviews about PMPrepcast course and their exam simulator.
- PMBOK 6th Edition – My first read of this book was simply ‘reading’, second round was actually digging in and understanding the basics.
- Rita Mulcahy 10th Edition – A great book for exam preparation, not as boring as the PMBOK (sorry!). I actually enjoyed preparing from the Rita Mulcahy's book and this is where my pace and momentum picked up and the preparation changed gears. Up until the PMBOK, things were a bit boring and dull. I went through the Rita Mulcahy's book twice and the third time was for the major concepts only, that I thought I needed to brush up.
- Agile Practice Guide – A MUST read for the newer format of the exam and new Exam Content Outline. It is really important to understand the agile and hybrid concepts for the new exam format and so, for someone like me who has limited experience with agile projects, I had to thoroughly read this book twice and grasp the agile concepts. It is a short 180-page book and quite well written.
- PMBOK 7th edition - Towards the third quarter of my preparation, I found out about the newly released edition of the PMBOK and was scared and demotivated thinking I will have to start my preparation all over again with the new 7th edition. But no, that is not the case! After reading all about it online on PMI and on few discussion threads here, I found out that PMBOK 6th edition is still a very valid reference book for the new exam. Therefore, I just did a very quick browse read of the new PMBOK 7th edition and did not really had the time to go through it in detail.
- However, I really feel PMBOK 6th edition still is important and it gave me a very good foundation base for my preparation.
- I undertook a Udemy crash course by Joseph Phillip about 6 weeks before the exam. It was one of the best decisions I took with regards to my preparation. The crash course really fine-tuned my concepts. This course has also been updated to include Agile concepts for the new exam.
- Towards the end of my preparation, I completed 4 mock exams (timed) which came with my Simplilearn course + the free mock questions from PrepCast + Free PMP Questions by Oliver Lehmann. It is really important to understand why the correct answer is the right option and why the other options are incorrect.
- In my opinion, Rita Mulcahy's 10th edition book + Agile Practice Guide + Udemy courses by Joseph Phillip were instrumental in my exam preparation.

Miscellaneous tips:
- Try and finish the first batch of 60 questions within the first 60-70 minutes if you can, this would mean less time pressure towards the second and third batch of questions, because trust me, the mental pressure does build up towards the second half of the exam!
- Don’t underestimate the physiological and mental aspects of sitting for a 4-hour exam. You must practice maintaining your concentration for the whole 4 hours for the exam.
- I gave my test at a Pearson test centre. Some of these test centres tend to blast off their aircons and it can get quite cold inside. For someone like me, who usually feels colder, it was a good idea to carry a jumper along to maintain my body temperature because I cannot simply concentrate if I am feeling cold. So, if you are someone like me, do carry a jumper or jacket along. Because you would need every bit of your concentration with you for those 4 hours!
- Test centres would usually not allow you to access your locker until the end of your exam (unless for medications). My test centre had drinking water facility available that I could use during the break. Water intake and use of restroom was another helpful factor for me during the breaks.
- The test centre would also usually give you a printout of your result which would tell you the level of your result for all three domains. This is followed by an official email from the PMI in the next 24-48 hours.
- Plan a reward for yourself on what you shall do once you pass the exam. It is important to reward yourself and so have a reward ready- something would really look forward to!
- Visualise your end goal- visualise your name on that PMP certification........PMP credentials next to your name on Linkedin. Call me crazy but I am a true believer of visualising your end goal and giving yourself positive affirmations everyday that yes you will pass the exam!

Lastly, I would like to thank everyone on this forum who responded to my queries before especially Kiron Bondale and Rami Kaibni (I am not sure if I can tag them here like other social media platforms but if you guys are reading this......Thank you to both...the knowledge and experience you guys share on these forums, is spectacular and immensely helpful!).
I will try my best to give back to this community as well as learn further from all the members here.

If anyone has any specific questions or wants to know more about any of the points above, please leave a comment below and I will respond to you.

Hopefully the above pointers would help the candidates currently preparing for the certification. Good Luck!

Regards,
Navjot Walia
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Heidi Kaufmann Associate Director, Development Operations| Action Against Hunger ACF-USA Long Island City, Ny, United States
Congrats, Nicole! I am wondering - I am currently studying Rita Mulcahey's 10th edition but am about a quarter of the way through it and finding it very difficult to understand all the different terms and concepts. I am taking notes like the book suggests and am doing the exercises. I also have the exam simulator which I haven't used yet. Am I the only one who finds all the different concepts impossible to remember and differentiate? How does that relate to the fact that the exam relies more on scenarios and not memorization of concepts? Not sure if my question makes sense. I just got started with studying and feeling very discouraged at the moment.
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1 reply by Navjot Walia
Jun 22, 2022 8:30 PM
Navjot Walia
...
Hi Heidi,
I get you! Trust me we all have been there once.
Just remember, you will need to go through Rita Mulcahey not just once but atleast twice. You simply cannot memorize al the terms and concepts in one go so take it easy on yourself. Just keep moving forward.
Good Luck .
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Gretchen Khoury Thomas Printworks Tx, United States
That's super great!! Question: How well do you feel the mock exams/simulations helped you prepare for the exam and how similar were they to the actual exam? From the free mock questions from PrepCast + Free PMP Questions by Oliver Lehmann and anything that Joseph Phillips provides?
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1 reply by Navjot Walia
Jun 22, 2022 8:38 PM
Navjot Walia
...
Hi Gretchen,
Mock exams are a great way to assess your readiness for the exam. Do the mock exam/simulations as you would do the actual exam. These give you a good idea on how the real exam questions may be...these may not necessarily be too close to the real exam questions though at times. However, attempting these mock exams really helped with to give me the confidence to be ready and appear in the actual exam.
Good Luck.
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Navjot Walia Project Manager Sydney, Nsw, Australia
May 26, 2022 12:20 PM
Replying to Heidi Kaufmann
...
Congrats, Nicole! I am wondering - I am currently studying Rita Mulcahey's 10th edition but am about a quarter of the way through it and finding it very difficult to understand all the different terms and concepts. I am taking notes like the book suggests and am doing the exercises. I also have the exam simulator which I haven't used yet. Am I the only one who finds all the different concepts impossible to remember and differentiate? How does that relate to the fact that the exam relies more on scenarios and not memorization of concepts? Not sure if my question makes sense. I just got started with studying and feeling very discouraged at the moment.
Hi Heidi,
I get you! Trust me we all have been there once.
Just remember, you will need to go through Rita Mulcahey not just once but atleast twice. You simply cannot memorize al the terms and concepts in one go so take it easy on yourself. Just keep moving forward.
Good Luck .
avatar
Navjot Walia Project Manager Sydney, Nsw, Australia
May 29, 2022 5:12 AM
Replying to Gretchen Khoury
...
That's super great!! Question: How well do you feel the mock exams/simulations helped you prepare for the exam and how similar were they to the actual exam? From the free mock questions from PrepCast + Free PMP Questions by Oliver Lehmann and anything that Joseph Phillips provides?
Hi Gretchen,
Mock exams are a great way to assess your readiness for the exam. Do the mock exam/simulations as you would do the actual exam. These give you a good idea on how the real exam questions may be...these may not necessarily be too close to the real exam questions though at times. However, attempting these mock exams really helped with to give me the confidence to be ready and appear in the actual exam.
Good Luck.
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Mary Penn Il, United States
So helpful thank you! Is the Agile book you refer to this one: Agile Practice Guide by Project Management Institute published Oct 1, 2017?
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Undina Tavares Varela Global Solution Architect PLM| Medartis AG Colmar, Alsace, France
Thanks a lot Navjot for sharing and congratulations.
I will pass my PMP exam next week and reading this helps to mentally visualize the exam at the test center.
I also appreciate your comment about thinking at the PMP credential right after our name. This for sure is a nice objective.
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