Full study record and tips for passing the PMP on the first try. By Victor Tang, PMP

👋 Hello there!

Thanks for dropping by.

This is a complete record of what I did to prepare for and pass the Project Management Professional (PMP) exam with Above Target results on the first try in March to April 2025.

I will cover the overarching plan, resources I used, hours spent and cost and a detailed record of when i did what. I hope this plan will become a useful resource in itself for anyone thinking of or in the process of getting PMP certified.

Good luck!

📑 Table of Contents

🗺️ Overarching Plan

I was inspired by Max Mao’s achievement of passing the PMP exam in 2 weeks. Awesome achievement. Hats off to Max. He set a great example, demonstrating that achieving certification in a short time was possible. I recommend everyone watch his video. I used Max Mao’s Study Guide as the overarching plan. In other words, I followed a similar cadence and used similar resources, but customised them for my own needs.

📚 Resources Used, Hours Spent and Cost

All in all, I spent around 60 hours over 6 weeks and a total of USD722 on my preparation and exam. Here’s a breakdown, listed in the order in which I started using a resource or completed a particular step. The Udemy courses were purchased in GBP, so I converted to an equivalent USD for better relevance to a global audience.

🗓️ Study Cadence

Week 1-3 (~32 hours)

1. PMP Certification Exam Prep Course 35 PDU Contact Hours/PDU by Andrew Ramdayal
   1. Watched videos at 1.75x speed. Rewatched 25% of the materials again when stuck
   2. PMI requires students having 35 contact hours (formal project management education) to be eligible for applying for the PMP exam. So it is almost customary to take a recognised course that gives you the 12 PDUs in one go, just to ‘get an entry ticket’.
   3. Max Mao took this course but recommended not bothering to take notes. I always wondered what it meant in terms of usefulness of the course.
   4. I did some research and found that Andrew Ramdayal was one of the most popular and respected educator when it came to PMP. So I decided to swap the course that Max Mao recommended for the one I mentioned above by Andrew which also awarded 35 PDUs and seemed more robust.
   5. Andrew does not speak fast. So watch the video at 1.5x or above will save time. I found myself watching at 1.75x and watching around 25% of the materials again when stuck.
   6. The course included a set of drag and drop questions and a mock exam. They were a good first-stab at testing your knowledge and knowing where you stand toward the end of the course, and a chance to consider altering your study plan if needed.
2. PMBOK® Guide 6th Ed Processes Explained with Ricardo Vargas!
   1. Watched video at 2x speed
   2. IMO, this is the single most condensed and clarifying piece of education resource I used. Almost everything you need to know about the traditional project management approach in 1 hour. And it is free. Definitely a must -watch.
3. Project Management Process Group and Knowledge Area Mapping Game
   1. A slightly more fun way to test and internalise process group knowledge. I played this maybe 3-4 times in the middle of my study.

Week 4-5 (~15 hours)

1. 200 Ultra Hard PMP Questions 1-200 by Andrew Ramdayal
   1. Watched video at 1.5x speed. Paused video to do the questions and then resumed to reveal the answers
   2. Great set of really challenging questions from Andrew Ramdayal. A great demonstration of the PMBOK mindset that he mentioned and why understanding instead of memorising is important to passing the exam. I did all 200 questions for prep.
2. 200 AGILE PMP Questions and Answers by David McLachlan
   1. Watched video at 1.5x speed. Paused video to do the questions and then resumed to reveal the answers
   2. Great agile related questions from David McLachlan. By the time I finished ⅓ of it I knew I was ok with agile-related knowledge (I was agile certified for context). But I did all 200 questions anyway just to make sure there were no surprises.
3. PMI membership and UK Chapter
   1. Simple and direct. Just apply for PMI Membership on their official website
   2. I decided that it was worth $40 more to join their United Kingdom Chapter which will allow me to join any events or meetings which may be useful for networking in the future.
   3. I did search for discount codes for all PMI related purchases and unfortunately did not find any that actually worked.
4. PMP exam application and related materials prep
   1. I followed Andrew’s guide (part of the first course I took) to join as a member, and write my experiences to apply for the exam.
   2. It’s 2025 so I also used AI to help with the writing. The experiences part of it I did not have any problem with.
   3. Exam Application Audit
      1. My application was selected for PMI’s audit. So I needed to submit copies of education certificates and my colleagues’ references to support my experiences.
      2. I was relatively well prepared so I responded and submitted everything required within the same working day.
      3. On paper, the audit would be reviewed within 5 business day according to PMI’s policy. In practice, they got back to me and approved my application within 3 hours of my audit materials submission. Really efficient and swift process by PMI!
   4. Once I completed the application, I booked an in-person exam in about 1.5 weeks to set a deadline for myself.

Week 5-6 (~13 hours)

1. PMP Certification Exam Prep Exam 720 Questions
   1. I was consistently scoring 80% or above through 2 prep exams, each with 180 questions, out of the 4 included in the package.
   2. Feeling good, I stopped and moved on to the PMI’s Authorised Practice Exam (the one below). I am glad I did as the Authorised Practice Exam was a totally different beast and proved challenging and more similar to the real exam.
2. PMI® Authorized Online PMP® Practice Exam
   1. In my experience, this was the best representation of the actual exam. (Of course, PMI created it)
   2. More importantly, it also showed me that almost all other questions or mock exams I took were NOTHING like the real exam, in terms of the way the questions were structured.
   3. The difference in the questions threw me off. I went from 80% in all the mock exams I did before to about 25% with the Authorised Practice Exam on my first try.
   4. This happened about 3 days before my real exam. The last-minute realisation sent me into a panic and prompted me to revisit a lot of the key materials such as Andrew Ramdayal’s and Ricardo Vargas’s process and integration charts, and of course all the notes I made as I did PMI’s practice exam.
   5. I ended up re-taking this exam completely, to really internalise the knowledge and be ready. Emotionally, it felt better to see my score went from 25% up to 70%, even though I knew it was not a real one as it was my 2nd try.
   6. IMPORTANT: Take this authorised practice exam around 1 week before your real exam. At that point you will be as well prepared for it as you can be, so that the practice exam reflects your true capability, and at the same time, it’s not too late to spend more last minute studying efforts if needed.

✍️ My Exam Day

Location and time

• My personal preference is to take exams in-person whenever possible. I like that being in-person would mean I am following all guidelines and regulations and would avoid any chance of being disqualified or penalised due to technical issues or unintentional mistakes of any sort, which would really ruin a 6-week effort in this case.
• I am based in London. So I am lucky that I have two Pearson VUE exam centres close to my home, which made the in-person exam a very possible and perhaps more convenient option. I chose the London Bridge centre and it proved to be a good choice. Convenient, clean, and managed by professional and friendly staff.
• I chose 8am as the head is the clearest first thing in the morning and best for exams.

Exam format and structure

• Total Questions: 180 (though only 175 are scored; 5 are unscored pretest questions)65.
• Time Allotted: 230 minutes (3 hours and 50 minutes) to complete all questions261.
• Breaks: There are two optional 10-minute breaks allowed:
  • First Break: After the first 60 questions
  • Second Break: After the next 60 questions (i.e., after question 120)
  • Clock Status: The exam timer is paused during these breaks, so taking both full breaks extends your total exam experience to 250 minutes (230 minutes + 20 minutes in breaks).
• Exam Sections: The exam is divided into three sections, each with 60 questions. Once each section is finished, the candidate CANNOT go back to review or modify the previous section.

😌 Phew!