Passed AT/T/AT thanks to Reddit advice!
Abbreviated back story: my company’s HR did some job reorganization and managed to add a PMP requirement to my role. I am not a PM and work in an area of healthcare where it honestly isn’t super applicable to what we do. I took the PMI online course for my required hours and tbh didn’t feel like I learned much.
I then got distracted by my actual work tasks and over a year passed until I was nicely told I had to get my PMP to be eligible for promotion so I started studying while working full time (including work travel), having a side job, and having a toddler. I am a naturally very good test taker but this one really scared me for some reason (maybe just how much hinged on passing). Reddit really helped me be prepared within a few months so I hope this helps someone else.
What I did:
- Studyhall practice questions and explanation reviews.
- 3 full studyhall practice tests (scored 75/73/71)
- Studyhall mini quizzes (scores ranged 53-87%)
- If there were terms I didn’t understand that kept coming up, I’d write them down and look them up later.
- AR 200 hardest PMP questions pausing to choose an answer before watching the explanation
- Mohammed Rahman 23 PMP mindset principles (maybe the most helpful thing I did)
- I did buy the ThirdRock materials everyone recommends but didn’t do more than scan a few pages.
I‘m not big on studying and never have been (made it through a science undergrad and masters degree with top marks without much traditional studying) so I maybe spent 4 - 6 hours a week doing one of the activities listed above for about a month. I generally finished practice tests in 2.5-3 hours because I rarely went back to check answers. This was also true on actual test day where I finished in just under 3 hours though I did take both breaks as recommended by others.
I think the value was in understanding the core principles (which I gathered from the MR and AR videos mostly) and the test structure. Instead of choosing what I thought I’d actually do IRL I focused on the key principles and the specific action word of the question (ex. Next, first, should have done, etc.).
Thanks to everyone who posted their experience as I found this page the most encouraging resource and best of luck to others taking the test!