Passed my PMP in 1 month! Here's my prep and score progression
I passed my PMP yesterday with above target in all 3 domains!! I wanted to share my timeline because reading other people's score progressions on here really helped calm my nerves leading up to test day, so hopefully this helps someone else too.
Background
I started my 35 PDUs mid-July using Andrew's course on Udemy, mostly just trying to get familiar with everything. It took me about a week and a half to get through it. Once I finished, I applied for the exam, and as soon as my application got accepted I grabbed the nearest available date, which ended up being a little under two weeks out.
Once I actually had a date on the calendar, that's when I really started studying. First thing I did was take the pretest that comes with Andrew's course and got a 77%, which honestly made me feel pretty good since up to that point, I'd mostly just been focused on finishing the course and getting the main concepts down.
Then I made the mistake (or, well, good decision in hindsight) of reading this sub, where everyone kept saying to get PMI Study Hall because it actually represents the real exam. So, I got the premium version, took my first full length practice exam, and got a 66%. Genuinely discouraging. Here's what I did from there.
Score progression (Study Hall full length exams)
-Exam 1: 66%. Rough one. Ran out of time and missed a ton of situational judgment questions.
-Exam 2: 72%. This came after two really focused study days on Process (EVM, contracts, charts) and Business Environment.
-Exam 3 (the day before my actual exam): 79%, with People at 81%, Process at 79%, and BE at 77%.
I also knocked out a ton of the Study Hall mini exams (10 questions each) along the way. Started rocky, like 50 to 70%, but was averaging around 90% by the end. My percentile rank went from about 70th up to 94th, and all three domains ended up rated Advanced even though my raw score kind of plateaued in the high 70s. Worth knowing that raw percentage and the difficulty weighted proficiency rating are not the same thing at all, and Study Hall exams are pretty widely considered harder than the actual test.
What actually moved the needle
Stopped treating wrong answers as "I don't know this" and started treating them as patterns. Almost every miss traced back to the same handful of traps: jumping straight to action before verifying or diagnosing first, picking the most "formal sounding" answer instead of the proportionate one, or having the PM decide unilaterally instead of facilitating and routing to the right authority (especially on Agile questions). Once I actually named these patterns, I started catching myself doing them in real time.
Deep reviewed literally every wrong answer, even on the tiny 10 question mini exams, not just the big final exam. Stuff like CPI/SPI direction, QA vs QC, benefits management plan vs change management, and contract risk allocation, those specific misses taught me way more than rereading notes ever did.
Did not cram the night before. Just light review, old notes, a few flashcards, plus a logistics check (ID, testing center info), and then actually let myself rest.
Started taking real breaks during practice exams once I noticed my focus completely tanking in the back half of a 180 question run. Trained myself to actually use both scheduled breaks instead of just pushing through on autopilot.
If you're mid-prep right now
One bad score on a practice exam, especially a Study Hall one, doesn't mean you're not ready. Look at the percentile and proficiency rating too, and check whether your misses are clustering around one specific pattern instead of being totally random. Fixing 2 or 3 repeatable traps moved my score way more than any amount of extra content review did.
Good luck to everyone still grinding through this, it's very doable. You got this!! Happy to answer questions if anyone has them :)