Passed PMP AT/AT/AT - What I did and what I’d skip
Passed PMP with 3xAT! Here’s exactly what I did (and what I’d skip)
First of all, thank you to everyone on this subreddit. I’ve been lurking here since before I even started studying, and honestly I don’t think I would’ve passed without all the advice I found here. So I wanted to give back and share what worked for me.
Timeline
Overall I studied for 3 months, but fully focused for the last month. I started studying around April 9. My company paid for everything, so I wasn’t worried about cost and bought:
- PMI PMP Exam Prep
- Study Hall
- PMI Practice Exam
DO NOT buy PMI PMP Exam Prep.
I hated it. I started it in April, stopped around May because it was awful, never finished it, and even asked for a refund.
Instead, I switched to Study Hall, and that was by far the best resource I used.
I went through all of the Study Hall learning material. At first I actually studied it, but toward the end I was mostly skimming just to expose myself to all the concepts.
I honestly never even opened the Official Practice Exam. 😅 I ended up relying almost entirely on Study Hall for practice questions and exams. The only thing I did use from that purchase was the PDF glossary/terminology guide that comes with it.
Practice questions
Around early June I started doing practice questions.
My goal was:
- Finish at least 1 topic every day
- Study about 2 hours/day
- 6 days a week
I definitely skipped some days though.
Study Hall questions were the closest thing to the real exam. The real exam felt like SH but generally less wordy (although some questions were still pretty long).
There were actually several questions that were almost word-for-word identical.
I scored 81% in my first Full Length Practice Exam, and 78% in the second one. I only did the second one under real test conditions.
Videos I watched
The single most helpful thing besides Study Hall:
Andrew Ramdayal’s Mindset video.
Seriously.
I also:
- Started watching the 200 Ultra Hard Questions video but kept failing them and quit around 25%.
- Watched his Drag & Drop video (HIGHLY recommend).
I got 8 drag-and-drop questions on my exam.
The actual drag-and-drops were completely different, but the video helped me get used to that style of question.
I also played random PMP videos in the background during flights, while cleaning, etc. Sometimes I fell asleep, sometimes I actually absorbed something 😂.
My actual exam
Result:
AT / AT / AT
Question types:
- 8 drag-and-drops
- 2 table questions
- Tons of multi-select
Formula questions:
Basically none.
I literally got ONE earned value question that basically said:
“CPI is __ and SPI is __. What should the project manager do?”
No calculations.
Which was great because… I never really learned the formulas 😅.
Timing
This surprised me.
During my Study Hall full-length practice exams I finished with almost an hour left.
During the real exam…
I had 10 minutes left.
Section 1 was brutal.
I finished Section 1 with 145 minutes remaining, about 10 minutes slower than the recommended pace.
Nothing seemed to make sense.
Then I drank a Red Bull.
Sections 2 and 3 felt much more like Study Hall and were noticeably easier.
I took both breaks, finished the other half of the Red Bull after the second break, and kept going.
Online exam experience
I took it at home.
Setup:
- Completely clean desk
- Laptop
- Mouse
- Clear glass of water
- Laptop plugged in
The day before I:
- Ran all the system tests
- Checked everything multiple times
- Followed all the recommendations
I had zero issues with the proctors.
The only problem I had was my own fault.
I moved the proctor chat window to the bottom-left corner.
When reviewing questions, it completely covered the “End Review” button.
I wasted about 5 minutes contacting the proctor because I literally couldn’t find how to start my break 🤦🏻♀️.
After that everything was fine.
A couple tips
Use the highlight and strike-through tools.
They’re helpful…
But they also eat up your time.
If you’re already confident about an answer, just pick it and move on.
Don’t overthink everything.
Also, Andrew’s mindset is incredibly useful, but there are exceptions. There’s a Reddit thread where someone compiled a bunch of those exceptions after studying extensively. If you can find it, it’s worth reading.
The day before
I did zero studying.
I already had anxiety about this exam, so I wanted my brain to rest.
I:
- Exercised
- Took a long shower
- Relaxed
- Tried not to think about PMP
- Went to bed relatively early
(My exam was at 2 PM.)
Exam day
I:
- Exercised
- Ate lunch
- Relaxed before logging in
I ate Chipotle…
Wouldn’t necessarily recommend that 😂.
Definitely eat something, just don’t get super full or experiment with weird food before a 4-hour exam.
Also…
I wore blue.
No scientific reason that mattered for passing, I just like the idea that blue has calming psychological effects, so why not.
Results
Finished around 6 PM.
Didn’t get a preliminary result.
I used the Reddit trick everyone talks about and it showed 3 AT.
The official email and badge arrived 23 hours later, I finished testing Friday 5pm and got results Saturday 5pm.
One last thing…
Before I started studying, I asked people who had taken the PMP years ago what to focus on.
Almost everyone told me:
- Memorize ITTOs.
- Memorize every formula.
Thankfully this subreddit convinced me that advice is pretty outdated.
For my exam, understanding the mindset, practicing with Study Hall, and getting comfortable with situational questions mattered way more.
Hope this helps someone who’s stressing the way I was a few days ago. Good luck, you got this!
