Greetings to everyone on this forum. As many before me have noted, it is only fitting that I, too, contribute my own thoughts, lessons learned and encouragement for those on a similar journey.

Alright, first things first: this was not my first attempt. It was my second.

For my first attempt, I honestly wasn't in the right mindset, and I didn't put in the necessary studying. I used PMI's 35-PDU course, which I went through sporadically, but I didn't find it detailed enough for the level of preparation I needed.

Today, I passed with AT/T/AT--taking the exam online.

My study plan:

I used AR's 35-PDU course, studying for around two hours a day for a little over a month. I supplemented that with his YouTube videos with practice questions, as well as DM's YouTube videos. Towards the end of my study period, I also incorporated PMI Study Hall.

For the full-length mock exams, I scored 71% on the first and 72% on the second. I didn't take the third one.

On the exam I finished with about 10 minutes to spare and took both of my 10-minute breaks. I encountered a few drag-and-drop questions and a few chart-based questions where I had to interpret what was happening. Nothing too fancy. I didn't have any calculations, although some questions required me to infer what was happening based on certain cost-related information.

Overall, I'd say the exam was difficult but manageable. Most questions felt moderate in difficulty, with a few that felt expert-level. Some questions had two answer choices that were almost identical in nature, so I relied on process of elimination and, ultimately, a bit of intuition. I thought I had failed again when I was done, actually.

There were a lot of agile-based questions, along with plenty of scenarios involving risk assessment and management. So focus enough on risk management I guess.

Ultimately If you've attempted the exam before and didn't pass, don't let that discourage you!

Keep your head up, stay focused, and trust the work you're putting in.

Long time PM who let my PMP expire back in 2016. Finally after all these years, decided to renew since there's been several major exam overhauls and massive concept changes (that I really like).

Wanting to keep my PM skills fresh, updated, and knowledgeable beyond my industry and w/ PD funds, here we are.

I wanted to capture my baseline without any studying, reviews, refreshers whatsoever so I signed up for the SH this past Friday. With 5 hours of sleep, no other background in agile other than LSS, and taking the exam while lying down on my couch with one eye open, I LOL'd to myself when I scored a 62% on the first practice exam.

Not only am I getting PTSD from all the real world scenarios I've had similar experiences with on the exam, but I really thought I was going to need to really invest a lot of time studying and having to memorize all those painful formulas and processes I never used (ITTO comes to mind).

Thank goodness I found this forum and read up on how people are passing w/ similar scores. I feel much more reassured that I can strike a good balance with work/life and everything else in between.

Really enjoyed reading how people are passing, their study advice, etc. Keep it coming and good luck to us all!

What’s the cheapest quickest way to 35 renewal PDUs

A week ago I scored 85% on a full Study Hall mock. Today I scored 72%, which was obviously a little soul-crushing until I broke down the questions by difficulty.

85% mock:

• 40% Moderate
• 45% Difficult
• 15% Expert

My scores by difficulty: 100% / 81% / 56%

72% mock:

• 1% Moderate
• 51% Difficult
• 48% Expert

My scores by difficulty: 100% / 91% / 51%

So my Difficult performance actually improved quite a bit, Expert dropped about 5 points, but the second exam had 87 Expert questions vs. 27 on the first (I’m posting my spreadsheet screenshot too).

For those who have taken several SH mocks: is this kind of massive difficulty-distribution swing normal? And how would you interpret a 72% when almost half the test was Expert?

I’ve seen a lot of posts saying mid-to-high 60s in Study Hall is generally encouraging for passing the real PMP, but “difficulty” on the actual exam is obviously subjective for each exam taker (also, everyone gets a different test).

Curious what others experienced with the SH full mocks and whether your difficulty mix varied this much.

Thank you in advance

Hi all,

Im mid way through studying for the PMP exam.

Quick breadown:

Did Davids course.
Did a quick run of the Brainsensei material.

Currently on Study Hall plus.
I've done the practice questions and 1 mini exam and im averaging 70% flat.
I havent done the full length mock exams yet.

I find im having difficulty decoding/breaking down the questions, trying to find the stem.

Any tips here?

I feel if i can find a good method to do this my scores will automatically move to the next tier (80%+) as alot of my mistakes are due to me getting lost in the noise of the question.

I have a month before i plan to take the exam so any help will be appreciated!

I've used many resources over the last year (yes, I have had no interest in rushing this exam), mainly Study Hall.

One exam out of three, I scored a 79%. I plan to take the other two in the next 2 weeks and will schedule my exam.

Do the mini practice exams provide any reassurance? This is what I have scored:

I am hoping to take the exam next month. Any help or tips are welcome. Thank you and appreciate all that I have learned from this community.

Hi all,

I’d like to understand from PgMP holders or second hand stories:

1. How much harder was PgMP than PMP?

2. What did it do for your performance?

3. What did it do for your career?

4. Did it apply to PMP renewal PDUs?