We all want to pass the PMP exam on our first attempt. That’s all we dream of. But statistics has shown that 2 out of 5 aspirants fail to pass on their first try. So, does this mean that the exam is extremely difficult to pass? Although majority of people who have attempted it and failed would say “yes” to this question, it is not as impossible as it is mostly made out to be.
With over 750,000 PMP certificate holders worldwide, the PMP Certification is now the world’s leading certification in project management. It has grown considerably in terms of prestige and popularity over the years. Some common patterns have been noticed from the reasons given by people that didn’t pass the exams on their first attempt. For instance, a larger part of them said that they did not write enough mock tests or that they ran out of time during the exam. So, to succeed in the PMP exam at your first go is to learn from these oversights and not repeat them when writing yours. Now, let’s have a look at the essential steps to take in order for you to pass the exam at your first try.
1. Always remember the Purpose for writing the Examination.
A good motivator when preparing for the PMP certification examination is your purpose for becoming a certified Project Manager. Different people have different reasons for taking this exam, some of the popular reasons for this decision are as follows:
• Personal development
• To distinguish themself.
• To build their confidence in handling projects
• To build their network
• To earn more money etc.
Having your eye on the price will make you more serious in your preparation. Once you have made a commitment to obtain PMP status, it no longer becomes self-improvement, but also about pushing yourself to do something that others made to seem near impossible.
2. Have a Study Plan.
Let’s be honest, preparing for the PMP certification exam can be overwhelming for most of us. However, having a study plan can assist you as it acts like a roadmap for your preparation. Before you sit down to study, you need to clearly define your goals and plan how you are going to achieve them.
The most important point when preparing your study plan is “TIME”. How many months do you have for your preparation? How many hours can you devote to the exam on a daily basis? Can you study in the mornings before you go to your office or do you prefer evenings? Try to answer these questions and figure out what works for you. Next, do research on the resources that you need to refer to. Divide the syllabus into different tasks and give yourselves timelines to complete them.
However, remember that having a plan in place doesn’t automatically ensure that you clear the exam. You need to also stick to it. This is where it gets tough for people. So, if you want to stand out from the crowd and pass your exam easily at your first attempt, make sure you create a study plan and follow it diligently.
3. Efficiently use the Mandatory 35 hours In-house Project Management Training.
One of the prerequisite for applying for the exam is that you spend 35 contact hours on formal project management education. Most people think of this as an additional burden/expense. However, they are wrong. You need to treat this as learning experiences that can enable you pass the PMP exam.
These 35 hours should be utilized to build a strong foundation of the concepts tested. If there are any specific areas you are weak in, the contact hours can help you clarify them.
Ensure that you attain this training from a Registered Education Provider (REPs) like Ecoways Limited. These trainers are evaluated and approved by the PMI. So, you need not worry about the quality or the relevance of their content.
4. Master the PMBOK Guide
A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) 6th Edition has been published by PMI. Becoming proficient with the PMBOK® guide is the single most important step in passing the PMP exam. There are a lot of books out there in the market but nothing can compensate the official guide. You might say ‘I don’t’ see a lot of questions from the guide’. True, but it gives you the conceptual clarity without which it is impossible to clear the exam.
The bad news is that the guide is lengthy and boring to read. Hence, most people prefer other market versions which do not look so unappealing. But ignoring this guide comes with a heavy price. If you find a lot of people complaining about not clearing the exam even in multiple attempts, it is most likely that they have sidestepped the PMBOK® guide.
In all, starting your preparation with the PMBOK® guide will help build the foundation for your preparation. Further, make sure you revise the book at least twice before you appear for the test.
5. Understand the Input, Tools & Technique and Output (ITTO)
The PMBOK guide may not be the most interesting reading material in the world. In fact, many PMP aspirants complain that it is too dry and wordy. However, the point of the PMBOK is to explain the “story” of how PMI wants you to manage a project from initiation to closure.
PMI tries to simplify things by explaining their project management process in charts instead of words. Seeing complex charts for the first time can be overwhelming, which is why many candidates get confused.
As you are looking at the charts in the PMBOK, translate these charts into simply, plain English for yourself. Understanding the ITTOs found in the PMBOK guide will enable you pass the examination.
6. Create memory aids
A great way to speed up your learning process is to create memory aids for yourself. What is a memory aid you might ask, well, a memory aid is a technique that helps your brain store and recall information faster. An example of a memory aid is demonstrated below:
The 5 Information Gathering Techniques in Identify Risks are: 1) Interviews, 2) SWOT analysis, 3) Delphi Technique, 4) Root Cause Analysis, and 5) Brainstorming. If you had to memorize this exhaustive list, it may take you a long time and you may forget it soon after.
However, let me teach you a memory aid that will allow you to remember the 5 Information Gathering Techniques in the next 30 seconds.
All you have to do is simply rearrange the order of the 5 techniques and it will spell out BIRDS.
• Brainstorming
• Interviews
• Root cause analysis
• Delphi technique
• SWOT analysis
Memory aids work because when you associate something you already know (birds) with something you don’t know (project management concepts), your brain will remember the concepts much faster.
7. Know your formulas
When you walk into the Prometrics centre, the computer software will pull 200 random questions from its database. The people next to you in the exam centre may also be taking the PMP exam, but all of you will have entirely different exams. Therefore it is important for you to know all the formulas found in PMI PMBOK Guide 6th edition.

8. Solve a lot of Practice questions & write Practice test.
PMP exam questions are mostly scenario-based. These scenarios can be quite diverse. So, just reading the theory doesn’t automatically guarantee that you can apply this knowledge in the situations. That’s where the practice questions help.
So, how does solving practice questions help? It will help you identify the different kinds of questions as you read them and the kind of skills you need to build to tackle them. On the test day, the minute you read a question, you should be able to recall the strategy to solve it.
In addition to practicing questions, you also need to write the mock examination to get into the psychological zone required to perform effectively in those 4 hours. Further, practice tests help you monitor your progress and mold your test-taking strategy. Am I able to complete the test within the 4 hours? Am I taking too long to answer the questions? Which types of questions are giving me trouble? Are my nerves getting the better of me? Is my efficiency coming down as the test progresses? Am I able to remember the concepts that I learned? Am I overlooking any information causing me to make silly mistakes? All these questions are important. And, the only way you can answer these is to write the simulated tests.
Further, as you solve a variety of questions, you will notice that questions can be divided into certain categories. Some questions are short and direct whereas others are lengthy. There are questions which are formula-based. There are others scenario-based. You also have the ITTO questions which ask you about the tools and techniques in the project management.
If you observe that you are getting more than 80% consistently in your mocks, you can be assured of passing the actual exam. Use the mock tests as a feedback mechanism to tune your strategy to excel on the exam day.
At ecoways limited, after participating in the 35 hours in-house training, you will participate in 2 sets of mock examination to test how much you have assimilated. The first mock examination is paper based. This was designed to enable you experience how the exam day will be like if you are writing the paper based exam while the second mock will be administered as softcopy so that you can also have the CBT experience. That is why Ecoways Limited is the best choice to receive Project Management Training.
9. Apply what you learn to real life
While studying for the exam, start putting some of what you have learned into practice at work, you can start implementing certain parts of the process groups (work breakdown structures, planning docs, etc) Putting what you’ve learned into practice will help you significantly and you will begin recognizing loopholes and opportunities for growth within your professional and personal projects. Light bulbs will be going off and you will be making meaningful connections between what you have been studying and what you are actually doing. Putting these principles into practice will also help you with situational questions in the exam.
10. Utilize your time efficiently
One of the prerequisite for sitting for your PMP examination is that you must have a minimum of 3 years’ experience handling projects therefore people who register for the PMP exam tend to be working professionals. As such, they usually find it difficult to manage their time effectively especially during the preparation stage.
The most common complaint received from people who have written the examination is that they couldn’t finish answering all the questions before their time elapsed. Well, the problem here has to do with the lack of time management on the exam day. Remember that if you leave out more than 1/5th (about 40) of the questions in the exam, it is extremely unlikely that you will pass.
Therefore, in order to successfully pass the PMP exam at your first sitting, you have about 1.2 minutes to answer each question on your exam sheet/screen. If you need to take a break in between the exam, then it is going to be less than that. When you take into consideration the time to relook at some of the questions, you will roughly have about 50 – 60 seconds for each question.
Some tips to manage your time efficiently on the exam day include:
1. Decide the maximum time you want to spend on a question. 90 seconds is a good limit. Once you cross this time, mark the question for review and move on to the next.
2. Tackle the easier questions first and then come back to the difficult ones.
3. Take into account the time that may require for your breaks.
4. Make sure you set aside some time at the end to review some of the questions that you haven’t answered.
Conclusion:
To sum it up, the best way to approach the exam in order to pass it at your first attempt is to treat it as a ‘project’ in itself. As a first step, define your goals or objectives clearly. Next, finalize the resources you want to use (study materials, institutions, mock papers etc.). Breakdown the syllabus into tasks and allot timelines to completing them. Check your progress and make changes to your strategy as you analyze your performance in mocks. Most importantly, be confident about your abilities. Believe that if you put in consistent efforts, it is not a difficult task to clear the PMP exam in the first attempt.
If you plan on writing the PMP examination soon, then I’ll advice you to acquire Project Management Professional (PMP) training from Ecoways Limited because aside from being a Registered Education Provider (REPs) authorized conduct the training, we also support our participants to pass their examinations by providing them with mock examinations, other PMP preparatory materials, project management templates etc. We also bring you in one (1) week before the exams for a refresher class plus we go a step further to assist you with your documentation for the examination.
For information about our PMP training and other services, please call 09038977682 / 07057816720 or visit www.ecowaystrainings.com