On the Day of Taking PMP Exam – My PMP Exam Experience

Introduction: This is the second part of posts documenting my actual PMP examination experience. More information on the PMP examination preparation can be found at my PMP exam journey here.

I took the PMP exam in Hong Kong at the Prometric center at HKEA San Po Kong Sub-office:

HKEA SAN PO KONG SUB-OFFICE
#17 TSUEK LUK STREET, SAN PO KONG
KOWLOON, HKG

The confirmation email suggests candidates to arrive at least 30 minutes before the scheduled examination. As my exam appointment is at 9:00 a.m., I arrived at the examination centre at HKEA San Po Kong Sub-office at around 8:30 a.m.

The Prometric Exam Centre is located on the 5th floor of the HKEA office building. There is a common exam waiting room for the various examination candidates. Upon arriving, there were some candidates already sitting in the room.  The list of candidates was posted on the notice board. There were 9 candidates attempting the PMP examination that day.

However, I couldn’t find the centre staff nor any instructions on how to proceed. I just sat there like the rest of us for around 10 minutes.

A member of the staff appeared behind the door and asked who would sit for the PMP examination. I was the only one who responded at that time. The staff brought me inside the preparation room, asked for the two forms of required IDs (my HKID card and one credit card), briefed me on the procedures and asked me to put all my belongings into a locker. He instructed me to stand in front of a camera and emptied out my pockets. The only things I was allowed to bring into the examination room were my 2 forms of ID and the locker key.

He described in details that after I have submitted my answers for the examination, the screen would go blank for several seconds for the calculation of the results. Afterwards, there would be a short survey and my results would be announced when I have finished (or skipped) the survey.

I was brought into the examination room and there I checked my name on the computer screen. I quickly skimmed through the tutorial (for around 2 minutes) and began the exam right away (I didn’t practice any braindump this time). Originally I planned to spend two and a half hour to finish all the 200 questions as in my PMP practice exams. However, maybe due to the mental pressure, I progressed at a much slower pace in the real exam, slowing down to around 1 minutes per question.

When I finished all the questions at around 200 minutes into the PMP examination, I took a brief rest to go to the toilet. The nearest washroom is located either on the 4th floor just down the staircase (a one-minute walk). I also relaxed a bit by looking out of the windows at the staircase.

I finished the review of my marked questions (around 25 questions) after 10 more minutes and at that time I planned to submit my answers and end the PMP examination.

I was greeted with the congratulation message upon finishing the survey. The centre staff also printed me the PMP exam report when I walked out of the examination room.

Overall, the difficulty of the real PMP exam is on par with many of the online simulation examinations I have taken in the past. If you can get around 80% on any simulation examinations, you are almost guaranteed a pass. Wish my PMP exam experience can help you plan better for your real PMP exam!