PMP Lessons Learned: A Do-able Exam Study Plan

John Haligheri just passed the PMP Exam. Let’s learn from the exam lessons learned and get a pass in your first try!

I started preparing for the PMP exam 6 weeks before the exam. I studied for the about 2 – 3 hours every day for 4 weeks and I took 2 weeks of vacation right before the exam date to spend 8 hours of study time during the week. It was challenging to study with 3 children (9, 7 and 5) running around in the apartment, however it was important to be diligent and focus on the goal.

Here is a plan I created and followed it:

• Read about the PMP Exam doing a google search and read about other PMP aspirants experiences. I am so glad I stumbled across your website here. Your experience was such as confidence booster for me.
• Read the PMBOK® Guide guide and Alex Crowe’s “The PMP Exam: How to pass on you first try” book to get familiar with the books.
• Take the PMP simpli learn online test. I scored 58% on this.
• Study both the books (PMPBOK guide and Alex Crowe’s book) now by making notes in a notebook and highlighting the important areas in the book.
• Take the PMP Prepcast course during the first 4 days of my vacation. However, I found it rather time consuming and slow to go through after reading both the books. I think it would be better for future aspirants to complete the PMP Prepcast first and then read both the books. It may be more fruitful that way.
• Read your study notes, formulas and complete the exercises.
• Spend last 8 days before the exam date in just taking all exams and learning from my mistakes by reviewing the notes. I took all the free exams you listed on your website as well 4 exams on the PMP Simulator. The Lehmann’s exam was a real confidence buster however, I loved the experience though as it helped me focus more during the actual exam.
• Review all the study notes the day before the exam.

Overall, it has been amazing journey and I am so glad that the hard work paid off to join you all as a fellow PMP.

~ John Haligheri, PMP

Thanks a lot for the PMP Exam lessons learned!