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Passing the PMP Exam

March 4, 2026

Passed January 2026

In January of 2026, I passed the Project Management Professional certification exam offered by the Project Management Institute with a score of T/AT/AT. I passed first try after about 6 months of study and preparation. In this post I'll summarize my process and experience with this certification, as well as provide tips that helped me. I'll also share my scores on practice exams so anyone interested has a reference point for gauging study scores with likelihood of passing.

First 2 months: Watch course

I watched the Technical Institute of America (Andrew Ramdayal)’s 35 PDU course via Udemy. I watched approximately 5 hours per week. I watched most of it on 1.5x speed, but took handwritten notes on every video. All I did at first was watch these videos. (Note: I believe he is moving this content to YouTube.)

Next Month: Practice – TIA

First, I took the 180-question practice exam built into the online course in Udemy. I scored a 140/180, or ~77%. Next, I watched Andrew Ramdayal’s “200 Ultra Hard PMP Questions” video on YouTube, and followed along and kept score of how many I was getting right. I scored 153/200, or ~76%. This video was helpful because he explains why the answer is right after every question.

Last 3 months: Practice – Study Hall

I strongly suggest that PMI’s Study Hall Essentials be your bread and butter for exam prep. I believe the subscription costs around $45 for 3 months of access, which was all I needed. It is full of resources including readings on all the content, but I primarily focused on the practice questions and practice exams. Practice questions are the way that I learn best, so you may need different resources, but I found Study Hall’s practice to be incredibly analogous to the real exam. Additionally, after every question for the practice questions, and at the end of the practice exams, Study Hall has an explanation of why the right answer was right, and why the others were wrong. However, I will also note that while many of the explanations were very helpful, some felt slapped together and did not really explain, or seemed to address content unrelated to the question.

Practice Exams

  1. First I took all of the 15-question “mini-exams” – averaged 76% correct.
  2. Then I took all of the topic-based practice questions (over 700 questions total) – averaged around 72% correct.
  3. At the end of Capstone Semester 1, I took one of the Study Hall full-length Practice Exams – scored 145/175, or 82%. At this point, I felt very confident about the exam content, and scheduled the real exam.
  4. In between scheduling and sitting for the exam, I retook the mini-exams and question categories that I had scored lowest on – and most of them jumped up significantly.
  5. I reviewed the explanations for all of the questions I got wrong, but normally did not review any I got right.

Final Notes

  • Pay close attention to Andrew Ramdayal’s “PMP Mindset”. This teaches you many of the fundamentals that will guide you through exam questions in a very short time.
  • If you are in school, buy the PMP Student Membership. It’s super cheap, gets you a discount on the exam that is bigger than the cost of the membership, and then you get invited to local PMP events – great for networking!
  • Don’t get discouraged if you get a string of answers wrong. I had times where I would get 6 wrong in a row and feel like I didn’t know anything, but by the end of the exam was scoring between 70-80%.
  • PMI says if you are scoring in the 60s on their content, they expect you will pass the exam. I felt confident scoring in the mid-70s, and people online will say if you are in the 80s it’s a slam dunk that you will pass.
  • Don’t stress too much about knowing all the ITTOs or the exact domains they are in. In general, just make sure you understand the common ones (WBS, Risk Register, Scope Baseline, Stakeholder Register, etc.) and understand how they flow into one another, i.e. you need the Scope Baseline to create the WBS.
  • The exam focuses a lot on people skills, not technicals. You will notice an emphasis on collaboration and conflict resolution.
  • If you have project management experience, remember that they are testing you on PMP ideals, not real-world ideals. Many of the answers or ideas are not always practically applicable, and will deviate from your lived work experience.
  • The hardest part of the exam is that there are almost always 2-3 “right” answers. The hard part is picking the best one. Rely on the PMP Mindset for this, and you will do fine.