Kevin Reilly gives some exam tips and shares his experience of preparing for the PMP exam.

1. www.project-management-prepcast.com PMP is a registered mark of Project Management Institute, Inc.
It took Kevin Reilly nearly 3 times longer than he expected
to study for his Project Management Professional (PMP)®
exam. “I estimated 120 hours and it took me 320,” he
said, in an interview with Cornelius Fichtner, host of The
Project Management Podcast at www.pmpodcast.com.
“I’m a pretty detail-oriented guy so I don’t think it would
take everyone 320 hours to study. But of course,
everyone’s an individual so you have to determine that for
yourself.”
Kevin created a project plan for his PMP exam prep study,
but was a bit aggressive with his estimates. About a
quarter of the way through his studies he realized that he
would have to alter his plan and his expectations. “It took
about 5 months for me to actually do it,” he said. “I was
working full time when I first started studying.” But Kevin
unfortunately lost his job and was then able to focus full-
time on his studies for the last 6 weeks of his preparation
plan.
How To Prepare for and Pass Your PMP Exam

2. www.project-management-prepcast.com PMP is a registered mark of Project Management Institute, Inc.
After being in IT project management for about 10 years Kevin realized that he wanted to know
more about the framework and techniques behind what he was doing. “I joined my local PMI
Chapter and went to a couple of meetings,” he said, “I decided pretty quickly that the PMP
certification was for me. Once I started my studies, my bootcamp instructor indicated something
very interesting. The PMP certification is not just a certification. It’s actually an accreditation
similar to CPA. So it’s not like a one day seminar where they hand you a certificate. It holds a lot
more value and is globally recognized as the standard for project management.”
Kevin treated his application for the exam like a job interview. He spoke to every person that he
worked for or with who was connected to the projects on his application and sent them the
information to verify in advance. This also gave him the opportunity to check the contact
information for those people, in case his application was audited.
Luckily, Kevin didn’t get audited, but he advises applicants to be prepared in case it happens
to them. Once the application was submitted, he could concentrate on the bulk of the exam
preparation. “I went through a 3-day PMP exam prep bootcamp and I used Andy Crowe’s
Velociteach materials,” he said. He also read A Guide to the Project Management Body of
Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) twice.

3. www.project-management-prepcast.com PMP is a registered mark of Project Management Institute, Inc.
“The first time through, I actually read it. I did not study it,” he said. “Basically, I highlighted
the sections that were not familiar to me. Then I went back and I studied the highlighted
sections and I also made some manual flash cards of each of the terms in the glossary that I
did not understand.”
Kevin’s exam date came round and he attended the testing center. Like many testing
centers, it had a locker to store his personal items as he could not take them into the exam
room. He was given paper and pencils and taken to a cubicle in order to start the exam.
Kevin chose to start his exam as soon as he sat down, using the 15-minute computer-based
test (CBT) as a countdown timer in which to prepare his brain dump sheet and notes. “It was
familiar territory for me,” he said. “I had already been through the process every time I took a
practice exam. So I knew exactly what to do when I went in there.”
After he had prepared his notes he ended the CBT and the real exam began. This is an
unusual strategy – most candidates choose to write out their notes before starting the 15-
minute CBT. “Psychologically, I knew I had that 15 minutes,” he explained. “I did not want to
think about anything else except for dumping that stuff in my brain.”

4. www.project-management-prepcast.com PMP is a registered mark of Project Management Institute, Inc.
The approach paid off, and Kevin only
needed just over 3 hours to complete and
verify his exam. “The first thing I did was to
go through all 200 questions,” he said.
“Anything that had a formula or more than
2 sentences, I marked for review. That took
about an hour.” He then took a break and
went back to the computer for his second
pass. He reviewed all the questions he
couldn’t answer the first time round. “I gave
myself a limit of about 2 minutes each,” he
said. “If I couldn’t get past it in 2 minutes
then I used my best guess at that point. If I
had no idea what the right answer was, I just
marked it for review
again.”

5. www.project-management-prepcast.com PMP is a registered mark of Project Management Institute, Inc.
He took a further break and then went through the
entire exam, making sure that every question had an
answer. This is important because there are no points
for a blank answer, and making an educated guess at
least gets you a 25% chance of being right –
sometimes more if you can eliminate obviously
incorrect answers.
Today, Kevin has a new job working in PMP exam
instruction. He’s also achieved his Certified Scrum
Master and Certified Scrum Product Owner
certifications, and he’s working towards the PMI Agile
Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)®. “I guess I wanted to
cram all these 4 certifications into 12 months!” he said.
“I don’t know why but that’s just the way it worked out.”

6. www.project-management-prepcast.com PMP is a registered mark of Project Management Institute, Inc.
Perhaps a year ago Kevin wouldn’t have gone for
so many exams and so much new knowledge in
such a short time. “When I first got serious and
started studying for my PMP exam, I was scared,
nervous, excited, worried, overwhelmed and a
plethora of other emotions both positive and
negative,” he said. “But one thing I found all
around me at all times throughout my journey to
becoming a PMP were helpful, friendly people.
These are people who had been through the exact
same thing that I was going through. Most
importantly, all these people were willing to share
their knowledge which is really the key to my
success in becoming a PMP. Thank you!”

7. www.project-management-prepcast.com PMP is a registered mark of Project Management Institute, Inc.
Perhaps a year ago Kevin wouldn’t have gone for
so many exams and so much new knowledge in
such a short time. “When I first got serious and
started studying for my PMP exam, I was scared,
nervous, excited, worried, overwhelmed and a
plethora of other emotions both positive and
negative,” he said. “But one thing I found all
around me at all times throughout my journey to
becoming a PMP were helpful, friendly people.
These are people who had been through the exact
same thing that I was going through. Most
importantly, all these people were willing to share
their knowledge which is really the key to my
success in becoming a PMP. Thank you!”