9th of January exam day for me, a nerve-racking day, I forgot how stressful exam days are. But even the tension waiting for the actual result, knowing there is nothing you can change about outcome anymore felt like a blast from the past.  

But the good news came together with relief; I’m PMP certified now.  

 

After I announced the news, I received a lot of questions on the “how”, how did you do it, and what resources did you use.  

How long did it take, and what kind of questions did you get? 

In this post, I will try to address as many questions as possible and give you my experience of the exam and the journey to the exam.  

I’m not a PMP instructor, I do not say that what worked for me will work for you, but I can share my personal experience and hope you can benefit from those also.  

First, some clarifications on financial investments.  

My PMI membership and exam fees are paid by the company I work for, they see the PMP certification as a must have for all Project managers in the company. They see the PMP certification as a benefit for the company and have the PMP certification as a requirement of being a Project Manager in title.   

When I first started as a PM now 4 years ago my company also paid for an in-person training at Prosource about Project management.  

Also, my company provides me with LinkedIn learning access as part of training towards employees.  

Own investments

I bought PMBOK 7, The agile practical guide and the PMBOK 6 à used versions I found on bookstores and secondhand bargain sites online.  

I bought the next online courses on Udemy, more on that later: 

• "PMP Certification Exam Prep Course 35 PDU Contact Hours/PDU" 

•  "PMP Exam Cram Course - 35-Hour Course Condensed - 12 PDUs" 

I also bought Third3Rock PMP Exam Prep Study Notes 2026 

And read this guide:  

WilliamLiu_Pass PMP on your first try_V1.2 

The journey 

My colleagues triggered me a lot over the past years on “How much did you study?” and “Did you apply for the exam already? “  

But the real wakeup call came from the announcement last October: 𝗣𝗠𝗕𝗢𝗞 𝟴 - 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗵 𝗼𝗳𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘀𝗼𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝘁 𝗣𝗠𝗜 𝗚𝗹𝗼𝗯𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗶𝘁 𝗣𝗵𝗼𝗲𝗻𝗶𝘅! This implied the PMP exam would change in 2026, and this would mean all the PMBOK course material needed to be re-written. 

So, I applied for my exam, setting the exam date to 9th of January, hoping to use the Christmas and New Years break as a welcome study time.  

I bought “PMP Certification Exam Prep Course 35 PDU Contact Hours/PDU" by Andrew Ramdayal 12.99 Euro already in 2022 but I kept prognosticating because it was a lot, never got further than 15%. 

So, I needed something more effective and I bought the "PMP Exam Cram Course - 35-Hour Course Condensed - 12 PDUs" by Andrew Ramdayal 9.99 Euro in November 2025. 

This course had a better, faster pace and the videos were better to digest in short sessions. I played the course whenever I had an hour spare in the evening - and took notes to have my own overview. I used the course more to keep a learning pace and have a progress bar on my learnings, whenever a topic was not clear to me, I could rewatch or look for other resources how it was presented. 

During the Christmas break I found the LinkedIn practice exams and these really helped me to understand the exam better.  

 

These practice exams gave me the opportunity to practice on the actual exam time (timing) countdown clock. 

This also highlighted my weak spots = Agile/Scrum part (my company uses waterfall and knowledge of the models mentioned in the PMBOK like Salience Model, Power/Interest Grid, Stakeholder Engagement Assessment Matrix, Tuckman’s Ladder, Situational Leadership, Theory X/Y, Herzberg’s Two-Factor. You don't need details, but you need to know the basics of them. 

 

Some note examples:  

 

 

Exam Day

I chose the online exam – so I booked a meeting room, made sure no one would disturb me and had my PC tested 1 week before the exam. I encourage people to test their PC ahead of time. You will need to use Pearson VUE's OnVUE software and there are a lot of services you need to kill, and you are not allowed to use more than 1 monitor (for a laptop the build in monitor)  

 The start (half an hour before the exam) consisted with entering my ID, checking the cameras, using my phone and smartphone to show the room, remove all unnecessary items, unplug all monitors in the room.  

And then the exam starts 230-minute exam: 180 questions, 2, 10-min breaks. Tip from my side, take the breaks, they help you keep the pace – have a drink or a snack whatever clams you down. But do not forget your glasses (if you need any) I forgot them during my first break and was not allowed to get them till the next break when I started the 2nd session of questions.  

The online system works nice, you can mark questions, when you want to revisit them later, you can highlight and strikethrough parts in the questions and answers. I liked the mark option a lot, at the end of your session you have the option to revise all the questions or only the marked ones.  

I marked the questions I doubted and proceeded to the next questions; this helped me to keep the timing. I had only 5 minutes left in the total exam time. I might have gone faster, but I like to take the time to make sure I understood the questions and gave the best answer possible.  

End of Exam 

I wasn’t sure I would get my result directly after the exam, I did not.  

I got the message “You have completed your exam. Results are typically processes within 5 Business days” à My head almost exploded. But the real tip I can give, check your spam email box and look on your dashboard. I saw a dashboard change on Saturday night (don’t ask why I was checking) and then noticed my certification email went to my spam folder.  

Afterthoughts 

Fix that exam date, don’t postpone, work towards a date. 

Find a study method that works for you and keep track of progress (so you are ready on the exam date) I used mainly the "PMP Exam Cram Course - 35-Hour Course Condensed - 12 PDUs" by Andrew Ramdayal 9.99 Euro 

Use the resources available: online courses, books, question banks – choose the resources that work for you. 

Make sure you have the support of your family members or people you are living with. Special thanks to my wife who needed to endure all my stress and sit apart with a noise cancelation headphone instead of joining her on the bench.  

Belief in yourself, a lot of the questions are common sense. Put yourself in the role of servant leader when answering the questions. 

Don’t forget your glasses during the break.