Study the PMBoK guide

The Guide to Project management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®) Guide is published by PMI® and contains all information relevant to the PMP® course and examination. The guide is quite lengthy and so it’s wise to set aside a good amount of time to look through it, find information that you think is relevant and cover said content.

It helps to have a good understanding of course content before you begin, this can help narrow down which parts of the PMBOK Guide you need to study and which you can safely ignore.

Secondary reading

While the PMBOK Guide is fairly exhaustive, it won’t cover topics specific to your exam. The PMBOK guide presents readers with factual information but doesn’t teach readers how these theories are linked or how they might be applied to scenarios.

You’ll find the exam require candidates to answer scenario-specific questions. You need to gain an understanding of how various project management processes are interlinked and how to apply them to working projects. To do this, we recommend looking online for exam-specific resources that can help you understand how to tailor your understanding of course content to address exam requirements.

PMI provides a useful exam outline to help candidates understand they need to know before they attempt the exam for the first time.

You might also want to browse online forums such as Reddit for helpful tips.

Practice exams

PMI provides a list of sample questions to help you understand how exam questions are formatted and what kind of questions you might be asked.

You will likely find a multitude of practice exams and practice questions outside of the official resources, so do I quick internet search and consider writing a few full practice examinations beforehand. This will also help you get a feel for exam time restrictions. If you struggle to finish a practice exam within the allotted time, you might need to focus on your time-management. Ensure you don’t spend too long answering just one question in the exam, you might just run out of time without attempting every question.

Understand how you learn

Everyone learns in different ways. Some are visual learners, some are reading learners and some are auditory learners. Take some time to understand what kind of learner you are and use this to your advantage. If you’re a visual learner, try drawing some graphs to improve your understanding of course content. If you’re an auditory learner, read your notes out loud. Little things like this can help settle ideas into your long-term memory.