The Fastest Way To Get Up to Speed For Your PMP

I’ve helped over 30,000 students get their PMP certification and answered over a thousand practice questions directly from PMI over the last year. Because of that, I’ve learned a few key things that really work when answering questions on your PMP exam. It’s the PMP Fast Track because it’s the fastest way to get up to speed for your PMP Exam, even if you’re not great at taking tests or how much you’ve studied the materials.

These tips will not only help you understand what you need to know for your exam, but they’ll also show you how to answer questions more confidently. I’ve included these strategies available for download in my Udemy course, which you can find in the link below. By giving this away for free, I want to give back and share what I’ve learned. It truly changed my career, and I want to help you do the same.

Three Key Areas of the PMP Fast Track

There are three main sections to the PMP Fast Track:

• People: This includes leadership, conflict management, and working with people on your team.
• Process: This covers both agile and predictive processes and knowing what to do at each phase of your project.
• Business Acumen: Delivering value, which is the ultimate goal of project management.

General Exam Tips

Let’s dive into the general tips to help you ace your exam. You’ll face a lot of scenario-based questions on the PMP exam, and many answers might seem correct, but only one is the most correct.

Here are five simple tips to guide you:

1. Highlight Keywords in the Question:

When you read a question, note the keywords or use the digital tools to highlight important keywords. Is it about Risk? Scope? Conflict? Procurement?

This helps you focus on what the question is really asking.

2. Identify the Project Methodology:

Figure out if the project is predictive, agile, or hybrid. This will change how to respond to the question.

3. Identify the Core Topic or Principle

What is the question asking us to do? What is the core topic? Is it Risk? Change Control? Scope decomposition? Leadership? This will be a topic from the PMBOK Guide.

4. Strike Through any Answers that Don’t Relate to that Topic

Once you’ve figured out the main topic, remove any answers that don’t relate to it. This makes your decision easier.

Now – select one of the remaining answers!

Know Your Timing:

You have 230 minutes to answer 180 questions, which is about 1 minute and 15 seconds per question.

• At 60 questions you should have 155 minutes remaining,
• At 120 questions, you should have 80 minutes remaining.

Keep an eye on the clock, and make sure you’re on track.

Answer Every Question:

Don’t leave any questions blank. Even if you’re unsure, make an educated guess. You won’t get points for questions you don’t answer.

These tips alone can help boost your score and make sure you approach the test with confidence.

People Skills in Project Management

Now, let’s talk about people – a huge part of the PMP exam. As a project manager, you’ll need to manage conflict, communicate with your team, and make decisions that help your project succeed.

Here are three important strategies to start with:

Deliver Value: Your main goal is always to deliver value, and deliver the project. If an action doesn’t ultimately help deliver value, it’s probably not the right answer.

Be Direct and Collaborative: If something goes wrong, don’t avoid the problem. Go straight to the source and work together to solve it.

Be Honest: Never try to shift responsibility to someone else. Always take ownership and be honest about the situation.

Problem Solve, Problem Solve, Problem Solve

You will have many possible answers, but the best answer often has something to do with Problem Solving on your project.

• Find and solve the Root Cause of the issue, before using any money.
• Make sure you’re solving the right problem (e.g. is it the Team? Is it the Supplier? Is it a Plan you need to review?) – use key words in the question.

The Problem Solving process is:

1. Define the problem
2. Identify the Root Cause
3. Brainstorm Solutions with your team
4. Choose the best one (prioritize solutions)
5. Implement it
6. Verify that it worked

The key here is to always get to the root cause of the issue. Look for keywords in the question, and focus on solving the real problem, not just covering it up.

Conflict Resolution

Conflicts happen on every project, and you’ll need to know how to handle them. Here are some conflict resolution strategies:

Problem-Solving: Working with your team to find a solution where everyone wins and value is delivered. This is the most effective way to resolve conflict.

Compromising: If both sides need to give a little, compromising can work – but it’s not always the best solution.

Accommodating: We may need to accommodate others if there is an extreme power imbalance (e.g. Project Sponsor).

Avoiding and Forcing: These are less ideal options. Avoid these unless absolutely necessary.

Know Roles and Responsibilities

It’s also important to understand the roles of everyone involved in the project:

The project manager: Ensures the work gets done, ensures team members are adequately trained (the team may help, with job shadowing etc.)

Project sponsor: Provides funding and initiates the project through the Project Charter.  They sign off and accept the deliverables.

Team members: Provide estimates on the work, and perform the work.

Vendors: are responsible for their deliverable, as outlined in the contract.

Agile and Predictive Processes

Next, let’s talk about processes. In the PMP exam, you’ll need to understand both agile and predictive (waterfall) project management processes.

Here are the key things to remember:

Agile Process:

Look for keywords like Iterations or Sprints, Scrum master, Servant Leader, Product owner, Retrospective, MVP, Stand-up, Spikes, Kanban Board, Demonstration or Review.

• The Product Backlog and Product Roadmap are high level deliverables.
• The Sprint backlog is more detailed (like a work package) with User Story Cards that have acceptance Criteria.

The Definition of Ready and Definition of Done are created with the team, and are the criteria for when a piece of work is ready to be worked on, and complete (ready to be released).

The team also work together to create their way of working agreement – the Team Charter.

Always make things visible in your team Information Radiator – real project information on the walls in your team area. No documents or reports.

Use a Kanban Board to view how work is flowing, see where work is building up, and limit Work in Progress in each column.

Always demonstrate real products with the customer. Always speak with the customer directly about their requirements (ideally face-to-face).

Protect the team from impediments, blockers and diversions. Remove blockers and coach the team for growth. This is Servant Leadership.

Know your Agile Ceremonies:

• Iteration Planning: At the start of each work cycle (called an iteration), the team gets together to plan. They decide what tasks to work on next.
• Daily Standups: The team meets every day to talk about what they’ve done, what they plan to do next, and any problems they’re facing. This helps everyone stay on track.
• Iteration Review: At the end of the cycle, the team shows what they’ve accomplished, often with the customer or product owner.
• Retrospective: After each cycle, the team looks at how they worked together. They discuss what went well, what didn’t, and how to improve next time.

In Agile, there are specific roles:

• Product Owner: Prioritizes the work (decides what needs to be done first and what can wait), and represents the customer. Owns the Product Backlog and Product Roadmap.
• Scrum Master: This person helps the team by removing any roadblocks, coaching the team, and making sure everyone feels safe to speak up.
• Team Members: These people do the work. They need to be flexible, with knowledge in many areas, like design, business, and development.

Predictive Process:

This is the traditional approach to project management, where you plan everything upfront and follow a set sequence of steps. Understand the project phases and know what steps are involved in each phase (initiation, planning, executing, monitoring, and closing).

The Business Case leads into the Project Charter, which Initiates a Project. Check the Project Charter for high-level goals and deliverables.

You’ll need basic mathematics:

General earned value management:

• Planned Value – What we said we would have completed at this point in time.
• Earned Value – What we have actually completed at this point in time.
• Actual Cost – What we have actually spent at this point in time.

SPI and CPI: over 1 = more value delivered than we said we would.

SV and CV: Positive = more value delivered than we said we would.

Know your Processes and your Plans and Documents. Each Plan has the Roles and the Process for how each area is handled, e.g. Scope, Schedule, Cost, Quality, Procurement, Risk.

Stakeholder Engagement Plan:

• Use this and your Stakeholder Register for finding people, adding people, who and how to engage.
• Identify stakeholders and classify them (e.g. Impact and Influence) so you know who to engage.
• Use your Communications Management Plan for how and what to communicate.

Scope Management Plan:

• Requirements come from the customer,
• We turn these into our Scope Statement, WBS and Work Packages.
• The Customer can verify the  Scope through Quality Control,
• The Project Sponsor (or whoever is paying) signs off on the Scope once complete.

Schedule Management:

We break down work packages into activities to place on a schedule.

Know your Precedence Diagramming:

• FF (Finish to Finish)
• FS (Finish to Start)
• SF (Start to Finish)
• SS (Start to Start)

Float or slack: Available room to move an item without affecting others or the project.

Critical Path: Shortest project duration: path of tasks that must be done in sequence.

Using Leads: We are leading it forward – it can come closer to us.
Using Lags: The activity is lagging behind – we can move it back.

Fast Tracking is preferred: Performing activities in parallel.
Crashing if under budget: Adding resources and cost. Increases Risk.

Estimate With Your Team:

Know your:

• 3 Point / Triangular estimation (O + ML + P) / 3
• Or Beta / PERT estimation (O + 4x ML + P) / 6

Bottom-up estimation: Adding up the lower-level items (e.g. work packages) (takes longer, more precise)

Analogous estimation: Using a similar project or deliverable to estimate. (faster, less precise)

Parametric estimation: Using a parameter like $30 a meter.

Know Your Change Management Approach:

In predictive we can’t make a change to any baselined Plan or Deliverable without going through the formal change control process.

Change Management Process:

1. Any stakeholder can raise a change,
2. Note the change in the Change Log,
3. Analyze the impact to Cost and Schedule,
4. Take the change to the approvers (e.g. CCB),
5. Communicate the outcome (approved, rejected, deferred),
6. Note outcome in the change log and proceed.
7. Found or created in our Change Management Plan.

Risk Management

An Issue has happened, note it in the Issue Log.

A Risk could happen in the future, note it in the Risk Register.

• Identify or brainstorm risks with your team,
• Log and update them in the Risk Register,
• Classify risks by likelihood and impact (1 to 5),
• Respond to highest risks early.
• If a risk was previously identified, try and use the Risk Response first.

Know your Risk Responses:

• Accept:  Noting the risk but not doing anything.
• Mitigate:  Taking an action to address the risk.
• Transfer:  Using insurance or transferring to another party.
• Escalate:  If we don’t have the authority to address it.
• Avoid:  Removing the scope that causes the risk.

Procurement Management:

• Statement of work: what needs to be done by the Vendor / Seller.
• Always check the Contract if there is a dispute.
• We can help problem solve, but the Vendor is responsible for their deliverable. NOT us.

Do not to delay the project – use the different contract types to manage uncertainty.

1. Fixed Price: When scope is clear and stable,
2. Cost Reimbursable: If scope is expected to change (e.g. cost + incentive fee)
3. Time & Materials: Cost of seller’s time and materials, ongoing.

Closing the Project

Know the closing process and general steps:

1. Finalize any open claims,
2. Confirm formal acceptance,
3. Ensure transition to operations,
4. Formally release resources,
5. Finalize and close any accounts,
6. Final lessons learned,
7. Archive project information,
8. Measure product benefits.

You will need to combine Agile and Predictive as sometimes projects use both methods together. This is called a hybrid approach. For example, a project may follow a predictive plan but use Agile techniques for certain parts of the project. This gives teams the flexibility to adapt when needed while still keeping the overall plan in place.

Conclusion

By using these strategies, you’ll be prepared to answer questions more effectively and with confidence. The PMP exam tests your ability to solve real-world problems, manage people, and know your processes. So focus on the fundamentals, stay calm, and use your knowledge of people, process, and problem-solving to succeed.

Good luck, and I hope these tips help you pass the PMP exam and take your career to the next level!

David McLachlan on LinkedIn

See more PMP articles: 

• The PMP Fast Track
• How to Pass the PMP – with NO STUDY?
• How to Quickly Earn PDUs for PMI-PMP Certification Renewal
• How to Apply for your PMP Exam
• PMP to Pay Rise – 6 Steps to Getting a New Job and Pay Rise With Your PMP
• This Course Is Really All You Need To Pass the PMP
• How to Pass the PMP Audit: Tips for Meeting Eligibility
• PMP versus MBA – Which One Wins?
• Getting the Mindset for the PMP
• CAPM versus PMP – What Are They and Which Should You Choose?

You can see what people are saying about David McLachlan here: REVIEWS

Navigate to Free Project Management and Leadership Articles through the links on the right (or at the bottom if on Mobile) 

The Ultimate PMP Project Management Prep Course (35 PDUs)

The Complete PMI-ACP Course: (28 PDUs)

50+ Project Management Templates in Excel and PowerPoint (Gantt Chart, Risk Matrix and more!)

Pre-made Project Management Plan Template: Save 100 HOURS!