Questions and Answers for the Project Management Professional (PMP)® Exam

TIPS OF PMP PASSERS:

1.    About Preparing for the PMP® Exam

How to succeed with the PMP® Exam the very first time?
Everyone has different ways of studying for the Project Management Professional (PMP)® certification. You may carry the PMBOK® Guide around with you, or use flashcards. You may join your local Project Management Institute (PMI)® Chapter and study in a group. Whatever your study path, someone has been there before you.

While everyone has a slightly different story to tell, there are some things that make a big difference to your chances of success with the PMP® Exam. Luckily, exam candidates are very happy to share their stories and lessons learned with you. We have reviewed and analyzed a number of lessons learned from the PMP® Exam that successful exam takers have posted on our website.

2.    About PMP® Exam Study Materials

Do I have to memorize the PMBOK® Guide to pass the PMP® Exam?

No. In order to succeed on the exam, you will need to have a lot of hands-on experience in project management and be able to relate it to the theory in the PMBOK® Guide. That's why a minimum of 4,500 hours of experience (7,500 if you don't have a bachelor's degree) is a prerequisite to take the exam. Your real life experience of managing projects in your industry will make everything much easier. Many situations in the questions will be familiar to you because you have lived through them.

So here is my recommendation: Study the PMBOK® Guide 2-3 times. Note that I say "study" and not simply "read". Begin applying the principles described to your day to day projects and also relate them back to your previous projects. That way you will see how these principles work. Doing it this way will make you a better project manager and help you pass the exam, as opposed to just mindless memorization.

Is the PMBOK® Guide sufficient resource for the exam preparation or do I have to look for other resources (which one)?

Try to read PMP® online forums where exam passers are more than willing to share their experiences of taking the exam. Read their lessons learned to hear what topics may appear. This can be an essential part of your preparation, but don't get carried away. Spending a few minutes daily, reviewing and commenting on posts is usually sufficient.

So instead of muddling your brains with too many prep books, choose the one you like best to complement your PMBOK® Guide studies to ensure a successful exam. Following will help you pass the PMP® Exam the first time:

PMP® Exam Video Training Anytime Anywhere with The PM PrepCast:

http://nanacast.com/vp/104860/396914/

Practice with 1,800 PMP Exam questions with The PM Exam Simulator:

http://nanacast.com/vp/104847/396914/

In what area will the Flash Cards help in the PMP® Exam?

Flashcards are a convenient and easy study aid to use when studying for the Project Management Professional (PMP)® Exam. You can use PMP Exam Flashcards to study exam related terminology, processes, and formulas either by yourself or with the help of a friend. Flashcards can help you study a large amount of PMP® concepts through repetition.

Is it compulsory to memorize all ITTOs for all the 42 processes?

No. The current PMP® exam is all about an in-depth understanding of applying project management concepts and principles from the PMBOK® Guide as well as general management knowledge from other sources to project situations. Many project managers have successfully passed the PMP® exam without any memorization. Read more here…

What is the best way to study and remember ITTOs?

As you are studying the ITTOs for your PMP® Exam, keep the following concepts in mind:

First of all, Inputs and Outputs are always “things”, like a project management plan, a measurement, a result, an update to a plan, a document, or a deliverable. You can touch Inputs and Outputs.

Second, it is very common that an Output from one process becomes an Input to another process. Focus your studies on understanding how these items flow through the many processes in the PMBOK® Guide in order to produce project deliverables. Use the many charts that the PMBOK® Guide provides to see this graphically.

Third, Tools & Techniques very often have some form of “action” attached to them, like a meeting, a methodology, a technique, a form that you must fill in, or a matrix that you create.

And lastly, don’t forget to read the complete PMBOK® Guide glossary. Study and understand the definitions of the roughly 350 terms that you find there. Again, you are not doing this for memorization sake, but instead you want to learn “the language” of the PMP® exam. Often we use project management terms loosely and interchangeably in our day to day work. But for the exam we have to know exactly what each term means.

Reading the glossary ensures that you know the correct definitions, and, as a bonus, the glossary indicates for each term if it is an input/output, tool or technique.

So move beyond a third-graders approach of fact memorization. Instead, study the big picture, the data flows and how the ITTOs are the glue between the processes.

Should I memorize all the inputs and outputs for every process group to pass the test?

And…

What is the best way to prepare for the PMP® Exam with regards to Formulas - by memory or by practice?

** Both questions can be answered by reading this article - Should you learn ITTOs by Heart?

My PMP® Exam study tip for formulas: FORMULA based questions are more than just 'solving for the median' or calculating earned value. There are around 49 PMP® Exam formulas that you must know backwards and forwards in order to pass the PMP® Exam. Understanding them thoroughly down to the importance of each element will give you the decision making criteria to include or exclude the values in the PMP® exam question.

I failed the PMP® Exam the first time I took the exam and realized part of my problem was studying from too many resources. How do you consolidate study materials to best prepare for the exam?

What usually happens is that students preparing for the PMP® Exam try to go through too many PMP® Exam Prep books or on-line courses thinking that they will be able to absorb everything that they watch and read. That is far from the truth. Too many books will in fact confuse you. Usually, one good exam prep book and one course is enough to complement the PMBOK® Guide. Reading the PMBOK® Guide is of course a must for any PMP® student and no exam prep book is a substitute for it. And don't forget to read the PMBOK® Guide Glossary. As boring as that may seem, you'll really get to know and understand the terminology you need for the exam. So instead of muddling your brain with too many prep books, choose the one you like best to complement your PMBOK® Guide studies to ensure a successful exam.

3.    Overview

The PM PrepCast is a PMP exam prep video Workshop that you download to your portable media player like an iPod, Android or Blackberry. This gives you the freedom to study for the exam wherever and whenever you want. It is a complete PMP exam study approach that increases your chance of passing the PMP exam. It will shorten your study time because it keeps you focused and you don't have to read dozens of other books to prepare. Watch the 42 hours of video and you'll be ready to tackle the exam.

The PM Exam Simulator gives you an insider’s view of the actual PMP exam. With this PMI R.E.P. approved exam simulator, you have the opportunity to practice on 1,800 highly realistic PMP exam sample questions based on the current PMBOK® Guide. Practice with the 90-day access as often as you want. Read detailed explanations alongside all answers and learn why your answer was or was not correct. Practice and learn effective test taking strategies with The PM Exam Simulator and pass the PMP exam on your first try.

The PMP Exam eFlashCards™ are portable flash cards and can be used on any device that can display *.png or *.jpg images. They are easy-to-use tools that will place you head and shoulders above the others in the gruelling marathon of the PMP exam. Receive a total of 1,750 PMP exam eFlashCards™ divided into 15 categories. The PMP exam eFlashCards™ run on most smartphones.

The PM StudyCoach is a 10-week long coaching course in which you are taught exactly what you have to study for the PMP exam. It's your study roadmap to PMP certification. Each session is a recorded MP3 file that you can play on your computer or portable player. The course takes you step by step, chapter by chapter through the PMBOK® Guide and your PMP exam prep workbook and points out specific areas of focus in every coaching session. In total you will receive over 7.5 hours of recorded coaching.

The PMP® Exam Formula Study Guide and Cheat Sheet is a complete approach to the PMP exam formulas, values, and acronyms and you even get sample questions to test yourself. It's your reference to all the math you need to know in order to pass the PMP exam. You will receive more than just a list of the bare bones formulas as they are usually presented in PMP prep books and on free PMP prep websites. We'll explain the formulas, the concepts behind them and you'll learn how to interpret the results. And the 90-page PDF document with 105 free PMP exam questions then allows you to practice this deep understanding. Our Formula Study Guide contains the correct formulas and is an authoritative source.