PMP Exam prep is a three-legged stool

March 30, 2014

PMP Exam prep is a three-legged stool

The PMP exam is not a test on the PMBOK book. If that were the case, then there would be much more PMP certified folks out there than we have today…AND, the PMP certification would have been worthless: anybody who can memorize the PMBOK and not necessarily an experienced and good project manager would have passed the exam.

Indeed, the PMP exam questionnaire think-tank people at PMI are smart: they intentionally designed the PMP exam for PMI to award this globally recognized and prestigious PMP certificate to real and experienced Project Managers.

The PMP exam has a preponderance (more than 50% if I recall it correctly) of situational questions. Refer to previous post (“What to do next…”) for more of this situational type of question. Your experience and good judgment as a project manager will carry you through finding the answer to each of these kind of questions.

However, experience alone would not cut it. Ignore the PMBOK and kiss your PMP certification goodbye. Why is that, you asked? Well, there are terms and PMI-isms in the PMBOK that you would want to be familiar with. PMP exam might throw in a question and one of the choices would throw in a term that is really a made-up term…like “extreme matrix”…which is bogus…no such thing. It is really “matrix, weak matrix, and strong matrix”. There is a term called "tight matrix"; but, that is what you call when people in the aforementioned matrix are collocated.

So…you really need to read the PMBOK and you must really have an Experience...these (PMBOK and PM Experience) are the two legs of the stool.

So what is the third leg? You guessed it: PMP Exam prep books like the PMP Companion book and Project Management Books. Why project management books? Believe it or not, there are questions in the PMP exam that are not even in the PMBOK. This is consistent with the assertion that I have made clear earlier: the PMP exam is not about the content of the PMBOK Guide. Why PMP Companion? Believe it or not, the author has already condensed the PMBOK, added more information (to help you pass the exam) beyond the PMBOK, added the PMP Mind Tools® (to help you cross the abyss that separates the PMP-certified world and non-PMP-certified world; sometimes, it is all mental)  and connected the dots for you…no need to re-read  the PMBOK Guide (note: you have to read the PMBOK Guide first, even lightly)…all you need is the PMP Companion for a refresher!

There you have it, the three-legged stool for your PMP Exam prep.

How about PMP Exam simulator? Well, it is totally optional (refer to earlier post – “Do you need a PMP Exam Simulator?”).

Clarence Galapon

Author of the PMP Companion 

PMP Application tips, etc.

PMP Application tips, etc.

Do You Need Memory Aids?

March 9, 2014

Do You Need Memory Aids?

“I was trying to memorize these processes since the last 7 days. This blog helped me memorize most of them with sequence in 10min. Hope I will clear my PMP soon…” -- M

Have you ever been in a situation wherein you have just read a whole chapter of “the  PMBOK Guide” and when you try to tell, in your own words, what you have read, you are having a hard time recollecting the various inputs and outputs and tools and techniques needed for a certain process?  Worse, you forgot the name of the Knowledge area and the names of the processes that you have just read (but you really know by heart what those are and you also have experienced and applied those that you have just read – you just cannot recollect it when you needed it)? And then you go back to PMBOK for reference and you say, “Yeah, I knew that…I just cannot recall it!”. Well, you are not alone…and you need a memory aid. 

An author of a popular PMP exam prep book out there is not a fan of memory aids...and rightly so if you were in that author’s shoes. However, reality is this: most of those PMP exam-bound people sometimes, once in a while, in some situations, need a crutch...mnemonic...to help them recall things faster.

Let me ask you something: What is the first process mentioned in the PMBOK?

You got it: It is the “4.1 Develop Project Charter”.

You maybe asked of this in the PMP Exam: “which of the following are inputs to a blah blah process?”…and you will see all valid looking selection of “inputs” and these all look similar with very few variances…and wordy too! Now, if you have a memory aid in your back pocket, that question can easily be answered. 

So, there you have it. If you can have memory aids in your back pocket, why not have it? This is a cheap way of ensuring some points in your exam. 

Clarence Galapon

Author of the PMP Companion

Holistic approach to PMP exam preparation-- going beyond the Technical!

March 3, 2014

Holistic approach to PMP exam preparation-- going beyond the Technical!

“The good physician treats the disease; the great physician treats the patient who has the disease” -- William Osler

PMP Exam preparation books that you see these days are merely: 1) giving information on the subject of Project Management within the context of The PMBOK Guide [5tth Edition]; 2) providing mock exams; 3) providing some exam pointers…that is basically it! What is being overlooked at is the whole person taking it. The person’s state of mind could actually be one of the many factors why a person cannot cross the “abyss” between him/her and the PMP certification that he/she is after.

PMP Companion is the book that approaches both the person’s psyche and the complementary project management know-how…both of which are needed to increase one’s chances of passing the PMP exam.

Pure information, mock exams (believe me – mock exams are “very easy” compared to the actual PMP exam), and some pointers are for “treating the disease”. This is the reason why the PMP Companion was written: to provide a holistic approach (“treating the person who has the disease”) to your PMP exam preparation. PMP Companion provides both solid technical project management info (just-right level of info) AND a set of tools for the mind called PMP Mind Tools®.

Clarence Galapon

Author of the PMP Companion