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