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