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In this issue... |
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If you feel the pressure of the Project Management Professional Exam then instead of allowing it to devour you, use it to fuel you to prepare well. This more positive approach can assist you to pass the exam and secure your dream job.
This is the reason why we are sharing as much information as we can here in the PM Exam Tips Newsletter. Read this week's PMP Exam tips, PMP Exam sample question and Lessons Learned by new PMP's.
Let us together embark on a journey to your PMP success!
Read on and enjoy!
Until Next Time,
Cornelius Fichtner, PMP
President, OSP International LLC
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PDU Product Spotlight
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Create your own PMP Exam Sample Question |
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If you feel the pressure of the Project Management Professional (PMP) Exam then instead of allowing it to devour you, use it to fuel you to prepare well. This more positive approach can assist you to pass the exam and secure your dream job.
There are various strategies and tactics that you can use to prepare for the PMP exam. Each requires you to define and create your own road map to success. Furthermore, everyone has his or her own style of preparing for the exams. Learners are broadly categorized as:
- visual learners
- auditory learners
- reading/writing-preference learners
- kinesthetic learners or tactile learners
You can identify your learning style by focusing on what benefits you the most. Concentrate on your learning style to absorb the maximum of whatever you study.
During the PMP exam you will be answering 200 multiple choice questions in 4 hours. The 4 options given are often very close in meaning making it extremely difficult to make the most appropriate choice. The golden rule of success in any multiple choice examination is to eliminate the wrong options. Careful elimination of the wrong options helps you to get to the right answer. But you have to be able to spot them first.
So how can you study the concepts and at the same time prepare yourself for this kind of ambiguity on the exam?
I always recommend to my students that a great way to learn about a concept is to take it and create multiple choice questions that are in line with the actual PMP exam and have other people review them.
The PMP Exam covers a wide variety of topics and it might be difficult for you to grasp all of them. Of, course you have your favorites and then there are those topics that you find more difficult. And my advice for those difficult areas is to create your own sample questions, instead of just studying the material. Here's how:
- Write a scenario-based question, instead of a fact-based question. Facts just make you think about the theory. Scenarios, on the other hand, make you think about the practical aspects of managing a project. This will help you deepen your understanding of the topic.
- Next, write 4 answers for each question. 3 of them are wrong, 1 of them is correct. Design the answers so that they are all be seemingly correct, using subtleties for differentiation.
- Don't stop yet! You also have to write an explanation describing why the correct answer is indeed the correct one. Be very precise and explain the details of your reasoning. To do this properly you need to understand the theory and be able to explain why exactly a particular answer has been chosen. This will help you avoid making mistakes during the exam.
This idea may seem simple and easy, but it requires a very comprehensive approach: you have to study the material, understand it, and then put it in the right perspective. As you put it into the context of project management and create a viable exam sample question, you will understand the concept more thoroughly. You also train yourself in spotting subtleties that identify the wrong answers.
Discuss the questions with your project management colleagues and other PMP exam students. Ask for their feedback. The whole process requires an in-depth thought process and thus your preparation will be much more detail oriented and who knows, you might even come across a similar question in the actual exam.
I firmly believe that this is a great way to gear up for the actual examination. You develop a greater understanding of the topics concerned and you mentally prepare yourself to thoroughly analyze PMP exam questions.
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Create a "Battle Plan" for the exam
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 Consider yourself a soldier and the PMP Exam a battle ground. Breeze through your PMP Exam by preparing a battle plan.
Watch this video we have prepared for you: http://bit.ly/jnWz4A
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Sample PMP Exam Question
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You are managing a telecom project. You have got two teams reporting to you. One team is responsible for equipment installation and the other team is responsible to commission and test that equipment. Both teams are working in parallel such that as soon as the installation teams finishes equipment installation at one site they move on to another site for installations and the commissioning and testing team start their activities on the newly installed site. The reporting structure is such that each of the teams have 5 engineers headed by a team lead. Each team member interacts with each other, however only the team leads interact with you. Both the team leads also interact with each other to synchronize their operations.
How many communication channels do you have in your project?
A. 33
B. 23
C. 42
D. 78
Hint: Calculate communication channels for each team and add them together.
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Exam Tip: Taking Sample Exams Helps You Prepare for the PMP Exam |
One of the most important activities for your PMP Exam Prep is to take mock exams. Be sure that you do this only after reading the PMBOK Guide at least once. Also remember that failing mock quizzes does not mean you will fail the PMP exam. Online sample exams should be used as a progress indicator in your preparation. Nothing more.
Most students tell me that they repeated their sample exams again and again until they were satisfied with the results. There is a danger in that approach: when you take the same sample exam again and again you will start to remember the questions. You will remember that you answered B in your last attempt, and that the correct answer is C. This means your result will improve every time you repeat the same sample exam.
But on the PMP Exam you only have one chance!
So my recommendation is this: Sign up for an online PMP Exam simulator. This simulator will cost you some additional money, but their two major benefits are that they offer a large number of questions & quizzes that you can take (no repetition!) and they allow you to test yourself in an environment that closely resembles the actual PMP Exam.
Therefore, go beyond searching for free PMP Exam questions on the internet and use the professional tools that are available to you.
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Solution
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The correct answer is: A
Reference: PMBOK4 - pg:253
Explanation: This was a hard question, wasn't it? Lets analyze the scenario to calculate the answer. Here we have two independent teams. Each team has 6 members, i.e., 5 engineers and one team lead. Each team member is interacting with each other, so communication channels for each team are (6)(6-1)/2=15. Both the team leads are communicating with you so there are two communication channels for this interaction. Further since both the team leads are interacting with each other there is an another communication channel between them. Hence the total communication channels in your project is 15+15+2+1=33. Choice A is the only correct answer to this question.
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Lessons Learned from Arihant Jain
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Hi All,
I cleared my PMP exam on 13th May. Many thanks to Cornelius Fichtner for providing an excellent preparation package.
My Study Plan
My study plan was pretty irregular due to work and travels. I started preparing for the exam in October last year and by the time I finished reading the PMBOK for the first time I got very busy on my project. Then there was a long break of 2 months and in January I started again. This time more aggressively and with a better study plan. I watched most of The PM Prepcast videos and read the PMBOK one more time. This time I got a deeper understanding of various processes and tools and techniques. I prepared my personal notes for each process groups while watching the The PM Prepcast videos. This approach helped me in the end while I was revising the concepts just before the exam. I booked my appointment at prometric in April. I then went through various websites to prepare a collection of lots of sample questions. I did as many sample questions as I could do in two weeks and kept referring to PMBOK to clear doubts and strengthen any weak topics.
My Exam Experience
On the day of the exam I just revised my notes and went through the ITTOs one more time. My appointment was at 5PM, so took a light lunch and took some eatables with me at the exam center. My exam started after a basic tutorial and then came a real tough time for me. The first 4 questions that came to my screen completely slowed me down for at least half an hour. I ended up marking dozens of questions in first one hour. My pace increased after that and I got more confident on the answers. I took my first break of 10 mins after finishing 150 questions in 2:15 hours. I completed my exam in 3 hours and took another half an hour to review around 30-35 marked questions. And finally the word CONGRATULATIONS popped on the screen.
In my view, the PMP exam itself is not very difficult. But the preparation definitely is. One needs to have a definite study plan and a thorough understanding of all the PMI concepts. I believe 3-4 months are enough for the preparation of PMP if one is studying regularly. PMBOK, PM Prepcast and tons of sample questions are sufficient tools to clear the exam.
More success stories here.. |
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