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In this issue... |
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 Hi ,
Studying for the PMP exam is going to take a big chunk out of your day and you might be wondering how you're ever going to find the time to do it. Between work and personal obligations, you might think you don't have the time to study. Don't be discouraged and remember you're working for your project management certification so consider this your most important project and manage it efficiently!
The PM Exam tips newsletter is here to once again give you valuable information about everything that has to do with the PMP Exam.
What can you expect from this week's issue?
- Recommended Study Material: The PMBOK Guide
- Article of the Week: How To Budget Your PMP Exam Study Time
- PMP Exam tip Video: How to Prepare for your PMP Exam: Getting Recertified and Earning PDUs
- PMP Exam Sample Question and Answer
- PMP Exam Tip: Interpersonal Skills a PMP Needs: 6. Decision making
- Lessons Learned from a new PMP Exam Passer
Enjoy!
Until Next Time,
Cornelius Fichtner, PMP
President, OSP International LLC
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Recommended Study Materials
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 The PMBOK Guide
If you're preparing for the Project Management Professional (PMP) Exam or the Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) Exam, we recommend The PMBOK Guide (Disclosure: Compensated Affiliate) as one of your reference materials. It will help you cover the step-by-step process of project management. It will also provide you the ideas of some of the exam questions that you will encounter. Most project managers reading this book found how a lot of the exam questions came from this guide.
Are you preparing for the PMP exam yourself? Then a couple of good practice that you can start with are (1) going through 1 of the 42 process every day as 1 process wraps up 1 Knowledge Area or chapter and (2) familiarizing yourself with the PMP vocabulary by checking the Glossary.
The newest edition illustrates Project Management Institute (PMI) commitment to a well defined and straight to the point writing by raising quick questions and stressing the project management's core essentials. This guide is handy if you want to enhance your knowledge about project management or if you simply want to improve your project management skills. It provides an up-to-date knowledge of project management concepts.
The great news is that if you are a member of PMI, you will receive a FREE PDF copy of The PMBOK Guide. If you prefer a printed copy, you may order by Clicking Here!
(Full Disclosure: The PMBOK Guide is an affiliate product.If you click and choose to purchase the book, we will earn a commission.)
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How To Budget Your PMP Exam Study Time |
 Studying for the PMP exam is going to take a big chunk out of your day and you might be wondering how you're ever going to find the time to do it. Between work and personal obligations, you might think you don't have the time to study. Don't be discouraged.
One of the first things you should do is sit down and write out everything you do during the day. This should include meals, work, playing with children or family obligations, personal care, housework, recreation, your job and anything else that you spend your time on. And remember, you're the only one that sees this list so don't pad the time you spend on cleaning the house; nobody cares if you spend five minutes or five hours on it. Be realistic and honest as you assess your time and how you spend it.
Now that you know how much time you spend on various aspects of your daily life, you might be surprised at how much time you have left over. Your job now is to bring structure so that you have a block of study time every day without compromising your job or personal life. But before you can decide how much of your time that you'll spend on studies, you must be realistic. If you plan to spend three hours per day on exam preparation but have to give up all your leisure time for it you're probably going to fail. Realistic time budgeting must allow for down time or you'll eventually burn out so allow one full day per week to walk away from your work and studies and enjoy yourself.
Be sure to look at work projects that might take up extra time and eat into other areas of your life. Are you going to have to sacrifice some study time in order to fulfill your work obligations? Do you have a big project coming up next month? If so, you might have to think about rescheduling your exam and extending your study time. It does no good to have a working time structure if it will be disrupted in a few weeks. When is your vacation scheduled? Don't even think of using that vacation time for study! Is there a family even such as a wedding or reunion approaching?
Now that you've looked at possible future scheduling issues, work obligations and family plans, you know how much time you can spend studying and preparing for your PMP exam. Go back to your daily schedule and look closely at it. Determine what time of day would be best to hit the books. If you can pinpoint the time of day that's best for study, you've solved half the problem. If you cannot pinpoint a specific time you may want to look into alternative learning methods that enable you to learn throughout the day. For instance with an audio based course on your MP3 player.
Are you exhausted and brain-weary when evening comes? In that case, you might want to consider a quiet time in the morning before work to do your studies. It's been proven that the brain is at its most receptive in the morning so if you're too tired at the end of the day, morning might be a better time for you to study. You might want to do it right after work or after dinner. Choose a time that's the least stressful for you, when you'll have a minimum of interruptions and stick to the amount of time you've blocked out for this task. Remember, you're working for your project management certification so consider this your most important project and manage it efficiently!
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How to Prepare for your PMP Exam: Getting Recertified and Earning PDUs
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 Hurray! You have passed the PMP Exam and you are now a certified PMP. This certification is good for 3 years, and at the end of which, you need to recertify to make sure that you are keeping up with the latest trends in project management. If you are unsure how to do this, please watch this video with me and learn a thing or two about getting recertified and earning PDUs
Watch this video we have prepared for you: http://bit.ly/pmpstep8
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Sample PMP Exam Question
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The following PMP exam sample question is taken from the Free PMP Exam Simulator at http://free.pm-exam-simulator.com
You are managing a software development project. Your project team has developed a software product with many features but poorly organized documentation. Which of the following is correct in this scenario?
A.) It has low grade but high quality
B.) It has high grade but low quality
C.) It has high grade and high quality
D.) It has low grade and low quality
Hint: Grade and quality are not the same. Grade is a category assigned to products, whereas quality is "the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfill requirements".
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Exam Tip: Interpersonal Skills a PMP Needs: 6. Decision making
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 In Appendix G, the PMBOK Guide discusses Interpersonal Skills for the project manager. We are currently reviewing these one by one in our weekly PMP exam tip. Let's look at decision making.decision making techniques.
There are many skills that a successful project manager mare develop and among them is good decision making abilities. There are four basic styles used to reach a decision. Project managers should be familiar with all four because at some point, decisions will have to be made from each style. The styles are consultation, consensus, command and random.
Clearly, it is always good to have effective skills in this area, but it becomes more important for a PMP because quite often other team members have to be involved in the decision making process.
Having a decision making model will facilitate this process. Since there are so many people involved in the project who may not agree on a decision, having a process to follow can be very helpful to gain consensus with the group.
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Answer
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 The correct answer is B
Explanation: It has high grade and low quality. Quality is the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfill requirements. Grade is a category assigned to products or services having the same functional use but different technical characteristics.
Reference: PMBOK4 - pg:19
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Lessons Learned from Rodrigo Lueneberg
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First, thanks to Cornelius Fichtner. If it wasn't for his podcasts I don't think I would've passed. Of course it was the combination of all materials an techniques. But for sure this helped me build my confidence and allowed to keep up to date wherever I was.
Here is what I did before the exam:
- I did not read the PMBOK fully. I went over maybe two chapters and decided I wasn't learning from it. I guess you can read fully only if you have plenty of PM work experience. Or after you've read a good PM book and understood the concepts.
- I used the Andy Crowe book only. Read it twice. First pass I highlighted everything I did not know. The second pass I went over everything I did not know researching on the web.
- I did lots of exercises. I did all Andy Crowe simulated exam very carefully plus lots of others from the web.
- I did the cheat sheet with all formulas and stick it to my bathroom mirror. So I had to look at it every day. I also stick to the 42 processes and knowledge areas in the shower. I think after 15 days I was able to go over each on my mind.
- I followed Cornelius advice to write down the formulas on paper a few days before the exam so that I would be able remember it naturally.
Read more here..
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