Hello ,

This week, we are featuring our article "Break Your PMP® Studies Into Small Pieces". In this article, you will learn how to set weekly goals and keep track of your progress and be able to make the most of your time and study more effectively.
 
Other helpful information on this week's issue include:

• The April 2012 discount coupon on The PM Formulas.
• Our recommended study material: Head First PMP: A Learner's Companion to Passing the Project Management Professional Exam by: Jennifer Greene PSE
• Practice all Question Types to Pass The PMP Exam featured video of the week
  
• PMP Exam Sample Question and Answer.
• PMP Exam Tip: Prepare Mentally for the Day of the PMP Exam

Until Next Time,
Cornelius Fichtner, PMP
President, OSP International LLC

The Head First PMP: A Learners Companion to Passing the Project Management Professional Exam (Disclosure: Compensated Affiliate) offers a fresh perspective on preparing for the PMP Exam certification. Not the typical, dry PMP preparation book, this one explains the current principles and certification objectives in The PMBOK Guide, 4th Edition in a clever and entertaining way.

Instead of simply loading yourself with heavy words and formulas to memorize, Head First PMP works with the brain by using a very engaging, visually rich format:  mental games, stories, questions, answers and graphics. The author uses the latest research in neurobiology, cognitive science, and learning theory to simplify the difficult four-hour PMP exam. The multi-sensory approach makes it very easy for you to retain the information that you need for the exam.

This book will help you:

• Pass the certification exam with flying colors. It has a strategy on the underlying concepts that make The PMBOK Guide principles more manageable to understand.

• Learn everything you need to know for the exam.  It has one hundred percent coverage of the latest principles and certification objectives in The PMBOK Guide, 4th Edition.

• Test yourself thoroughly and effectively. It has hundreds of practice questions and exam strategies that will gauge your readiness to take the exam.

• Explore the material through puzzles, games, problems, and exercises that make learning easy and entertaining. It has all these fun and witty methods designed for you not to get bored!

With Head First PMP: A Learners Companion to Passing the Project Management Professional Exam, you can apply the principles not only to the exam, but also to your everyday work life.

For more information and customer reviews, click here!

Full Disclosure: Head First PMP: A Learners Companion to Passing the Project Management Professional Exam is an affiliate product. If you click and choose to purchase the book, we will earn a commission.

Taking the PMP® Exam is one of the biggest steps you'll take in your career as a Project Manager -- and one of the most daunting. There seems to be an endless parade of information to cram into your brain but don't let that discourage you! With careful planning and structure you can pass the exam with a minimum of stress and absorb more of the information you'll need to be a success in your chosen career.

The very first thing you need is a study plan. Assess your daily obligations; many people devote months to their studies and ignore the other things they need to do every day. List your normal schedule and then assign a daily time for study, usually 90-120 minutes. By establishing a routine you have study time allotted, which helps minimize distractions. When distractions set in catch-up becomes tedious and interferes with studies.

Why assign a time limit for study? There are only so many hoops you can make your brain jump through before it tires and begins to stumble. Just like pushing yourself physically, after awhile pushing yourself mentally becomes useless and you start to lose the progress you've made. By limiting your study time you actually increase your retention time and the amount of knowledge you can absorb! This may be one of the most important things you can do for your future if your goal is to be the best Project Manager you can be. You'll only need 61 percent to pass the exam but aim a lot higher if you want to enjoy being the very best at what you've chosen to do.

Setting weekly goals and keeping track of your progress will not only encourage you as you study, you'll be able to make the most of your time and study more effectively. Instead of skipping around and perhaps missing an important area of study, you'll cover everything thoroughly. Before you begin it would be a good idea to make a chart of your objectives, week-by-week. This will help you to focus on daily goals and not to cram too much into each session. You will retain much more by concentrating on one subject at a time. Since you need to learn so many things about so many subjects it may be best to divide the subjects into categories that make sense to you. If there is something of particular interest to you that you really enjoy you might place it in such a way that it "rewards" you after an especially difficult section of study.

Repetition is another good technique for solidifying your new knowledge. Believe it or not, repeating a fact to yourself creates a neural pathway that your memory can travel again. Rather than "burning" it into your memory, you're clearing a trail through the undergrowth with the important knowledge at the end of the path. By repeating something to yourself or writing it on paper you're walking it home where it will stay as long as you visit it occasionally. It's best to practice repetition every day for at least a month and ideally for two months. If possible, you should do your repetitive mental calisthenics when you first get up, as the brain is at its most receptive immediately upon awakening. Plus, relaxing in bed for ten minutes while you mentally repeat what you want to remember can be very pleasant and reinforce a positive outlook toward your PMP test!

You have undoubtedly heard of PMP boot camps; 2-5 day cram courses for the exam that can cost thousands of dollars and claim a 95 percent pass rate. Most boot camps base the majority of their class time on the PMBOK® Guide, which is available for much less than the cost of a boot camp. By reading through and highlighting the most important passages you'll probably learn nearly as much for a fraction of the price of a boot camp. You would be better advised to make your plan, establish a routine, break your learning into small chunks, and reinforce your learning through repetition.

A very important last suggestion -- everyone needs a break. Even if you're enjoying your studies you should take at least one full day a week to get completely away from it and do other things. It doesn't have to be a big production or cost a lot of money; a morning walk, reading, a movie, a play, or anything that truly relaxes and refreshes you is just as important as the work you do the rest of the week.

Preparing and taking the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification exam is not just a challenge.

It can be one of the most harrowing and at the same time rewarding experiences in your professional life. The road map to the exam includes multiple ways to prepare and then there is the day of the exam itself.

In this video, we discover the type of questions you will encounter and how to prepare for them.

Watch this video to learn more: http://bit.ly/AjN2kc

Question: You are managing a construction project. You have just been intimated that it is likely to rain heavily during the next week. This can delay your project by a week and you will miss a deadline. This risk will cost you a potential impact of $50,000 if it happens. The probability of the occurrence of this risk is 75%. What is the expected value for this risk?

A.        37500
B.        -37500
C.        50000
D.        -50000

Hint: Calculate the expected value by EMV formula. Also note that threats are treated as negative numbers.

All our questions are updated to the latest PMBOK Guide standard. Stop by at http://free.pm-exam-simulator.com and try the PMP Exam Simulator free for 3 days.

After several intense and hard weeks of study and preparations, you are now ready to take on the PMP Exam. And the mental preparation in the last 24 hours before you actually take it are just as important as the weeks of study before. You want to be well prepared, both physically and mentally, to tackle the questions and pass the exam.

And so, going into the eve of the exam, it is important that you can feel relaxed and do not worry. This will help you prepare mentally for the challenges of the next day. One of the most important techniques here is to take one, possibly even two days off from work. This way, you can focus only on your exam and not worry about any work related deadlines as well. Keep your focus!

And obviously, you also want to make sure that you get a good night's sleep. Go to bed early and avoiding things that could give you stress. Wake up early in the morning, do some light exercise just to get you warmed up and ensure that you get a good breakfast. Let my own experience be a lesson for you: avoid any food that's unfamiliar or exotic for you. You don't want to get an upset stomach during the exam like I had.

Remember, a positive attitude will help carry the day for you and help you achieve your goal of passing your PMP exam.

Explanation:   EMV for a risk is calculated by multiplying the value of its impact by its probability of occurrence. This will result in 75% * -$50,000 = -$37,500.

The Correct Answer is B.

I have aced my PMP exam on 04/02 and wanted to share my preparation and experience.

Following are materials that I used -

1. PM Prepcast Podcasts - This was useful to provide base thought-process.
2. PMBOK - This mandatory for any applicant.The material was dry when I read the first few chapters . To get through the boredom, I started to combine it with Rita's chapters. I used to finish a chapter on Rita's book and get back to PMBOK. This was much productive for me to proceed.
3. Rita Mulachly - This book more than PMP exam helped me understand the basics better. I read this more than 2 times in full to get grasp on finer details.

1. Chris Scordo PMP Question bank - This was available on PMI website for free. More than 1000 questions. Best part was that this book had all test for 60 mins so that you can try during short intervals.
2. PM Exam Simulator - Comprehensive set of questions. Tested my endurance on 4 hour test . Was difficult to begin with but I started to build out my strategy during my exam.
3.Questions on Rita's book - I did these questions atleast 2 times and was excellent in terms of the setting up the thought process.

Tips -

I had difficulty in remembering ITTO and all finer concepts within different chapters although I could understand them. So, I started creating a quick reference which contained ITTO diagrams from PMBOK on all process and "quick reference" frm Rita's book.This helped me on the long run so that I can refer them before I could start on a test.

I would like to thank Cornelius & team for building different tools to assists aspirants in getting the 3 letter magic word - PMP.

- Naren Sivakumar, PMP

How about you? Did you recently pass the PMP exam? Care to share your experience?

Simply click the "new thread" button here: http://bit.ly/9clxBE to let us know.