Project+ is incredibly boring. Please...help...

joshmadakor wrote: »

The Project+ material is seriously one of the most boring subjects I've studied in a long time. I have to constantly re-read sentences and paragraphs because I find myself thinking, "What the hell did I just read...?" Because I genuinely don't care much for the subject matter, it makes it really hard to absorb.

I have no idea how to even study for this. Has anyone else felt this way? Do you have any tips on overcoming this? I have to get this certification for school.

Have you tried applying the material to something you are interested in (techwise)?

For example, say you are building a brand new Windows 2008 from the ground up. Who are your stakeholders? What is the project scope? How long will your domain take to be built? Who will you put in your team? What is your budget like for servers, switches, routers, etc?

Anything that is done for IT can be a "project"...you just have to go past the boringness and apply it to something YOU want to do.

Turgon

joshmadakor wrote: »

The Project+ material is seriously one of the most boring subjects I've studied in a long time. I have to constantly re-read sentences and paragraphs because I find myself thinking, "What the hell did I just read...?" Because I genuinely don't care much for the subject matter, it makes it really hard to absorb.

I have no idea how to even study for this. Has anyone else felt this way? Do you have any tips on overcoming this? I have to get this certification for school.

Stick it out. It is incredibly boring and essentially common sense with jargon and artificial documentation and process check points built into it. Some of that you will encounter in companies under different guises, some of it you will not. I have worked with project managers who dont even keep risk registers. At the very least it gives you a feel for how document intensive PM work can be at various companies. Understanding the role of a PM is useful should you become one or have to work for one in future. I have worked with hundreds and done PM myself.

Josh,

Thanks to you, (well I was going to get it anyway...just happened to be sooner), I went ahead and bought the Sybex PK0-003 guide. It's available on Kindle and I applied the $28 to the $50 gift card WGU sent me for referring a TEer. The format is very similar to Darril's Security+ guide, so I'm thankful for that.

I went ahead and took the assessment (unlike the time I went for Security+). After 30 questions I had to stop...much of the terminology I'm not (yet) familiar with, but from reading the descriptions, it was pretty much what I remembered other PMs going through when it came time to do what we needed to do.

The terminology is boring, I'll give you that, but if you could go through the risk assessment portion of Security+, this won't be so much of a pain. I think I'm gonna go ahead and go through this plus 70-642 and schedule both in February for my next 12 CUs. I think by February, I'll be ready for Project+. The math and science courses can get done after I pass this.

Despite how I did on the assessment, I'm very confident I can pass this with proper study of the guide.

petedude

I used the Sybex PMP guide to get me through the Project+. It was well written and helped cut the boredom factor quite a bit. I understand the same author writes the latest Sybex Project+ book, so you may want to check that out.

it wasnt as bad once ya got your head around it

do skill soft first
read the sybex book
take the certblaster
reread the areas ya scored low in in the comptia book

petedude wrote: »

I used the Sybex PMP guide to get me through the Project+. It was well written and helped cut the boredom factor quite a bit. I understand the same author writes the latest Sybex Project+ book, so you may want to check that out.

Pete, the Kindle book I got was written/updated in July 2010. There was one out later or are you talking about this one?

Thank you everyone for the good replies. I will try some of the suggestions you all offered here.

I found it helps a lot of I read aloud to myself (if I'm alone, haha) and try to build a mental image of what's going on within the text. It's really tough to read this stuff, but I feel like if I start understanding certain concepts and building a mental image of what's going on, it will become easier to absorb

Thanks again for all the study suggestions.

Btw I'm reading:
CompTIA Project+ Study Guide (Exam PK0-003)
by Kim Heldman and William Heldman

earweed

That book should be good. I used the PK0-002 Study guide for the old test written by William Heldman and Lona Cram and it was really good.
You have 2 choices, either just get through it best you can or go in with an attitude like other posters have said and learn the material really well in a positive manner. When I took the course I started with the positive attitude but some life stuff happened and I barely finished the course (and barely passed the test)
If you're at WGU and have to take the examforce I don't remember if that resource was even good or not for that course The week I worked on examforce for project+ was kind of a blur). I know it was garbage for JavaScript and Sec+ but almost decent for Net+ and less than useless for any of the server 2008 courses.

Read-Only Flashcard Set

may help ya

veritas_libertas

Yes it's definitely boring

For me the material is beneficial because our company is Project-Based. When I was first hired on it was difficult to get use to all the project management jargon but, after reading the material I can now have an intelligent conversation with the project managers I work with.

demonfurbie wrote: »

Read-Only Flashcard Set

may help ya

This is very VERY useful, thank you very much.

veritas_libertas wrote: »

Yes it's definitely boring

For me the material is beneficial because our company is Project-Based. When I was first hired on it was difficult to get use to all the project management jargon but, after reading the material I can now have an intelligent conversation with the project managers I work with.

I'm about halfway through the new Sybex book now. In spite of it being incredibly hard to focus on, I can see how this information will definitely be useful down the road.

RoadwarriorsLive

So the general Consensus is the book from Sybex for this one? I am about to order and just want to make sure.

yea sybex book if your at wgu its offered on books 24/7

demonfurbie wrote: »

yea sybex book if your at wgu its offered on books 24/7

It's also available on Kindle...

Kindle + text-to speech FTW! (On this book.....)

Though hearing the female voice say "stay-keh-holder" is funny sometimes...but that's why I read along...

(I did not need text-to-speech for Security+...lol)

erpadmin wrote: »

It's also available on Kindle...

Kindle + text-to speech FTW! (On this book.....)

Though hearing the female voice say "stay-keh-holder" is funny sometimes...but that's why I read along...

(I did not need text-to-speech for Security+...lol)

I need TTS for this because its boring as hell. I'm over half finished reading the book and I can't believe I've made it this far

joshmadakor wrote: »

I need TTS for this because its boring as hell. I'm over half finished reading the book and I can't believe I've made it this far

Trust me...it's needed. Yes, you can pass without it, but I'm fortunate that I (personally) don't have to.

I read one chapter before I started sleeping through it. I understand what's going on though...but demonfurbie's flashcards (DF, thanks btw) definitely helps.

My plan for this is to finish the book by 5-7 days, use the flashcards and uCertify the **** out this blanker-blanker. Sometime this month, I'll see if I can take it. Put one more CompTIA cert on the barbie, then I'm most likely done with the CompTIAs.

ill see if i can find my notes and type them up for yall

Scheduled to take Project+ on December 10th at 11:00am EST. This is somewhat tentative as I had to test at a different place, so I'll have to leave my house about two hours before test time to account for traffic. I should be at this place about 10am and that'll give me an hour to cram for notes, formulas and whatnot. I will either come back with the win or not that day, but that's the only day I can do it without taking a day off. I will be uCertifying, using demonfurbies flashcards and of course finishing the Sybex book. I plan on finishing that book by Tuesday at the latest, with TTS on the whole way through...then going back to all of the chapters to bone up on what I might be weak on. Should be fun...

I finished that book last night and started using uCertify. I can't retain the information from Project+ as easy as the other CompTIA exams for some reason. My learning curve is also quite large since I haven't studied this stuff before.

I can already tell this is going to be the most difficult of the 4 exams, but I'm going to use the same study methods as you're using and shoot for mid December.

Honestly, if I took the uCertify tests all the way through, I would be failing them, inspite of reading the whole Sybex book. But when I study with uCertify, I try to absorb each question/answer and read why the wrong answers are wrong etc. This is going to take forever T_T

I have also just finished the Sybex book. Not too bad though as I too will be uCertifying beginning tonight and going toward tomorrow, all day. If I do not like how I do on uCertify, I might have to move the exam date up, but I'm willing to roll the dice on this one. Much of what's been discussed in this book is stuff that I've worked with and on and have been a part of. The best I've ever done was been a team lead, but not a Project Manager. I will be glad when this nonsense is over, hopefully, on Friday.

erpadmin wrote: »

I have also just finished the Sybex book. Not too bad though as I too will be uCertifying beginning tonight and going toward tomorrow, all day. If I do not like how I do on uCertify, I might have to move the exam date up, but I'm willing to roll the dice on this one. Much of what's been discussed in this book is stuff that I've worked with and on and have been a part of. The best I've ever done was been a team lead, but not a Project Manager. I will be glad when this nonsense is over, hopefully, on Friday.

You scheduled for Friday and you just finished the Sybex book? You're pretty brave, or really smart. My absorption rate is pretty low. I've failed a couple uCertify tests too :[ I will probably schedule the exam for sometime around December 20th if I can.. or maybe the 17th, depending on how good I feel about it.

joshmadakor wrote: »

You're pretty brave, or really smart.

For now, lets go with brave....

Should I fail this exam, I will end up having to take it again...but I have the next couple of days to ensure I don't have to. (I'm on vacation, so all I have to do is Project+ studying.) Many of those terms I'm very familiar with, so it's not totally new to me. I'm also following this piece of advice I saw in the Project+ WGU community:

. I took each chapter and copied the "Summary", 'Exam Essentials", "Key Terms", "Review Questions", "Answers to Review Questions" from EVERY chapter. I also copied the entire Glossary section. I then read the summary and exam essentials and then took the review questions. I tested my responses against the "Answers to Review Questions" and then went back and highlighted all the sections I got wrong. I then went back to the book and read those sections I highlighted as weaknesses and studied those parts in the book armed with a bunch of index cards to record learning points. When I found unfamiliar terms and concepts I wrote these onto the index cards along with definitions found in the Glossary for further clarification. I then reviewed my index cards over and over again until I could answer each one comfortably. The day of the exam I reviewed my index cards and then took 15 minutes prior to going in to take my exam and reviewed the index cards quickly.

I also saw that some other book was used to help pass called PMP: Head First. I will look into that, should I fail...but I think for me, make or break (or is that "make or buy...." LOL) will be those formulas...I have downloaded the CompTIA objectives and glossary, so I have what those formulas should look like.

By the by, when I took Security+, I was failing those Transcenders alot too, until the very end. uCertify is really bad English and after looking at why I failed, I see what they meant....hoping the next two will fly.

I have time to change my mind for Friday should I chicken out.

gotcha gotcha. That passage you quoted seems to be a really really good idea. I noticed the Sybex book (no offense to the author) is padded with a bunch of useless nothing. I think I will go back over the book given the method you described (copying the summary, exam essentials, key terms, questions etc) and see where that gets me in terms of confidence and what not

I took the second uCertify exam and did better than before. Not quite where I want to be at, but after a good morning of study and a nice drive, I'm ready to dive back in. Tomorrow I'll be breaking my rule of not studying the day before the exam...there is just too much crap to sift through, and while it's a CompTIA exam, this isn't like A+, Network+, and Security+. I am hoping though, that like Security+, the exam is actually easier than the practice tests I took.

The one formula I have memorized for sure, hands down is the open lines of communication with stake holders: n(n-1)/2

For someone who hates math...I actually get that one...lmao. The one uCertify question asked how many more lines were added...so I had to do that twice and then subtract the results from the two to get the answer...I found that real cute. LOL.

ev-ac=
ev/ac=
ev-sc=
ev/sc=

eMeS

erpadmin wrote: »

The one formula I have memorized for sure, hands down is the open lines of communication with stake holders: n(n-1)/2

If I remember correctly this one is heavily tested on both the PMP and P+, so it's probably a good thing to know.

Also you might want to think about this implication of this formula (which I think you have). What it is saying is that as more people are added to/involved in a project, the communication channels increase dramatically. The more communications channels the more difficult it is to get stuff done.

It's why meetings suck, and why they suck more when more people are involved.

MS

eMeS wrote: »

If I remember correctly this one is heavily tested on both the PMP and P+, so it's probably a good thing to know.

Also you might want to think about this implication of this formula (which I think you have). What it is saying is that as more people are added to/involved in a project, the communication channels increase dramatically. The more communications channels the more difficult it is to get stuff done.

It's why meetings suck, and why they suck more when more people are involved.

MS

That's probably why we have the saying "Too many Chiefs, not enough Indians..." That really makes sense.

Thanks for that. It was just amazing that out of all the formulas, that one clicked the best for me. The others ones took more time to memorize.

demonfurbie wrote: »

ev-ac=CV
ev/ac=CPI
ev-sc=
ev/sc=

Those last two had me hunting through both the Kindle and Internet...the only S(X) I'm aware of is scheduled variance and that's SV= EV - PV (earned value - budgeted cost). If you could clarify, it would be most appreciated. uCertify actually helped me with cost variance and cost performance index.

eMeS

erpadmin wrote: »

That's probably why we have the saying "Too many Chiefs, not enough Indians..." That really makes sense.

Thanks for that. It was just amazing that out of all the formulas, that one clicked the best for me. The others ones took more time to memorize.

And BTW, I do agree with the original sentiment of this thread. PMP and Project+ are based on the same material, which is painfully boring.

MS