Thread tracking my PMP study plan

A little history, some of you already know.I took the exam the 1st time in November I believe and failed. Not by a whole lot it seems, but failed nonetheless. So I have revised my study plan.I originally just read Rita's PMP Exam Prep. That helped out a ton, but wasn't enough. Now my strategy has changedSo currently under my belt I have the video from CBT nuggets [PMP] and one run through of Rita's book now.I am currently reading the PMBOK guide fourth edition. I am finding that linking the knowledge groups with the processes and Inputs Outputs and Tools and Techniques is making more sense. Over the last month I have be slow to get through the PMBOK, but hopefully with this outlet I can track my progress and maybe uncover some new strategies to studying along the way. Tonight I read chapter 5 and made it through the Scope Management Process. [Gather requirements, define scope, create WBS, verify scope, control scope].Tomorrow I am hoping to get through chapter 6 Time Management. I should be able to get through all of the Time Management processes. There are 6 [Define activites, sequence activites, estimate activity resources, estimate activity duration, control schedule]

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I just noticed that I hijacked the project + forum. My apologizes in advance, if the mods want me to stop I can do that.

Anyway just wanted to post an update. Yesterday was Valentines day so I didn't do much. Today I am going through all the Time Management processes yet again and also covering Critical Path Method. Covering float, forward and backward pass. Not to intense, but making sure I get it down completely. There is so much process in the PMP it will blow your mind.

I'm about 1-2 days from moving onto Cost Management. The formulas are pretty easy and math is a stronger subject for me. It was that way in Rita's book and I have a feeling it will be the same way in this Head Start book.

Finally got through the chapter of Time Management. Woohoo

It took me along time but there are a ton of processes and inputs, outputs and tools and techniques. I scored an 80 on the exam and really blew two easy questions. The exam was 24 questions and I missed 5. Like I said though 2 I should of had I was flewing through and the other two I immediately knew. Only one I missed and still am scratching my head.

I will need to go back over network diagramming and forward and backward pass. Just to lock it in. I sometimes miss obvious things so thats why.

Financial math and formulas I am strong in so it shouldn't be to bad in the next coming chapter, Cost Management.

Congrats on getting over the hump. As I am told for encouragement by my workmates in their slightly lacking Japanese-English translation, "Keep up!"

Just dropped by to show your thread some love. I love threads like this and I haven't read every post but this will definitely be handy when I go for my PMP (maybe end of this year). With 7 years of IT and 5 of InfoSec, I'm trying to move into IT management. I will have my BSBA in December and will probably go straight through to my MBA. If not general management, then PM is where I'd like to be.

JoJoCal19 wrote: »

Just dropped by to show your thread some love. I love threads like this and I haven't read every post but this will definitely be handy when I go for my PMP (maybe end of this year). With 7 years of IT and 5 of InfoSec, I'm trying to move into IT management. I will have my BSBA in December and will probably go straight through to my MBA. If not general management, then PM is where I'd like to be.

Sounds good!

Yeah good luck on whatever you decided. I'm positioning for a business analyst or project management position. A true PM or BA in a projectized organization not some locked down restricted environment that most PM's work in.

****Update

Worked my way half way through Cost Management and started to workout the formulas. I remember them from Rita's book, however they do things differently so I am trying to incorporate the two together and utilize the strategy that works for me.

I'll have more updates. Currently working through Planned Value, Earned Value, Net Present Value, all the indexs, and a few other one off formulas. A lot these formulas I remember from my business classes back in 2000.

Still on Cost Management. Out of all the material in the knowledge areas this is one I have a lot of experience in. My last position required continually managing resources to align to the cost baseline along with other tactics. Working in as a seller in the buyer seller relationship my boss and I would have to produce financial indexes and ratios back to the key stakeholders. On the buyer side we would report back CPI and other performance ratio's that were called out in the master document and SOW. To the service provider we worked for we would report back with GPM and resource utilization.

Of course other primary metrics had to be reported as well like customer satisfaction and other performance metrics.

***Very thankful to have worked that job, I learned a ton about managing. Planning, Budgeting, and Forecasting

Currently there is no project work available except for some high level initation documentation which I am assisting on, but not creating the documents themselves. However I will be asked here soon to perform a 3rd iteration review and mark up of the SOW and some of the subisidary plans.

***Note I mentioned this knowledge area I have a lot of experience in. I didn't just mean this one, communication management, procurement management, and quality management I have the most real world knowledge in along with cost.

To be honest scope was done by the c levels usually and risk is something I am just starting to learn. At a high level qualitatively it's there, but quantative analysis of risk is something I am learning from scratch.

Finished Cost Management tonight. I believe I have most formula's down, I will write them in an excel sheet and do some mock situations for cost management just to lock it in. I'll create note cards as well. I'm going to do note cards for all 42 processes (inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs). I will also do notecards for cost, communication, quality, risk, and time formulas.

On a side note I took a practice exam just for cost management and missed one question out of 25. It was all cost management and the question I missed was just me forgetting a technique in the cost control process. 96%

The answer was cost change control system, and my damn ITIL training keeps throwing me off. I keep thinking off one consolidated change control process and it is, but it isn't. Depending on which process and knowledge group you are in. Cost control has it's own change control process.

Sigh......

I went ahead and broke out the PMP cd's

so I can walk at lunch and listen to them. The CD's run about an hour a piece which synchs right up with my lunch. I also purchased a boot camp via CBT. It cost me 299 usd but one of the trainers involved trained me on ITIL OSA that's what sold me. I'm getting burnt on reading to be honest so I wanted to mix it up a bit and go with the online training. I passed two extremely hard ITIL exams with CBT's so I think this is the right decision.

Just wanted to keep you 2 people following this thread posted.

Hang in there! I was lucky enough to pass the PMP exam my first try but I had studied for months and months. I used Rita's and the PMBOK, made study guides, etc. I used every minute of the allotted exam time. It's a tough one. Best of luck.

u033736 wrote: »

Hang in there! I was lucky enough to pass the PMP exam my first try but I had studied for months and months. I used Rita's and the PMBOK, made study guides, etc. I used every minute of the allotted exam time. It's a tough one. Best of luck.

Hey thanks for the kind words! I don't think people realize the power of encouragement. You my friend made my day and I had a great training session.

I took a 2 mile walk at lunch and listened to the PMP audio covering chapter 2 in Rita's book. Then I came back and watched the first 15 minutes of the PMP crash course I purchased. It was very high-level in the beginning but it will get detailed like Rita's book aqnd Head First.

The PMP crash course is working out well. The mixture of video, reading, and listening/excersing and walking at lunch has really give me more confidence and understanding. Also discussing and answering questions on the forum has helped out a lot.

The crash course has been outstanding. I got 2.5 hours of studying in at work today, 1 hour was at lunch. It's been great, the video with audio has really helped out. No rereading or wasting time. The material is low level enough to really teach the processes and defintions with the concepts. The audio blocks out any sound so I am really able to get some serious exposure.

I'll bang out the rest of Scope Management and Time Management tonight on the video.

I still need to find time to finish my PMP head first book as well. Once I get those two complete I am going into pure study mode and taking details notes and flash cards. I already created an excel template with the format I want.

N2IT wrote: »

It was time that's for sure. I'll bang out the rest of Scope Management and Time Management tonight on the video.

I still need to find time to finish my PMP head first book as well. Once I get those two complete I am going into pure study mode and taking details notes and flash cards. I already created an excel template with the format I want.

Keep going. This is the only PMP blog in the World as far as I know so it will be very helpful for wannabees. You are unique!

Your enthusiasm is awesome. I think the route you're taking with multiple sources and different levels of prospective is highly effective. Keep up the great work.

Thanks guys.

Do I feel like I could pass the exam now with ease, hell no, but I do feel like I am getting better. I've come to the realization that I will not know everything and I will have to use my previous knowledge, PMI logic, the information I have learned from books and CBT crash course, and guile.

This is a beast and it will always be a beast. Anyway thanks again for the heads up, I am taking this thing head on. I can't focus 100% of the time on it, but I am thinking about it a lot and giving it a solid ride. Hopefully that will be enough. I still have over a month before my exam.

What I need to accomplish before the last week is these items

-Finish the crash course module. I am already through the high level process part and integration/scope management.
-Finish my head start book, I have lost major traction, but I am still reading 5-10 pages a night. Out of 700 pages I am on the mid 400s
-Read Rita's book one more time and draft out all the processes|knowledge areas|inputs|tools|outputs|terminology|formulas|everything else.

I still have a lot to go but just like a project I am going to break it down into manageable deliverables. The first two items are in my fore thoughts and everything else is a successor to the two I have listed first.

Had some drinks last night to blow off some steam. No studying, however today I am actually feeling refreshed. I am going to get into the book today and try to finish out Quality management and then start back on the crash course training within time management. And then late tonight when the family hits the sack I am going to enter in Cost management. Like I stated earlier I really have to get these two done with in the next 7 days. This will put me in perfect position to study, study, study. No more straight reading I will be capturing concepts and taking notes etc.

Finished quality management in the Head Start PMP study guide.

A couple of things stuck out. I mixed up quality assurance with quality control

I mean every freaking time it was hiliarous.

If someone has a good way of remembering them please share

The way I am attempting to remember them now is that QA inspects the process and is concerned with the future and QC checks the actual product and worries about today.

Inspection would be a tool used in QC but not QA.

Process Analysis would be a tool used for QA not QC.

Worked through most of Human Resource Management today. There is a lot of good knowledge in this section and can be used in any type of management. I have hit page 468 and plan on going pretty deep today. Hopefully around low to mid 500's.

I was getting more from the videos, but I am going to save them for at night when I am tired and at work where is can be loud and reading is out of the question in an environment like that, at least with me.

Once these two are done I am going back to Rita's book and creating notes in one note and using Excel as well.

4 more days until I hit the 1st. Today is going to be a very productive day I hope

Took a practice exam just over human resource management and nailed it. I got a 95% on it.

On to Communication Management.

N2IT wrote: »

Had some drinks last night to blow off some steam. No studying, however today I am actually feeling refreshed. I am going to get into the book today and try to finish out Quality management and then start back on the crash course training within time management. And then late tonight when the family hits the sack I am going to enter in Cost management. Like I stated earlier I really have to get these two done with in the next 7 days. This will put me in perfect position to study, study, study. No more straight reading I will be capturing concepts and taking notes etc.

Nothing wrong with downtime. We are human and get fatigued. Your studies go very well my friend, keep it up!

Turgon wrote: »

Nothing wrong with downtime. We are human and get fatigued. Your studies go very well my friend, keep it up!

Turgon thanks for the encouragement. We all need it from time to time.

On to communication management, this should be the easiest for me. I was a communication major in college before switching to management so I have taken a ton of communcation courses.

N2IT wrote: »

Took a practice exam just over human resource management and nailed it. I got a 95% on it.

On to Communication Management.

Great! Keep it up, you will do fine!

TLeTourneau wrote: »

Great! Keep it up, you will do fine!

Thanks a lot T!

Yeah I came close to finishing communication management, but a good friend of mine is leaving the country for a few weeks and we are going to chit chat for a bit then the ole lady and I are going to watch Walking Dead

My plans are to follow up with the crash course CBT at work and read some more tomorrow night. Not to much though the wife works 3 12's in a row so most of my training will be done at work for the next 3 days.

Finished communication management at work today in the Head First PMP study guide. Took the practice exam and scored a 87% on it. I missed 2 easy ones, both I had marked for questioning so there was a potential 100% to be had.

Risk Management is next as far as reading goes.

Three more days to get 3 chapters read and the crash course CBT's viewed. I should be able to knock out time management at lunch today and hopefully follow up with Risk Management (reading) at home tonight. Although I might continue through the video training tonight into cost management. Just depends on how I feel.

Starting 3/1 I am going from reading mode to full blown study mode. I'd like to have one full day to write out my study plan before engaging. That way I can maximize my efforts and focus on concepts that are more challenging to me. I figured I'll need at least a full week to go over the processes, inputs, outputs, tools and techniques. I also will need to take the information and synch it back into the knowledge areas. I am looking at probably 2 weeks total there and another week covering formulas and other critical items like the WBS and the planning processes since it sequenced in a specific order.

Covered the first two processes in Time Management. Define Activities and Sequence Activities. I have 3 more process blocks to go through to complete this knowledge area. It's coming together I just have to stay on top of it. It's challenging, because of the shear volume of material.

O well back to work, I have the kids tonight but they usually hit it around 8:30 pm. That should give me at least one hour to finish this up.

Rode the spinning bike for 30 mins and listened to Rita's process CD. Covered the planning process group and which is the only group that has to be in sequence. The first half of it makes a lot of sense and as I hear it more and more it begins to become automatic.

I'm still rusty but hopefully it will come together.

After the kids are asleep more studying.

Finished up Time Management via the crash course CBT. It was long but covered some different concept than the books so it was good to go through. Took the post test I hit a 90%. From what I hear if you are hitting around 80-85 consistently you are pretty good shape to pass the PMP exam. The real exams is so much harder that I can see it being a 20% variance or more on the mock test compared to the real test. Thankfully you don't need a 80% to pass, but that's because it so damn hard.

Anyway the plan tomorrow is to run through Cost Management via CBT's and Go over Rita's process chart. I feel like I am lacking in the processes and inputs/outputs/tools.

This has become an event that requires baseline goal setting. Each day I am forced to reevaluate my situation and adapt my study plan around that.

Didn't get a chance to hit th CBT crash course, but I did get to read some of the Risk Management knowledge area in the Head First PMP book. Made it through 20 pages. A lot of this material is review, but it's not structured well enough to do well on the test. I do believe going through another book is helping me synthesize the knowledge.

The cost management knowledge area in the CBT takes about an hour so I am hopeful to get up early enough to review the material.

Plan on knocking out Cost Management in 15 mins, well at least starting on it. There is a lot less material than Time Management so I should be able to knock it out at lunch.

I should finish up Risk Management via Head First PMP books tonight. I am already halfway through the chapter.

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