PMP - Best Study Guide?

Time for me to start boning up for the exam. I have over a decade in practice, but as we all know, it takes different knowledge to pass the exam than to practice PM.

For those who have done well on the exam, what books would you recommend? I will be doing self-study, as I am a good study and passed CEH this way, and I am cheep/poor. Ideally I'd like one textbook that essentially teaches the exam. Is it multiple-choice, or what?

Also, for those who have been audited, what was the process like? I don't think it will happen, but I'd like to be prepared.

Nothing?

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Quantumstate

Well this is weird (and a little discouraging). I'm reviewing all the chapters in Rita and retaking the end-of-chapter exams, and of those answers I got wrong the first time I'm now getting some right but still getting some wrong. And of those I got right the first time, I'm getting a few wrong.

I averaged in the 70's the first time around, and it looks like I'm now about the same. It's always seemed like I think differently than Rita, and although I've come a long way in adapting it seems like I've made little improvement, or maybe gotten a little worse. After all these weeks studying full time, my hope now is that:
- The exam will think more like I do; and/or
- Rita says the average is 61% for passing the exam.

Quantumstate

This is it! Here i go!

erpadmin

What are you saying exactly, that you've filled out an application, or that you received the go ahead to schedule the exam?

Quantumstate

Nope, I was approved a month ago for background and my 35 hours.

I sat for the exam today, but didn't make it. "Moderately Proficient" on all except Initiation (FFS) and M&C.

I gotta say, Rita did not prepare me at all for about 20% of the questions. She never resonated with me, although I don't know how bad the other options are. Nowhere was there a "What is the BEST way to..." I did get Quality Assurance and Quality Control backwards, consistently.

I never touched the PMBOK or Crowe, and relied exclusively on Rita. I'd intended to use Crowe as well, but I am out of time and MUST get a job or be homeless.

Fact is, I only got to question 176 (out of 200) before it shocked me by popping up a window saying "You are out of time!". I'd torn off a piece of the scratch paper to cover over the clock the whole test, because I hate being distracted by it ticking away. I thought it would at least give me a 15 minute warning like CEH did. I took one 3 minute break to crap, but no others. I gave each question careful thought, and did the best I could, but just went too slow it turns out. I'm betting if I'd had time to finish all questions I would have passed.

Considering what to do next.

erpadmin

Well...I guess I'm technically up at bat, but I don't plan on sitting for this exam anytime soon, thanks to both you and Powerfool. I am, however, going to hit the book that I am using hard (as the reviews on Amazon did have a couple of folks that did pass the PMP the first time...and they were not fake reviews either [if you know what to look for, you can tell.]) All I know is that Kim Heldman got me to pass Project+, and while she was boring as heck, I passed it once, so I have no qualms giving her a second shot for the PMP.

While I am up at bat, I know that one of you will take the exam again before I even sit for my first attempt. Especially since I do plan on incorporating the PMBOK guide in my studies (I have no choice...it's required for my PM class).

I wish you the best in Round 2. Having an MBA from that "death penalty" school in D-1 football, I'd have thought, would have been nice prep.

I am sure you will do fine.

I'm curious though about that get a job bit...are you expecting a $100k gig because of your MBA and [expected] PMP? What experience do you have?

Quantumstate

I was a commercial real estate developer for a number of years, until the thieving stock market took all my money. Also keep in mind I'm in Seattle, where the cost of living is rather high. I was recently offered a PM job at M$ for $50/hr, but I turned it down because they don't have the best rep as an employer. Anyway, they required the PMP so it looks like I'm fscked since there are no real estate jobs.

MBA was quite a bit easier for me since it was taught in terms I think in. Also my concentration was in fields I'm good at, real estate and finance. Plus my finances weren't desperate then. Came out with a 3.6 GPA. But I just never could click with Rita. I'm more technical. Just got my CEH at 59 years of age.

Dammit. I can't believe I ran out of time.

erpadmin

You know what, do yourself a favor and check out the Heldman book. You can go to any Barnes and Noble and find one to look at. She does mention construction projects as examples. Not for nothing, but I would think there are a lot of PMP materials that tie into construction projects that would have helped you.

I think your issue was that you attempted to attack the PMP from a technical perspective with a limited technical background, which is odd as PMP isn't a technical exam (but more and more IT shops are wanting it, which is why I am going for it.)

Check out pmstudycircle.com and that other link that winstarman posted in this thread. I looked at it, and while I'm not a CISSP, some of those links seem to be pretty useful.

Other than that, just get your head right for this. This exam is not easy (as you discovered.) Figure out the ITTOs and how they go together (which is also covered in Project+, perhaps something you may want to look at...the objectives overlap with the PMP.) Do not try to read the PMBOK guide as if it were a book...rather use the PMBOK to look at stuff from Rita that you may want to bone up on. Develop a better plan to take this exam and don't rush it...

By the way, I live in the metropolitan NYC area....much higher cost of living than Seattle, I'm sure.

Quantumstate

Thanks man. I guess I have to try it again.

I've now read all the Amazon reviews on Kim's book, and it seems to be an alternative to Rita's with a different approach. Maybe I'd be more amenable to Kim so I'll try it. I can once again apply for jobs Tu-Th and study M-W-F. It should go alot faster this time as alot of it will be second nature, although 600 pages?! Sh*t.

I'm a bit concerned because a number of ppl noted errors in the chapter exams. I'll be looking for corrections on Kim's site and hope they're there.

Also I've found a quality resource called Deep Fried Brain Project - PMP and CAPM Certification Exam Prep Blog

Edit: Well this is an interesting analysis on scoring:
http://www.deepfriedbrainproject.com/2010/04/best-kept-secret-of-pmp-certification.html
The comment here confirms to me that I just BARELY failed:
"I have passed with 2 BPs (Executing and M&C) and all others MP."
... almost exactly like mine, except my BPs were (lower-weighted) Initiation, and M&C.

Maybe I'll just do Crowe (which I already have), adjust my head to QA & QC, and try again soon.

When I test again I am going to go through first fast and answer quick ones, then go back and cover harder ones in a second pass, then hardest ones in the third. Yesterday I spent around a minute in careful consideration of each question, running it backward and forward in my mind, and on the harder ones spent alot more time which probably cost me the exam.

erpadmin

That deep fried stuff was in Winstar's memoirs...I'll have to check it out too.

My PM professor has been updating her online class and I already have reading assignments related to the PMBOK guide and "optional" reading for a truly boring PM book. I am halfway through the reading PMBOK and I'm taking notes (much of it going through the Skillsoft classes I took earlier and the PMBOK, surprisingly, is actually making things "click"). The "optional" reading I will do as I do want an A for the course equally as much as I want to obtain the PMP. [Short of selling my soul or other things...I will do anything [ethical] for an A and I've proven that in my other grad school courses.]

You do seem like a very smart man (your age, AFAIC is irrelevant.) I have no doubt that once you get your head right, you will pass the PMP on the second try...just don't do any more hail mary passes.

(Incidently, I won't be seeing any from Southern Methodist, either...lol)

By the way...every (good) certification book has an errata. Every book I've used for certification had a review from some "genius" who found one error and gave that book a one star review. Learn to read past the noise and get to the meat of that matter. My rule of thumb is if a review is more positive than negative (and I have learned to differentiate between real positives and fakes) then I read the negatives to see if they were truly valid. My education with that was reading the Darril Gibson reviews for Security+ Get Certified Get Ahead. I was not a believer in DG until I both read his book AND passed his exam with an 870 (out of 900.) To date, that is the best score I have ever had with any certification.

Quantumstate

Ya I went to B&N today to look at Kim's book, and was shocked to find that it's essentially no longer available in hardcopy. You have to buy it as Nook or eReader, and it's not a whole lot cheaper. This seems to be a general trend. So I had them download it to one of their demo Nooks and I looked it over; I think I'd like it. Will buy it if I fail again, but will probably stick with Crowe for now since I came so close.

I did a brief search for Nook and Linux (which I run exclusively) and only found how to install Linux on the Nook, LOL, not how to read a Nook book on Linux. Same with eReader. I don't have any objection to reading any book as PDF as long as I can highlight. One of my key study habits is to highlight things that are new to me, and if I can't do that I can't emphasize, or review later. I cannot understand why no one has thought of that.

Edit: Hang on a sec... I just checked the help file for Okular, and heck yeah there are Annotations. I can write box notes, inline notes, green line, yellow highlight and more. Well this is new. It makes it possible to use PDF rather than hardcopy in future, as long as it's trustworthy. A separate file is saved along with the pdf that has annotations, and they can be saved together with Tools|Archive.

erpadmin

If it wasn't for the fact that I was won a Kindle 2 as vendor swag at a out-of-state conference, I would have gone Nook myself. However, since I am a Kindle owner, I buy my books from Amazon (including the Heldman book.) eReaders are very convenient, and I'm able to use Text-To-Speech for subjects such as the PMP studies (that's how I passed Project+...) BTW, make sure you look at the book that's updated for the 2011/4th Edition of the PMBOK. I accidently bought the 3rd edition one, but Amazon is real good at giving refunds for mistakes.

Things have just gotten interesting in my own PMP studies and hence will update my thread (then link my grad school thread to that post as they are interrelated.

Quantumstate

It seems there are a couple approaches. Rita has a great chart for 5-42 that she keeps harping on, and I studied that until I had it almost memorized. She has a little game where you cut out squares with the 42, and group them IN ORDER under the 5. Annoying.

Crowe does it differently; he goes through the 9 and their ITTOs, and it has cleared up alot of things that Rita was disorganized and fuzzy on. Crowe's book is just about like a filled-out outline, sort of a list in logical sequence, which is easier for me than Rita's touchy-feely all human emotions stuff.

But where Crowe lacks in info, Rita has. It's spookily like universalfrost was right... you do actually need both.

Nah. That can't be...

erpadmin

I do not believe UF was wrong...he just used one approach that worked for him.

I have only read half of one chapter from Heldman's book...I will go back to it tonight and see how I do on the first chapter, since I have supplimented that knowledge with the first three chapter's of PMBOK (and SkillSoft). I want to report back how she ties the ITTOs together (which I believe she does, and it is not in order...because it can't be.)

Quantumstate

Just teasing him. I'm grateful for his input.

Oh no, now I'm peeing multicolored rainbows of Project Management! In 5 and 9 colors!

Quantumstate

OK, paid again. I'll never learn... :j

Will probably schedule this Monday. That'll give me time to finish Crowe.

erpadmin

Concentrate on questions you can know. If you don't know it, skip it and move on to the next question.

One thing I did was make a chart of the process groups based on where they fall under the 9 Knowledge Areas. I just did that today (that's how Heldman makes it kind of easier to remember.) I have Knowledge Area as a heading, then Process Name and Process Group right next to each other. I also downloaded a free flashcard program from Google Play (Android Store...whatever.) I won't be dealing with that until much later in my process.

I also might deal with PMPrepcast after reading pmstudent.com and deepfried...for $100, can't hurt...but I will wait until I'm done with both Heldman and PMBOK....(I want to use it 30-45 days out if it is used at all.)

I am so glad I'm on vacation...I don't go back to work until after labor day...I'm gonna take a couple of days off (I planned on it.) I just thought I would be doing this work later in the week and not earlier, but my PM plan needed to be revised.

Best of luck Q...best of luck.

Quantumstate

Thanks.

(What's a "vacation"?)

erpadmin

For several months, I was asking the same question....I almost didn't get the one I had now. (I'd have been understanding if something critical was going on this week, but there wasn't.)

universalfrost

crowe and rita and then hit crowe again (also his quick ref guide is priceless)... that worked for me! (see my lessons learned from when i passed)....

also, crowe helps to differentiate between QA and QC and here is a good website that explains it the same way

Probably the Best PMP Training in the World | Quality Assurance vs Quality Control (PMP CONCEPT 3)

Quality Assurance versus Quality Control
Perform Quality Assurance and Perform Quality Control are two distinct processes within the Project Quality Management knowledge area. Quality Assurance is within the Executing Process Group and Quality Control is within the Monitor and Control Process Group.
Quality Assurance
Quality assurance is an audit function that evaluates the actual project quality results against the planned or intended results to ensure that the appropriate processes are being employed by the project team.
“Assuring” quality implies ensuring the project quality requirements are being achieved
Quality Control
Quality control is the implementation of quality processes in order to achieve the project and product quality requirements.
“Controlling” quality implies implementing the appropriate quality steps and actions

Quantumstate

I knew there was some thing that was backward alphabetically, and I thought it was QA/QC. But now a hard lesson learned and I'll have them straight. Wish I could remember what the backwards thing was.

Assurance is Executing and Control is M&CONTROL. A before C. (except after E?)

universalfrost

here is how i remembered it and kept them straight

QA = AUDIT (keyword here and notice the A in QA and change it from assurance to audit in your brain) and you must "DO" this = Executing
QC = monitoring and controlling processes = Monitoring & Controlling....

simple !

also if the scenario question mentions AUDIT then it is instantly an executing process, if it mentions doing or PROCESS then it is an M&C ... this is how PMI gets you with simply changing 1 or 2 words in the scenario and puts you in different process or knowledge areas... tricky, but really tests your knowledge on the material .

Quantumstate

Nice. And the only output from QA is change requests. QA measures the -process- and QC measures the -product-.

I'm finding that I'm blowing through Crowe's chapter exam questions with high A's. I think I'm still in the C's with Rita as she's so fuzzy. But this does prepare you for the finely-shaded exam questions, and she is more comprehensive. In Crowe I am finding a number of answers to questions asked in the exam that Rita never mentioned! As I say, Rita did not prepare me at all for at least 20% of the questions. Odd. OTOH it seems like Crowe went through and took a picture of every page when he took the exam!

There were two things that I had to remember alphabetically, and one was backwards. I know QA/QC was one, but can't remember the other.

Quantumstate

Ah HA! Found the backwards one:
Conduct Procurements (Executing)
Administer Procurements (M&C)

The rightways one is:
Quality Assurance (Executing)
Quality Control (M&C)

I flunked Crowe's chapter test on Risk Management. But keeping to my quota of ~100 pages a day.

timone_g

Hi all, I have been following this thread from a few weeks on and first thing I need to say is thank you for all your help. I have taken a lot of advice from this thread as well as others in this forum and it has helped me clear my PMP exam day before yesterday (on my 2nd attempt)
I am not sure that I have the required expertise to give advice to people in this forum however, regarding the exam I have the following observations:

In my First attempt:
- I read PMBOK twice
- Read Rita's book once
- Used PM Fastrack (Rita) and averaged around 70% in these

I did not pass, one valuable lesson learned was that I realized that I had not understood the concept and the ITTO's

In my Second Attempt
I started researching online and found that there were a lot of people who had the same experience as me. I was referred to this thread and purchased the Book by Andy Crowe.
This time
- I read Rita;s Book twice
- Read Andy Crowe's book 3 times

Just 2 weeks before the exam I used the Free evaluation key for InSite from Andy's book and went through the Videos (you get a weeks free evaluation with this book and I will highly recommend it as it helped me refresh the concepts and explain most of process and terms with examples.
One week before the exams I started taking 50 question in one go on Rita's PM Fastrack. In one day I gave at least 5 such attempts and averaging 85%. I wrote the Earned Value 13 Formulas everyday (This is after I understood what is the calculation all about)
I did not memorize the ITTO's like a parrot, but i started understanding what is the process and what will be the output. For e.g.
1) One Very Important point i realized this time that M&C process will have Change Request or Change Request Update that is because PM and Team Checks what is the output is it as per plan if not then we need to change it and we need to have a Change Request

2) Develop Project Charter, Develop Project Management Plan, Report Performance all this process areas have simple output like Charter, Project Management Plan and Performance Report. i saved a little energy by doing this

3) Lot of the process have inputs "Enterprise Environmental Factor" & "Organization Process asset" (i found a quiz on Andy's Site Velocitech insite that helped me remember which are those

4) Lot of Process have outputs "Project management Plan Update" , "Project Document and Update" (the same Quiz from above helped me)

If you can get 80% or 85% in the Mock exams I think you can pass the exams. I did all the question from Andy and Rita (end of chapter) before exams. This helped me pass the exam.

I have been working as a Project Manager in a Fortune 50 company for the last 3 years.

Please let me know if you need any further help.

Thanks all and best of luck!

universalfrost

glad you passed!

as i posted earlier, not memorizing, but instead understanding the ITTO's is the key! it sounds like you learned this lesson the hard way...

thank you for the LL's as those that are still attempting this exam can hopefully learn from this information.

erpadmin

+1 and rep!! Welcome to TE and I hope you stick around!

Quantumstate

166. ...redacted...

D. Contact PMI.

LOL, yup contact PMI is the answer...

erpadmin

Quantumstate wrote: »

166. You have been directed by your customer, your sponsor, and senior management (and your spouse?) to manage a project that you believe will have a very negative impact on the economy and society. You have shared your concerns, but all parties continue to insist that you proceed. What should you do?

A. Manage the project, because all parties agree.
B. Refuse to manage the project.
C. Manage the project, but document your objections.
D. Contact PMI.

LOL, yup contact PMI is the answer...

No it is not...it is B. (Per the Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.)

Regulations and Legal Requirements2.3.1 We inform ourselves and uphold the policies, rules, regulations and laws that govern our work, professional, and volunteer activities.
2.3.2 We report unethical or illegal conduct to appropriate management and, if necessary, to those affected by the conduct.
Comment: These provisions have several implications. Specifically, we do not engage in any illegal behavior, including but not limited to: theft, fraud, corruption, embezzlement, or bribery. Further, we do not take or abuse the property of others, including intellectual property, nor do we engage in slander or libel. In focus groups conducted with practitioners around the globe, these types of illegal behaviors were mentioned as being problematic.
As practitioners and representatives of our profession, we do not condone or assist others in engaging in illegal behavior. We report any illegal or unethical conduct. Reporting is not easy and we recognize that it may have negative consequences. Since recent corporate scandals, many organizations have adopted policies to protect employees who
reveal the truth about illegal or unethical activities. Some governments have also adopted legislation to protect employees who come forward with the truth.

Quantumstate

I disagree. The question says nothing about illegality. Only that it would have "very negative impact on the economy and society", so I actually chose C. (I was just laughing at D) And it turns out you are right according to Crowe, but I still disagree with that answer. (Hmm, what would UF do?) Maybe ask your instructor how to split that hair, because I think PMI would say different.

Finished the exam in about 2.5 hours. During the exam I changed 6 answers, and it turns out that for 5 of those, I changed it to the correct answer, and right to wrong on the 6th one. I missed 42 questions, for a score of 79%.

Crowe's test was easier than I remember the actual exam being. It's possible I know more now, but it still seemed easier.

...redacted...

I chose C. The requested song was not in the Plan, and a PMIism is that you always evaluate first, then go through the change control process. Well come to think of it, you don't want to make the change until you are sure you can get permission, so I guess B is in fact correct.

(My urine is coming out in brighter 5- and 9-colored rainbows now... I have PM processes coming out from under my fingernails)

erpadmin

From what I learned from Mr. Cornelius Flecther, what I (or you or your urine) personally think is irrelevant...it's about what PMI wants us to think. Very much like how I earned my MCITP:EA...I had to go into what the Microsoft Way was, even though it is very much full of crap.

What causes a "negative impact on the economy and society" would be unethical (and possibly illegal, but since legality isn't mentioned, then we have to go with ethics.)

As a PMP aspirant, you have a duty of loyalty to not engage in illegal or unethical behavior. (per the PMI Code of Ethics...)