Student Profile: Susan Mealiea, PMP

I am a Project/Program Manager for a large Technology Services company. Although my company is international, the nature of my projects are domestic. Specifically I work on several projects for the US Army and US Army National Guard. The primary focus of all of my projects is distributed learning operations and training management. We do not develop training, we support the distributed delivery of the training and the management of the records from that training.

I considered to have the PMP Certification primarily to enhance my skills but also to make myself more marketable and to ensure that my company can continue to compete for Government contracts in an increasingly competitive market.

 I found the risk management and procurement management knowledge areas the most complicated to understand and recall.

 Many years ago I found the free PMP podcasts searching through iTunes. I listened to them and subscribed to the newsletter. At the end of 2010, you were running a special so I took the plunge and purchased the PrepCast. I planned to tackle the test in 2011; however, I never got around to it. So I made passing the PMP my 2012 New Year's Resolution.  

What is missing from The PM PrepCast? More practice questions that require the listener to work out a problem. If the slide could give the question, then tell the listener to pause it while they solved the problem. Then go over the answer and some of the most common errors.

My recommendation for those studying for the exam: Take as many practice tests, from as many different sources as possible. (#2 - Take "lessons" from as many different sources as possible - I used 4 different "teachers" - the PrepCast, online classes by Skillsoft, the Andy Crowe book, and the BootCamp course.)