TOPIC: About Rita Mulcahy's Book

Hi,
I'm preparing for the PMI exam. In every lesson you say that we must study also the PMBOK. Although I think the prep cast course covers every topic in the PMBOK guide, I'll keep studying it till the end.
I'm wondering if it's really necessary to study Rita Mulcahy's book as well (I haven't bought it). It seems to me that it would be like study three times the same topics... It could take like three more months to me to cover it!

Would you, explain, please?

Thanks!

Hi Marco Antonio,

for sure the PMPrepCast covers the topics from the PMBOK Guide, and also provides additional examples and explanations for some topics that are part of the exam outline while not being explicitly discussed in the PMBOK Guide. Yet for me it was important to study the PMBOK Guide as well, to keep it as a reference point for the main concepts and ideas. I find it useful to deal with some subjects from slightly different and complementary perspectives: I noticed that helped me gain a deeper understanding.
This is why an exam prepbook is also recommended; however, you don't have to, if you don't feel like. To be honest, I found it a bit hard to go through Rita's book; I read it because I had already bought it, but would not say it's a must. Nevertheless, in terms of perspectives I mentioned earlier, I found the Procurement Management chapter extremely useful, because of its detailed discussion on contract management.

Based on my experience, I would recommend to start practicing some tests (even 20-30 questions at a time) to test your knowledge and understanding so far, and then decide whether you may need a different perspective on some of the topics to improve your preparation, or if you just need some additional practice.
I didn't want to start practicing some tests until I felt I was "well prepared", so I postponed it for quite some time, but I regret that, because I learned a lot even with the tests and exam simulator. And they helped me adjust my studying and preparation.

Gabriella

Hi Gabriella,

I wondered why the instructor keep saying besides the PMBOK guide, we should study an additional book and practice tests, like his. I think those information and practice tests shoud be included in the PrepCast course.
That's just an opinion. Thank you for your answer!

Marco

Hi Marco,

Just a thought. You could consider studying Rita's book like a reference, and only looking at relevant topics and chapters that you score lower in (based on the PM exam simulator). I personally preferred studying with a book as a primary method over videos (though I did watch a few videos).

Rita's book, in my opinion, was easier to read from start to finish and comprehend than the PMBOK (as the PMBOK is intended as a reference). That being said, it did take quite a while to read.

My opinion is that if you're feeling ready and scoring well on the pm exam simulator, then perhaps you don't need to study a third time. But if you choose to study the material a third full time, then perhaps using a different resource might be a good idea

Hi Marco Antonio,

I believe that it remains a personal choice, as each of us has a different learning approach, so for some people watching videos may be enough, for others (like me) studying from a book remains the primary source for studying.

Practice tests are a different story, and that's what I discovered when I started practicing the PMPrepCast exam simulator. I studied and studied and studied, and didn't want to start running practice tests until I felt I was ready for them - as if it were the real exam. I regretted this late start then. Most of the questions in the PMP exam do not aim to test your technical knowledge; instead, they want to test your deep understanding of scenarios to which you will be asked to take action. So practice tests helped me a lot in having this mindset.

Of course there are many simulators available, some of them are even free — speaking of which, you may also want to try the practice test offered by PMI. I tried different simulators, and the reason why I preferred the PMPrepCast is that it provides a detailed explanation of the question, the correct answer, and (perhaps more important!) why the other options are wrong. I feel like I learned a lot from all these.
Besides that, I found that the way questions are asked and the wording used are pretty close to those in the real exam, which was reassuring to me when I sit the PMP exam.

Gabriella

Gabriella Dellino, PMP wrote: speaking of which, you may also want to try the practice test offered by PMI.

Gabriella, I tried to find the practice exam offered by PMI and I wasn't able to. I see people talking about it more and more and I'm interested. Could you please guide me to their mock exam? Thank you in advance!

Hi Cristian,

indeed it is not so straightforward to find it on the PMI website... I don't know why.
Here is the link:

www.pmi.org/shop/p-/elearning/pmp®-practice-exam/16202

Gabriella