TOPIC: PMP Study Plan

Hello All

Please can someone share good PMP Study Plan , my target is to give PMP exam by end of December 2011.

I target to complete PM Prepcast by Cornelius Fichtner by end of Aug 2011.Once I complete Prepcast and get 35hrs contact hours certificate will finalize on exam date.I will have full Sept,Oct,Nov and Dec to prepare.

I have following books to start :
1. PMBOK 4th Edition
2. HeadFirst.


I will appreciate any suggestions ,which can help me in planning my study plan

Thanks,
Hiren

Hiren,

Here are two ideas for you:

My 8 free videos at www.pm-prepcast.com/8videos give you a good idea for a study approach

My PM StudyCoach at www.pm-studycoach.com is an excellent companion coaching course for students who are preparing for the exam in self-study.

Thanks Cornelius for details, I will consider taking PM StudyCoach, can you tell if there will be any overlap in the podcast between PM StudyCoach podcast and PMP Prepcast Podcast

Hiren,

There is very little overlap. The course focuses on teaching you what, how much and when to study. I believe there are only 4-5 videos of the PrepCast that are also included in the coaching course. However, the idea is of course, that students who have purchased both the PrepCast and the StudyCoach can combine the two.

Go to www.procept.com and download Farndale’s PMP Guide. It is a great resource and it is free! Thousands of people have used this guide and they feedback has been outstanding.

I suggest to follow Rita's PMP Prep sixt edition.

Hi,

I'd like to shaer how I prepared for the exam. I hope you can take some helpful hints and tips from it:

First of all I bought some books the "PMBOK Guide 4th Ed.", of course, Rita Mulcahy’s "PMP Exam Prep" and the "Head First PMP 2nd Ed.". At the beginning I started reading the PMBOK and wrote down each statement into a separate learning book which I found important or useful. Then I started with the Prepcast. By doing this I was not sure if I should read the book first and watch the Prepcast or vice versa?

Should I read a whole chapter first and then listen to the Prepcast or do it in smaller pieces? Should I watch the Prepcast first and read afterwards or the other way around? After a short while I simply skipped this “writing down” of all important parts from the PMBOK Guide because it took too much time.

In addition to reading the material I decided also to buy the Formula Guide and the PMP Exam Simulator which both can be found on the Prepcast sister web sites. However after some time of trying out this and that I concentrated on the "PMBOK-Guide" and the "Head First" books only. I didn’t read the "PMP exam prep" and the "German PMBOK translation". I found it most helpful to go through the material as follows:

Part 1:

---

1. I listened to the Prepcast max. 3 episodes a day. This was a kind of initial learning:
Sometimes I sat down and really watched the episodes on my mobile device just where ever I was. Sometimes I just listened to it, e.g. while I was on a 1 hour running exercise or in the gym.

2. Then I went through that part of the PMBOK which covered what I learned
from the Prepcast episodes right before.

3. After going through a whole PMBOK-chapter I took the Head First Book and went through the same chapter, took the exercises and went through the respective sample questions.

Part 2:

---

In the second round I went through all of that stuff again even but more intensively:
1. I sat down and watched the Prepcast. By doing that I had the PMBOK right in front of me and wrote down all of those important Prepcast explanations and information right into the PMBOK at the corresponding sections.

2. After doing this for one chapter I read that chapter and looked up the annotations and additional explanations which gave me a better understanding of the knowledge areas and the purpose of the In- and Outputs and the Tools & Techniques.

3. After each chapter I put down the ITTO’s in a self-created table in order to have them as a quick look up and reference.

4. In parallel I started to take some freely available sample questions which I found in the internet. Additionally I had a small app on my smart phone which also provided me with some questions.

5. After being half way through the PMBOK again I bought the PMP Exam Simulator and started with my first full 200 question / 4 hour sessions. Of course not every day but 2-3 times a week.

In parallel to all of the above I started putting down the table on page 43 of the PMBOK Guide 4th Ed. on a blank piece of paper almost every 2nd day until I knew that table by heart. Additionally I also put down all of the important formulas onto one or two blank sheets every now and then. With these exercises I practiced my ability to write this stuff down during the first 15mins of the exam. This was really great and was a perfect look up
during the exam.

By doing all of that I found that there were still some more or less pale spots in my PMBOK-memorization. Beside each ITTO, which I decided not to learn by heart but rather to get a general, some of the references and the interrelations between a couple of processes were missing in my memory. So I decided to prepare a "simplified process overview chart" of these processes and draw the inputs and outputs from one to another to get my own understanding and a better overview of their relationships. I think to understand the interrelationship between the following processes is most critical:
"Direct and Manage Process Exec.", "Monitor and Control Project Work", "Perform Integrated Change Control", "Control Scope", "Control Costs", "Control Schedule", "Perform Quality Assurance", "Perform Quality Control", "Report Performance" and "Verify Scope"
This together with the knowledge about the purpose of the single processes I received a very good understanding of the meaning of "work performance measurements", "work performance information", "Deliverables" and the inputs to "integrated change control". In addition to the table and formulas which I mentioned above this "simplified process overview chart" helped me additionally as a look up during the exam.
And with Cornelius’ words I’d like to say:
"This concludes my overview over Exam Prep lessons learned. But before we go…"

Well, yes I’m still not at the end of my knowledge share. Here are "my" Exam tips:
1. Take snapshots from the following Prepcast slides of every single episode:
a. Learning goals
b. Review
c. Sample questions
Collect these snapshots on your computer (if not taken from there), copy and paste them into a document and print it out. Use them as a reference or lookup to see if you have really learned these goals and if you think you’re able to answer such sample questions.

2. Learn to write down the table on page 43 of the PMBOK Guide and the most important formulas in 10-15 min’s on 2-3 blank sheets. Such blank sheets are provided at the exam. And if you have the time to write down also the proposed "simplified process overview process chart".

Well that’s really it… Hope it helps!!

Cheers
Holger

Thanks Holger for detailed Study Plan