j e s r u s h . c o m

[ Note: This is a continuation from Part 1 ]

• Use a braindump. A “braindump” is where you sit down and write key knowledge and formulas onto a sheet of scrap paper. You do this just before beginning an exam, so that the questions don’t twist your memory into a pretzel. A braindump is unbelievably critical on the PMP exam because the test writers love to rearrange simple formulas in complex ways. Remember back in algebra how you could rewrite the same equation ten different ways by moving X around, adding a value to both sides, using fractions, etc? The exam is a lot like that. So your braindump should include (at minimum) all those numerical formulas (earned value, etc) as well as anything that frequently trips you up. At the beginning of the exam, you are offered an optional 15 minute tutorial on the user interface. Take the tutorial (which only requires five minutes) and instead use the extra time to write your “braindump.”

• Do the little things. The exam no longer generates detailed score reports, instead it now shows only a very general area / competency report. But back when it showed actual scores, it was amazing to hear how many people passed the exam by the slimmest of margins. If they had gotten four or five additional questions wrong, they would have failed. Lesson: You need to nail the little things that can give you the slightest edge. Imagine if you failed the exam and wasted $400’s because you got two questions wrong? During the week leading up to the exam, make sure you:

Eat right. Three balanced meals (fruits! vegetables!) a day with an emphasis on brainfoods. Brainfoods are those foods which have been conclusively shown in (real) clinical studies to improve memory and recall. To summarize an ocean of research in one sentence, think protein (e.g. eggs) and omega-3 (e.g. tuna).

Exercise. Every day walk, run, bike, lift weights or do whatever you enjoy. Exercise improves blood flow and increases alertness.

Sleep. It’s really tempting to stay up late for extra study time. Don’t. That time is likely to be some of your least productive and you probably won’t have a chance to make up the slept debt before the exam.

Take off from work. Thinking you can skate by without using any of your vacation? Don’t. Again, imagine if you failed the exam because you were too hard headed to take two days off?

Drive ahead. If possible, visit the test center before test day so there aren’t any surprises. The last thing you need is to get lost, arrive late, or out of sorts.

Bring a snack. In your locker, you can store some caffeine, water, and something to eat just in case you get tired or hungry.

• DO buy the Project Management PrepCast. Remember back in part 1 when I talked about exposing yourself to the PMBOK through many different mediums instead of trying to straight up memorize it? One incredibly easy way to kick start that effort is with Cornelius Fitchner’s project management PrepCast. Basically Fitchner has broken down the PMBOK content into a series of nearly 100 twenty minute audio podcasts. The PrepCast isn’t detailed enough to work as one’s primary study guide, but it’s powerful when you follow up a topic from your (written) study guide by listening to the corresponding topic on the prepcast. It reinforces what you learned and it does so using another part of your brain (audible instead of reading/visual). This was a really effective one-two punch for me and I could study during my daily commute. At only fifty bucks it’s also a good value.

• Set a date. Last but not least, nothing quite motivates you to study as a date set in stone. My recommendation is that once you get approved to take the exam, go ahead and schedule it for 2-3 months out. If you near exam day and you still aren’t ready–you can always reschedule it for later. But most people will dig their heels into the dirt, rise to the occasion, and get it done. Good luck!

Recently I sat for and passed the project management professional (PMP) exam on my first shot. Given that 40% of test takers fail, this was nothing to shake a stick at.

I got a lot of advice from people on how to pass the exam. Having been through the whole experience, I think some of that advice was actually flawed. There is a whole sea of people out there who are thinking about, studying for, or restudying for (after failing) the exam. So I wanted to share a few tips which worked well for me.

• Don’t memorize the ITTOs. Everyone kept telling me to memorize all of the ITTO’s (inputs, tools, techniques, and outputs). So about three months beforehand I dutifully starting making flashcards with the process on one side and all of the ITTOs on the other. About two weeks later, I decided this was ridiculous. Who can memorize 400 items? This was horrible advice–ignore it (and see next tip).

• Focus on EXPOSURE instead of memorization. The exam is multiple choice, so you don’t need to be able to completely reproduce the ITTOs on a blank sheet of paper from memory, you just need to be able recognize them by name and associate them with a process. The key to doing that is repeated exposure from multiple angles. Use multiple books, multiple techniques, and multiple mediums (audible, read the PMBOK glossary, play a match game, write them, type them, draw them, speak them). Basically just activate as many different parts of your brain in learning them as possible.

• Don’t buy Rita Mulcahy’s PMP Exam Prep Book. Everyone and their dog told me to buy this book. I did and it’s good. Huh? Then why would I say don’t buy it? Because it does everything well and nothing great. The layout is pretty good, the instruction is pretty good, and the practice questions are pretty good. If you work *really* hard, you can pass the exam with just this book! But why work harder than you have to when two other books are better? See the next two tips.

• DO Buy Andy Crowe’s How to Pass the PMP Exam on your First Try. This is probably the best organized study guide for any exam that I’ve ever read (SATs, GREs, MCSE, etc.). Within minutes of cracking the cover, your head is completely wrapped around the enormous task at hand. Crowe is the king of context, priority, and focus. Every section without fail asks the same questions over again: What is it? How important is this on the exam? When is it used? Reading this first saved me so much time which I would have wasted studying material of minimal importance. Unfortunately, the weakness of this book is that the teaching instruction is not especially good (for example the section on critical chain is a disaster), but Crowe is so darn good at putting the entire PMBOK into perspective, that I consider this indispensable for the exam.

• DO buy O’Reillys Head First PMP. This book is the polar opposite of Crowe’s book. The crazy format (”the latest in cognitive research!”) makes it seem utterly, completely unorganized. I constantly found myself wondering, where am I? What process is this? Am I dead? But its saving grace is the teaching instruction, which is insanely, magically, alarmingly good. These guys could teach a small child earned value. So if you pair this book with Crowe’s in a tag-team approach, then you get two books which do two things really, really well. Crowe gets your head around the exam and gives you laser-like focus on whats important. Head First teaches you everything you don’t know. Together, they’re better than Rita.

Continue to Lessons Learned Part 2…