95% of My Study Time on Head First PMP Book

Approximate time effort required to complete: 4 to 6 weeks, part-time.
Total time duration of whole process: 6 to 8 weeks due to some waiting time.

I started off reading the PMBOK® Guide guide. I found that the book was rather difficult to read. The material was extremely dry. It was very difficult to understand and get the big picture concepts. Furthermore, I did not commit to spending regular time studying each day, which made it even harder to memorize concepts.

The first “success story” in my study process was committing to memorizing the Project Management Process Group and Knowledge Area Mapping table in the PMBOK® Guide guide. (It is Table 3-1 in PMBOK® Guide 5th Edition.) This was extremely helpful at providing me the first high-level understanding of the domain knowledge required for the exam. I printed out this page, and just carried it with me wherever I went. It took me only about a week to memorize this table. And I still can recall it pretty well now, several weeks after the exam. In terms of hardcore memorization, my recommendation is that this is the only material that you need to know word-for-word. For other things, like tools and techniques sections, my experience is that you do not need to memorize these. Since most questions on the exam are testing you on concepts and situations, once you have a good understanding of PMBOK® Guide at a general (but still deep) level, you will be able to answer the questions.

After struggling with PMBOK® Guide, and later on even discovering that PMBOK® Guide guide itself does not even guarantee 100% test coverage, I stumbled across the amazing study guide called Head First PMP®. This was my primary study guide. I followed this book extremely closely, constantly re-reading it and re-working all the sample test questions. I followed the teaching and learning philosophy in this book very closely. People online say that this is probably the second best book out there for PMP® preparation. I didn’t even bother reading other books. And I even did not look at PMBOK® Guide much afterward either. I spent 95% of my studying energy and time using this book.

For the other 5%, I worked on various quizzes and read various blog articles online. But I quickly determined that not all of these quizzes are trustworthy, and many do not even resemble the PMP® questions. So instead of confusing myself with these other materials, I focused solely on Head First PMP®. I know that this book probably covers 90 to 95% percent of the exam material. But I took a bet and made sure that I knew the material here perfectly, rather than try to figure out that other 5 to 10% I was missing.

In terms of actual material, PMP® (and Head First PMP®) seem to heavily emphasize change control. Be sure to truly understand what change control is and how this process is heavily involved in project situations.

I did the exam on May 3, 2014 and achieved the following results:
Initiating the Project – Moderately Proficient
Planning the Project – Proficient
Executing the Project – Proficient
Monitoring and Controlling the Project – Proficient
Closing the Project – Proficient

~ PMP® Lessons Learned by  Victor Wu

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