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How do I prepare study notes?

As you know project management is a vast topic. My goal in putting together these notes

has been that I study only those topics that are required as per PMBOK guide. AND,

study them from a practical view point to know enough to put in practice at work, apart

from being able to pass the exam comfortably.

I strongly believe in the following equation -

Knowledge + Fun + Practice = Sure Success

While knowledge of the subject is the core part of the whole learning process, gaining it

in a fun-oriented manner makes for a great experience. Having gained the knowledge,you must practice the questions in a way that tests your understanding of the subject.

This prepares you to face any kind of questions on the exam (twisted ones, ones with red

herring) and answer them pretty easily.

Simplification is the ultimate sophistication

- Leonardo Da Vinci

My focus has been to prepare these notes in such a way that every hour spent going

through these will give you the most value at least cost (SPI > 1, CPI < 1 as you will

learn in Cost Management section ). In other words, you will be making optimal use

of your study time. Which means you will be able to prepare yourself for the PMP

exam in the least possible time.

Yes, there is quite a bit to learn for PMP or CAPM certification exams, and the

extent of knowledge you may already have depends to a large extent on your on-the-jobexperience as a Project Manager, and the kind of policies and practices your company

has had around managing a project.

How?

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When I took up PMP study, I found certain Knowledge Areas extremely easy to learn

since my work environment had greater focus on them (Communication Management,

Scope Management, Human Resource Management, Quality Management etc, for

instance), while some of the areas a bit unfamiliar (Procurement Management, CostManagement). And I found that I had not used ALL of the tools and techniques in any of

the Knowledge Areas. Your assessment might be something similar. And that is okay.

That is the reason you are attempting this formal project management study in the first

place. Right? If you are early in your project management career, you may find some of

the concepts new. You may even question some of the theories outlined in PMBOK.

But not to worry, you will find them all easier to understand, and given a logical thought

they will make a lot of sense.

I subscribe to the belief that one must not learn a subject just for the sake of passing the

exam. Any subject, learnt with heart changes us in a positive way. The knowledge helps

us build our skillset. Which is very essential in todays competitive work place. Or even if

you run your own business. The exercise of preparing for PMP or CAPM

certification is not different. My aim is to make you understand the concepts clearly and

with ease, so you can apply them at your work, apart from getting the PMP

credentials.

Please note that these study notes are not to replace PMIs PMBOK (Project

Management Body of Knowledge) guide. Instead these are in additive to the study of

PMBOK guide, and help you to understand the concepts easily. I intend to cover ALL

of the concepts from PMBOK. And, align the notes similar to PMBOK so you find it

easier to map the two.

How do I make study notes?

I have used the study techniques I have discovered (still discovering), learnt and

practiced throughout since my student days techniques that have helped me sail

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through school, Engineering study, and Management study. These are what I use even

to learn and remember what I require to on the job. Backing these study techniques with

nine years of project management experience (where we built some of the well known

software products in the market today) has helped me create these study notes, whichare very easy to remember. Whole focus of these notes has been to make PMP

material stick to brains.

Mnemonics. This is a very simple yet very powerful learning technique toremember a finite number of sub-topics of a main topic. Basis of this technique is to

create a trigger that the mind can remember easily, and associating the subject

matter into this trigger. This trigger can be a picture, acronym, phrase, etc. Chances

are that you would have used this technique already. Ever looked at your knuckles to

figure out how manydays are in a particular month? Or, used VIBGYOR to

remember colors in a rainbow? Or Flemings Left and Right hand rules in

Electromagnetism study? these are all mnemonics. This is the basic technique I

have been using for my study notes since high-school days to remember those lists

and sequences.

Analogy. Mind remembers well those things that it can extrapolate from simplescenarios. Analogy is a great technique at it.

Pictures. Generally our mind remembers pictures better than words. What betterthan creating a picture that talks thousand words related to the subject you study!

Mind maps are a great tool to get a concise overall view of a complex subject. Mindmapping is also a fantastic Brainstorming technique.

Simpler sentences. A complex sentence taxes the brain. How? It has to spendtime and effort to make sense of it. And then understand it. If a sentence is harder

to understand, it will be harder to remember. So,KISS principle(Keep It Simple,Stupid) is the mantra.

Stories. Most of us loved stories as kids, and learnt a lesson or two about how todeal with our world through them. Stories are a great way to learn a concept. I use

stories most effectively with my two kids.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KISS_principlehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KISS_principlehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KISS_principlehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KISS_principle

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Repetition.If you repeat something often, it sticks in the mind. Redundancy isintentional. Do not skip it, simply go over and help your brain get it. Again.

Selective Highlighting.Each concept defined has certain powerwords thatoutline the gist of the concept. I highlight these for a specific reason. When you havegone through the notes and understood the concept, you can come back anytime

and scan the page going through these highlighted words and refresh the concept.

This makes it easier to revise!

Well, these are some of the tools & techniques (using PMP parlance ) that I have

used time and again to learn anything. And I am super confident that you are already

familiar or well-versed with some of these.

Any additional details I have provided about some of the tools and techniques is only

from the perspective of understanding them better, rather than keeping them cryptic. So

I hope you will find them useful.

Thank you for taking time to read this, and good luck for the certification exam. If there

is anything I can do, please feel free to write to me using Contact page.

Cheers!