www.falcontraining.com

PMP® and CAPM®

Exam Preparation

Student Guide

PMP and CAPM are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.

Table 1.1: Process Groups and Knowledge Areas

2www.falcontraining.com

Process Groups

Knowledge Areas

Initiating Planning ExecutingMonitoring and

ControllingClosing

Integration

▪ Develop Project Charter

▪ Develop Project Management Plan

▪ Direct and Manage Project Execution

▪ Manage Project Knowledge

▪ Monitor and Control Project Work

▪ Perform Integrated Change Control

▪ Close Project or Phase

Scope

▪ Plan Scope Management

▪ Collect Requirements▪ Define Scope▪ Create WBS

▪ Validate Scope▪ Control Scope

Schedule

▪ Plan Schedule Management

▪ Define Activities▪ Sequence Activities▪ Estimate Activity

Durations▪ Develop Schedule

▪ Control Schedule

Cost

▪ Plan Cost Management

▪ Estimate Costs▪ Determine Budget

▪ Control Costs

Quality▪ Plan Quality

Management▪ Manage Quality ▪ Control Quality

Resource

▪ Plan Resource Management

▪ Estimate Activity Resources

▪ Acquire Resources▪ Develop Team▪ Manage Team

▪ Control Resources

Communications

▪ Plan Communications Management

▪ Manage Communications

▪ Monitor Communication

Risk

▪ Plan Risk Management

▪ Identify Risks▪ Perform Qualitative

Analysis▪ Perform Quantitative

Analysis▪ Plan Risk Responses

▪ Implement Risk Responses

▪ Monitor Risks

Procurement▪ Plan Procurement

Management▪ Conduct

Procurements▪ Control

Procurements

Stakeholders

▪ Identify Stakeholders

▪ Plan Stakeholder Engagement

▪ Manage Stakeholder Engagement

▪ Monitor StakeholderEngagement

Process Groups & Knowledge Areas

1. Initiating

2. Planning

3. Executing

4. Monitoring

and Controlling

5. Closing

6. Resource management

7. Communications management

8. Risk management

9. Procurement management

10. Stakeholder management

1. Integration management

2. Scope management

3. Schedule management

4. Cost management

5. Quality management

10 Knowledge Areas

5 Process Groups

What’s in the Project Management Plan?

▪ Scope Management Plan

▪ Schedule Management Plan

▪ Cost Management Plan

▪ Quality Management Plan

▪ Process Improvement Plan

▪ Human Resource Plan

▪ Staffing Management Plan

▪ Communications Management Plan

▪ Requirements Management Plan

▪ Procurement Management Plan

▪ Change management Plan

▪ Configuration management plan

▪ Scope baseline

– Project Scope Statement

– WBS

– WBS Dictionary

▪ Schedule baseline

▪ Cost baseline

▪ Stakeholder Management Plan

4www.falcontraining.com

Net Present Value (NPV)

▪ NPV allows calculating the accurate value of the project.

▪ If NPV calculation> 0, then accept the project.

▪ If NPV calculation <0, then reject the project.

▪ NPV = (sum of the initial cash outlay, expressed as a negative number)

+ (all calculated present values)

▪ NPV = -C0 + PV1 + PV2 + PV3 … etc

C0 = Initial Cash Outlay

PV = 𝐹𝑉

1 + r𝑛

FV = Future value,

R = Discount rate,

n = Time period

▪ Example: If your project will cost $100 000, and generate $50 000 in income in

the first year, $37 000 income in the 2nd year, and $43 000 income in the 3rd year,

and the discount rate is 10% then the formula for NPV would look like this:

NPV = -$100 000 + $50 000

1 + 0.11 +

$37 000

1 + 0.12 +

$43 000

1 + 0.13

NPV = $8 339.59

5

Formulas You Must Know

6

PERT/Beta The weighted average calculation

Standard deviation (s)

P-O

6

VarianceP-O

6

2

One sixth of the total range of values

The standard deviation squared

O + (4R) + P

6

Triangular

P = Pessimistic

R = Realistic

O = Optimistic

A basic calculationO + R + P

3

Three-Point Estimating

How to Remember Formulas

7

Communications How many people in a communications network;

n=number of people = 𝑛(𝑛−1)

2

PERT Weighted average of three estimates (Optimistic,

Realistic & Pessimistic) = (𝑂+ 4𝑅 +𝑃)

6

Standard Deviation (SD) A PMBOK® approach to calculating standard

deviation from the mean

1SD either side of the mean 68%

2SD either side of the mean 95%

3SD either side of the mean 99.7%

= (𝑃−𝑂)

6

Variance The standard deviation squared

= (𝑃−𝑂)

6

2

Planned Value (PV) How much you planned to spend on what you

planned to have achieved. The total PV for the

project is the Budget at Completion (BAC)

= Planned % Complete

* BAC

Earned Value (EV) The value of the work performed expressed in

dollars

= Actual % complete

* BAC.

Actual Cost (AC) How much you actually spent on what you

actually achieved

Budget at Completion

(BAC)

How much you originally planned for the project

to cost and the total Planned Value (PV) for the

project

How to Remember Formulas Continued

8

Cost Variance

(CV)

The difference between what you have

earned and what it cost at a certain point in

time. Positive is good; negative is bad

= EV – AC

Cost Performance Index

(CPI)

Cost Variance expressed as an index; above 1

is good, below 1 is bad

= EV / AC

Schedule Variance (SV)

The difference between what you have

earned and what you planned to have

achieved at a certain point in time. Positive is

good; negative is bad

= EV – PV

Schedule Performance

Index

(SPI)

Schedule Variance expressed as an index;

above 1 is good, below 1 is bad

= EV / PV

Estimate at Completion

(EAC)

How much the project is forecast to cost at

completion.

= AC + ETC

= AC + (BAC – EV)

= BAC / CPI

= AC + [(BAC-EV) / (CPIxSPI)]

Estimate To Complete

(ETC)

How much more money will it cost to finish

the project

= EAC – AC

Variance at Completion

(VAC)

Difference between what you thought the

project would cost and what you now

estimate it to cost.

Positive is good; negative is bad

= BAC – EAC

To Complete

Performance Index

(TCPI)

The rate at which you have to go to achieve

the desired outcome of either BAC or EAC ;

above 1 is bad, below 1 is good

=(BAC – EV) / (BAC - AC)

=(BAC – EV) / (EAC - AC)

Point of Total

Assumption

(PTA)

The point in a form of a fixed price contract

that the seller assumes total responsibility for

all cost increases

= 𝑇𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝐶𝑜𝑠𝑡 +

(𝐶𝑒𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑃𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑒 − 𝑇𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑃𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑒)

buyers % share of cost overrun

MIND MAPS

9

10

11

14

15

REAL EXAM CANDIDATE

FEEDBACK

Submit your feedback at

www.surveymonkey.com/r/FalconTraining

16

1. Where there any short questions or were they all long form?▪ Mostly long but not long paragraphs, 2-3 short sentences max

▪ Almost all were long situational questions. Only a couple of short form questions.

▪ Mostly short, about one sentence long.

▪ For CAPM, most of the questions were short and only couple were medium length (not very long)

▪ The questions were good enough to pick an answer, it's the choosing of an answer that took the time.

▪ More Long form questions

▪ I felt there was a good mix on the length of questions. But I found some were lengthy and required revisiting.

▪ Yes, there were some short ones.

▪ Mix of questions.

▪ Some short ones and many medium to long ones

▪ All long form questions

▪ Mostly long form questions but there were some short form ones too.

▪ About 90% of the questions were long form, there was a lot of unnecessary information in the long form and this wasted precious time. You need to focus on the facts of the question and avoid the noise.

▪ Both short and long. Some long questions were just to confuse you as question was not related to the whole story told in the question.

▪ Very long form, I was nailed for time to the extent I had to randomly select approx. 5 answers at the end that I didn’t get on my first pass through, even colouring in the bloody circle took time, what is with that?

▪ From what I can remember there are all long questions.

▪ Most of them were long form.

▪ Mostly long-form questions that took quite a bit of reading to decipher what the actual question was. Some of the answers gave two strong potential answers depending on how you read the question...tricky.

▪ There were some short questions.

▪ Mainly long form - none I would describe as short, but several medium.

▪ Majority where in long form

▪ Mainly long wordy questions with a small number of short questions

▪ I would say that my exam had predominantly long form questions, there were a few easy short ones but not many.

▪ Pretty much all long form. A couple of EV graphs and one control chart.

▪ All long - on the long side of long

▪ There were several one line questions, on process groups and knowledge areas, with the correct order needing to be chosen, and those were quick to answer, with the 42 processes written out from my brain dump. Most questions were about three to five lines long, to a paragraph. Got a couple of lengthy questions too (half page). Some questions had additional info not relevant to the answer, ie real question was the last sentence.

▪ Predominately long questions, averaging 3 to 4 lines of text. Two or three were in excess of 10, but contained red herrings and waffle..…you just had to pick your way through it.

▪ All longish, some had quick and easy answers but most needed more thought.

▪ Little bit of both but all needed to be carefully considered

▪ Mix of both mainly long form and situational.

▪ A combination, although generally on the lengthy side.

▪ All long. A Scenario, then a separate sentence with the actual question. At times the waffle at the start had little to do with the question.

17

2. Was it easy to tell what the question was about?▪ Mostly but they were hard, often a couple of answers that seemed correct

▪ Mostly but you needed to know what process you were in.

▪ Some questions were totally unrelated to anything that was in the PMBOK Guide - or if they were it was very difficult to understand to which topic they were referring

▪ A lot of the questions were confusing and difficult to understand. I couldn't even make sense of a couple and was forced to take a guess.

▪ Mostly, there were about 2 or 3 that I had trouble figuring out what they meant

▪ With so many questions being situational there was often two correct answers. It was more about the order you would do somethingin rather than what you wouldn't do.

▪ Mostly. Some of the answers weren't straight forward though, a lot of extra info or answers given were not in the correct order so required some thought

▪ Sometimes difficult to pick which area they were targeting

▪ I thought a lot of the questions were quite obtuse, and the answers could be different depending on how the question was interpreted. Some of the grammar was very American - with some words not being in common English usage

▪ It was hard to define since the answers were very the same, very confusing but after reading the question couple times you get which one is the right answer. The down part is that you may not have enough time to read every question many times to decide on the right answer.

▪ Some are, but not too many, for me, the selection of answers dictates what is being asked.

▪ It was not obvious, you had to read it very carefully

▪ As expected, we had to filter out the useful information to make out what is being asked.

▪ Some were quite straight forward while others you need to dig deep to understand what really was being asked

▪ Not all the questions. You may need to read more than once.

▪ For some, yes. but for most, there has to be some reasonable to maximum use of your thinking caps to visualize and determine thesituations and relate it to the PMBOK processes and Knowledge areas

▪ Not really, you have to read the question a few times to understand where you are in between the 47 process

▪ Most of the time it was easy to tell what the question was about but there were a few where they gave you a whole bunch of information and then asked you a completely unrelated question.

▪ In most cases yes, there were a handful that I have to re-read more than once to get a good handle about what they were asking.

▪ As noted with the red herrings, all questions needed careful reading.

▪ Some were there, there were some classic questions that I’d come across through reviewing previous exams, so this justified doing practise exams for me. The questions types were all along the lines of if you were a project manager and this happened, i.e. mystery stakeholder comes in the ruin your life, or the product doesn’t meet the agreed requirements, what documents do you refer too, or you came in midway in the project and you find that everyone hates themselves (this wasn’t a question). In future I think, it would be of value to run through these scenarios, just simply what if this happens who should you talk too, what should you reference, how do you act, what would be you best course of action type stuff.

▪ I found about half were fairly straightforward. Others had a lot of non-critical information to plough through

▪ Yes, although I read and re-read a lot of the questions.

▪ Yes, mostly

▪ No, bloody difficult, I skipped the first 10 and came back to them, they didn’t seem so bad the second time I looked at them, though for some of them a translator would have been beneficial.

▪ Most of them not easy

▪ Yes, I found it relatively easy to understand what most questions were about.

▪ Generally yes.

▪ No

▪ From a topic perspective yes. From an answer perspective no as I had a large number of questions that I had to guess from 2 options. Getting to the 2 options from 4 was OK, but I had to re-read almost every question, which was not the case with the multitude ofpractice exams. The cost questions were also a bit indirect i.e. not a straight forward calculate X from the values provided.

▪ Generally. I did not think there were any tricky questions. That is not to say I got them all right of course.

▪ Relatively - a lot of tech stuff in some questions that wasn't required. i.e. the last sentence of the paragraph asked the question the preceding stuff meant nothing.

18

3. What formula did you need to know?▪ All the earned value ones, communication channels but not point of total acceptance. No 3 point estimating. One standard deviation.

▪ SPI, CPI, EAC

▪ Only two PERT Mean & EAC

▪ No NPV, Variance, communications or TCPI but all others used.

▪ The communications one - that's it. I was very annoyed that I had spent so long learning the rest.

▪ Communications and PERT

▪ CV, SV, SPI, CPI, PERT

▪ BAC, CPI, ETC, SPI There was one question which I was sure that the answer wasn't in the 4 options given...

▪ CV, SV, SPI, CPI, Comms

▪ For CAPM it was very basic, only needed CV, CPI, SV, SPI.

▪ EV/CV/SPI/CPI/Communication/TCPI

▪ EAC, SPI, CPI

▪ SV, CV, CPI and SPI. No of lines of Comms.

▪ CPI CV No others

▪ For CAPM, only three questions triggered with Formulas 1) EAC = AC + (BAC-EV) 2) CPI = EV/AV 3) n(n-1)/2

▪ SD EMV CV SPI CPI SV NPV

▪ I noticed that three-point estimating was the formula of the day.

▪ CPI, SPI, 3-point estimating were prevalent.

▪ SV, CV (Knowing about progress of project – budget and schedule) and for risk P x I, Pert estimate,

▪ CPI, SPI, others? not sure

▪ PERT, CV, SV, SPI, CV, CPI

▪ There were only a few questions that required the use of formulas and they were fairly basic (I say that now!). Communications formula and EV, no SP1 or CP1.

▪ I recall using 3 point and the EV-related formulae

▪ So very little formula required or referred to – I think I picked up my calculator twice, once just to be cool. Just the standard SPI and CPI with a lot of questions asking about how a project is performing.

▪ It pays to know all the formula and more importantly what they all mean, although there wasn’t a lot of need hit the calculator.

▪ CPI and SPI. outcome x probability of risks

▪ PERT/Beta, CV, CPI, SV and SPI

▪ Didn’t need much formula at all. CPI and SPI mainly and 3pE. Was a question that required 3pE but not PERT based on not knowing the most likely price. Most of the questions were to do with concepts rather than calculation. 1 random question that was purely maths but was straightforward.

▪ EV, PV, SV, CV, SPI, CPI, not TCPI

▪ Not many. Less than 5 maybe

▪ CV, CPI, SPI, Three point, ETC

▪ The formulae needed were only the simple variety, no TCPI. The trick was that there were three questions in one, i.e. you needed BAC/CPI but you had to find CPI, to do that you had to calculate EV. Might have been an easier way...I'm sure you'll tell me. Regardless, very time consuming for one mark!

▪ 3 point estimating, number of communications channels, PV, and EV

▪ Channels of communication, PERT, CV, SV, CPI and SPI

▪ PERT – for time & cost; SPI, CPI, PV & EV, EAC I think; Comms channels

▪ There were a few questions on Earned Value analysis, simple stuff like CV/CPI/SV/SPI but you had to work out EV or AC from the question as you weren't given it directly. I did not need TCPI, nor ETC or EAC. Also needed the Communications Model formula. I did need the PTA.

▪ CV, SV, CPI, SPI, Comms channels, PERT.

▪ Needed the 13 cost formula (many times), PERT, std dev, and communications formula several times.

▪ All of them ………BASTARDS 19

4. Did you need to do, or comment on, a network diagram?

▪ 2 if these, had to calculate float

▪ Two network diagrams

▪ There were 5 network diagrams

▪ Not a single network diagram.

▪ Did not need to create a network diagram, there were no network diagrams in the questions

▪ only had about 3-4 questions on this

▪ There were 2, had to draw both and questions were on critical paths

▪ A network diagram was given with task IDs and durations and had the following questions, "What is the critical path?" "How many possible paths?" "What is the float of task H?" " What is the total duration?" There was also a question about critical chain method

▪ Yes lots of those, and only a couple straight forward. They also used days and confused issues by using numbers instead of letters.

▪ The diagram was mostly already drawn, just had to work out the critical path and amount of float for a certain task.

▪ Only one question from memory

▪ I had to work out the number of paths and the total slack/float.

▪ There was a wierdly worded question about forward pass and back pass and if I have days remaining what is that called

▪ No AON for CAPM

▪ There were approximately 6 Network diagramming questions. Very important to know and understand this part.

▪ Yes.

▪ Yes, network diagram was tested.

▪ Yes.

▪ One Question on network diagram

▪ No network diagrams

▪ There were a couple of network diagram questions, one was a basic question on determining critical path, the other related to anincomplete network diagram

▪ We had to draw one but you could stop once you realised it wasn’t going to work as there were cyclic dependencies(I hope)

▪ There were a few network diagram questions but not as many as I expected.

▪ Yeah a couple.

▪ Yes – several questions

▪ No, not a single diagram came. One question was related to PDM but it was having loops in activities so the answer was obvious.

▪ Yes, I think I had two to comment on

▪ Yes, but more complicate than the one we did in class, also due to the long question, I run out of time to try to figure it out

▪ Yes Comment on three from memory.

▪ Network diagrams were present but not simple. Question asked about which areas you would need to crash....No activity on arrow.

▪ Yes, there were 3 or 4 questions on network diagrams.

▪ Yes - 3 or 4

▪ Yes

▪ There were several network diagrams, but not with an obvious “what is the critical path” type question. They were looking to identify where you would apply schedule compression etc. for a certain scenario e.g. activity D goes from 2 to 4, so they were more involved questions and not like the ones in Crowe

▪ My exam did not mention Activity on Arrow, but I did need to draw out a couple of Network Diagrams. The questions on those were like what is the effect of task B changing from 5 to 10 days. So you had to work out the Critical Path and then access.

▪ Yes around 4-5 questions.

▪ Yes a couple of questions involving comments

▪ Yes, several network diagrams. Had to draw one from text, and two were provided drawn for me. Critical path questions, I enjoy those.

▪ Yes, several of these, and also involved instances where the diagram needed to be modified to account for 'fast-tracking'.20

5. Any topics on the exam that we didn’t cover in the course?▪ No

▪ No

▪ Only one, 'recession line' I think it was

▪ Yes, two questions, beta distribution and one other concept that I had no idea about, can’t remember what it was now.

▪ Probably more emphasis on situational questions in the morning exams. My questions were 3-4 lines long and took a while to read and understand what they were trying to ask.

▪ Beta distribution was only lightly touched on. Most other things were covered I think

▪ No

▪ Not that I can think of.

▪ There was one question with a term I wasn't familiar with, but I can't remember what it was...

▪ No

▪ no all covered. The exam seemed to have much more focus on inputs and outputs - and in a few cases was looking for the exact PMIwork or phrase (e.g. all 4 options were sometimes very similar one or two word phrases)

▪ Dont think so

▪ I don't think so

▪ There were questions that really crashed my brain, but I think it's just because I am not so familiar with the terminologies being used.

▪ We had a good coverage of the topics. I personally devoted more attention to Time, Cost and Quality. But in the exam, Stakeholder and Risk related questions were prevalent.

▪ I think there were 2-3 questions I felt I never came across – can’t exactly remember what they were

▪ I noticed a few questions that I did not understand

▪ No, all topics were covered. Exam had a lot of questions on stakeholders, communication, procurement, Risk, Quality and how to deal with stakeholder management issues, importance of project charter and SOW. e.g. Previously unknown stakeholder makes a change tothe deliverables, how will the PM deal with it, the next best action. Subcontractor Workers going on strike – what would be the PM’s response. Failure of Supplier to delivery concrete on time – delay in supply – what is PM first step, Stakeholder complains that Pilot product has issues – remains unresolved after repairs are done – how will the PM deal with this, etc.

▪ Not sure, maybe a few questions quite tricky and unfamiliar makes us think so

▪ One question on Agile or Scrum

▪ Generally ok coverage. Many of the questions were based around IT projects but the principles still apply

▪ So yes a lot around stakeholders, some quality but only some reference to quality tools and techniques. There seemed to be a focus on tools and techniques over and above inputs and outputs. What wasn’t covered in the course (when I was there) as noted above is was the scenario type questions to really get you thinking how you should do the PM job within PMBOK.

▪ Not from memory

▪ Nope all were covered.

▪ There were a few terminologies that we didn’t cover but generally I could figure out by process of elimination. And they seem to be asking more programming related situational questions.

▪ Everything was predominantly covered

▪ I guess mostly was covered.

▪ I had one financial question that I hadn’t seen before, I could work out that it was something to do with payback periods given certain time frames but that was about it, each investment had a different interest rate applied to it, I think I took option C on that.

▪ There was one point of total assumption question from what I remember. Good to understand the basic principle, no overly difficult calculation needed as it gave you the split as 80/20.

▪ There was one question on ranking new products for launch by applying weighted criteria – unless this was the week I missed?

▪ No

▪ No

▪ Not really. There were several questions on the Tuckman 5 stage model, but none of the other theories. Seemed to be a lot on change management, which would be one area I could have done with some more guidance on – in the case of changes and whether to add to the scope through change control or reject, even when requested by the key stakeholder / sponsor.

21

6. Did the brain dump at the beginning help?▪ Just table 3.1, yes it helped

▪ I decided to just brain dump the table with the Knowledge Areas and Process groups and not the formulas to give me more time (I knew the formulas well enough to use as required). The table really helps to orientate yourself with questions in relation to what process group or knowledge area you in. This was useful towards the end of the exam when you have to really concentrate after writingfor so long.

▪ Yes brain dumped formulas

▪ brain dump was useful if only to steady the nerves

▪ I brain dumped all the equations I could remember but none of them were required.

▪ All formulas, process groups and knowledge area headings

▪ No

▪ Yes - just of formulas.

▪ I brain dumped the grid of knowledge areas and process groups with the processes detailed along with the main 12 formulas with PERT & Comms as well. It helped but was a bit of overkill especially around cost

▪ All formulas, it was good to have them written down. To be honest it didn't help that much as I knew them, I thought it would, but the questions were not straightforward. I was expecting to have to work out CPI to get to SPI etc.. but that isn't what was asked. It was long winded and took two or three steps to get close to the answer.

▪ All formulas, didn't need many but it was handy to have them there just in case.

▪ Formulas and yes it helped

▪ some of the formulas. No (I had remembered them)

▪ Brain-dumped all my calculations. Only had to use the ones above.

▪ No, it was a mistake to draw the table at the beginning. It took me 10 minutes to draw it and didn't look at it even once. It wasted my time and I ran out of time at the end. Just chose answers without even reading the question. I will not recommend drawing thetable.

▪ I did not opt to dump my brain.

▪ NPV, EAC, ETC, TCPI & PTA formulae. Didn’t help at all as these were not used.

▪ I did for cost related formulae but there were very few formula based questions so it didn’t matter

▪ I BD the process and KA table, was useful in remembering the sequence of process and related inputs and outputs. Did help in fewquestions.

▪ The summary of the Knowledge areas and PMBOK processes. All Cost formulas and PTA, Yes because there were questions on ORDER / sequence of actions to be done.

▪ No.

▪ I did a brain dump, but I don’t think it is necessary

▪ I brain dumped the processes in the planning section of Scope, Time, Cost and Risk and also the TCPI and PTA formula. The planning processes on paper helped me quite a bit as a lot of the questions were to do with the order that you would normally do things.

▪ Brain dumped all the formulas at the beginning but it wasn't required.

▪ Chose not to brain dump. Glad I didn’t as it wouldn’t have been much use

▪ I drew out the knowledge area process group grid. I did refer to it for about 4 or 5 questions and it helped. I didn’t brain dump the formula and as we only used a few of them I was pleased I hadn’t.

▪ I just dumped the formulas which I didn’t really refer too.

▪ I didn’t do one. I had formulae loaded in my head if needed. I didn’t do enough on your A1 sheet

▪ Yes I wrote out the table and majority of the formulas. I really didn’t refer back to them that often and it took about 9 minutes to get it all written down. Was a good way though to kick start the brain before diving into the questions.

▪ I did a brain dump at start but honestly PMP exam did not have many formula questions and few which came I could do those without the dump.

▪ Yes stopped me having to re think of the basis for CV, SV, CPI, SPI etc

▪ Brain dump helped. Practicing it helped consolidate memory of formula!

▪ Yes, especially when you need to remember the order of the processes and EV calcs.

▪ Did not do this.

▪ I did a brain dump of the formulae and the Process Group/Knowledge Area table and I referred to it once or twice. It took about 10-12 mins for the brain dump and I had no time at the end to check any questions so in hindsight I would have just dumped the more trickyformula e.g. EAC, TCPI and not the process table

22

7. What advice would you give to others studying for and sitting the exam?▪ I took a drink and snack break at 3 hours and it really helped as I was fading. Study was important.

▪ I found what really helped was mapping out the relationship between process on the big A0 sheet. I used that to study the process groups and understanding the relationships between the inputs and outputs. Doing practice questions from other sources really help. Making observations and notes from the ones you got wrong helps you hone on the areas you are weak on. Doing at least two practice exams is useful. Just be aware though it may take you a further hour or two to go through the ones you got wrong and there explanations (so you need to potentially set aside 6 hours if you do this)

▪ Concentrate on the inputs and outputs for CAPM and be generally aware of other topics in PMBOK guide- felt I spent weeks studying topics in depth that weren't tested at all.

▪ Learn the inputs, outputs and where they go to well.

▪ Learn the inputs, tools and outputs.

▪ understand the inputs/tools and techniques/outputs, including where outputs turn into inputs etc

▪ Understand the order you will need to do things in as well as the content.

▪ Read the question thoroughly, think of which phase you are in and what you would do next. Remember that there are dummy questions, so there are some which don't count!

▪ Focus on Inputs and outputs as much as possible

▪ Study and practice as much as you can.

▪ Spend a lot more time trying to memorise all the inputs, outputs, tools & techniques - there were heaps of questions about all of these (e.g. what process in Procurement knowledge area uses analytical techniques?). Don't stress about the complicated formulas too much, better to just know inputs/outputs!

▪ Do lots of alternative questions - I found HeadFirst , My PM and Oliver Lehmann very useful for getting used to the style of question in the exam

▪ do more on the inputs and outputs

▪ If you are doing CAPM make sure you know the inputs and outputs of the A1 sheet of paper with your eyes shut. I believe I spent a lot time learning and understanding the whole course and if I had just learned the inputs and outputs I think I couldhave passed. In a way I wish had done the PMP exam instead of CAPM, to make good use of my newly learned knowledge. I didn't learn the inputs and outputs because I was short on time and I thought that my revision time would be better spent understanding the subject so I could work out answers. I do understand the subject well, but I am not able to recall exactly which inputs and outputs go with which process without looking it up. I did lots of guessing in the exam.

▪ Learn the inputs, tools and outputs for every process and you will be fine.

▪ Work on time management, you will find that when you are running out of time, you cannot really concentrate on analysing further the questions that are being asked. Finally, you'll find yourself guessing. Do not spend too much time reading on thevery obvious questions. First picks gives you extra time for the questions that are more complicated.

▪ Very important to know the processes, inputs and outputs.

▪ Practice lots of situational questions they are not easy, also study inputs, outputs

▪ Understand the Processes and particularly the inputs ,T/techniques and outputs in all knowledge areas and their applications to real project situations. Most of the questions relate to you as a PM and how you will deal with the situation at hand based on based on knowledge you have attained.

▪ Need to focus on what action you need to do as a PM. Usually question will say what the PM needs to do next or first. A lot of situation questions.

▪ Take the time given during the course to familiarize with the PMBOK as much as you can and try to understand the processes and just be good with the inputs, tools and techniques as well as the outputs. No joke

▪ Do a lot of situational questions from different sources. And practice 4 hours exam

▪ Sit lots of practice exams from different sources. The closest to the actual exam was the headfirst exam. Don’t rush through reading the question – underline key points. Both Chris and I noticed that we were unsure on about 30% of questions in the firstquarter of the exam but had enough time to review them at the end. The last ¾ of the exam seemed much more straightforward (maybe we just got into the swing of the questions a bit though).

▪ Focus on the inputs and outputs from Knowledge Areas as this helped when determining answers to a lot of the questions. Don't invest more time than required in formulas.

▪ The exam was very situational. 2/3 to 3/4 of the questions were “you are the PM on a project, x happens, then; what should you do or who is responsible for or what document would you refer to or what did you not do in the planning phase etc” so be sure to learn what PMBOK define as as the best course of action when dealing with risks or issues or stakeholders etc. 23

7. And general comments on the exam questions wording and style

▪ I really liked the ability to highlight words in the question, and right click to strike out answers that weren’t correct usually leaving two to ponder over.

▪ There seems to be a lot of questions relating to stakeholders, risk and procurement. The change control process was also a focus in some questions. It is important to know the order you would do things. The questions weren't as long as I expected but there were some that I needed to read a few times to ensure I understood exactly what they were aiming at. Be careful of making an immediate connection between a word in one of the answers and the question especially towards the end when you are tired...it is not always the most obvious answer. Some the answers are also a different phrasing of a term you are familiar with. Make sure you have enough time to think on each question so don't get behind time as you need the time to process each question. Questions were often shortish (lack of additional information can make things harder) but the answer not obvious.

▪ Lots and lots and lots of.....this happened...what would you do next questions where the answers all seemed fairly logical and you had to work out what the very next (best) thing to do would be.

▪ The questions were mental. I had to read each one several times to understand what was being asked. I don't think the practice questions were any help as they were not worded/formatted in the same way.

▪ They were slightly easier to understand that I expected (which was good, I am glad I practised with harder ones)

▪ For my exam there was hardly any formula questions. Need to be able to understand the situation that is being asked in the question and what you would do next.

▪ The answers given were not in the order you would remember them which caught me out a few times for example: 1.What of the following are processes in the executing process group? A: Time Management, Plan Schedule Management, Control Schedule, B: Plan Communications, Perform Communications, Close C: Manage Project Team, Acquire Project team, Develop Project Team D: Direct and Manage Risks, Estimate Activites, Conduct Procurements Reading all the answers available and the question correctly was essential. By the end of the exam I had remembered a few more of the answers at the start so it was helpful to go back over the entire exam and double check and I found quite a few I changed.

▪ Painful wording, not sure if it was deliberately difficult. All the questions were situational. I had expected this but the questions were weird. Nothing straightforward as I could see. Not sure what PMI were trying to achieve, sorry PMI but that was awful, for no apparent reason. More preparation for thinking the PMI way may help? Long questions and badly structured sentences.

▪ The wording and style was very close to the questions on the PMI website.

▪ Too many questions of the same style. It didn't check my understanding - just my ability to recall lists. I would have liked lots more calculation questions, especially some on PTA or NPV.

▪ The CAPM questions were very short (23 page test paper). It was hard guessing if you didn't know the answer

▪ Wording is straight forward for CAPM with no twist questions (such as : which of the following is NOT INPUT of ----".

▪ In diagramming questions the exam is started from Day 1 not Day 0. When answering the question MAKE SURE you consider day 1 because there will be a choice starting day 0 and that is wrong choice. Read the question at least twice before answering, you will get a better understanding what they are asking for. DO NOT draw the diagram or table or formulas at the beginning, just start answering. You might not need them at all therefore doesn't worth wasting your time.

▪ I encountered questions that are somehow not related to my work and it added up to my difficulties in choosing my answers. Candidates should really put extra effort during the preparations and study sessions because last minute studies might not really be a good idea.

▪ As expected, most question narratives had a lot of information. It is necessary to know what the question requires and then filter out the information that is needed to get/calculate the answer. Also ensure you have 10-12 minutes spare towards the end of the exam to revisit the doubtful answers.

▪ Please practice from other sources and V imp to do full 4hours mock exam

▪ Most of the questions were situationalised, so it was more than and understanding the PMBOK and other study guides but how it was practised and interpreted in a PM’s world. I thought Falcon’s exercise and questions were useful. Practice situational questions from other sources. There were quite a number of questions on Initiating and Closing Groups ( egBusiness case, Project Charter, lessons learned etc)

▪ Tended to be very wordy.. Sometimes a lot of issues in one question. Need to read carefully on what was required from the question in the end. Need to keep track of time.

▪ Quite demanding in terms of understanding the concepts and reality of the PMP and the real everyday situations that will be experienced on a project that is being guided by the PMBOK.. just makes us think and try to think PMBOK

24