Certification Insider

There are forty nine formulas that you will need know and understand prior to taking the Project Management Professional (PMP)® Exam. There are PMP Exam formulas to plan activity durations and costs. There are formulas to calculate the value or cost of the project. There are formulas to make sure a project stays within scope, on schedule, and within budget. There are formulas to forecast project schedule and cost if the project did not progress as planned. There are formulas to calculate the value of the project.

And on top of all of these formulas, you will also need to know and understand all of the associated acronyms. The number and variety of formulas and acronyms you will need to fully understand to pass the PMP® Exam may seem a bit overwhelming, but you can easily learn and review the formulas by using a study guide and practicing answering formula related questions.

Creating a formula study guide yourself can be a time consuming task. Plus if you write down and studying a formula incorrectly it can hurt your chances of passing the PMP® Exam. Developing formula related questions to study has its own issues. For one you already know the answers, and two if you put together a study problem wrong then you are going to study incorrect information.

This is where www.pmformulas.com can help. Here you can download a PMP Formula Study Guide that you can be certain has the correct formulas and acronym descriptions, a cheat sheet pocket guide, and best of all 105 formula related PMP® Exam sample questions to help you practice your formula knowledge.

The following PMP® exam sample question is taken from the Free PMP Exam Simulator:

You are the project manager on a new nationwide telecom network. Your client told you that conformance to the highest quality standards is mandatory but this client is new to the telecom industry and is unable to provide specific technical parameters. Your client said that the network's conformance should be graded against the leading telecom operator in the country.
What is this practice called?

A.) Cost-Benefit Analysis
B.) Pairwise Comparison
C.) Benchmarking
D.) Quality Metrics

 

Hint:

Your client has an existing telecom network in mind against which they are setting their quality requirements.


All our questions are updated to the latest PMBOK® Guide standard. Stop by at http://free.pm-exam-simulator.com and try the PMP Exam Simulator free for 3 days. We also offer 110 free questions at http://www.free-pm-exam-questions.com. We are a PMI Registered Education Provider.

Please click here for the correct answer and explanation.

There are forty two project management processes within the PMBOK® Guide which means there are forty two sets of Inputs, Tols & Techniques, and Outputs (ITTOs) to learn for the Project Management Professional (PMP)® Exam. That may seem a bit overwhelming but with the use of flashcards studying the ITTOs it can be done quickly and easily.

The first step is to be able to determine which ITTO goes with which of the project management processes defined in the PMBOK® Guide. Knowing which ITTO goes with which process may help you pass the PMP Exam, but understanding the concepts and relationships of each will increase your probability of answering even more of the ITTO related questions correctly. The more you answer correctly the greater chance you have of passing. Flashcards can be used to learn the ITTOs because they are condensed and a little easier to use on the go than the PMBOK® Guide. Flashcards can be used by yourself or with a friend to help you study. If you study by yourself you can read each card to learn each ITTO, if a friend helps you study then they can ask you the questions related to what is contained in each ITTO.

So if you have a few moments by yourself, waiting at the doctor, or standing in line to drop off the mail at the post office are excellent times pull out your flash cards and review at least a few. There is a lot of information to learn for the PMP® Exam and breaking it up into small bits can make it a little easier. If you want to add to the convenience of using flashcards by not carrying around a stack of heavy paper cards then why not carry your PMP® Exam flashcards on your phone or other media player? If that sounds lot better than paper flashcards where you may lose one or more, or worse yet drop the stack and have a mess to clean up then check out the PMP Exam Flashcards offered at www.pmflashcards.com that can be downloaded to your iPod, Blackberry, Treo, Windows mobile device or smart phone.

In this episode of The PM Podcast we introduce you to The PDU Insider - http://www.pdu-insider.com which is our website and newsletter where we teach certified PMPs all there is to know about Professional Development Units (PDUs): http://bit.ly/PDUinsider

Studying for and earning your Project Management Professional (PMP)® Certification can be a costly affair, some training courses can cost upwards of several thousand US Dollars. However, there are ways to cut your costs and still have access to valuable and useful study tools. Below we will discuss several ways you can lower the cost of studying for and obtaining your PMP® Certification that does not include spending a lot of money. Read through our seven savings tips and you’ll see that lowering your cost for taking the PMP® Exam is not that hard.
 

Savings Tip 1 – Join PMI

If you are not already a member of the Project Management Institute (PMI), join. You are not required to be a member of PMI to take the PMP® Exam, but being a member can lead to substantial savings. The cost of membership is only $129 USD plus a $10 USD application fee, which is negligible compared to the savings you can see. First, you will receive a member discount of $150 USD for the PMP® Exam. Second, you will have access to resource material at a reduced cost or even free. As a member of PMI you will have access to a free PDF copy of “A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)”, a savings of around $40 to $50 USD. Third, as a PMI member you will have access to PMI eReads which contains several PMP® prep books that you can read online at no cost.
 

Savings Tip 2 – Join Your Local PMI Chapter

In addition to becoming a member of PMI look into joining your local PMI chapter. Not only will you meet other individuals in the project management field, some of which are also working toward obtaining their PMP® Certification, local PMI chapters generally offer good inexpensive PMP® Prep courses. As a member of a local chapter you can save from anywhere from $100 USD to $300 USD (depending upon your chapter) on the cost of attending a PMI Chapter PMP® Prep course.
 

Savings Tip 3 – Buy Used

Look for second hand resources. When you are looking for PMP® Exam Prep Guides check out websites such as Amazon or EBay for second hand copies, just make sure to purchase the correct edition of the resource to go with the current exam.
 

Savings Tip 4 – Use Coupons

Coupons can be found for just about anything, and that includes PMP® Prep materials. When you have identified a PMP® Prep product you would like to purchase, take a few moments to do a web search for discount coupon, a few moments of your time can pay off. For example, the best place to find the most current coupons for The PM PrepCast is on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/PrepCast.
 

Savings Tip 5 – Look for Contests

Look for local contests, often companies will give away their PMP® products as marketing tools at PMP® Chapter meetings. For instance, we offer several of our products as a door prize at PMI Chapter dinner meetings around the world. Check to see if your chapter is giving away any free study resources at their meetings.
 

Savings Tip 6 – Look for High-Quality Low-Cost Courses

When you are looking for PMP Exam courses to attend, make sure to take your time when researching and comparing courses, there are many on the market to choose from. Keep in mind that the most expensive is not always the best and the least expensive is not necessarily the worst. Read the reviews and testimonials of those who have taken the course. If you cannot find a review or testimonial for the course on its website, take advantage of one of the many online PMP® Prep forums and ask if anyone has taken the specific course you are interested in and ask if they would recommend the course they have taken. The opinions and experiences of others who have paid for and taken a course can be very valuable, and it is free.
 

Savings Tip 7 – Look for High-Quality Low-Cost Exam Prep Products

Don’t buy the “cheap” stuff when it comes to PMP® Exam prep products like books, flash-cards, apps or formula study guides either. Do your research. There are many high-quality low-cost PMP® Exam prep products on the market to help you study for your PMP Certification. But you do need to take into account that there are also some “cheap” products out there that cost very little and offer very little in regards to actual valuable training. Look for customer recommendations to ensure you would be purchasing quality training materials prior to making any purchase.
 

Conclusion

Becoming a Project Management Professional can be a costly venture, but there are ways you can lower the cost. One is as a member of PMI you will reduce your exam fees and receive a free PDF copy of the PMBOK Guide to study. By also joining your local PMI Chapter you will have access to any PMP® Exam prep courses the chapter offers at reduced cost. You can also save on study materials by shopping for second hand materials, seeking out coupons, and even possibly receiving free promotional materials at PMI Chapter meetings. Remember that high-cost does not always signify high quality and low-cost does not always equate to low quality. Do your research and look for positive reviews and testimonials from those who have purchased PMP® Exam prep materials and have taken PMP® Prep courses. One low cost resource that will give you everything you need to prepare for your PMP® Certification is The PM PrepCast at www.pm-prepcast.com. This course is PMI R.E.P. approved and available at the fraction of the cost of similar exam preparation tools.