Certification Insider

How do you create PMP Exam Flashcards? Here is what Wikipedia says: "A flashcard or flash card is a set of cards bearing information, as words or numbers, on either or both sides, used in classroom drills or in private study. One writes a question on a card and an answer overleaf. Flashcards can bear vocabulary, historical dates, formulas or any subject matter that can be learned via a question and answer format. Flashcards are widely used as a learning drill to aid memorization by way of spaced repetition."

For the PMP exam this means that you can use flash cards to study all the facts that you must memorize, like the names of the Knowledge Areas or processes from the PMBOK Guide. Or all the formulas you need. Or you can study the complete PMBOK Glossary using flashcards. Or any exam fact that you personally have trouble remembering.

How to create your cards: find the fact and write a question about this fact on the front of the card (i.e. What are the 5 Process Groups called in their correct order?) and then write the answer on the back (i.e. initiating, planning, executing, monitoring & controlling, closing). By doing this you achieve two goals: First of all you have to research these facts yourself and then write them down onto your card. This means that the act of creating the card itself is a learning experience. And second, now that you have this fact on your card you can review the question/answer on a daily basis. Repetition is the key.

But of course, it's completely understandable that not everyone has the time and energy to create the cards for themselves and would prefer buying a set of cards. No problem. Various companies (ours included) have these ready made cards on sale. Some are paper based and some (like ours at www.pmflashcards.com) are electronic. The benefit of the electronic ones is that they are easy to carry around because they are loaded onto your phone. This means you can simply whip out your phone whenever you have five minutes available and work your way through a few cards.

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

What is the best way to finish a formal customer presentation that will promote effective communication?

A.) Taking minutes of the meeting.
B.) Offering the customer a cup of coffee.
C.) Asking the customer if they have any questions.
D.) Summarizing and recapping.


 

Hint:

Answer the question from the best method of communication perspective.



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.

We often receive a question similar to the following from PMP Exam Applicants who are in the process of filling in their application form:

Question: Do you have an example of project write ups on PMI application -- best in class examples of how to summarize your projects -- I have drafted mine and would like to evaluate my application against best in class for structure, etc.

Answer: The answer is "No, we don't have any examples". This is because we don't collect them, but even if we had any, we would not share them. Each PMP application should be written specifically based on the individual experience by the applicant. Every project is different and the summary should not be just a "boilerplate" statement.

We do, however, have a small example for you in our experience verification worksheet. Click on this link here to open up the XLS document:
http://www.project-management-prepcast.com/index.php/freetry-it/exam-links/81-qualification-requirements-/167-experience-verification-worksheet - There isn't much here, but it's a start.

We also have a tip: When writing the summary go ahead and use as much "PMI language" as is appropriate. So if you have created a project plan as part of your work, then call it by that official PMBOK name, even if your company calls it a "Project Base Document". Use PMI terminology to make it easier for the reviewers to understand.

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

In your project, you can delay 'Activity 1' by three days without delaying its successor 'Activity 2'. However, delaying 'Activity 1' will delay the project by six days without delaying the overall project finish date. Which of the following statements is correct in this scenario?

A.) The Total Float is 6 days and the Free Float is 3 days.
B.) The Total Float is 3 days and the Free Float is 6 days.
C.) The Total Float is 3 days and the Free Float is zero.
D.) The Free Float is 3 days and the Total Float is zero.

Hint:

Don’t get confused with Free Float versus Total Float. Remember Total Float always applies to project and Free Float applies to individual activities.


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.

In project management, a schedule consists of a list of a project's tasks with intended start and finish dates. Tasks are the lowest element in a schedule; they are not further subdivided. Those items are estimated in terms of resource requirements, budget and duration, linked by dependencies and scheduled. Project Scheduling helps identify all of the tasks that are required to complete a project on time. It adds dependencies between tasks so that if one task slips, the tasks related to it slip.

[On a side note: As we mentioned in last weeks tip, in many organizations the terms "project management plan" and "project schedule" are often used interchangeably. If this is the case in your organization, then please make sure that you understand that for the PMP Exam, these are two distinctly different documents. Please refer back to last week's tip for the discussion of the project management plan.]

Before a project schedule can be created, a project manager will typically have a work breakdown structure (WBS), an effort estimate for each task, and a resource list with availability for each resource. If these are not yet available, it may be possible to create something that looks like a schedule, but it will essentially be a work of fiction. They can be created using various estimation methods. A good best practice is to include the people who will perform the actual work in the estimation process. The reason for this is that a schedule itself is an estimate: each date in the schedule is estimated, and if those dates do not have the buy-in of the people who are going to do the work, the schedule will be inaccurate.

In many industries, such as engineering and construction, the development and maintenance of the project schedule is the responsibility of a full time scheduler or team of schedulers, depending on the size of the project. And though the techniques of scheduling are well developed, they are inconsistently applied throughout industry. Standardization and promotion of scheduling best practices are being pursued by the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering (AACE), the Project Management Institute (PMI). In some large corporations, scheduling, as well as cost, estimating, and risk management are organized under the department of project controls.

The PMBOK Guide 4th Edtion says the following about the Project Schedule: As a minimum, the project schedule includes a planned start date and planned finish date for each activity. Develop Schedule is the process of analyzing activity sequences. durations, resource requirements, and schedule constraints to create the project schedule.

Read more about Project Schedule in the PMBOK Guide 4th Edtion from 6.5.3 to 6.5.4