Certification Insider

I was recently interviewed on the Construction Industry Podcast and asked to introduce PMI and the PMP exam to construction professionals. Cesar Abeid, the host of the show is himself PMP certified and one of my students. We discuss the following topics:
 

• What is the PMI?
• What are the benefits of PMI membership?
• What are the PMI certifications?
• What are the benefits of the PMP certification?
• How has the PMP certification helped you?
• What does it take to get certified?
• What is the best way of preparing for the exam?
• What are some tips to select the correct answer on pmp questions?

If you are new to the PMI and PMP then this interview will give you a good head start. Please go to http://www.remontech.com/the-project-management-institute-construction-industry/ to hear it for free. The interview itself begins at the 14 minute mark.

The following PMP® exam sample question is taken from the Free PMP Exam Simulator at http://free.pm-exam-simulator.com - The answer is at the very bottom:

Activity / Duration / Predecessor
A / 2 / Start
B / 4 / A,E
C / 6 / A
D / 3 / B,C
E / 7 / Start
F / 2 / E

What is the duration of the critical path?
A.) 11
B.) 14
C.) 9
D.) 15

Hint:

Use PDM to calculate.


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.

 

ANSWER AND EXPLANATION:

The correct answer is B
Explanation: The critical path is EBD and the duration of the critical path of the data given is 14.
Reference: PMBOK Guide 4th Edition, page 138

In this 1 hour long webinar:http://bit.ly/GOzZGZ I will answer dozens of questions about the PMP Exam. In particular, I will discuss on:

•   What topics are on the PMP exam and how many questions per topic?
•   Did the PMP Exam recently change?
•   Is the PMP exam based on PMBOK® Guide 4th or 5th Edition?
•   What is the PMP Exam passing score
•   Where can I find good PMP Exam sample questions?
•   How do I know that I'm ready to take the PMP exam?
•   What is the best way of studying for the PMP Exam?
•   What goes on a PMP Exam "brain dump" sheet?

And many more live questions asked by the audience during the webinar.

There is a bit of a disconnect that PMP Exam takers report as they are preparing for the exam. Because you must be an experienced project manager to take the exam, you bring years of experience in managing projects and using tools & techniques with you. Often, these are based on company internal project management best practices and tactics that you found working for you. However, the PMP Exam requires that you apply the concepts from the PMBOK Guide to real-life situations as presented in the exam questions. If the methodology that you are experienced in using is not aligned with the PMBOK Guide, then you may pick the wrong answers in your test.

Furthermore, the projects you manage may not have required you to deal in all the PMBOK Guide's Knowledge Areas. For instance, risk management was something I did very rarely on my projects and maybe in your career you never had to deal with procurement. So it is likely that you’ll be more comfortable with some project management knowledge areas and processes than others. This can lead to two problems:

First you may feel that because you are an absolute pro in scheduling (after all you have years of experience here) you can slack off in your studies and rely on your own project management experience instead. You tend to minimize studying for the areas you know best. But this can hurt you because the PMBOK’s approach is the correct approach for the PMP exam.

The second is the tendency to minimize the importance of project management areas with which you are unfamiliar. Just because I didn't do much risk management doesn't mean that it isn't important. But we are creatures of habit, so it's only normal to also think that the "unimportant" areas on our projects are also "unimportant" on the exam. PMPs are expected to demonstrate a good understanding of all aspects of project management as defined in the PMBOK. So pay particular attention to the processes with which you are not familiar.

So what's the best approach? I always recommend to my students that they study the PMBOK Guide at least twice before taking the exam and that they immediately start using the practices learned on their projects. Applying the theory from the PMBOK Guide on your projects is the best way of learning it and passing the exam.

The following PMP® exam sample question is taken from the Free PMP Exam Simulator at http://free.pm-exam-simulator.com - The answer is at the very bottom:

You have just completed the Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis process for your project. You think at least 20% of the risks that you have analyzed may create 80% of the project problems. You believe that the activity you just completed has not given you enough detailed information regarding this 20% of the risks and you have selected them for further analysis. What should you do next?

A.) Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis for all of the project risks.
B.) Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis for the selected risks only.
C.) Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis again.
D.) Ask your sponsor to guide you.
 

Hint:

You should proceed to the Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis process.


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.
 

ANSWER AND EXPLANATION:

The correct answer is B
Explanation: Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis is the process of numerically analyzing the effect of identified risks on overall project objectives. Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis is performed on the selected risks that have been prioritized by the Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis process as potentially and substantially impacting the project’s competing demands.
PMBOK Guide 4th Edition, page 294