What is the best way to map out all the knowledge areas, processes, inputs, outputs, tools & techniques to study the PMBOK? Any suggestions are welcome.

I fully agree with Kiron. If you understand the flow and know deeply how all processes flow with their inputs and outputs, if should be easy for you to recall.

What helped me was applying the concepts to projects I had already led. This lent deeper understanding of how and why the tools and techniques were useful.

Rote memorisation, even if it does help for the exam, is not very helpful in the long term.

Hi Don, don't make my mistake. Yes I memorized all the processes and T&T's for the exam. But that didn't help me pass the exam. What did was to really look at the flow of the processes and understand why they were so. Then you will start to see patterns, and the logic behind it. This will help you to recall the T&T's, especially the repetitive ones like OPA's and EEF's.

Trying to memorize all of the ITTOs would be nearly impossible. I agree that most of the questions were situational. If you have access to study tests (such as through a PMP bootcamp class), I found that taking those really helped hone where I needed to focus. Rather than taking the 4-hour practice tests several times (I did do it twice), I started with 10 questions and determined how I fared. Then I did the next 10, and so on. I found that doing it this way really helped me to slow down and really read the questions. One of the hardest parts of the test is knowing you are under a time crunch and the desire to rush. The best advice I can give is to really slow down, read each question very carefully, use the online tools that they provide (strikethrough and/or highlight) and then determine what the question is really asking. Narrow your choices to those obviously incorrect, and go from there. From an actual studying perspective, I wrote note cards on everything that I had highlighted in the PMBOK so that I could take 10-50 cards with me everywhere I went. This allowed instant access and repetitive reading. Best of luck to you!

Trying to memorize all of the ITTOs would be nearly impossible. I agree that most of the questions were situational. If you have access to study tests (such as through a PMP bootcamp class), I found that taking those really helped hone where I needed to focus. Rather than taking the 4-hour practice tests several times (I did do it twice), I started with 10 questions and determined how I fared. Then I did the next 10, and so on. I found that doing it this way really helped me to slow down and really read the questions. One of the hardest parts of the test is knowing you are under a time crunch and the desire to rush. The best advice I can give is to really slow down, read each question very carefully, use the online tools that they provide (strikethrough and/or highlight) and then determine what the question is really asking. Narrow your choices to those obviously incorrect, and go from there. From an actual studying perspective, I wrote note cards on everything that I had highlighted in the PMBOK so that I could take 10-50 cards with me everywhere I went. This allowed instant access and repetitive reading. Best of luck to you!

Hi, Sante, I definitely agree that knowing them is important, as I recall there being many questions that utilized that knowledge. I do agree with a lot of the other posts, however, that understanding the principles behind the processes will give guidance on which ITTOs might be asked for in the questions. That's amazing that you memorized them all. Great job! I'm curious. How long did you study for the exam? I studied six days a week for about two months.