Head First PMP: A Brain-Friendly Guide to Passing the Project Management Professional Exam Second Edition

My experience on PM duties is about 4 years now so I was in need of formalizing it, the best way is earn a PMP certification. Actively working and with family duties (two kids) present a real challenge to find spare time in order to attend any bootcamp or even paying for it. So self pace learning was my choice. Of course, everyone recommends Rita's book PMP Exam Prep, Seventh Edition: Rita's Course in a Book for Passing the PMP Exam so I bought it, also, looking at reviews I decided to buy the Flash Cards from Andy Crowe's book The PMP Exam: Flash Cards (Test Prep series). Then as I have the Kindle I went for these: PMP Certification, A Beginner's Guide (Certification Press), Q&A's for the PMBOK® Guide Fourth Edition and this one (Second Edition!)...With that material at hand, I went to PMI web page, formalized my application to earn PMP certificate and settled the CBT exam date for 2 1/2 months later, just to put me a "reasonable" deadline (3 months would have been better). Then I started studying in preparation for the exam. The amount of information covered by the PMBOK® is huge and the right order of processes, concepts, input, tools and techniques, outputs of each are important to pass and they need to be learned. The fun part of my plan was is that I started with Flash Cards, I reviewed all of them just once, then I started to read the Beginner's Guide (A really good book), I confess I put the Kindle to read for me several times in order to finish the Beginner's Guide, then I started with Q&A's book just to find out what my performance was (lower than required). Then I started with Rita's book, I advanced about 15% of the book and then almost by accident, thanks God!, started to read in parallel Head First PMP - Second Edition, boy I loved the book - it hooked me up, it has an strange style but really effective, not boring, full of examples, images and tests for progressive self-assessment. I finished it two days before the exam date and then I reviewed the PMI's PMBOK® Guide Fourth Edition focusing on the Ethics part (No time for any other thing).I passed, thanks to God!.My advise is that 4 hours on exam are very very exhausting so don't forget to sleep well the night before and be relaxed when actually get seated to take it! (And put all the EVM formulas on the sheet you are given first before reading the first question on the exam). If I could change something to my plan would be read the Head First PMP - Second Edition book in FIRST PLACE.

Overview:---------I just passed the PMP exam -- 4th edition of the PMBOK based. The test does require quite a bit of preparation. I have many years of project management experience, so I have a strong practical background. The PMBOK covers a very large body of material which is summarized at a high level in the PMBOK. You must have a combination of practical experience and extensive book knowledge of the PMBOK to pass the exam.I would start with this book before reading the PMBOK material. The approach in the book is very effective and gives you a very solid overview of the key PMBOK items. After studying this book and doing the practice test in the back, I would then suggest that you go over the PMBOK 4th edition several times followed by doing a lot of practice tests. Practice tests are critical so you can figure out how to properly interpret what the question is asking.Appoach:--------The book uses a series of techniques -- stories, use cases, crossword puzzles, flash card type quizzes (a range of memonic tricks). It may seem a bit odd but it does really work. The reason why I say start with this book is that you need to have solid overview of all the subject areas and processes before you try to connect lots of detailed information that makes up the PMBOK knowledge space.There are many other books out there to study for the PMP exam. But, if the book does not take a top-down approach, you can very quickly get confused with the PMBOK terminology and processes.There is a large amount of information available on the internet. When you are taking the practice tests, you should make a list of any terms you are not familiar with and then look them up later. This is a very helpful way to get a feel for the scope and level of detail that you need to know about items defined in the PMBOK and project management world.

Let's be frank - while the PMBOK is clearly a rigorous and detailed compilation of the collective knowledge of the project management industry, it is maybe not as gripping as a Dan Brown novel. Head First PMP (HFPMP) makes this dry subject penetrable. I enjoyed the goofy asides and ostensibly fluffy examples, but as I later read the PMBOK, it was clear that I had seen that content before. HFPMP had tricked me into learning it.When I first started into HFPMP, I thought it was too silly. My mechanical engineering brain, which can remember simple things like f = ma and can then derive everything else, revolted at the thought of learning 42 processes categorized by knowledge area and process group. I ordered the more serious Rita book, and did not find it appreciably more readable than the PMBOK itself. After a scary smart colleague (shout out to Dr. Andy Silber) told me that HFPMP was what he used to prepare, I went back and plowed through from cover to cover, and to my surprise found that I could repeat the process group mapping from memory. Weird...After I finished HFPMP, I did the practice exam, then wanted more. I used "PMP Exam Prep Questions, Answers, & Explanations: 1000+ PMP Practice Questions with Detailed Solutions", by Christopher Scordo, for practice. That was also helpful.At the end of the day, you should have the PMBOK. But after HFPMP, it all made sense. Memorize the Project Management Process Groups and Knowledge Areas Mapping from the PMBOK and you can't go far wrong.I gave it four stars because there are some minor errors and typos, but nothing that should dissuade your purchase.