Home > Articles > Certification > Other Non-Technical

PMP (PMBOK4) Quick Reference: Your "Pass the Exam" Project

Claudia Baca walks you through the steps of how you might proceed to build your study project to help you pass the Project Management Professional (PMBOK4) examination.
This chapter is from the book

This chapter is from the book

It’s time to determine your game plan for studying and passing the exam. In this lesson, I walk you through the steps of how you might proceed to build your study project. I know this might seem like overkill to some, but I think you’ll agree that it will be time well spent after you pass the exam. Remember that this is a comprehensive exam that examines your knowledge of the entire domain of project management from start to finish, from the perspective of the Project Management Professional (PMP) examination specification and the PMBOK® Guide. It will be a grueling 4 hours of your life that is also expensive. Wouldn’t it be nice to only have to do this once instead of partially planning it and studying for it, and then having to do it over again? Besides, you can consider this exercise as a “practice what you preach” session. This plan proves that you are serious about your profession. So first, you need to ask yourself: How long do you want this project to take?

Look at your life, your workload, and your goals for this credential. Then, determine the length of the study project. You can take a couple of different approaches to determine the length of the project.

First, determine if you have any major milestones or life events that you want to schedule around. Say, for example, that you are unhappy in your current job and have set a goal that you want to be in a new company as a PMP before the end of the year. With that major milestone and knowing that it’s January, you realize that you should probably spend 6 months to get your credential and 6 months job hunting.

Now, let’s look at a life-event scenario. You know you are a procrastinator, and even if you plan to study 10 hours every week, there’s a good chance that little studying will be done before the test date. You also work well under pressure, so you decide to set the date of the exam immediately and schedule it at the end of your two week vacation in August.

If you have no major constraints in your life or milestones that you need to work with, the best study project plan is to take the exam when you are ready.

Now, you also need to ask yourself: How much time can I devote to studying each week? Will I be able to devote only Sunday afternoons? Can I study during lunch at work every day? If you just barely pass the experience requirements, you might need more time. If you are a slow learner, you might need more time. Only you can determine how much time you can devote to studying. Just know that this is an intense 4-hour exam, and you need to have a lot of terms, knowledge, formulas, and processes completely understood and memorized. There is no set formula for the amount of needed study time.

You need to factor your desired end date with the amount of study time needed to build your project schedule and its potential end date. In your factoring, remember that the credential handbooks suggest that you schedule the exam

  • At least 6 weeks before your preferred date
  • At least 3 months before your eligibility period ends

Before we start laying out a recommended approach, I want to make sure that you viewed and listened to Lesson 3, “How Do You Learn Best?.” Now is the time to make sure that you understand your primary learning mode or combination of modes. Once again, the modalities are visual, auditory, and tactile/kinesthetic.

You want to factor in ways to study that incorporate your primary mode. That way, you get the most out of your study time.

Start with the Fundamentals

Now that you know how long you want the project to take, how many hours you can devote to study time, and your primary learning modality, let’s talk about a general approach for studying for the exam. You should start with the fundamentals of the PMBOK® Guide and set a baseline via a sample exam for where you are in your understanding of project management.

I recommend that you study on your own for a while, and then see where you stand. For studying on your own, consider these activities:

  • Read the PMBOK® Guide.
  • Review the entire video mentor.

Determine what terms are not familiar to you and research them. For example, the PMBOK® Guide Introduction states that a project manager must have an interpersonal skill of motivation. You heard the term “motivational theories” before and want to make sure that you understand these theories for motivating teams. Go to your favorite search engine, type in “motivational theories” and study that term. Of course, there are other ways to research and understand terms. Pick the method that’s best for you.

When you start to feel comfortable with the material, take a sample exam. Be sure to see Lesson 15, “Working with the Exam Engine,” on how to use the sample exams that are included in this video mentor.

InformIT Promotional Mailings & Special Offers

I would like to receive exclusive offers and hear about products from InformIT and its family of brands. I can unsubscribe at any time.

Overview


Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about products and services that can be purchased through this site.

This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information


To conduct business and deliver products and services, Pearson collects and uses personal information in several ways in connection with this site, including:

Questions and Inquiries

For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.

Online Store

For orders and purchases placed through our online store on this site, we collect order details, name, institution name and address (if applicable), email address, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, credit/debit card information, shipping options and any instructions. We use this information to complete transactions, fulfill orders, communicate with individuals placing orders or visiting the online store, and for related purposes.

Surveys

Pearson may offer opportunities to provide feedback or participate in surveys, including surveys evaluating Pearson products, services or sites. Participation is voluntary. Pearson collects information requested in the survey questions and uses the information to evaluate, support, maintain and improve products, services or sites, develop new products and services, conduct educational research and for other purposes specified in the survey.

Contests and Drawings

Occasionally, we may sponsor a contest or drawing. Participation is optional. Pearson collects name, contact information and other information specified on the entry form for the contest or drawing to conduct the contest or drawing. Pearson may collect additional personal information from the winners of a contest or drawing in order to award the prize and for tax reporting purposes, as required by law.

Newsletters

If you have elected to receive email newsletters or promotional mailings and special offers but want to unsubscribe, simply email information@informit.com.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Contact Us form.

Other Collection and Use of Information


Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

Cookies and Related Technologies

This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

Do Not Track

This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security


Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children


This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing


Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

  • Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
  • Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
  • Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
  • Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information


If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out


Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by InformIT. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.informit.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information


Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents


California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure


Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

  • As required by law.
  • With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
  • In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
  • To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
  • In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
  • To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
  • To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
  • To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
  • To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links


This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact


Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice


We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020