PMP Exam Tips: Popular Traps You May Fall Into

There are many traps people often fall into in taking a PMP exam. Without being aware about them one may fail the exam even if she or he was well prepared. In this article I will address some of those traps. Be sure to be aware of them in your exam preparation. They are project management experience, Inputs, Outputs and Techniques from the PMBOK Guide, and lastly, sample PMP exams.

Project Management Experience

Sounds strange, but it is true.  Project management methodologies and terminologies may be very different from what you are using on your work. This is especially true if you have many years of project management experience.

The best way to overcome this trap is reading and studying very carefully the PMBOK Guide, especially its terminologies and logic. After reading the PMBOK Guide, print out and take with you the GLOSSARY, DEFINITIONS from page 426 to page 453 of the PMBOK Guide 4th Edition. Whenever you have time, take a look at it and try to define each terminology yourself, try to remember in which processes they are used and how they are used.

For example, Delphi Technique. This is a very popular technique in project management processes. You should be able to

- Describe how to apply this technique in project management, team meeting etc.

- In which processes this technique can be used.

You may use Flashcards to assist you with this. I recommend The PMPrepFlashCards and The PMP Exam eFlashCards . You can download both of them to your portable device and take it with you everywhere to study.

Inputs, Outputs, Tools and Techniques

I have seen many people trying to learn by heart Inputs, Outputs, Tools and Techniques (ITTOs) for all project management processes in the PMBOK Guide without success. I would say, learning them by heart may be even harmful, because you will be confused when sitting down at the exam center.

The best way to deal with ITTOs is understanding WHY they are there in each process. You do not need to memorize them all. I will write more about that in the near future. However, for now, if you are trying to memorize ITTOs, I advice you to stop doing it. Instead, look at each process, its ITTOs, and try to explain by yourself, or look for explanation in preparation books out there, why they are used in this process.

There are many processes with so many ITTOs for memorizing, especially in Quality Management Process Groups, there are processes with up to 20 tools and techniques. So, there is no needs to memorize them all, just understand how they are used, in which cases, and why are they are used.

You can find many useful explanation of ITTOs, definitions and their using in The Project Management Prepcast

Sample PMP exams

Sample exams are very useful in your preparation for the PMP exam. However, I have seen many people trying to do as many sample exams as possible without studying much. It is very dangerous way to study.

The first thing you should do in preparation for the exam is Reading and Understanding the PMBOK Guide, not doing sample exams. Taking sample exams is just the last step towards the real exam and you should do them only after careful preparation. The purpose of sample exams is not to study. The purpose of sample exams is to find out what you have NOT studied and understood yet. After taking sample exams you should carefully check, what parts of the PMBOK Guide you do not fully understand, and have correct steps to fill your gaps.

Good luck on your exam,

See you next time,

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