PMP Exam Prep, Fifth Edition: Rita's Course in a Book for Passing the PMP Exam

Rita's PMP Exam Prep book may not perfectly package the PMP Exam for you to digest in one effortless meal. But having recently passed the exam, I can say that if I had to do it again, I'd again use this book as the core of my preparation routine.We all purchase PMP Exam Prep materials for one reason: to pass the PMP exam. The exam itself is rather ambiguous, and test preparation is really an exercise in trying to find materials that really dial you into what you need to know to pass. This book reviews the key knowledge areas you need to have mastered to pass. It correctly identifies most of the core values the exam questions will test you on, and it's expertly written not just to present them, but to teach you to interpret the questions, reason through the answers, and to help you learn to select the correct answers more often than not. All the other pros or cons are superfluous after that.The book is organized into chapters that mirror the PMBOK chapters, and there's a sample test at the end of each chapter. The sample tests contain about 30 to 40 questions. Please note that these questions are designed to reinforce material in each chapter, and not necessarily to mimic the style and content of exam questions. RMC sells an add-on test simulator with gazillions of sample questions; I didn't use that product, but a colleague used it successfully. The chapters themselves are a very focused distillation of the materials most likely to be required to pass a typical exam session (the exact questions you will take are randomized, so it's impossible to predict what specific topics will be hit, and how hard, in any one sitting). The book is impressive just for this topical coverage, which has some practical value beyond exam preparation purposes alone. The book won't take you any deeper into a topic than you need to go to pass the test, and this economy of material is a big part of what makes the book so valuable: really, part of what you're buying is Rita's judgment about what you need to know and what you don't. I found that her advice wasn't perfect, but it was pretty darn close. I took about 2-3 hours to cover each chapter, including the chapter test.In addition to the main chapters, the book reviews some important exam advice. Specifically, Rita catalogues several dozen key points that usually trip people up (some people call these PMI-isms). These are listed in a separate section near the front of the book, but also woven into chapter text and chapter tests. That focus on material that helps the reader pass the exam is a big differentiator for this product.In the course of preparing, I was warned that this book's sample questions would be slightly easier than those in the exam. Another PMP recommended using Kim Heldman's PMP Study Guide (which came with a CD of sample exams) in addition to Rita's book, noting that the Heldman questions were harder than the PMP exam. My last round of pre-exam prep confirmed that, at least for me. I scored very high on Rita's book questions, and about 15% lower on the Heldman questions. My exam score was right in the middle of the two.If you're like me, you are probably willing to do any reasonable preparation for the exam, but are not sure what the best source is to be sure you pass. The good news for prospective PMPs is that the exam can be adequately prepared for in a reasonable amount of time. The Mulcahy book is probably the most cost and time effective way for most candidates to prepare to pass the test. Supplementing this book with the test simulator or with another source, such as Heldman, will improve your preparation noticeably. Do not rely on the PMBOK alone, as it will not prepare you to answer very many exam questions. Using the Rita book is definitely the most important single, but not the only, source to use in preparation. The book was well worth the money and the time spent reading it. Good luck to you!

I passed the PMP test today achieving my 11th certification, the most of them are IT related but PMP is a great knowledge asset for any professional, IT or not. Now that I have everything fresh in my mind, I want to share my experience with you: As a general rule for certifications, I always get two books, I fully study one, complete all the questions and then I take all the questions on the second book. In that way, I know the first book gave me all the necessary knowledge. For this journey I got "PMP In Depth: Project Management Professional Study Guide for PMP and CAPM Exams - In Depth" (Paul Sanghera) as my 'primary book' and "PMP Exam Prep, Fifth Edition: Rita's Course in a Book for Passing the PMP Exam" (Rita Mulcahy) as my 'questions book'.If you don't know it yet, the whole PMP certification is organized around 9 knowledge areas (scope, time, cost, hr, procurement, risk, quality, integration and communication management. Each one has multiple related processes that are applied at different stages of the 5 phases of the project lifecycle (initiation, planning, execution, monitoring/controlling and closing). For example, you plan your costs during the planning phase and you control your costs during the monitoring and controlling phase of the project. Both cost processes belong to the cost management area of knowledge. So Rita's book is organized around this 9 knowledge areas while Paul's book is organize around the 5 phases of a project lifecycle.I started with Paul's book four months ago (4hs every weekday, 11hs each weekend day). This book is fascinating! (please keep reading), because its organization follows the natural life of projects facilitating the learning process, it clearly shows inputs, processes and outputs for each project task, but it doesn't give you always a clear idea of where you are in reference to the knowledge areas. If the other hand, Rita's book is a complex reference to previous and subsequent page numbers, getting you to jump back and forth to understand how a project actually occurs.I carefully studied Paul's book, I review every single detail on it, memorized every process (inputs, tools/techniques and outputs) and completed every question as well the 175 questions of his final test. I was confident of my knowledge, so I moved on to complete the questions in Rita's book. Misery! Rita destroyed every single hope I had of passing the test successfully! She made me feel that I have been wasting my time with Paul's book: I failed almost all her questions! It was probably the biggest book-related disappointment in my life, although Paul's book is easy to read, and well organized, it doesn't cover significant areas of the certification that are again and again presented in the test! While going thru Rita's questions I discovered that Paul has missed 2 absolutely essential areas required by the test. Let me tell you which ones: Cost management and communication management. The test has multiple questions related to these areas; if you don't know them you will certainly fail! I can't believe that Paul missed them, I consider that very irresponsible and not fair for students trusting his book.With this fiasco, I went thru Rita's book and learned the remaining knowledge so my advice to you is: Study from Rita's book! Although it is organized around the 9 knowledge areas and they don't really follow the project lifecycle, but it is the way the test is organized and she covers all the topics of the test. To prove it to you (if you are skeptical and confused with so many light or emotional book reviews) I carefully took notes of the areas that Paul missed (I hope he reads this): Problem solving techniques (expectancy theory, motivation theory, McGregor's XY theory, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Herzberg's theory and motivation agents), communication channels and formulas, PERT and PERT related calculations, cost estimation (can you imagine running a project without cost estimation?), project manager powers (formal, reward, penalty/coercive, expert and referent), outputs of contract administration, administrative close procedure applicability to each project phase. Besides this Paul's questions are extremely easy, the test questions are an extremely hard compared to them, therefore Paul's give you an inaccurate sense of test preparation level. I have also documented multiple important errata in his book and spent significant amounts of time verifying that they are actual errata. For instance: Paul's makes references to the cost baseline countless times in his book, but cost baseline is nowhere to be found (it is not even in the index), work performance is missed as an output of the directing and managing the project execution in the process chart, but is it cited two pages later; the administrative close procedure is an output of the close project process, he points out what the procedure should contain, but it never says when to execute it as he does it with the contract closure procedure.It is just a very unreliable book for the test. So my advice to you, PMP student is, start with Rita's book and complete every single one of their questions, they look "too demanding, I can't believe the test is that hard" but the test is hard! Then if you have time and can buy Paul's book go directly to his questions and final test. But please, don't do it the other way around.

I just took the PMP exam yesterday and passed (this was still the 2004 exam...the 2005 exam begins after September 26, 2005). Rita's book is an excellent resource and essential for passing the exam, period. Although the 2004 exam had a lower bar to reach than the 2005 exam, my passing score would have been good enough for the 2005 exam, too.Rita offers many exam tips and exposure to topics not addressed, or not addressed well enough in the PMBOK Guide. That's not to say that the PMBOK isn't essential; it is. You'll be well served by following Rita's advice on reading her book 3 times, doing the practice exams until you score 90% or better, and read the PMBOK Guide until you're well versed on inputs, outputs, and tools for each knowledge area. It will seem like a lot to memorize -- and it is! -- but the more you memorize and ingrain the material, the less flustered you'll be during the exam.Don't cram for the 2005 exam. Get a plan together that has you studying consistently for several weeks at the least, and several months is even better. Even if you are a project manager already and have been for years, unless you use PMI's methods and are very familiar with their philosophy governing project management, you will do a disservice to yourself by cutting short your exam prep time.Finally, good as Rita's book is, it won't cover everything you need to know. She has an exam prep CDROM that has many test questions. I found that companion CD to be very helpful, as it allowed me to test my knowledge with a bank of questions I hadn't seen 3 times before.Good luck!

Helped me prepare and pass the exam in the first attempt. I did not take any question bank and depended only on this book and it worked for me. Would recommend a question bank to others though in addition to this book. Would make it easier to tackle questions in the exam.

体系的に書いてあり、非常に理解しやすい。ただ試験に受かるかどうかとは別問題です。受託で開発する身としては、実践的にはあまり役に立ちません。

Wir haben damit die PMI Prüfung geschafft - aber man sollte dann doch gut Englisch können. Etwas gewöhnungsbedürftig ist auch der Amerikanischmus, den die Autorin über das ganze Buch verteilt. Aber nur mit dem PMBoK Guide hätten wir die Prüfung nicht geschafft.

I purchased this book on recommendation from a friend to help prepare me for the PMP exam. This book was a god send. Not only does it go through each of the topics, it recommends pitfalls to look out for and offers very useful hints and tips. I recently took the exam and passed first time and I put that down to this book. Apart from the PMBOK guide I used no other text and passed with flying colours. If you are studying for the PMP exam buy this book, you won't be disappointed.

通称「リタ本」。プロジェクトマネジメントを実際にやっている方が、PMPを受ける際に・何が足りないのか？・PMBOKの記載をどのように理解するのか？・特にわかりにくいPMI-ismを明快に教えてくれる本。PMPは自学自習では受かりにくい試験ですが、自学自習で受けなければならない人にとって「唯一」の答えといってよいでしょう。おしむらくは英語である点(星マイナス1)。次版は日本語訳したいなー。