Using This Book

This book prepares you to pass the PMP certification exam by highlighting important project management principles, providing insight into proven test-taking strategies, and emphasizing key information you can expect to see on the test. You will get guidance and clarification on PMBOK concepts and learn their relationships to other project management methodologies. Additional resources are cited for you in each chapter, and you will get many opportunities to apply your knowledge through practice exams and test questions.

Two practice exams are offered in this book, as well as practice questions at the end of each chapter. After you complete a chapter, take the practice questions to determine how well you comprehended the information in the chapter. If you missed more than one or two questions, work your way through the chapter again focusing on the concepts you missed.

Similarly, you can test your knowledge and evaluate your level of preparation for the PMP certification exam by taking the practice exams under real conditions. After you've worked your way through this book once, take one practice exam. Evaluate your results. Then, based on your strengths and weaknesses, reread the chapters of this book related to those areas of the practice examination where you were less certain or did not select the correct answer. Then take the second practice exam to see whether your understanding of the material improved.

In each chapter of this book, there is a "Need to Know More?" section identifying additional resources. The books, websites, and other reference materials cited in the "Need to Know More?" section within each chapter are also collected comprehensively in Appendix B, "Additional Resources." If you feel you need more information related to any project management topic, these are the materials to consult. Some sources are cited in multiple chapters because they are seminal works in the field of project management. These resources, used in conjunction with the PMBOK, provide well-rounded preparation for any test material.

Finally, the Cram Sheet condenses the concepts, knowledge areas, process groups, terminology, and formulas presented throughout this book down to a tear-out sheet you can take with you to the exam site for quick review prior to entering the testing facility. The Cram Sheet is also a valuable tool for use in quick daily reviews after you have completed this book. Review the Cram Sheet every day; if there are any terms that seem vague, go to that particular topic in the book for a refresher course.

Chapter Formats

Each Exam Cram 2 chapter follows a regular structure, along with graphical cues about especially important or useful material. The structure of a typical chapter is as follows:

• Hotlists Each chapter begins with lists of the terms you'll need to understand and the techniques and concepts you'll need to master before you can be fully conversant with the chapter's subject matter. We follow these "hotlists" with a few introductory paragraphs, setting the stage for the rest of the chapter.

• Topical coverage After the opening hotlists, each chapter covers the topics related to its subject.

• Exam alerts Throughout the topical coverage section, we highlight the material most likely to appear on the exam by using a special exam alert layout that looks like this:

  

  This is what an exam alert looks like. An exam alert stresses concepts, terms, or activities that will most likely appear in one or more exam questions. For that reason, we think any information offset in exam alert format is worthy of extra attentiveness on your part.

  
  

  Even if material isn't flagged as an exam alert, all the content in this book is associated in some way with test-related material. What appears in the chapter content is critical knowledge.

• Notes This book is an overall examination of the topics covered on the PMP. Where a body of knowledge is deeper than the scope of the book, we use notes to indicate areas of concern or specialty training. The following is an example of a note:

  

  This is an example of a note.

  
  

• Tips We provide tips that will help you build a better foundation of knowledge or focus your attention on an important concept that will reappear later in the book. Tips provide a helpful way to remind you of the context surrounding a particular area of a topic under discussion. The following shows you what a tip looks like:

  

  This is what tips look like. The intent of tip elements is to provide you with alternative ways to approach project management duties. These can be quicker ways of doing tasks or new methods that are not as well known. These elements bring real-world PM content into the boundaries of an exam prep book, too!

  
  

• Exam Prep Questions This section presents a short list of test questions related to the specific chapter topic. Each question has a following explanation of both correct and incorrect answers. The practice questions highlight the areas we found to be most important on the exam.

The bulk of the book follows this chapter structure, but there are a few other elements we would like to point out:

• Practice exams There are two full practice tests found at the end of this book. The questions are designed to challenge your knowledge and readiness for the PMP exam.

• Answer keys These provide the answers to the practice exams, complete with explanations of both the correct responses and the incorrect ones.

• Glossary This is an extensive glossary of important terms used in this book.

• The Cram Sheet This appears as a tear-away sheet, inside the front cover of this Exam Cram 2 book. It is a valuable tool that represents a collection of the most critical items we think you should memorize before taking the test. Remember, you can dump this information out of your head onto the margins of your test booklet or scratch paper as soon as you enter the testing room.

  You might want to look at the Cram Sheet in your car or in the lobby of the testing center just before you walk into the testing center. The Cram Sheet is divided under headings, so you can review the appropriate parts just before each test.