Chapter One. Introduction

It is nine o'clock in the morning wherever you are. You have arrived at a learning center and are about to take the Project Management Institute Certification exam for Project Management Professional (PMP). You have two pencils, a few clean sheets of paper, and a four-function calculator. You also have just about enough adrenaline flowing to go out and run a marathon. Before that marathon, though, you have the little matter of a certification exam to take.

You have a tendency for short-term memory loss when you're filled with adrenaline. So, do not get up early in the morning and try to cram in a few more minutes of stressed-out study; it will not help you. Finish studying the night before, get some sleep, and then wake up ready to take the test.

After you receive authorization from PMI, you can schedule your own exam. The examination is done at learning centers, all of which offer just about the same facilities. You can choose the time of day that you take the exam, so you need to know when your best test time-taking hours of the day are. Having taught at several universities over the years, my experience has been that morning test takers generally do better than people who take the test later in the day. Of course, this is not true for everyone, so make a decision when you will be the most comfortable. Remember to take as much charge as you can of the environment and time of the test.

Repeat after me: "I am not here to take this test, I'm here to pass it."

Onward.