Heard of the book titled PMP Exam Master Prep written by Scott Payne, PMP?
The book has been written with the goal to equip candidates to “Learn Faster, Retain More and Pass the PMP Exam”.
After reading the book, I should agree that the book has achieved its goal – Learn faster, Retain more and Pass the PMP exam.
It is a great book and I believe it would catapult to be among the best sellers very quickly.
If someone needs a reference book along with the PMBOK Guide, I have no hesitation in recommending this book.
Read through this review to find out why I recommend this book, what are the positives of the book and also areas where it could have done better.
The Unique Selling Point of the book is the case studies that are presented in the book. Instead of providing short discrete examples, the case studies are presented as one continuous story; the project manager John travels through the project from concept to closure.
This is a great approach; and, I have not seen such an approach in any of the other reference books for PMP exam preparation.
Table of Contents
The book uses a story, that happens in Alliance International, throughout the book. You meet John, who was just a manager in the quality department.
You begin the exciting journey with John, as he becomes a project manager to lead a project in the Engineering department, a project that really mattered to the company. We learn along with John, as Lloyd, the manager of the PMO, coaches and mentors him.
The story makes an interesting read with other characters like Sara, the program manager, Lawrence, the director of the engineering department, Jackson, the VP of operations and many more characters.
The book introduces you the theory in every chapter or section and then gives you a short one-page case study.
I liked the case studies; they are simple, easier to understand, made sense as I related to real-life projects and helped me remember the concepts better.
Even more, I loved the questions that were thrown immediately after the case study. This helped me to test my understanding of the case study and how it relates to the theory/ concepts that were covered in the book. There were around 80+ questions that were based on the case studies alone.
The case studies are perfectly placed in between the theory/ concepts. When you feel tired of reading the concepts and theory, the appearance of a case study makes you feel energized and retains the interest in the book.
I was so involved in the case studies; sometimes I felt like jumping the concepts and moving on to the next case study.
The book lists six styles of questions you may come across in the PMP exam.
It explains the meaning of each style and provides an example for you to easily understand. It also lists the type of challenges you may face when answering such questions. This is a good approach to prepare the candidates, which I have not seen in many other books.
Scott Payne has used a concept called Master Points to highlight key concepts. Master points are short messages you see throughout the book that help your understanding of important topics. The book suggests you to read the Master Points repeatedly while studying the book.
The Master Points could also be very handy when you want to quickly revise the content just before the examination.
A short one-page description of each knowledge area is provided and it is very useful. This section describes what is the purpose of each knowledge area and lists down the key outputs of the knowledge area. It also addresses the tailoring considerations, considerations for Agile projects and emerging practices.
It is a quick summary of each knowledge area. Providing this summary at the beginning of the book is a good idea so that you can take the readers through the details at the later sections of the book.
Remembering the 5 process groups and 10 knowledge areas should not be that difficult. But, if you have just started the preparation, you may find it difficult to remember even these. This could demotivate you and discourage your further journey.
So, using mnemonics is not a bad idea to start with. You would feel better as you could easily recall the 5 process groups and 10 knowledge areas. The book provides you with a mnemonic device to remember the process groups and knowledge areas.
If you hate numerical questions and always mess up with the various EVM formulae, the EVM template suggested in the book might be helpful.
The book goes through a process to help you remember the template and easily recreate it. Memory tricks are used to help the template stick in your brain.
Practicing to create the template while answering EVM questions during practice/ mock tests might put you into a routine.
You can write down the template once you settle down in your place on the day of the exam, using the rough sheets that will be given to you.
One full-length mock exam, containing 200 questions, is provided at the end of the book. Answers with proper explanations are also available for the mock exam.
The questions are in line with the type of questions you may expect in the real exam. You should find the simulated exam useful.
Most of the PMP preparation books follow the flow as in the PMBOK Guide. The chapters in most of the books are written knowledge area wise.
This book takes a different approach, by going through the 49 processes process group wise. A similar approach has been used by Kim Heldman in his book.
From a real project perspective, it makes sense to approach the content process group wise. That’s how you normally manage the project. As Scott Payne indicated in the book, it sometimes makes no sense to discuss about closing the project (which is the seventh process if you study knowledge area wise) even before learning about defining the scope of the project.
But, from the exam perspective, I don’t see a huge difference whether you learn knowledge area wise or process group wise. I believe it is a personal choice.
I felt the book did not have enough pictures or diagrams that would have made the book even better.
It would have been great if pictorial representations were used to explain some of the tools like affinity diagrams, context diagrams, mind mapping, matrix diagrams, logical data models, etc.
I also felt the techniques of quality management knowledge area could have been explained in a little bit more detail with pictures/ graphs to show the usage of tools like control charts, histograms, Pareto charts, scatter diagrams, etc.
If you are as excited as me, you can get a copy of the book to help you in your PMP exam preparation. The book is available in both eBook and physical versions. You can choose the version that is convenient to you from the following links:
Physical version of the book: PMP Exam Master Prep Book
Electronic version of the book: PMP Exam Master Prep eBook
You can use the code “pmdrill” at the check out page to get 10% discount on the displayed price of the book.
I should congratulate and thank Scott Payne for writing such a wonderful book. I am sure the candidates would find it useful.
If you still have any doubts or queries about the book, you can shoot the questions to me by writing a comment below.
Did you give the book a try? If yes, how did you feel? Please leave your opinion about the book in the comments section.
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