I've been an IS project manager for over 10 years. I've studied Kerzner's book (good, but tedious) in preparation and the PMBOK, but took no courses or workshops. I studied PMP Exam Prep for 10 days immediately preceeding my exam. Read the book about 3 times. I took the test in 4 hours and got 168 of the 200 question correct. I think that the "study tips" in the book helped me get about 15-20 questions right that I might have otherwise missed. (your milage may vary) However, the book said to expect about 6 "math" questions and I had about 15. (All of which I got right) About half of the questions I missed were due to the test's wording which is tricky.

The book made me a bit more confident than I should have been, but is the best such book that I've come across. Expensive, but worth it especially if you haven't taken a review course. Good focus on PMI-isms (things important to PMI and passing the test that your experience as a PM may not help you) Also recommended: Principles of Project Management. With PMBOK, Principles, PMP Exam Prep, and the requisite 7,500 hours of PM experience you should be able to pass the PMP. Kerzner's book will also help if you have the time to read through it.

Good luck!


A Must for PMP Exam Prep   April 21, 2003
Craig L. Howe (Darien, CT United States)
76 out of 89 found this review helpful

If you are prepping for the PMP exam, this book is a must. This self-contained course explains the PMI certification process, offers exam-taking tips and focuses your attention on key project management concepts.

Written to save you preparation time, the book:
* Helps you identify potential problem areas in your knowledge.
* Review topics not covered in the PMBOK.
* Become acquainted with what the author calls "PMI-isms."
* Prepares you for sitting through a four hour exam.
* Acquaints you with the type of questions that appear on the exam.

Make no mistake; the exam is much harder than the questions that appear in this guide. However, the time spent reviewing Mulcahy's material will focus your attention on material appearing on the exam. It will also broaden your approach to project management from your personal, narrow experience to the broad-based approach tested on the exam.

If you are serious about passing, this book is well-worth the money.


Efficient and effective PMP preparation tool   May 28, 2002
Linda Zarate (Azusa, CA United States)
39 out of 44 found this review helpful

This 244 book fills in the gaps in the PMBOK 2000, and also provides complete coverage of professional responsibility topics and requirements. It's designed as a 120 hour course of instruction, and is focused on the important knowledge factors that you'll encounter on the PMP exam.

It provides clear and complete explanations of the PMBOK 2000 core concepts without the fuzziness or verbosity that characterizes the PMBOK. It also contains exercises and practice exams to help you prepare, and gives tips on what to study, including material that will be on the exam that is not covered in the PMBOK.

What I like about this guide is the lack of fluff, the focus on learning the exam and the preparatory advice that is given.


This book and the PMBOK are all you really need   September 23, 2005
William W. Davis (Boca Raton, FL USA)
14 out of 15 found this review helpful

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!


Day Before Exam - PMP Exam Prep Saved the Day!   February 26, 2003
Harinath Thummalapalli (Austin, TX United States)
25 out of 29 found this review helpful

I had taken a very reputable classroom style course to help me pass the test and it was definitely very useful in solidifying the Project Management knowledge I had gained over the past 4-6 years. If I had to do things over again, I would still have taken that class. But they had taken the approach of drilling down into each of the 9 Knowledge Areas and neglected to go across the Knowledge Areas by addressing the 5 Process Groups. Even their software was focussed on testing your expertise with the 9 Knowledge Areas.

Guess what? In order to pass the PMP, you need thorough expertise with the 5 Process Groups! Sure, if you understood the 9 Knowledge Areas 100%, you will indirectly have a grip on the 5 Process Groups. The only problem is that it is almost impossible for that information to stick in your head unless you go across and not just drill down! Preparing for the PMP using the Knowledge Area approach is like learning a language by reading a dictionary!

I was wondering why I was scoring so poorly on the practice tests till I decided to check out the PMP Exam Prep and PM FASTrack(the day before the test). When I started using Rita's PM FASTrack which tests your expertise in both Process Groups and Knowledge Areas, I realized what the missing component was. I then spent the next 4-6 hours carefully studying the more difficult chapters from Rita's PMP Exam Prep book and took another practice test. I only spent about an hour per chapter since I had already been exposed to a lot of the Project Management techniques that are tested. Suddenly, my overall score started improving!

I then kicked myself for not opening her CD-ROM and book till the last minute. But I decided not to panic and just study with high concentration. At this point, I reconciled myself to not passing the test this first time and promised myself that I would read her book cover to cover and take 100% of the practice questions in her CD-ROM the next time.

Fortunately, the next day when I took the test, I was able to stay calm and felt a lot more comfortable when I noticed that the questions on the test were VERY similar to the ones in her book and CD-ROM! I could not believe it, but I was glad :-) I was very happy that I used her material at least for that one day. When I got the score at the end of the 4 hours, I had scored 86. Whew!

... If I were to do it again, I would just take her class instead (much cheaper) where you get all this material free on top of the class. More than anything, following the approach in her book will relieve you of all the tension resulting from the unpredictability and difficulty in taking the PMP exam.

The PMP exam's main source of difficulty stems from the seemingly subjective nature of the questions. Only by thoroughly understanding the material in the official 'Guide to the PMBOK' will anyone be able to see that the questions are actually quite objective in nature. But to understand this really dense 'Guide to the PMBOK', there is no substitute to the 'PMP Exam Prep'! Her material also gave me a much better understanding of project management than any of the other material/class. Among a couple of other books, I still use her PMP Exam Prep book whenever I am going through a project life cycle as a reference.

Good luck with the exam and I hope that the information above helps you pass the exam with a lot more ease.