Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I've just passed the PMP exam (with flying colors) and I want to share my experience regarding the PMP exam study books with my fellow project managers who are planning to prepare for the PMP exam. On one hand I was happy to see so many PMP books available to help me, and on the other hand I was disappointed to see that most of them were outrageously or unreasonably high priced. However, I ended up buying and reading quite a few of them from cover to cover. Here are short reviews for the top four (in my opinion) of them:
1. This book. PMP In Depth by Paul Sanghera, Thomson Course Technology.
I found this book best among all the PMP books. It's a self contained, to the point, and yet very comprehensive: all the topics (within the scope of the exam) are covered with adequate depth. The material is presented in a perfect logical learning sequence, and there is no hopping from topic to topic: perfect flow. Unlike other books, this book presents the material in order of the process groups (initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing), which is consistent with the way the PMP exam objectives (domains) by PMI are organized. And this is the only PMP exam book that explains the exam objectives (covered in each chapter)in the beginning of the chapter. This way you are always sure which exam objective you are working on, and it makes the exam preparation much easier and free of confusion. This is also a good book for the CAPM exam because it's self contained,easy, and interesting read. All concepts are clearly defined and explained, and the definitions are also listed at the end of each chapter for easy reference. There is a complete practice exam at the end of the book with very detailed answers: why a correct answer is correct and an incorrect answer is incorrect.I found that the practice exam combined with the review questions (and their detailed answers) at the end of each chapter makes enough number of questions to prepare me for the actual exam. I found the tone and difficulty level of the questions very compatible with the actual exam.
Unlike most of other PMP books, this book is very reasonably priced. I recommend this book to anyone who is planning to prepare for the PMP exam, CAPM exam, or justwant to learn the basics of project management.
2. The PMP Exam Prep by Rita Mulcahy, RMC Publications.
This is not a self contained book. There are lots of references to PMBOK Guide. Lots of empty pages for you to fill. That said, it is a very good book (or should I call it an excellent collection of lecture notes) if you are either taking a course from the author or from an instructor who is using this book as a text book. There are lots of exercises. I feel that the underlying assumption is that the gaps in the book will be filled either by PMBOK Guide or by the instructor in the course. So, Topics are not covered with enough depth. Also there is a poor flow and a lots of hopping from topic to topic.The presentation of the material is organized around knowledge areas, whereas the exam objectives are organized in order of the process groups. That breaks the exam objective coverage into pieces, and may cause confusion. The book is, in my opinion, outrageously high priced.
Overall, I recommend this book if you are taking a course that uses this book as a textbook.
3. The PMP Exam by Andy Crowe; Velociteach.
This is another good book by its own virtue. At first, itappears like self contained, but then you find that there is not enough depth to most of the topics covered in this book. This is easy to read,but you cannot pass the exam just by reading this book. Also, there are quite a few processes for which some input items, output items, or tools and techniques are missing. This could be very serious if you are only using this book. So, if you use this book, do not count on it alone.The presentation of the material is organized around knowledge areas, whereas the exam objectives are organized in order of the process groups. That breaks the exam objective coverage into pieces, and may cause confusion. The book, in my opinion, is unreasonably high priced.
I recommend this book if you are looking for a quick and easy review of topics.
4. PMP Project Management Professional Study Guide by Joseph Philips, McGraw-Hill Osborne. This is another good PMP book. It covers almost all the topics and some topics in quite detail, actually. However, at places, it is not very compatible with the PMBOK Guide. This is not necessarily a bad thing if you are learning about project management in general. But you need to be careful when you are preparing for the PMP exam. So, do not begin with this book. This also organizes the material along the knowledge areas and breaks the exam objectives into pieces.
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Product Description:
The primary purpose of this book is to help you pass the Project Management Professional (PMP) exam administered by the Project Management Institute (PMI). Because the book has a laser-sharp focus on the exam objectives, expert project managers who want to pass the PMP exam can use this book to ensure that they do not miss any objective. Yet this is not simply an exam-cram book. The chapters and the sections within each chapter are presented in a logical learning sequence: A topic and a chapter only depend upon the previously covered topics and chapters, and there is no hopping from topic to topic. The concepts and topics, both simple and complex, are clearly explained when they appear for the first time. No prior knowledge of project management is assumed. This facilitates stepwise learning, prevents confusion, and makes this book useful for anyone who wants to get up to speed quickly to learn the fundamentals of project management, pass the PMP exam, or both, even if they are new to the discipline of project management. A fulllength practice exam with fully explained answers is also included.
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