Important Update:
PearsonVUE test centers do not allow test-takers to use the 15 min pre-exam slot for PMP brain dump strategy.
I would suggest that you practice your brain dump nevertheless – it will keep the crucial information fresh in your mind and handy when needed on the exam!
Many of my students still use the first 10 minutes of their exam time to write down brain dump and draw huge dividends. Nothing like a ready reference when you are in the flow – after all PMP exam is also a race against time.
In the previous article I explained tips, cautions, best practices, techniques and resources that help you prepare well as you get closer to the PMP exam. One of the things I talked about is PMP brain dump strategy, what does it involve and when the brain dump is created.
PMP brain dump strategy is crucial for CBT (computer based test) where you get few minutes at the beginning of the exam to write down important points on paper. This allows you to legally copy. 🙂 The idea is to avoid confusion, and allow quick access to information – reducing time taken to answer questions, continue the ‘state of flow’ during the exam and answer more questions correctly.
What about Paper Based Test?
Now the test centers do not allow to jot down brain dump during 15 mins given to familiarize the test software interface. And many test-takers choose to write down the brain dump during the first 10 minutes of the exam. Thus if you are taking PBT (paper based test), you can use the same strategy too.
The exercise of pulling together important points on to a paper for ready reference – serves the purpose of revision. So my advice is not to skip this important exercise.
Just to reiterate, here are few points you need to keep in mind about brain dump.
a) Brain dump may consist of the following –
- formulas
- list of names
- mnemonics, doodles, or mindmap(s)
- complete names of gurus (you may get questions with wrong first name in the options, for instance Juran)
- any PMP exam information that you find difficult to remember
b) Write formulas even if you know them well. It just saves the time to recall them during the exam and might avoid an occasional confusion
c) Write important things from PMBOK guide first, followed by points related to ‘outside areas’ discovered during your study and mock tests.
The reason being, if you are not able to complete the brain-dump in the stipulated time you’ve given yourself then you end up leaving out ‘low risk’ points. This is better than leaving out critical things, like formulas. I got to write only about 65% of my brain-dump during the 13 minutes I gave myself.
d) You don’t need to have a structure to your brain-dump. The goal is to write down as much of it as possible during the short time window of 10-12minsyou get just before the exam begins
e) Start creating your brain-dump in the last week leading up to your exam. This is when you are pretty much done with the studies and grey areas are apparent.
f) ‘Download’ brain-dump on to the scratch paper given to you at Prometric center, during the 15 minutes window you get to understand exam software interface.
PMP brain dump strategy Tip: Make sure you have enough space left on the scratch paper to do actual calculations after writing brain-dump, because if you ask for more paper PearsonVUE staff will take away the first one!
g) Most likely you will be given a ‘booklet’ of 4 A4 size sheets at your test center. But don’t take my word for this, check with your exam center (there could be different practices in different countries). Some people have got laminated sheets and erasable pens as well!
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Remember that your typical brain-dump is very terse, lot of it would make sense only to you.
Just to illustrate the point, here is my brain dump. You may have to connect dots at few places to make sense out of it, and this is how it looks. Make sure you create your own brain dump, which would be most beneficial to you.
Feel free to use this as a base for yours.
Jotted in a matter of minutes on a piece of paper.
Since even I cannot understand my handwriting well :), I am typing my brain-dump instead of showing a picture of it written on a piece of paper.
This way you can use this as a basis for your own brain dump too.
Here we go!
Earned Value Management
———————–
EV = BAC * % complete
EV = PV * % complete (any point during project execution)
EV=BCWP (budgeted cost of work performed)
PV=BCWS (budgeted cost of work scheduled)
AC=ACWP (actual cost of work performed)
SV = EV-PV > 0 is good
SPI = EV/PV > 1 is ahead of schedule
CV = EV-AC > 0 is good
CPI = EV/AC > 1 is under budget
PV = SV/(SPI-1)
AC = CV/(CPI-1)
——
EAC = AC+bottom-up ETC : when initial estimates are flawed
EAC = AC+(BAC-EV) : when ETC is predicted to be done at budgeted rate (ATYPICAL)
EAC = BAC/CPI : when ETC is expected at current CPI (typical)
EAC = AC+(BAC-EV)/(SPI*CPI) : at current SPI, CPI
EAC=BAC-CV ?
EAC = AC/%Complete
ETC = EAC – AC :assuming work goes as per plan
ETC = BAC – EV
VAC = BAC – EAC
%VAC = VAC/BAC * 100
TCPI = (BAC-EV)/(BAC-AC) : accepting BAC value
TCPI = work remaining/funds remaining
TCPI = (BAC-EV)/(EAC-AC) : when BAC is not sufficient and EAC is calculated
TCPI > 1 is bad
————-
Expected Monitory value: EMV=Impact*Probability
————-
Communication channels = N*(N-1)/2
7% of communication message is contained in words
38% in vocal pitch
55% in body language
Albert Mehrabian’s book “Silent Message”
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TEAM stages – Tuckman (Jensen) Ladder
forming
storming
norming
performing
adjourning
Future value & Present value
—————————-
FV = PV (1+r)^N : r=rate of interest, N=number of time periods
PV = FV/(1+r)^N
NPV : higher the better
NPV > 0 investment will add value, accept the project
Internal rate of return, IRR : Bigger the better
Benefit Cost Ration, BCR : Bigger the better
Payback period: Lesser the better : This is nothing but Breakeven period
Payback period=Net investment/Avg annual cash flow
————-
Probability distribution
————————
PERT: Normal: (O+M*4+P)/6
Triangular: (O+M+P)/3
SD of activity = (P-O)/6
Variance of activity = [SD]squared
————-
Float/Slack/total slack = LS-ES = LF-EF : =0 for activities on critical path
————-
Cost Of Quality, COQ = EFTW+COPQ = POC+PONC
Essential first time work
Cost of poor quality
Price of Conformance
Price of non-conformance
————-
Depreciation/Straight-line depreciation = Asset cost/Useful life
Double declining balance = 2x((Asset cost – Accumulated depreciation)/Useful life)
————-
Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) -25% to +75%
Budget Estimate -10% to +25%
DefinitiveEstimates -5% to +10%
————-
Remember, RETURN = Net Income Before Tax (NIBT) *or* Net Income After Tax (NIAT); & ON means ‘/’
Return on Sales, ROS = NI*T/Total Sales
Return on Assets, ROA = NI*T/Total Assets
Retrun on Investment, ROI = NI*T/Total Investment
Working Capital = Current Assets – Current Liabilities
Discounted cashflow = Cashflow * Discount factor
————-
Contract related formulas
————————-
Savings = Target cost – Actual cost
Bonus = Savings*Percentage
Contract cost = Bonus+Fees
Total cost = Actual cost + Contract cost
————-
Point of total assumption
PTA = [(Ceiling Price – Target Price)/Buyer’s Share Ratio] + Target Cost
Cost to buy = Initial cost + [#months * (monthly maintenance costs)]
lifecycle cost = total cost + maintenance and support cost for lifetime of product
————-
Normal Distribution
——————-
1 sigma = 68.26%
2 sigma = 95.46%
3 sigma = 99.73%
6 sigma = 99.999%
1 SD = 1 sigma
————-
What Five Strategic Considerations may result in authorization of a project? (MOCkTaiLS – MOCTLS)
Market demand
Organizational need
Customer request
Technological advances
Legal requirements
Social need
————-
EVA = Net Operating Profit After Tax – Cost of Capital (Revenue – Op. Exp – Taxes) – (Investment Capital X % Cost of Capital)
EVA: Economic Value Add Benefit Measurement – Bigger is better
Source Selection = (Weightage X Price) + (Weightage X Quality)
————-
Types of powers of PM:
Legitimate
Reward
Expert
Referent
Coersive/Punishment
————-
Motivational theories
———————
Hertzbergs highgyene-motivation
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
McGregor Theory X, Y; / Z(assurance of permanent job position)
McClelland’s Need Theory
Victor Vroom Expectance theory
———————
Peter Principle=Halo effect
———————
range of variance on a budgetary estimate can be from -10% to +25%.
—————————————
Paul Hersey/Ken blanchard’s Situational continuum/leadership
change leadership style based on maturity of subbordinates/team.
S1: Telling; S2: Selling; S3: Participating; S4: Delegating;
system testing vs integration testing
Seven Quality Mgmt and Control tools(NP, MAP IT)
————————————————
Network diagram
PDPC
Matrix diagram
Affinity diagram
Prioritization Metrics
Interrelationship digraphs
Tree diagram
7 Basic Quality Tools (See See See, Husband and Father Playing Soccer)
——————————————————————
Check sheet
Control chart
Cause-and-effect diagram
Histogram
Flow chart
Pareto chart
Scatter diagram
type II error – beta risk
ACTIVITY ON ARROW/arrow diagramming method
McKinsey’s 7S’s – Robert H. Waterman, Jr. and Tom Peters
Hard Elements
Strategy
Structure
Systems
Soft Elements
Shared Values
Skills
Style
Staff
7 reasons of conflicts on projects
———————————-
schedule
project priorities
human resources
technical opinions and performance trade-offs
administrative procedures
persnality conflict
cost and budget
Conflict management style
————————-
withdraw/avoid
compromise
smoothen/accomodate
collaborating
confront/problem solving
force
Collaborating: win/win;
Compromising: win some/lose some; >> lose/lose
Accommodating: lose/win;
Competing: win/lose;
Avoiding: no winners/no losers
Test of Normality
Paired Comparison Analysis
opm3
managemet by objective
capability maturity model
tqm
Merrill and Reid in their employee motivation theory?
personality traits: driver, expressive, amiable, and analytical.
Joseph Juran:applied the Pareto principle to quality issues
“Juran’s Trilogy”: quality planning, quality control, and quality improvement.
W. Edwards Deming
PDCA – along with Shewart
Philips Crosby – DIRFT (4 principles)
The definition of quality is conformance to requirements (requirements meaning both the product and the customer’s requirements)
The system of quality is prevention
The performance standard is zero defects (relative to requirements)
The measurement of quality is the price of nonconformance
Vilfredo Federico Damaso Pareto
80-20 principle
Kaoru Ishikawa
root-cause diagram: fishbone
KJ Diagram ()
William Ouchi (jap)
Theory Z, permament job offer
Genichi Taguchi
Design of experiments
F.C. Moore
“Delegation means assigning work to the others and giving them authority to do so”
Overlapping relationship
Sequential relationship
Multi-phase relationship
Iterative relationship
Predictive/plan-driven
Iterative and Incremental
Adaptive/Agile
NPV is defined as: The difference between the present value of cash inflows and the present value of cash outflows.
critical chain methd by Eliyahu M. Goldratt
The critical path method (CPM) is a project modeling technique developed in the late 1950s by Morgan R. Walker (of DuPont) and James E. Kelley
Parkinson’s law is the adage which states that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”.
Student’s syndrom – work is done at the last moment before deadline
Group decision making criteria (BINAM)
——————————
Brainstorming
Idea/mind mapping
Nominal technique
Affinity diagrams
Multi-criteria decision analysis
Failure mode and effect analysis – FMEA
QFD – quality function deployment (type of Facilitated workshops)
Discrete, Apportioned, Level of Effort – EMV effort types
marginal analysis
lifecycle costing
deming’s 14 points?
ARMA>
zero sum processing
issue log
shannon-weaver model of communication
code of ethics: Respect, Responsibility, Honesty, Fairness >>>> Aspirational and Mandatory
direct, indirect, fixed, variable costs
———————
That’s about PMP brain dump strategy, and of course my own brain dump.
This may look a lengthy one, but when you write one for yourself it certainly doesn’t feel long. Moreover, you write even briefly on paper. The only point to keep in mind is to practice the brain-dump couple of times a day during the last week leading up to your PMP exam. The more you practice, the easier it is to write on paper in shortest time, and more confident you will feel during the exam!
So, that’s the secret to feel good and do good during the exam!
Now you can get more such useful techniques, brain-friendly study resources created using research based techniques, and a complete end-to-end PMP prep program. Check out the sample training videos and the entire Curriculum section on this page – PMP Last Mile Prep Program.
If you need any help with your PMP preparation (prep strategy or any question with PMP content) write to me at shiv-at-pmexamsmartnotes-dot-com
Good luck!
-Shiv
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