Project Management Books You Need To Pass PMP Exam

If you are preparing for the Project Management Professional (PMP) exam, you need three books to pass on the first try. I used these three books to prepare for the exam and passed on my first attempt. These books are:

The PMP Exam: How to Pass on Your First Try by Andy Crowe (Velociteach). This is absolutely the best book to get you ready for the exam. It is very easy to read and a complete guide to the PMP exam. It clearly points out common mistakes and covers topics not found in other books. A practice exam is included consisting of an excellent set of questions. The book also includes a subscription to an online project management course site called the InSite. The InSite is very helpful online course. You should absolutely review all various questions on project management they have the site. I have spent countless hours listening to trainings and answering practice questions. It has hundreds, if not thousands of really effective  practice questions. You can also take the whole PMP practice test online. Frankly, I think Andy’s book and the online project management course and questions on the InSite were the primary contributors to my passing the exam on the first attempt with outstanding results in all three sections.

A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge: (PMBOK Guide) (Project Management Institute). Obviously, you should not try to take a project management exam created by PMI without reading the guide to project management from PMI. You can buy paper version or download electronic version of the PMBOK from PMI or book retailers. I highly recommend you read the Pmbok guide. It provides definitions for key terms and discusses the role of the project managers and other stakeholders involved in projects. You will need to memorize these key terms. Same you will have to do for the project phases, project management processes and their relationship to each other. The book has plenty of diagrams to visually describe project management processes and their input and outputs artifacts. The diagrams are hard to follow at first but eventually they do help you to understand the process flow better and see how different processes are work together. Unfortunately it does not have any practice questions.

PMP Exam Prep, Sixth Edition: Rita’s Course in a Book for Passing the PMP Examby Rita Mulcahy (RMC Publications, Inc.) This is another great book. To me, the most valuable elements of this book were bullet point lists with best and worst practices. You can find these lists in several sections – unless Rita has removed them from the last edition. On the low side, the self testing had many confusing questions – such as omitted facts needed to find the correct answer. Answers provided in the corresponding section were based on assumptions and deduced from facts that were not referenced in the questions. I felt like these questions required I play the role of an investigator, as on TV’s CSI, presuming facts from small clues and building the story mostly by imagination. Aside from these highly confusing sample test questions, the book is quite helpful. I have not tried any of the online project management courses referenced in the book, primarily because I felt like the online PMP course on the InSite website had all the resources I needed.

Remember, reading these books cannot replace the experience of managing projects. You need experience managing projects for 3-4 years before you are ready to take this exam. First, an experienced PM will find much of the advice and guidelines to be common sense. I remember reading some descriptions of processes and catching myself thinking “of course this is how it should be done.” I could not even imagine someone not already knowing the most basic of practices covered. So get your experience first, then get these three books, read them, go over the practice tests and you should pass the test with no problem. Good luck!

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