Free PMP Questions

Over the years we have collected 1000s of practice questions for our PMP, CAPM and PMI-SP exam prep courses, far more then we need. Rather than simply keeping them we have decided to publish a ‘daily question’ for you to have fun with… Our current stock of question means there will be no repeats for the next 3 years!

If you already hold a PMI credential, the questions will help retain the knowledge you learned when studying.

If you are still studying for a credential, the questions will help with your practice. Each question comes with an answer and is graded √  ? or X for each exam:
√ = Applies to the examination (PMP, CAPM or PMI-SP)
? = Useful but probably too hard
X = Probably not relevant

To round out the page we are also posting a ‘Weekly Tip’ for Project Managers.

Today’s daily question is posted at: http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/Training-PMP-Q-Today.html – When you think you know the right answer click through to the answer page to see today’s question & answer plus the Q&As sent earlier in the week.

So you don’t miss any of the questions, we are Tweeting the daily question – you can click to ‘Follow’ the questions through our dedicated: @PMPQuestions. If you find the questions ‘fun’ – reTweet to your friends and colleagues, the more people following the questions, the more encouragement for us to keep going.

Good luck!!

Most Effective Forms of Project Management Training

One of the findings from a recently conducted survey by project management training and consulting firm Project Management Solutions (led by Kent Crawford) was that not all forms of project management training are created equal – or are even effective.

The survey looked at three forms of training

• Instructor-led classroom training
• Blended training
• Technology delivered training

Instructor-led classroom training ranked #1
69% of respondents rated it as the most effective method for a variety of reasons. These included the opportunity to network, to spontaneously ask questions and share experiences, and to learn in an environment that tries to mimic actual project team dynamics.

“The instructors are typically seasoned project managers who have a lot of war stories,” says Crawford. “They felt hearing lessons from someone who has the scars is invaluable.”

Blended Learning ranked #2
Blended techniques, which combine instructor led-classroom learning with some combination of self-directed e-learning, instructor-led e-learning, or technology-delivered training, ranked second, with 53% of respondents casting their vote.

Technology-delivered training ranked last.

• 29% of respondents deemed self-directed e-learning to be worthwhile.
• 27% considered instructor-led e-learning (such as webinars) to be valuable.
• 20% think technology-delivered training (such as CD-ROMs or podcasts) is useful.

We wholeheartedly agree with these findings. Mosaic has always considered direct integration between trainees and an experienced project manager is critical. Whilst instructor led training is ideal, access to this form of training is limited by location, timing and cost. Our public classroom schedule is outlined at: http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/Training-Schedule.html

To overcome these limitations and paying for coffee at $5 per cup, we have developed our unique Mentored Email™ courses for the PMP, CAPM, PgMP and PMI-SP credentials. We feel Mentored Email™ offers the best of both worlds; you work at a speed that suits you in the home, office or on the train; but you interact continually with your course mentor via email or telephone. To see more on this unique and effective option see: http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/Training-Mentored.html

CAPM at Swinburne University

Mosaic has entered into a long term partnership with Meta PM to deliver a series of intensive 4 Day CAPM courses to members of the Swinburne community and others. The courses will be delivered on-campus during semester breaks over the next 18 months.

The Meta PM / Swinburne courses are designed to provide Swinburne graduates with access to a range of industry standard credentials to augment their core academic studies and degrees; improving the graduates position in the job market. Mosaic’s role is to deliver the CAPM courses included in the overall agreement.

Download the Swinburne Brochure, or see more on Mosaic’s CAPM course options.

PMP Exam Updates

The new PMP exam starts on the 31st August. PMI are strongly encouraging PMP candidates who have prepared for the current exam to schedule their exam on or before 30 August.

Following the change to the new exam, there will be a 4–6 week period between taking the examination and the candidate receiving their results via email. This delay is necessary for PMI to validate the new examination structure.

All candidates can expect to receive their examination results by mid-October and once the new examination has been validated, the results will be available at the Prometric examination centres on completion of an exam, as now.

As part of the exam change, the PMP experience reporting requirements are being simplified. Currently, PMI requires candidates to track and report their hours of experience leading and directing projects for each task within the Role Delineation Study (RDS). From 31st August, candidates will only need to track and report their hours for each domain (Process Group) within the RDS. Any candidates who have an application in progress at the time the change is made will have their experience hours migrated to the new application, so that no data will be lost.

For more on the changes visit our News Page.

PMP Exam Update

We are busily updating our PMP materials ready for the new exam scheduled to launch on the 1st September (and helping the last of our current candidates to finish their Mentored Email™  courses).

One of the facets in the new PMP Exam Specification is the concept of ‘Cross-cutting knowledge and skills’ – these capabilities apply to all of the other ‘domains’ of project management from initiation through to closing. A number of these core capabilities are already covered by Mosaic’s White Papers including:
Negotiation
Active listening  and
Leadership.

Two new White Papers uploaded this weekend to round out the information requirements for the PMP exam are:
Data Gathering and Brainstorming  and
Facilitation.

All of Mosaic’s new PMP courses are designed for the new exam including our Mentored Email™  one-on-one training and all futures classroom courses starting with the 5 day intensive course schedule for Melbourne starting 29th August.

Now all we have to do is update our PgMP course before that exam changes on 1st January 2012……

PgMP Credential Update

As at the 1st January 2012 the PgMP exam will become much more difficult! The new exam reflects a substantial refinement to the role of a Program Management Professional. The current exam is focused on 5 domains (Defining, Initiating, Planning, Executing and Closing the Program) which will be assembled under new Domain 2 “Program Life Cycle” as sub-domains with new domains, 1, 3, 4 and 5 added. Out of the total of 72 tasks in the new exam, 26 are new or have major revisions, and another 26 have minor changes. The structure of the new exam is:

1. Strategic Program Management
2. Program Life Cycle
     • Defining the Program
     • Initiating the Program
     • Planning the Program
     • Executing the Program
     • Controlling the Program
     • Closing the Program
3. Benefits Management
4. Stakeholder Management
5. Governance

The good news is people who pass their PgMP under the current regime maintain their PgMP status after the 1st January. There is no requirement to re-sit or upgrade an existing credential.

So if you were thinking that obtaining your PgMP would be a good career enhancing move, the smart option would be to pass your exam this year! To find out more about the changes and the options for becoming a PgMP this year, see: http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/Training-PgMP.html

PMI PgMP Examination Update

PMI’s Program Management Professional examination will be changing in 2012. PMI have recently completed an updated Role Delineation Study (RDS) focused on the work of Program Managers. The RDS has produced an revised description of the professional role of a PgMP, based on feedback from more than 1,100 program managers from 79 countries, 119 of whom held the PgMP credential.

The new RDS restructures the Program Management Performance Domains and Tasks and as a consequence, the three evaluations for the PgMP credential, the panel review, the examination, and the multi-rater assessment, are being updated to reflect these changes.

PMI are in the process of finalising these changes with a targeted release of the new examination globally on 1 January 2012.

Program Managers who are considering taking the exam in the near term are encouraged to complete their PgMP examination in the next few months using our current resources. For more information on the PgMP course see: http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/Training-PgM.html. This course is available world wide via our PgMP One-on-One Exam Prep Course.

Based on the updated PgMP Examination Content Outline, that will be released by PMI in the coming weeks, we will be updating our training and examination preparation courses. Our updated courses will be available in Q3 ready for the 2012 exam change.

Project Industry Trends

A presentation by Jim Harrison of Itcom Australia Pty Ltd to the PMI Melbourne Chapter this week, focusing on project management trends primarily in the ICT and Finance sectors of the Victorian and Australian Eastern Seaboard economy. The presentation highlighted some interesting trends that would appear to have a wider implication and correlate with our experience and other sources of information.

The first key finding is that project management maturity is starting to develop. 80% of the organisations surveyed by Itcom had some form of PMO and most had a defined PM methodology; 30% based on the PMBOK® Guide, 30% on PRINCE2 and 20% an in house methodology. The trend over the next few years is likely to be focused on enhancing existing PMOs capability and value rather then creating new PMOs.

The second key finding was the increasing trend towards people seeing project management as a career. Over 70% of the people surveyed expected to stay in project and program management moving to larger projects or program manager/project director roles as their career develops. At the junior end of the spectrum, the emergence of PMOs provides an employment opportunity for project support staff to begin their working life as project admin staff, schedulers, etc., and then progress into project management.

The strategic importance of project management capability is also being increasingly recognised by senior management with a significant trend towards making project managers permanent staff roles rather than contract roles. The weak spot in this finding was that over 60% of organisations did not appear to have a project management career path defined to help develop their staff. Staff development will become increasingly important as 85% of organisation expect to increase their project spend this year and the job market is already starting to see shortages of appropriately qualified applicants.

The resources needed to develop a career framework are freely available, the PMI PathPro™ Career Framework can be used free of charge by any organisation to develop a customised framework and is also free to any PMI member to plan their own career development. Organisations that back the framework with effective training and mentoring to help employees grow their careers can offer a clear point of delineation in an increasingly competitive market for skilled employees. For more on PathPro™ and the various PM certification frameworks see: http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/Training-PMI_Framework.html or download our report on the certification frameworks used in the Australian project management arena.

CAPM Exam Application Enhancements

PMI has made it easier for candidates to prepare and schedule their CAPM examination.

The network of test centres available for the CAPM exam has been expanded to approximately 5000 world-wide. This will make accessing a centre much easier; in Australia the available centres have increased from 2 (Sydney and Melbourne) to over 30 including all capital cities and many regional centres. The complete world-wide list can be found at www.prometric.com.

Also, instead of having to have completed the 23 hours of project management education at the time of application submission, candidates now have the option of submitting their application in advance. Upon submission of the CAPM application all candidates must agree to the PMI Code of Professional Conduct and agree that all 23 contact hours of education will be completed prior to their scheduled examination date. This will allow candidates to complete their booking before starting an intensive classroom course.

The number of CAPM credential holders world-wide is increasing rapidly, these changes will make booking and sitting for the exam much easier.  For more on the CAMP examination and Mosaic’s courses click here.

Unfortunately these enhancements in the CAPM processes do not flow through to any of the other PMI credentials.

PMI-SP and PTMC Courses Launched

Mosaic is offering a world-first integrated scheduling course for the PMI Scheduling Professional (PMI-SP) and CIOB Project Time Management Certificate (PTMC). The total course comprises 13 modules of focused schedule training.

Modules 1 to 6 provide the education needed for the new CIOB Project Time Management Certificate (PTMC) examination.

Modules 1 to 5 plus Modules 7 to 13 provide the education needed for the PMI-SP credential.

All of the modules are available via Mosaic’s Mentored Email™ delivery allowing schedulers to prepare for their examinations anywhere, any time.

Additionally, Modules 1 to 4 are incorporated into Mosaic’s successful 1 Day and 2 Day scheduling workshops. The 1 Day workshop is exclusively focused on the exam-prep modules, the 2 Day workshop covers a range of additional scheduling and time management topics.

Bookings for this exciting range of courses are open with module delivery scheduled from the 1st March for the Mentored Email™ courses.

The first 1 Day workshop focused on the new courses will be held on the 12th April in Melbourne with others to follow.

Details of our one-on-one Mentored Email™ course are at http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/Training-Planning_One-on-One.html.

Our first 1 Day classroom course incorporating modules 1 to 4 will be in Melbourne, Australia on the 12th April, for more on the classroom courses see: http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/Training-PMGen%205-STEPS.html

For more information on the CIOB Project Time Management Certificate (PTMC) and course fees see: http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/Training-CIOB-TM_Credential.html

For more information on the PMI Scheduling Professional credential (PMI-SP) and course fees see: http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/Training-Planning.html

If you wish to buy a copy of The Guide in advance of the course, see: http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/Book_Sales.html#CIOB – your course fees are reduced if we don’t have to ship books.