PMP Exam Tip: Use FlashCards to Study The Facts

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cornelius.fichtner
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Joined: Fri 05 Mar 2010 11:19 pm

How do you create PMP Exam Flashcards? Here is what Wikipedia says: "A flashcard or flash card is a set of cards bearing information, as words or numbers, on either or both sides, used in classroom drills or in private study. One writes a question on a card and an answer overleaf. Flashcards can bear vocabulary, historical dates, formulas or any subject matter that can be learned via a question and answer format. Flashcards are widely used as a learning drill to aid memorization by way of spaced repetition."

For the PMP exam this means that you can use flash cards to study all the facts that you must memorize, like the names of the Knowledge Areas or processes from the PMBOK Guide. Or all the formulas you need. Or you can study the complete PMBOK Glossary using flashcards. Or any exam fact that you personally have trouble remembering.

How to create your cards: find the fact and write a question about this fact on the front of the card (i.e. What are the 5 Process Groups called in their correct order?) and then write the answer on the back (i.e. initiating, planning, executing, monitoring & controlling, closing). By doing this you achieve two goals: First of all you have to research these facts yourself and then write them down onto your card. This means that the act of creating the card itself is a learning experience. And second, now that you have this fact on your card you can review the question/answer on a daily basis. Repetition is the key.

But of course, it's completely understandable that not everyone has the time and energy to create the cards for themselves and would prefer buying a set of cards. No problem. Various companies (ours included) have these ready made cards on sale. Some are paper based and some (like ours at http://www.project-management-flash-cards.com) are electronic. The benefit of the electronic ones is that they are easy to carry around because they are loaded onto your phone. This means you can simply whip out your phone whenever you have five minutes available and work your way through a few cards.
Until Next Time,
Cornelius Fichtner, PMP
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