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Earning PDUs

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Taking time away from project obligations to attend trainings and seminars to obtain your PDUs can be a challenge. Wondering how to get the 60 PMI PDUs for PMP Re-Certification? No Need to Worry About It! Subscribe to the PDU-Insider Newsletter today!
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How to Find a Great PMP Mock Exam Online

If you are working towards or just considering taking the Project Management Professional (PMP®) exam it is certain you have concerns about taking the exam itself. Concerns that canonly be answered by practicing, or what types of questions are on the exam, or do I understandthe material enough to pass, and can I answer 200 questions in four hours. You can discover the answers to these concerns and others like them through taking mock exams or answering mock online exam questions before you even register for an official exam date. Online Mock PMP Exams are the way to go if you want to see where you are knowledge wise,to find out if you can answer 200 questions in four hours, or if you just want to kick a case of the nerves. Therefore, this article explains what a mock exam is, how an online mock test helps you, where you would find such a test, and how good these tests can actually be. My goal is to give you the information you need to both locate a free online mock PMP test and how to identify a quality exam that will help you to be on your way to become a certified PMP.

What are PMP Mock Tests?

A mock test is one that is taken prior to the official exam for practice. A mock test can be taken to help you learn the types of questions that may be on an exam, to test your knowledge, or to simply practice taking the test. Knowing what kinds of questions may be on the exam, that you can answer 200 questions infour hours, and that you can pass a mock exam can help settle your nerves for the official exam.There are several quality full-length online mock PMP tests on the market, but you don’t always need a full-length exam to test your knowledge. There are also quality options for shorter mock practice tests and also single questions that can be used as part of your successful study plan.

How does a PMP Online Mock Test help me?

It helps, because it allows you to practice taking the PMP exam in the most realistic manner possible, which can be fundamental to you successfully passing the PMP exam. A good full-length mock practice test will be very much like the official exam. It will consist of200 questions, be limited to four hours, and will also have questions that are similar in difficulty,style and format as the official exam. It also covers the same topics. An online mock exam forthe PMP exam is a good simulation of the actual exam process since the PMP exam is typicallycomputerized. You should find a quiet location, block out four hours, log onto the mock test, andpractice taking the exam in the most realistic way possible. Shorter mock exams or single mock exam questions are also a good method for testing yourself. These questions will be similar in difficulty and in a similar format as the official exam and allow you to practice based on the time you have. If you have an hour or two maybe a shorter mock test is best for you. If you have ten minutes maybe a few practice questions are your best option. Many of the websites that offer single mock test questions offer a mobile option that can be used anywhere.

Where do I find a PMP Mock Exam Online Free?

Online mock tests that are both good and free are hard to come by. After all, you want to make sure you find quality free online practice exams and questions so your time is well spent. The best one I know comes from Oliver Lehmann at www.oliverlehmann.com. Here you will find some of the most difficult questions around. Consider it a success if you can answer more than half correctly. This site offers questions in a variety of formats along with a free 90-minute, 75-question simulated exam. It is not a full-length exam, but it is definitely worth your time since it isso difficult. The website also has links to 4000 additional practice questions. Another free online PMP mock test is the PM Exam Simulator located at http://free.pm-exam-simulator.com. This simulator provides several shorter exams and allows you to practice taking the PMP Exam in a manner that mimics the official exam. The questions are formatted using the same difficulty and style that are used for the actual exam. It also provides questions in the same process group proportions to best simulate the exam. It offers three modes to best fit your current learning needs: Learning Mode where you can receive hints and there is no time limit;Timed Mode where you can receive hints, but are held to the time limit; and Real Exam Mode where you can get the real PMP Exam experience. The final recommended option for free mock PMP questions is at www.free-pm-exam-questions.com. Here you can sign up to have questions delivered directly to your inbox a well asthe Weekly PMP Exam Tips Newsletter. There are many good products on the market that may fit your needs. For some additional recommendations please read my article My Top Recommended Web Sites for Free PMP Exam Sample Questions. And in the interest of disclosure, the PM Exam Simulator and free mock PMP questions mailing list mentioned above are my own products.

How good can a PMP Mock Exam Free Actually be?

It depends! Sometimes you truly get what you pay for, but there are several, high-quality and free online PMP mock exams on the market. One assumption that we can make is this: free mock exams provided by PMI Registered Education Provider will likely be quite good. Especially if this provider also offers their own online simulator. The reason for this is simple: The free questions they give you will be of a high quality because they want to showcase them to you in the hope that you like them and sign up for the paid products.

How do I spot a GREAT Online PMP Mock Test?

Consider both the source and also the questions themselves:

  • As we have just seen, it is a good sign if the provider of the free questions is a PMI Registered Education Provider because it is in their own interest to give you excellent free materials.
  • Then you have to consider the questions themselves. Here you have to primarily ensurethat they are updated to the most recent PMBOK® Guide and that they follow the latestexam specifications.

Questions with explanations that reference the PMBOK Guide or other quality current project management reference materials are also a good sign of great PMP mock questions. So if you would like to jump right into answering some great online PMP questions just go to www.free-pm-exam-questions.com to have questions delivered directly to you inbox or go to http://free.pm-exam-simulator.com to access a free exam simulator.

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How to Successfully Use Social Media on Your Projects - PMI CIE

Join Cornelius Fichtner PMP, CSM as he answers the question "Where does social media fit into project management?" in PMI California Inland Empire Chapter on April 21, 2015 5:30 PM to 9:30 PM PDT

Key Learning Objectives & Takeaways when you attend this event:   

  • Understand social media trends and global usage of social media
  • Define social media "Themes" and "Types"  Examine practical uses of social media on projects
  • Describe social media lessons learned (based on survey feedback and implementations)
  • List actionable steps to implement social media on projects
  • Earn 2 PDUs!
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How to Successfully Use Social Media on Your Projects

Learn how social media fits into project management with Cornelius Fichtner, PMP, CSM

When: Wednesday 25 February 2015, 03:30pm - 05:30pm Where: PMI San Diego Chapter Dinner Event DoubleTree by Hilton / Penasquitos 14455 Penasquitos Drive San Diego, CA 92129

Earn 2 PDUs!

Key Learning Objectives & Takeaways when you attend this event:

  • Understand social media trends and global usage of social media
  • Define social media “Themes” and “Types”
  • Examine practical uses of social media on projects
  • Describe social media lessons learned (based on survey feedback and implementations)
  • List actionable steps to implement social media on projects
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Make a Plan to Earn Your PDUs

As a Project Management Professional (PMP)® credential holder, you must earn 60 Professional Development Units (PDUs) every three years in order to maintain your certification status in good standing. Not obtaining the required 60 PDUs within your certification cycle will lead to your credential being suspended. That is the last thing you want to happen, but life being what it is, you probably have family commitments, work-  and social-organization commitments, to name just a few, that are also important to you and probably a little more in the forefront of your life than earning PDUs. If you are anything like most others, as soon as you passed the PMP® Exam, you knew earning those 60 PDUs would be easy and you were going to start on it as soon as you got home, but time passes quickly, sometimes too quickly. So, it is not at all unusual to get well into the third year of your certification cycle and suddenly realize you are nowhere close to obtaining the 60 PDUs you need to ensure your certification stays in good standing.

So what do you do to make sure you do not find yourself struggling to earn PDUs late in your certification cycle? What can you do to make sure earning PDUs is as much in the forefront as other aspects of your life? Well, being a project manager you have the necessary tools to approach earning PDUs as a project by making a plan. Below are some steps to keep in mind when developing a plan to help make sure you earn those required 60 PDUs.

Step 1:     Understand the PDU Categories. Read over the Continuing Certification Requirements (CCR) Program section in the PMP Handbook to learn about the six categories in which PDUs can be earned. Set a goal for how many PDUs per category you would like to earn over the next three years. Keep in mind that for the PMP® certification some categories limit the maximum PDUs you can earn per three-year certification cycle.

Step 2:    Make earning PDUs a habit. Identify repeating PDU activities that you can participate in. Maybe attending dinner meetings with your local PMI Chapter works best for you. This is a good option especially if you have been thinking of networking and meeting other PMP® credential holders. Or maybe subscribing to The PDU Podcast at www.pducast.com to receive a new webinar to watch every month works better with your busy lifestyle. If the cost of earning PDUs is a factor for you, there are also options for earning free PDUs available.

Step 3:    Develop a plan. After you have decided what categories you would like to earn PDUs in; found local chapter meetings to attend; or subscribed to monthly webinars, develop a plan to earn those 60 PDUs. Make sure to take into account such things as planned vacations and other times when you will not be available to earn PDUs. There may be some months where you will need to earn more than the 1.67 PDUs needed per month to keep on track to earn the 60 PDUs. Planning for those events now and determining when you will make up PDUs in later months will help you make sure you do not fall behind in your plan for earning PDUs

Step 4:     Set up reminders for yourself. With the prevalence of smart phones and other hand held devices your calendar can be at your fingertips. Set up reminders for yourself to earn PDUs based on your plan. In addition to adding events to your calendar, another good option is to subscribe to The PDU Insider Newsletter at www.pdu-insider.com which is all about earning PDUs. This newsletter is issued every three to four weeks and can serve as your reminder for needing to earn PDUs. The PDU Insider Newsletter will also give you information on earning PDUs that maybe you had not thought of that you can add to your plan.

Step 5:    Execute your plan. As a project manager you should be an expert at executing plans, and this one is personal, so it should be an easy one to achieve.

Step 6:    Report your PDUs. Each time you earn PDUs, immediately log on to http://ccrs.pmi.org and take care of two things. One, input the PDUs you have earned, and two check the number of PDUs you have earned to make sure you are on target with your plan.

Step 7:    Apply for credential renewal. Once you have earned the 60 required PDUs, don’t forget to apply for credential renewal before your certification cycle ends.

Earning PDUs can be easy; the hard part is remembering to do so regularly. The steps to earning the PDUs you need to maintain your PMP® certification are as easy as understanding the PDU categories, making earning PDUs a habit, developing a plan, setting up reminders, executing the plan, reporting earned PDUs, and finally applying for credential renewal.

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Black Friday Sale for Project Managers

It’s that time of the year! Today is officially the start of holiday season in the U.S. Everybody wants awesome deals! So we'll make sure you get it from us to help you prepare for the PMP/PMI-ACP exam and PMP recertification! For today until November 30, 2014 - Sunday, you can get the following products at a discounted price by simply using the coupon code when you check out! BlackFridaySale Watch this short video first for instructions on how to use the discount code: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tG81gp6AuQ All the best in your project management career! Black Friday Sale Save big now and claim your discount coupon! weekend18 agileweekend coachweekend pduweekend Pass on the good news! Tweet: Wow! #BlackFridaySale Weekend for #projectmanagers like no other! @corneliusficht

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Agile is not a noun!

"Agile is a state of being." Are you wondering if this is a methodology that you can adapt for your team? You can learn more about being agile by attending "Being Agile in a Waterfall World" Online Interactive Workshop with Joseph Flahiff, President and CEO of Whitewater Projects, Inc.

When you attend this online workshop you will:

  • Understand where agility fits best and where it does not
  • How agile in a large non-software company differs from a small software company
  • How to mix agile and sequential project approaches in a single project
  • How to apply agile learning to non-agile projects
  • Understand your unique Agility Horizons
  • Have practical action steps you can take as soon as you return
  • Earn 7 PDUs!

Discover the world of agile now! Register to this event here…

* Joseph will give a FREE copy of his forthcoming book “Being Agile in a Waterfall World:  A guide for complex organizations.” to the first 20 people who register!

Disclosure: We are a compensated affiliate of Whitewater Projects and will earn a commission if you choose to attend the class.

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Join me at the Conscious Software Development Telesummit Nov 10th-21st

Creating successful custom software for your organization is hard - over 70% of projects fail!

Perhaps you have seen some of these common issues:

  • deploy late
  • go over budget
  • have missing/buggy features
  • requirements scope creep
  • team miscommunication and conflicts
  • "shelfware" that is just not adopted by users
  • not aligned to the organization's strategy

And software projects can be a headache to hire for, manage and architect, right?

What to do? Listen to my interview on "Good Project Management Will Make Me a Better Developer Right?" at the Conscious Software Development Telesummit which is November 10th - 21st 2014: http://conscioussoftwaredevelopment.com/CorneliusFichtner

Register for the summit for free. Then listen to another 21+ interviews and read the transcripts for detailed notes on how you can bring more consciousness to your software projects and organization. And stop the 70% of zombie programming projects that give you headaches, loose you tons of money and waste your team's time.

Hear from 21+ top experts on software, team relations, strategy, deployment and more. So you discover things that you don't know that you don't know about creating successful projects and managing your portfolio of apps. This elite group of software superstars, best selling authors, popular podcasters, outstanding bloggers and celebrity coaches are imparting decades of experience, wisdom and some very generous free resources to help you begin making progress immediately.

This unique panel of experts is all unified under one vision; to empower you with practical understanding of how you can put their knowledge to use, bring consciousness to your software challenges and transform your work for the better.

It is easy to participate. Sign up for free with your email. Then listen to the MP3 interview recordings any time or anywhere: on your commute, office or home.

Join other leading CIOs, VPs of Development, project managers, architects, stakeholders, end user champions and all those want to bring more awareness and choice to the complex art of software creation.

Until Next Time, Cornelius Fichtner, PMP, CSM

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Learn how social media fits into project management

I am speaking at PMI-4C on November 1st!

Join me as I discuss and demonstrate how social media has affected individuals, organizations and projects.

I believe that social media is not a passing fad. Instead, social media is here to stay and is becoming ever more universal in how we do business and execute our projects.

It is therefore the responsibility of the project manager to guide the project team in determining how to best implement and use social media on their projects.

Key Learning Objectives & Takeaways when you attend this event:

  • Understand social media trends and global usage of social media
  • Define social media "Themes" and "Types"
  • Examine practical uses of social media on projects
  • Describe social media lessons learned (based on survey feedback and implementations)
  • List actionable steps to implement social media on projects

Register now! No walk-ins allowed for this event.

* Earn 2 PDUs

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Earn 30 PDUs for FREE with The PM Podcast!

Just follow these three steps:

  1. Subscribe to The PM Podcast.
  2. Listen to at least 30 hours of the interviews.
  3. Claim your PDUs.

Maintain your PMP Status! Get started now!

Definitely the PM Podfather by Ron Holohan

“Cornelius is undoubtedly the podfather of all project management podcasts. His is the podcast that has launched a thousand other PM podcasts like my own. I have been listening to the PM Podcast since Feb, 2007 and as a result I have learned all kinds of things about project management through both his PM podcast and PM Prepcast. Both are excellent in quality, content, and creativity. His interviews are informative and Cornelius definitely knows his subject. Keep up the good work!”

~ Ron Holohan, PMP

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Project Management For You: Taking Action and Using Agile with Cornelius Fichtner

In this interview, Cornelius will answer the following questions:

  • How would you define Project Management to the lay person?
  • What is the least people need to know about Project Management to start on the path of getting things done?
  • What are the stages of bringing an idea to reality?
  • If you could recommend one technique from the PM world to the masses, what would it be and where can we learn it?
  • Managing projects often means working with other people. What’s the best way to know when and what to delegate, and to compel people to collaborate on a project?
  • What are some tips for those who want to learn and use project management to get things done?

Don't miss this episode! Listen now!

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Boost your project management career!

Dev Ramcharan, PMP is a professional Life Coach who specializes in Career Coaching for Professionals and Executives.

Here is what you'll get from the Free Career Optimization Package:

  • Career Values Identification Workbook
  • Career Goal Focus Tool
  • Career Asset Inventory Tool
  • Career Transition Management Plan
  • Career Opportunity Assessment Tool
  • Career Journal

There is also a Premium Career Optimization Package which is a much more complete package, because it contains additional career tools, checklists and workbooks. So compared to the free version, the premium gives you a comprehensive, full career-life-cycle coverage with a powerful toolset.

We are launching the Premium Package initially at the price of $29.99

Those who purchase the Premium Package will receive free access to version 2.0 of the package, which will include 10 additional Tools & Templates! Version 2.0 is scheduled to be released in November 2014. Get it here now - www.pm-podcast.com/career Here is the good news! We will giveaway 2 copies of the Premium Career Optimization Package! All you have to do is go to www.facebook.com/pmpodcast and participate in our promotion. We will draw a winner at the end of October 2014. Goodluck!

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Have you heard about Agile Project Management?

Are you wondering if this is a methodology that you can adapt for your team?

You can learn more about being agile by attending "Being Agile in a Waterfall World" Online Interactive Workshop with Joseph Flahiff, President and CEO of Whitewater Projects, Inc.

When you attend this online workshop you will:

  • Understand where agility fits best and where it does not
  • How agile in a large non-software company differs from a small software company
  • How to mix agile and sequential project approaches in a single project
  • How to apply agile learning to non-agile projects
  • Understand your unique Agility Horizons
  • Have practical action steps you can take as soon as you return
  • Plus, you will earn 7 PDUs!

Discover the world of agile now! Register to this event here…

* Joseph will give a FREE copy of his forthcoming book “Being Agile in a Waterfall World:  A guide for complex organizations.” to the first 20 people who register!

Disclosure: We are a compensated affiliate of Whitewater Projects and will earn a commission if you choose to attend the class.

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How much do you love The PM Podcast?

Have you been listening to The PM Podcast for quite some time now? How do you think we're doing? We'd like to hear about it! Leave a testimonial with your profile photo and get a chance to win a FREE Premium ANNUAL subscription of the PM Podcast! Start here!

1 LUCKY winner will be chosen on September 30! Remember to include your most awesome profile photo! :)

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May 2014 Discount Coupon

* If you are PMP certified and you have passed your PMP Exam before July 31st 2013, then this offer is for you!

Earning 35 PDUs has never been this easy with The PM PrepCast!

Get started today with this $18 discount coupon!

Only until May 31, 2014, you can get The PM PrepCast at a discounted price of $161.99. That is $18 savings for you!

The PM PrepCast is a complete PMP exam prep course that also qualifies for Category A PDUs.

Earn PDUs as simple as 1,2,3...

1. Watch The PM PrepCast 2. Receive your PDU Certificate 3. Claim 35 PDUs

To claim the coupon, simply use the coupon code May14 when you check out. You can also watch this short video first for instructions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tG81gp6AuQ

(Please note that our coupons are only available for new purchases and cannot be applied as a refund if you purchased earlier.)

Order now because this is a limited offer that you cannot get anywhere else!

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PDU Podcast Monthly Giveaway Winner

Congratulations Sophie Kenny, PMP

Our winner of the monthly giveaway for March 2014! She won a FREE copy of The PDU Podcast Year One by simply sharing her testimonial about The PM PrepCast!

Best of luck in your re-certification! * Win a FREE license of The PDU Podcast too by sharing your testimonial about The PM PrepCast in our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/PrepCast

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