<aside> 💡

This is the core study phase. You're going domain by domain, building real depth. By the end you should feel confident explaining any major concept and answering topic specific practice questions.

</aside>

What You're Doing

Studying each of the three domains in depth, taking structured notes, and testing your understanding with focused practice questions after each topic.

Week by Week

<aside> 💡

Week 4 to 5: People Domain (42% of exam)

This is the largest domain. Focus areas:

• Team performance: forming, storming, norming, performing
• Conflict management: the five conflict resolution strategies and when to use each
• Servant leadership and facilitation
• Emotional intelligence
• Coaching and mentoring vs directing
• Virtual team management
• Stakeholder engagement strategies
• Building shared understanding across diverse teams
• Negotiation and influence

After each study session, do 20 to 30 practice questions focused on the People domain. Review every wrong answer and write down why the correct answer is correct.

</aside>

<aside> 💡

Week 6 to 7: Process Domain (50% of exam)

The biggest domain by weight. Focus areas:

• Planning: scope, schedule, cost, quality, resources, communications, risk, procurement
• Executing and managing work according to the plan
• Managing project changes through integrated change control
• Risk management: identify, analyze (qualitative and quantitative), plan responses, monitor
• Quality management: plan quality, manage quality, control quality
• Procurement: plan, conduct, control procurements
• Earned Value Management (EVM) basics: CPI, SPI, EAC, ETC, VAC
• Agile execution: sprint planning, daily standups, sprint reviews, retrospectives
• Kanban: WIP limits, flow metrics, cumulative flow diagrams
• Closing projects and phases: lessons learned, final deliverable handoff, release resources

Do 30 to 40 practice questions per session during this phase. The Process domain has the most variety.

</aside>

<aside> 💡

Week 8: Business Environment Domain (8% of exam)

Smaller domain but don't skip it. Free points if you study.

• Benefits realization and management
• Project compliance: legal, regulatory, organizational
• Organizational change management
• Connecting project outcomes to business strategy and OKRs
• Project governance structures

Do 15 to 20 focused questions, then spend the rest of Week 8 reviewing your weakest areas across all three domains.

</aside>

Study Approach

Increase to 1.5 to 2 hours per day during this phase:

• 60 minutes: course material or PMBOK reading on the current topic
• 30 minutes: practice questions on that topic
• 15 to 30 minutes: review wrong answers and update your notes

The single most important thing in this phase is reviewing wrong answers. Don't just read the correct answer and move on. Write down WHY the correct answer is correct and WHY your answer was wrong. This is where real learning happens.

Note Taking Strategy

Don't transcribe lectures. Instead, for each major concept, write:

1. What it is (one sentence definition)
2. When you'd use it (the trigger or scenario)
3. The PMI approved approach (what the exam expects)
4. Your common mistake (what you'd do instinctively that's wrong)