general

I gone through the book twice over 2 weeks in preparation for my test. Even though I went for a course and study the PMBOK from cover to cover, I'm not sure whether I'm fully prepared or not. Generally speaking, the PMBOK only roughly covers 70% of exam. The others need to be complimented either through one experiences or other materials. Although this book cannot cover all of the remaining 30%, it surely come close with broad PM and General Management coverage.
The book is really complementing the PMBOK by using different approach to the PM process. It also highlights the key points in the PMBOK.
What is best about the book is the sample questions. They really resemble the real one, with lots of scenario types questions. If one is not that familiar of what to expect in the exam, will almost certain have barely enough time to go through all 200. For me, I still have 45 minutes to go through again the marked questions.
I passed the exam with 160/200.

If you're studying for the PMP 2002 exam you will be so relieved that Sybex decided to do this book. I have my A+, N+, and MCSE and I used Sybex books to study for all of the exams. Over the last two and half years, my job role has shifted into a project management. My director suggested that I go after the PMP. I bought the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge from PMI and nearly fell asleep every time I tried to read it. I
tried to order other books from their site but they all looked just as dense (all the examples use construction methodology that I didn't follow at all!). By chance I did a search on Amazon for PMP and luckily found this one just published from Sybex. It's packed with IT related references that
I can relate to. There's even an IT-related sample project that spans the course of the book. The author does a great job of building context with real world stories. Plus the CD has hundreds of practice questions, some have flowcharts and graphs. If you're like me -- an IT admin who is suddenly project managing IT projects -- you need this book!!

The biggest gripe I have with this book has to do with the organization of content inside the chapters. The Inputs, tools and techniques and outputs are rather hard to find - and you really must patiently read everything the author wants to say to get what you want. This might be good or even beneficial for a first read - but if you are short on time or want to tear ahead you will begin to experience some frustration. The lack of clear organization is a fairly major limitation for a book that is aimed at exam preparation!

The book is useless as a review/recap tool. You cannot go fast! In my assessment the PMBOK and the PMP for Dummies books are superior. This book would have been far better with if it had more process area and knowledge area diagrams and summaries, or even quick summaries after sections like many of the other books do.

The book does have its positive points. The very well thought out and insightful case studies however provide relief when working through the rather dull presentation. The questions at the end of each chapter are generally of very high quality and will test your understanding in a deep way. Mistakes are very few. The case studies are probably the best I have seen in any PMP preparation book.

I had to team this book with the PMBOK for content/concepts, and Rita Mulcahy's PMP exam CD for test taking to pass the PMP.