TOPIC: PMBOK 7 vs. PMBOK 8 for PMP Prep – Where Should I Focus?

Hi everyone,

I'm putting together my PMP study plan and could use some advice on how much emphasis to place on the different PMBOK editions.

Most of the resources I'm using—including Rita Mulcahy's book and a few Udemy courses—are heavily based on PMBOK 7. At the same time, I know PMBOK 8 has been out for a while, so I'm wondering whether I should be shifting more of my attention there.

For those who have taken the exam recently:

Is PMBOK 7 still worth studying in depth?
How important is PMBOK 8 compared to the older edition?
If you were starting from scratch today, how would you balance the two?

I'd appreciate any advice on where to spend my study time most effectively. Thanks!

Tiffany,

Check the Exam Content Outline to see which one is emphasized and spend your time there.

In all reality - I did NOT read the PMBOK cover-to-cover and study it. I read it and took notes in the margins of my hard copy book as I went through a training webinar.

Good luck!

Hi Tiffany,

This is an interesting question, I can tell you what I did, PMBOK 7 was the latest guide when I did my exam. These were my steps
Step1
I read the PMBOK 7 guide once, I highlighted key areas and made notes.

Step 2
I took a PMP course the 35 hours to get my PDUs and this is where things opened up, I started making notes I started cross checking against the book and most importantly and my hack was AI. (I will example later)

Step3
I started doing tests and exams finding my weak areas then with all my study material downloaded I would find the sections and read them, and then most of all I would cross check with AI.

AI Hack
I used AI as a teacher and a Librarian. For example, project charter, I would ask it was is a project charter, then I would ask it could you make a simple example of a project charter for a medical device company (you could make it for whatever industry). Then I would go to my books and find project charter, re-read and anything I am not sure on I would repeat the process. So Little by little I read all the books, but also in relation to questions I could not ask or section in a training I did not understand. This way it stuck.

So for me I did not try and balance as dont forget even with PMBOK 7 there were the agile guides, process guides etc and more, but if you link this with active learning, tests and AI, it can make the process easier.