One of the first things you should do before you PMP® exam starts is to write down the 10 project management Knowledge Areas as a reference. Why? Because you may suddenly get nervous or distracted during your exam and forget what they are. (Side note: you are given 3 pieces of paper before your exam starts so use the space accordingly).
For the exam, you not only need to know what they are, but also what order they fall in, and this can be a difficult task for some. Since there are 10 of them, it is easy to forget a few, or accidentally reverse the order.
Thankfully, there is an easy solution to this problem (well… 6 actually). In this article, I’m going to introduce 6 mnemonic to help you memorize the 10 Knowledge Areas. Pick your favourite and stick with it. There is no need to know more than one. My personal favourite is #1.
Before we get started, let’s first recap what the 10 Knowledge Areas are:
1) Integration
2) Scope
3) Time
4) Cost
5) Quality
6) HR
7) Communications
8) Risk
9) Procurement
10) Stakeholders
As you can see, they list is long, and at first glance, there may not seen to be a logical order to it. Now let’s jump into the 6 mnemonics that will help you memorize this list in less than 5 minutes.
1. “I Surely Thought Carol Quit Helping Cats Razz Parent Squirrels”
This one is quite humorous. I can’t imagine a human and a cat conspiring together to pick on a poor squirrel. For some reason, this one ended being my favorite.
2) “I Scoped Time, Cost, and Quality with HR Communications as Risk on Procurements to Stakeholders”
This one applies logic to the list of Knowledge Areas by helping you see the order you would do the knowledge areas in a project.
3) “I Saw Two Crows Quietly Having Coffee and Reading Poetic Songs”
Like #1, this one is not realistic, but it is humorous, and humor helps during a stressful exam.
4) “Integrating Scope and Time will Cost our Quality HR to Communicate with Risk of Procuring Stakeholders”
This one is very similar to #2. It orders the knowledge area is a easily understandable logic.
5) “I Saw The Cat. Quick! He Can Run Pretty Swiftly”
6)“I Saw Two Cars Quickly Hit Carl’s Rear Passenger Side”
Yikes! Car accidents are no fun, but if it helps you memorize the 10 Knowledge Areas, then go for it!
There you have it! The 6 ways to memorize the 10 project management knowledge areas.