Greetings, fellow WGU student! Welcome to our article on how to ace the Business of IT – Project Management WGU D324 OA. If you are feeling overwhelmed by the study materials or lack a clear study plan, rest assured, we are here to assist you. We aim is to guide you to the right path and help you achieve your goals. In this article, we will provide you with all the information you need to study and prepare for the final assessment, as well as the CompTIA Project+ exam itself. Consider this your one-stop guide to success. Some key points we will cover in this article are:
- Brief overview of the course and its objectives
- About the CompTIA Project+ exam and key topics to memorize
- Study plan for completing the course within a month
- Some external resources and tools that you can use to enhance your learning and prepare for the assessments
- General advice from students who have passed the (class code) WGU OA
So without further ado, let us begin our studies…
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About Business of IT - Project Management WGU D324 📖
In Business of IT – Project Management WGU D324, students will embark on a journey through industry-standard concepts, techniques, and processes, laying a robust foundation for their project management endeavors. Spanning the entire life cycle of a project, you will have the opportunity to cultivate essential skills necessary for initiating, planning, executing, monitoring, controlling, and ultimately closing a project with confidence and precision. Immerse yourself in best practices across critical domains such as scope management, resource allocation, project planning, scheduling, quality control, risk management, performance measurement, and comprehensive project reporting.
But this course is more than just a preparatory tool for an exam; it’s a transformative experience that empowers you to become a proficient and effective project manager in the real world. Beyond the certification, you’ll gain invaluable insights, practical strategies, and a deep understanding of project management principles that you can apply to diverse projects across various industries. So, buckle up and get ready to embark on an enriching journey that will not only enhance your career prospects but also elevate your capabilities as a project management professional.
Through this module, below competencies will be covered;
- Determines Project Management Requirements
- Identifies Project Factors, Constraints, and Risk Strategies
- Applies Communication Methods and Change Control
The ultimate goal of this module is to prepare you for the CompTIA Project+ exam. To pass this module, you will need to successfully pass the CompTIA Project+ certification exam and upload your scorecard to WGU. So do not mistake the OA of this module as the final test; it is only a tool to validate your knowledge before you attempt the certification exam.
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How to prepare for the CompTIA Project+ certificate exam 🤔
The CompTIA Project+ exam is known to be above average in difficulty according to former students of WGU. But fear not, as we will provide you with a comprehensive study guide that lays the perfect path for you to ace your examination. You can refer to the next section of this article to find our study guide for the WGU D324 module. First, let us discuss the CompTIA Project+ exam and its content.
The exam consists of 90 total questions in two categories: MCQ (Multiple Choice Questions) and PBQ (Performance-Based Questions). According to former course takers of WGU, the majority of them faced only 1 PBQ question in their exam. So it is safe to assume that the exam consists of 89 MCQ questions and 1 PBQ question. The PBQ is known to be simpler and easier to answer than the practice PBQ questions that you will use to prepare for the exam. The main struggle while attempting the Project+ certification exam is that you will only be given 90 minutes to attempt all these questions. So managing your time is the key factor for your success. The score will be given to you on a scale of 100-900 and the passing score will be 710.
The MCQ questions of this exam will be based on the official CompTIA cert guide, which will be provided to you in the Business of IT – Project Management WGU D324 module. According to our research, the following topics are found to be more favored in the exam than the rest
- How organizations are structured
- Job titles and their job descriptions
- Stakeholders and when should they be engaged
- Change request process
- Project management styles (Waterfall, Kanban, Scrum, Agile, Prince2, SAFe)
- Conflict resolution
- Issues and risks
- Risk analysis
- Types of graphs and how to read them
- Responsibility assignment matrix
- Types of contracts (FFP, FPIF, CPFF etc)
- RFB, RFI, RFQ, RFP
- FFP, FPIF, CPFF
- FMEA
While you are studying the course content, we advise you to pay close attention to these topics to clearly understand these concepts.
Another important tip is to memorize acronyms of the course content. When it comes to the certificate exam, the questions are worded with the acronyms only, so if you do not understand these acronyms, it will be hard to give the correct answer. So we recommend that whenever you come across an acronym in your studies, write them down on a separate sheet and revise them before attempting the examination.
Study Plan for Business of IT - Project Management WGU D324 📝
Let us now discuss the main focal point of this article: the study guide. One of the major complaints about this module from WGU students is that it is hard to know exactly which material to study to cover the course content. With numerous resources available on the module and the WGU library, they feel lost not knowing the right path to take to be well-prepared for the OA and the CompTIA Project+ exam. To put your mind at ease, we have done the hard work on your behalf and compiled all the information we found into a comprehensive study guide. All you need to do is follow our advice on the study guide, and we guarantee you will ace these examinations in no time.
Week 1
The first step of your journey should be to get a clear picture of the course content and understand the outlines of the module. Go to the “Course Search” section of D324 and download the “CompTIA PK0-005 Project+ Exam Objectives” PDF provided to you by WGU. This PDF will help you understand what concepts to learn in each topic going forward. Keep it close to you as a reference and refer to it before you start studying each topic in your course materials.
The first resource we recommend you use is the “Official CompTIA Project+ Cert Study Guide”. You can find this eTextbook in the Course material of the module. This is the main resource for this module, and the certification exam is based on this resource only. So you must go through the guide at least once to get a basic knowledge of course contents. This will be a time-consuming process as the CompTIA study guide has a large amount of content for you to consume. Instead of delving deep into each topic, only try to get a brief understanding. We will be deep diving into each topic in week 2 of the study guide.
If you do not prefer reading as a study method, do not worry. Because WGU will also provide you with a Udemy course that through the same content in video form. Log into the Udemy profile using your WGU credentials and search for the course “CompTIA Project+ (PK0-005) Complete Course & Practice Exam by Jason Dion”. Go through all the videos in this course except the practice questions at the end of the course. We will try them later.
While you are going through these resources, it is important to create your own short notes on each topic. Also, note down the terms and definitions that you come across or better yet make flashcards for them. As we mentioned earlier, you should also make a list of acronyms on a separate sheet as you will need to memorize these before attempting the final exam.
Week 2
If you have gone through the course content once using one of the resources we recommended above, you should have a clear overview of the topics and the course content. Now it is time to deep dive into each topic and commit all the knowledge into memory. For this step, we will use the course provided by CBT Nuggets, “CompTIA Project+ (PK0-005) Online Training” as our main resource. This course breaks down each topic into easy-to-understand parts, making it easier to grasp the knowledge you require for the module compared to the official cert study guide.
The only problem with using the CBT Nuggets course is that it is paid content on their official website. To register for this course, you are required to pay $60 per month. However, do not worry, because we have a workaround for you. CBT Nuggets currently offers a free 7-day trial period for new users. So we are going to take advantage of this promotion and use it to our benefit. To access the course, follow the steps below precisely.
- Identify a 7 day period where you can spend 12~ hours on coursework
- Create a CBT Nuggets account
- Grab the 1 free week
- Set up your payment (they won’t charge you until your trial ends UNLESS you stop your renewal)
- Finish setting up your account
- IMMEDIATELY go in and cancel your auto-renewal subscription. Before you even start taking videos, go into your CBT Nuggets account and disable your subscription.
Now you will be able to take the course free of charge. Follow the study method you used in week 1 and update your short notes while you go through the course.
Week 3
After going through the course content twice, now you should be confident with your knowledge. As the module contains a large amount of material, it is necessary to go through it at least twice to memorize all the concepts.
In week 3 of our study guide, we will start attempting the practice questions and practice exams for this course. This will help you retain the knowledge you have gathered and validate your memory of the course content. Below, we have listed several resources to attempt the practice questions. Go through them one by one and try to get the maximum score possible for each test.
- CompTIA Project+ (PK0-005) Complete Course & Practice Exam by Jason Dion – This is the same resource we mentioned in week 1. Go to the end of the course and you will find 6 practice tests that you should attempt.
- Official CompTIA project+ Cert study guide – The practice tests on Certmaster study guide can be found at the end of the book.
- Pluralsight (Cybervista) and Sybex – See how to access this question bank via the study guide in the WGU library
If you require more material to practice on, you can find extra resources listed in the External Resources section of the article.
If you achieve more than 85% marks on these practice exams, then you are ready to attempt the OA and the certificate exam. If you are struggling to achieve that score, do not hesitate; revisit the course materials and revise the contents again. You can use your short notes and flashcards to your advantage as well. Continue going through these tests until you reach the necessary marks before continuing to the next week.
Week 4
You are now ready to attempt the objective assessment of Business of IT – Project Management WGU D324. This is one of the final hurdles that you need to go through to complete this module. Go through the short notes and the flashcards you have made yourself once more to refresh your knowledge. Then, schedule the OA and do your best to achieve the maximum score possible.
Here are some advice for you to keep in mind;
- Schedule the OA at a convenient time and date for you
- Make sure you have a stable internet connection, a webcam, and a microphone.
- Follow the proctoring instructions and rules carefully.
- Use the same strategies and skills that you used for the practice tests
- Relax and be confident in your abilities.
If you pass the OA, Congratulate yourself. This means you are ready to move on to the CompTIA Project+ certification exam.
If you didn’t achieve the passing score, do not worry, revisit the course content and use the external resources we have listed below to better understand the concepts. Once you are confident enough, retake the OA.
Week 5
Now that you have passed the OA, you should schedule the CompTIA Project+ certification exam as soon as possible. This will allow you to attempt the exam while the knowledge is fresh in your mind. We also recommend that you talk with your course instructor before attempting the exam to get advice on how to best approach the questions. Use the same methods and strategies you used in the OA and ace the exam. Best of luck!
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External Resources 📂
- Udemy course by Stone River eLearning – CompTIA Project+ (PK0-005)
- Youtube videos for additional information – WebMasterSmith project+ boot camp , Fundamentals of PMI Framework , Terms and Definitions
- Study Notes of former course taker – Link
- Flashcards – Link
- Extra practice quizzes – Pocket prep
- Quizzlets – Quizzlet #1 , Quizzlet #2
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General advice from former students 👨🏻🎓
- Know the charts and how to read them. This is by far the most important topic you should understand
- Do not face the final exam without memorizing the acronyms.. All the questions are worded with the acronyms only
- Manage your time when attempting the exam. You have only 90 minutes to answer almost 90 questions. That boils down to 1 minute per question.
- In the CompTIA project+ exam, Two of the offered answers were definitely not right and it was more of a choice between the other two possible answers
- Know the Terms and definitions as the back of your hand. You will not survive the final exam without them
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Conclusion 📄
In conclusion, mastering the module Business of IT – Project Management WGU D324 and successfully passing the CompTIA Project+ exam requires dedication, strategic study habits, and a solid understanding of project management principles. By following the guidance provided in this blog post, you can cultivate the necessary skills and knowledge to excel in both the course and certification exam.
Remember to engage with the course materials thoroughly, utilize external resources for deeper understanding, and actively participate in practice exercises and assessments. Prioritize time management and regular review of key concepts to reinforce learning. Additionally, seek support from instructors, peers, and online communities to clarify doubts and gain valuable insights.
With commitment, perseverance, and effective study strategies, you can confidently navigate through the challenges of this module and emerge successful in your pursuit of mastering project management skills and earning the CompTIA Project+ certification.
