Some of you asked if I had any specific study tips for the CPSM Bridge Exam beyond my general admonition to put in plenty of study time.  Yes, I do have some "super secret" tips and here they are...

First, remember that the Bridge Exam tests you on the entire supply chain and not just purchasing / procurement.  The C.P.M. exams were mainly purchasing-oriented (the "P" part of C.P.M.) and the Bridge Exam is now testing you to see if you understand supply management beyond just procurement.  So don't expect a bunch of purchasing-type of questions on the Bridge Exam.  You also need to throw your personal experience and opinions to the side and forget what you know (or at least what conflicts with an opposing ISM view).  So what if you don't agree with what ISM states about a particular topic in one of their Study Guides?  You're trying to pass an exam, not have a debate, so memorize the ISM view and forget your view for purposes of the Bridge Exam.

The three CPSM Study Guides (the spiral bound books, not the hardcover ones) are critical—I predict you will fail without studying these as your primary reference.  For purposes of organizing your study focus, you should refer to the following two sections that are contained in the preamble to each of the Study Guides:  "Distribution of Questions Within the CPSM Bridge Exam" and "Overview of CPSM Bridge Examination".  It doesn't matter which Study Guide you look at for these sections because they're the same in all three books.  ISM provides you with critical information and input in these sections.

In the "Distributions..." section, ISM impliedly (but not expressly)provides a weighting of what are the most important topics (what ISM calls a "Component Area") to study.  For example, the "Sourcing" Component Area found in Study Guide 1 has two exam questions associated with it.  In contrast, the "Leadership" Component Area found in Study Guide 3 has thirty questions exam questions associated with it.  With this information and knowing that there are a total of 180 questions on the Bridge Exam, you would come to the correct conclusion that most of your study time relating to these two components should be devoted to the "Leadership" Component Area.  If you have limited time to devote to studying, I would recommend studying for the following heavily-weighted Component Areas to the exclusion of the others.  [Brackets contain the total number of questions, and these Component Areas represent over 150 of the 180 questions on the Bridge Exam.]

• Cost and Finance [12Q]
• International [8Q]
• Logistics [12Q]
• Materials and Inventory Management [12Q]
• Organizational/Department Assessment [10Q]
• Planning [9Q]
• Project Management [8Q]
• Leadership [30Q]
• Risk and Compliance [15Q]
• Strategic Sourcing [35Q]

In the "Overview..." section, ISM has essentially provided you with the beginnings of a study outline should you decide to create one.  I did decide to create one because that's what works well for me as a study method.  You can find an incomplete version of the study outline I created here (incomplete because you learn the most when you're completing the study outline not just studying from it).  Use my study outline as a basis for yours at your own risk!  Review the Study Guides and populate your study outline based on what you think you'll most likely see on the exam.

ISM also made studying easy for those taking the Bridge Exam by indicating the material in the Study Guides that is directly relevant.  Within each Component Area's Task, ISM has put the Bridge Exam material the Study Guides in brackets.  There's no way to miss it.  If you study material outside of the brackets, that might be interesting for you but it's a total waste of your time for exam studying purposes.

ISM's CPSM Diagnostic Kit (i.e., the practice exams) is critical for studying.  I used the hardcopy version only (you'll understand why a few sentences from now).  Take the exam(s) first to find your weak areas, study those weak areas, and then re-test.  I recommend taking the practice exams at least three times because the actual exam questions are very similar (not exactly the same, of course).  The problem with the CPSM Diagnostic Kit is that it prepares you for all three exams—there is no CPSM Bridge Exam Diagnostic Kit.  So, if you take each of the three practice exams, you'll be testing yourself on Component Areas that you don't need to study for (i.e., you're wasting time).  However, you can create your own practice Bridge Exam using the CPSM Diagnostic Kit and study only what's relevant.  At the end of each practice exam is a section entitled "Answer Key and Scoring Table".  It contains the number of each exam question using a tabular format and ties each question to a Task Area (enumerated as N-X-N) that comprises each Component Area.  Using the "Distribution..." section  that I mentioned earlier (contained in the Study Guides), I determined which Component Areas that I would not be tested on.  Then, in the CPSM Diagnostic Kit "Answer Key..." section, I put a slash through the table of each Component Area that I would not be tested on.  That way, I knew exactly which questions weren't relevant to the Bridge Exam.  Then, I went through each exam and crossed through each question I knew I wouldn't be tested on—that left me with all of the questions I would be tested on as a part of the Bridge Exam.  This is why I used the hardcopy of the CPSM Diagnostic Kit versus the online version.  It sounds a lot more involved here than it really is.  It took me under ten minutes to do the cross-referencing / crossing-out and saved me from testing myself on questions that just didn't matter.

CORRECTION:  One of my readers pointed out that ISM just came out with a hardcopy diagnostic kit specifically for the Bridge Exam.  ISM will have a softcopy available in late 2010.  My opinion, even without having seen it, is to buy it.

ISM uses scaled scores (and ISM explains why in the CPSM Diagnostic Kit) which makes it a little difficult to determine whether you're doing well on the practice exams when you remove all of the non-Bridge Exam questions.  Roughly speaking, and based on my calculations, 55% correct is passing for the CPSM Bridge Exam, but you really want to be shooting for around a 70% average on your practice exams.

Best of luck and I hope you found these tips helpful!

P.S.  I did not take an ISM-led Bridge Exam review course because that's not one of the best ways that I learn, but I've heard that they're good.  I also don't do study groups.  For me, it's grinding through the materials, building a study outline, and doing practice questions over and over and over.  ISM has given you the ammo you need to pass, you just need to put in the time and study smart.