PMP Study on Your Commute: Short, Frequent Sessions (+ My PMP Vocabulary List)

As I admitted in Part 1, I'm not someone who can sit down after work and study for hours. So instead of chasing a daily quota, I focused on having fewer days with no studying at all. The thing that filled those gaps was my commute.

In three lines — Short, frequent review sticks better than long, rare sessions. On my commute I listened to NotebookLM audio episodes of 12 to 24 minutes each and went through terms on a word list. If you take the exam in a translated language, don't stop at the translated term: learn the English original and "when this comes up, what does PMI do first?" as one package.

Why short and frequent sticks

Learning research has backed two principles for a long time:

• The spacing effect: for the same total time, spreading review over several days beats cramming it into one sitting.
• Retrieval practice: closing the book and pulling something out of memory strengthens it more than rereading.

Commute study fits both. The daily trip builds the spacing in for you, and because the time is short, you end up recalling instead of rereading. The day 1, day 7 and day 21 reviews in my Part 6 error log work on the same principle.

So frequency matters more than length. Touching the PMP briefly every day beats a long session followed by days off.

My commute: audio for my ears, a word list for my eyes

I used two things on my commute.

For my ears: NotebookLM audio. I listened to Korean Deep Dive episodes I'd made by topic. At 12 to 24 minutes each, they were a good fit for the trip. How I built the notebook and set up the audio is in Part 7.

For my eyes: a word list. If the audio gives you the flow of a judgment call, the word list gives you the terms that act as its clues. A situational question can turn on a single word. Whether it's a risk or an issue, verification or validation, changes what you do first.

Taking the PMP in a translated language? Terms matter even more

I took the exam in Korean. In a translated exam, the questions and screens are in your language, and each question has an exhibit button that shows the question and options in English. The two languages aren't shown side by side.

The catch is translation. The same concept can be translated a little differently from one course, textbook or question bank to the next. When the translation on screen doesn't match the one you learned, even a familiar concept reads as strange, and you end up opening the English to check. Time is limited, so the fastest fix is knowing each English term and its translation as a pair.

Your practice and your exam may not even be in the same language. PMI Study Hall is English only; if you need a translation, PMI points you to the Google Translate browser extension. If you practice in English and test in another language, you need your terms in both.

The new exam raises the stakes. Since July 9, 2026, the exam is about 40% predictive and 60% agile or hybrid, which means more questions where terms like product backlog, product owner and sprint review carry the meaning. I cover all the changes in Part 5: Everything that changed in the 2026 PMP exam.

Four term pairs that are easy to mix up

Terms are easy one at a time. The trouble starts when two similar ones sit side by side in the options. These four pairs are where the first action splits.

Issue vs. risk

• Risk: an uncertain event or condition that hasn't happened yet. If it does, it affects project objectives, for better or worse. It goes in the risk register.
• Issue: a problem that has already happened and is affecting the project now. It goes in the issue log with an owner and a due date, and you track it until it's resolved.

Once an identified risk actually happens, it's an issue. PMI's first move then is to carry out the planned risk response. If you discover a new risk instead, the first move isn't to act on it right away but to record it in the risk register and analyze it.

Verify vs. validate

• Verify: the team checks that a deliverable was built to the requirements and specifications. This happens in Control Quality, and what passes becomes a verified deliverable.
• Validate: the customer or sponsor checks that the deliverable meets their needs and formally accepts it. Validate Scope is where this happens.

Verification comes first, validation after. In agile, stakeholders see the work firsthand at the sprint review and give feedback.

In Korean, both words come out close to the everyday word for "check," which makes this pair especially slippery. Remember them in English: verify asks "did we build it to spec?" and validate asks "did we build what the customer needs?" One of the audio episodes from Part 7, "Why a bug-free project was rejected at acceptance," brings this exact difference to mind from the title alone. A deliverable can pass verification and still not be accepted.

Change request vs. defect repair

• Change request: a formal proposal to modify a document, deliverable or baseline. If a stakeholder wants a feature added, that changes the agreed scope. In a predictive project, you first analyze the impact, then submit a change request so change control can decide whether to approve it. In agile, it goes into the product backlog as a new request and the product owner prioritizes it.
• Defect repair: fixing a deliverable that doesn't meet the agreed requirements. The requirements stay the same; the deliverable is brought into line with them.

The confusion comes from the fact that both can involve the formal process: in predictive projects, a defect repair can also go through as a change request for approval. So instead of asking "does this go through the formal process?", first ask "are we changing the requirements, or meeting them?"

Product owner vs. project manager

• Product owner (PO): decides what gets built and in what order. Owns the product backlog, prioritizes it by value, and brings the voice of the customer and the business to the team.
• Project manager (PM): in the exam's agile and hybrid scenarios, a servant leader who clears impediments, coordinates with stakeholders and coaches the team. The PM doesn't set backlog priorities.

At some companies "PM" means product manager, which blurs the two roles even more. If a stakeholder asks for a new feature mid-sprint, options where the PM adds it or turns it down directly are usually traps. First, connect them with the product owner, who prioritizes it in the backlog.

Boiled down to "when this comes up, what's the first move?":

When you see this	PMI's first move
An identified risk has occurred	Carry out the planned risk response
A new risk has been discovered	Record it in the risk register and analyze it
Built to spec, but the customer won't accept it	Revisit the acceptance criteria and requirements and find out why
A stakeholder wants a feature added (predictive)	Analyze the impact and submit a change request
A deliverable doesn't match the agreed requirements	Analyze the cause and fix it to meet the requirements
A new request arrives mid-sprint (agile)	Have the product owner prioritize it in the backlog

A 5-minute word loop for the commute

Here's how I'd recommend using a word list. One loop takes five minutes, so it fits even a short ride.

1. Work in five-minute blocks. Planning a long session up front just makes it harder to start.
2. Cover the definition and look only at the term. Recall the English term and the translation together.
3. Say the definition in one line. Not out loud if you're on a train. One sentence in your head is enough.
4. Say what PMI does first when that term comes up. If you know the definition but not the first action, you only half know it.
5. Mark the ones you missed and move them to your error log. Tag them C (Concept) so they show up in your weekly tag count.

Start the next loop with the words you marked. Recalling yesterday's misses in today's first five minutes is spaced retrieval practice in action.

The vocabulary list I put together

The list below collects the terms that actually helped me while I studied for the PMP. You can see part of it in the preview, and the full PDF is $5.99 on Gumroad. Everything above works without it, so pick it up only if it's useful to you.

PDF word list · $5.99

The PMP Commute Word List

Only the terms that actually tripped me up, each with a one-line definition and “what PMI would do first.” Built for five-minute loops on the commute.

Preview

01Validate Scope

Formal acceptance of completed deliverables by the customer or sponsor, after quality control has verified that they are correct.

Control Quality checks correctness (internal, usually first); Validate Scope obtains acceptance (external, with the customer). In agile, the sprint review plays this role.

02Contingency Reserve

Time or money set aside within the baseline for identified risks (known-unknowns); the project manager can use it when planned risk responses are triggered.

Identified risk = contingency reserve (inside the cost baseline, PM's control); unidentified risk = management reserve (outside the baseline, needs management approval).

03Communication Channels

The number of potential communication paths among project stakeholders; it grows much faster than the number of people.

Channels = n(n − 1) / 2 (n = number of people, including the PM)

Questions often ask how many channels were added: compute the totals for the new and old team sizes and subtract, and remember to count the PM in n.

04EAC – Typical Variance (BAC / CPI) — ··· ······ ·· ·········· ····

05Float (Total Float / Free Float) — ··· ······ ·· ·········· ····

06Velocity Forecast (Remaining Sprints) — ··· ······ ·· ·········· ····

07Gold Plating — ··· ······ ·· ·········· ····

08Collaborate / Problem Solve — ··· ······ ·· ·········· ····

09Definition of Done (DoD) — ··· ······ ·· ·········· ····

🔒 169 more terms in the PDF

What’s inside

• ✓172 key terms in 6 categories (People · Process · Business Environment · Agile · Formulas · AI)
• ✓Each with a one-line definition, an exam tip and the terms it gets confused with
• ✓28 formulas, 59 must-know terms flagged
• ✓All four PDFs included: English, Korean, Spanish and Japanese

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Wrapping up

Studying on your commute doesn't take heroic willpower. It's just one more look at the PMP during time that passes anyway. If, like me, you struggle to focus for long after work, start by cutting down the days you don't study at all rather than adding hours.

How to keep an error log is in Part 6, and how I used GPT and NotebookLM is in Part 7. Next, I'll look at how to prepare for the new exam's case-study questions.

Next: How to Prepare for PMP Case-Study Questions

Frequently asked questions

Can I study for the PMP on my commute alone?+

It's great for review, but it isn't enough on its own. Set aside separate time to do questions and work out why you missed them, and to take a full mock exam of about four hours from start to finish before test day. Use the commute to keep bringing that material back.

If I take the PMP in a language other than English, can I see the English version?+

Yes. Each question has an exhibit button that shows the question and options in English. They aren't displayed side by side. Also, PMI can't change the language of an appointment you've already booked, so switching languages means canceling and booking again.

What is the difference between an issue and a risk on the PMP?+

A risk is an uncertain event that hasn't happened yet; an issue has already happened and is affecting the project. When an identified risk occurs, first carry out the planned risk response. When you discover a new risk, first record it in the risk register and analyze it.

Where can I buy the PMP vocabulary list?+

You can see part of it in the preview in this post, and the full PDF is $5.99 on Gumroad. You can also build your own list for free by collecting the terms from your error-log cards tagged C.

Sources

• PMI: Project Management Professional (PMP)
• PMI Certification Handbook (PDF): translated exams and the exhibit button
• PMP Examination Content Outline 2026 (PDF)
• PMI Study Hall Essentials