This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams.

In this episode you will learn:

- To master the three core inputs for all Earned Value Management (EVM) calculations: Planned Value (PV), Earned Value (EV), and Actual Cost (AC).

- That for performance indices (SPI, CPI), a value less than 1 is unfavorable, while for variances (SV, CV), a negative value is unfavorable.

- A simple mnemonic to remember the core formulas: "Earned Value (EV) is always first" — either as the numerator in indices or the first term in variances.

- How to select the correct Estimate at Completion (EAC) formula based on exam keywords indicating if cost variances are typical and expected to continue, or if they are atypical one-time events.

- To recognize that the To-Complete Performance Index (TCPI) calculates the required future cost efficiency needed to meet a specific budget target, whether it's the original Budget at Completion (BAC) or the revised Estimate at Completion (EAC).

For more free exam prep tools, practice questions, and AI-powered explanations, visit https://open-exam-prep.com/ or YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Open-exam-prep