We often seek to verify and document our knowledge when learning about various project management methods. One of the most prestigious and difficult-to-obtained certifications is Project Management Professional (PMP®), the leading organization issues Project Management Institute (PMI®) for project managers.
Having mastered the knowledge of Prince 2 and Agile and Scrum methodologies, I decided to learn the knowledge spread by PMI and try to earn this certification. It turned out that the devil is not as black as he is painted!
You will read the article on how to do it successfully and cheaply. I hope to help you plan your preparation for passing this exam and, most of all, to motivate you to take the challenge.
About the PMP certificate
To sit for the PMP® exam, it is necessary to have a minimum of 36 months of project management experience gained within the last 8 years (if you have a college degree, if not, 60 months of experience is required) and 35 hours of project management education (or CAPM certification).
You describe this experience in the application form on the PMI website by telling your positions, projects, tasks, project duration, and the name of the company you work for. Also, provide a contact person if you need to confirm this information. I don’t know exactly what the verification procedure is like – I have not been verified.
PMP® Exam: is available in 16 languages, including English and Polish. I recommend choosing English, as most of the literature is in that language.
PMP® certification is valid for 3 years – to renew it requires passing the PMP® exam again or earning 60 PDUs (Professional Development Units), which I will describe later.
Prices vary depending on whether one is a PMI member. You can also buy membership at a favorable price by paying for the exam. Currently, the prices are 405 dollars for PMI members and 575 dollars for non-members. Current prices can be checked on the PMI website.
Online exam
The exam takes place in two forms:
- online by appointment; before the online exam, we install the Pearson VUE program.
- at designated Pearson exam centers.
I chose the online option.
The exam consists of 180 test questions (single-choice, multiple-choice, text completion, item matching) and lasts 230 minutes. It is possible to leave early. However, it would be best if you were prepared to sit for a long time. I found it stressful and uncomfortable.
There are rules during the exam:
- you cannot leave the room,
- you must be alone in the room,
- you are prohibited from using any aids, including the PMBOK® Guide,
- and you cannot use headphones.
Exam tips
Based on my experience, I would like to give you some advice:
- Use the restroom and drink water. It seems obvious, however, that you are concentrating in front of the computer for an extended time.
- Arrange the exam for an hour when you have the greatest cognitive capacity – the exam is tiring.
- On the exam day, take a day off work – it will be hard to return to difficult tasks immediately.
- Trust your common sense – most rules are logical, you know these situations from your work, and you know what to do!
- Try not to stress; you have been preparing, so it will be easier than you think 😊
Getting knowledge – how I approached it
When I took the PMP, I was already Prince2, AgilePM, Scrum certified, Six Sigma Green Belt, and ITIL 4 Foundation certified.
I started preparing for the exam 6 months before. I first refreshed this knowledge, with a special emphasis on Agile and Scrum, knowing that PMI requires a large area of current material. Later, I read the PMBOK version 7 manual.
It was tough for me to remember all the phases of a project and the processes taking place, so I wrote them out on pieces of paper, mixed them up, and laid them out on the floor, practicing assignments. There were no questions on the exam about such detailed aspects of the processes, but it was necessary to know what happens in a given phase of the project.
Prepare on your own, or use a training company?
You can prepare yourself using a manual or by purchasing online training courses – there are many on platforms such as Udemy or Coursera. The lowest price I’ve seen is $80. I managed to watch one using Coursera’s trial period. Later, I went to a 5-day training course. Several companies provide this type of training, with prices ranging from 2K to 4K PLN.
I was already prepared; however, I was afraid of approaching the exam and wanted to feel more confident. Before the exam, I answered sample questions on the Internet. You can find several hundred of them by typing “PMP Exam questions” into Google, but there is no guarantee that the questions will be similar. Many are outdated; many questions are about agile and distributed team management.
My advice to prepare well
I can advise everyone who is preparing for the PMP exam:
- Start early, at least 3 months in advance, so you have time to practice the tasks of each chapter in the textbook.
- When reading about an aspect, imagine situations at work – how you would behave, or how the textbook recommends behaving. A large number of questions on the exam are situational: there is a project situation described, and often you have to answer the question of how a project member should behave.
You can see the results of my study below:
Recertification and PDUs (Professional Development Units)
PMP® certification is valid for 3 years – to extend its validity, it is required to retake the PMP® exam or earn 60 PDUs (Professional Development Units). How do this? One point corresponds to one hour spent studying, teaching others, or volunteering.
Educational PDU points can be earned through professional seminars, webinars, classes, or even self-study, for example, by reading an article on the PMI website, attending a training course, preferably one that is already in the training database on the PMI website with a description of how many points participation guarantees. You can also give your examples; in my experience, most are accepted.
PDU Giving Back points are awarded for volunteering, mentoring, etc.
Activities should be reported in the system on the PMI website and show points in categories:
- Education (min. 35)
- Ways of Working (min. 8)
- Power Skills (min. 8)
- Business Acumen (min. 8)
- Giving Back (max. 25)
- Work as a Practitioner (max. 8)
- Other Giving Back (unlimited)
It is also necessary to pay a 150-dollar fee.
Summary
This certificate is one of the few worthwhile because the questions are designed to test the application of knowledge in practice.
You can answer many questions through work situations, using experience and common sense. The most important thing is to believe that you can do it, not stress, and calmly answer the questions, marking those where you have doubts so you can return to them later. Good luck!
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If you’re interested in IT career development, including earning certifications, be sure to also take a look at other articles by our experts.
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