What is the PMP Exam All About? - Tips and Tricks

One of the most high demand and credible certification available is the PMP® (Project Management Professional) certification offered by PMI® (Project Management Institute). The PMP demonstrates advanced knowledge of and experience with Project Management concepts. Today, there are over 250,000 PMP-certified project managers worldwide. To obtain PMP certification, a candidate must satisfy the followings:

Educational requirements
Experiential requirements
Agree to and adhere to PMI Code of Professional Conduct
Pass the PMP Certification Examination

The Project Management Professional (PMP) is the project management credential of choice for numerous industries and companies. By attaining the PMP credential, your name will be included in the largest and most prestigious group of credentialed professionals in the project management community. Many who have PMP designation have received raises, or promotions as a result.

2. PMP Exam Passing Score

There are 200 questions you need to answer in 4 hours. 25 pretest questions are randomly placed throughout the test to gather statistical information on the performance of these questions in order to determine whether they may be used on future examinations. These 25 pretest items are included in the 200-question examination, but will not be included in the pass/fail determination; candidates will be scored on 175 questions.

There are still 200 questions you need to answer in 4 hours. You will not be scored for 25 questions. But, you will not know which questions are pretest questions and if you will be scored or not for a question. Therefore, you must make every effort to answer all of the exam questions correctly.

PMI made a decision in 2006 to no more publish passing scores for its exams. In 2007, PMI also removed all quantitative elements from the post-exam review for test candidates. The passing score is estimated inside a range between 61% and 75%.

3. PMP Exam Itself

The first 15 minutes, you will be asked to go over a tutorial. 15 minutes to review tutorial is not included 4 hours exam duration. Reviewing tutorial approximately takes 5 minutes. You can use 10 minutes of this time to jot down formulas, all processes, and knowledge areas on your scratch paper as you did in the 'Exam Cheat Sheet Workbook'. Don't skip this step. During the exam, you need to focus on the question instead of trying to remember formulas. You can just refer to written formulas when those questions arise rather than having to reach into your memory during the stress of a timed exam.

25 pretest questions will be randomly placed throughout the new examination to gather statistical information on the performance of these questions in order to determine whether they may be used on future examinations. These 25 pretest items are included in the 200-question examination, but will not be included in the pass/fail determination; candidates will be scored on 175 questions.

There are still 200 questions you need to answer in 4 hours. You will not be scored for 25 questions but you will not know which questions are pretest questions and if you will be scored or not for a question. Therefore, you must make every effort to answer all of the questions correctly.

Each question on this exam is worth exactly as much as the next. The very simple ones and the more complex ones are not weighted against each other; all are the same weight. So if you do not want to deal with a question that you do not understand at first, do not.

Select Mark for review for your answers you are not sure about. After you complete all questions, review marked questions. Make sure that you have some time to review marked questions at least once more.

Do NOT leave blank any question. There is no penalty for incorrect answers.

All questions are worth the same value. One question, one point.

The questions are in random order. They are not grouped by knowledge area.

Look at all the answers before you answer the question. Take time to read all the answers, even if you are sure that the answer under the letter A is the correct one. You may find that there will be an even better answer in the other options.

If the question is too long, first read the last sentence to understand what the question is? Sometimes, the information given in the question is not necessary to be able to answer the question. However, read the question at least once.

If you are not sure the answer of the question, eliminate the answers. Usually, you can reduce the possible correct answer to two options. Use your logic and select the best answer between two.

Getting done early helps. It gives you a chance to go back over some of your answers.

Esra Guven, BScEE, PMP
Founder/Director, STAR-PM,
http://www.star-pm.com

Esra Guven is the Founder of Star-PM and serves in the position of Director. In this capacity, Ms. Guven prepares and provides all the informative study guides on the website and in the published study guide. She is a qualified trainer who has over 10 years of project management experience in the Information Technology area. She is also author of a PMP Certification Book called "Pass PMP Exam on Your First Try, Aligned with PMBOK 4th Edition" which is recently published in Canada.