Expect to take at least a full day of time filling out the application for the PMP exam. It is best to do this online at the PMI website – http://www.pmi.org/certapp You can use experience going back eight years, but you’ll need to have all your records organized. A spreadsheet that is very useful for organizing this information can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/yehhygl It has basic instructions from the creator, and requests that their copyright be protected. It is completely free, and I’ve heard back from students that they found it quite helpful. For more information on the entire application process, please see the complete overview of the application process in our blog. Also, we will be glad to provide a free overview of the process over the phone. Please give us a call.

Here are two or three good things to do before attending a PMP Prep class. First, join PMI! – (Visit http://www.pmi.org) – After joining PMI, the price for the PMP test is reduced by almost exactly one year’s membership amount. Then, you can download at no cost electronic copies of the PMBOK Guide (in .pdf format), and you get the reduced member rates on hardcopies of any of their books. The cost of the PMBOK Guide on Amazon is about the same though as the member rate. Secondly, read the first three chapters of the PMBOK Guide. It’s a dry, technical read – but the first three chapters are a good introduction into foundational concepts needed for the exam. Lastly, consider purchasing and reading one of the PMP Prep guides. Three of the better books are the ones by Rita Mulcahy, Andy Crowe’s book or Kim Heldman’s book. These are all excellent, and provide practice tests too. Some students find these books to be sufficient preparation alone, but that seems to be the exception. I know of only a handful of PMPs in our Washington, DC chapter who prepared entirely on their own.

Yes, this is correct! The PMP Exam changed significantly on August 31 of this year. Thirty percent of the questions were changed to be more in line with the recent “Role Delineation Study” that PMI completed in 2010. The PMBOK Guide is not changing for the time being – (the test will still be based on version four of the PMBOK Guide) – but students will need to be familiar and up-to-date with the Role Delineation Study. – (See our blog for additional material and thoughts mapping the RDS to the PMBOK Guide.)

It is a computerized test you will take at a Prometric testing center – (in the U.S). You could opt to take a written test, but I know of only one or two students in the past 4 years opt for this: it would take more than a month to get your results. There are 200 multiple choice questions, and it is strictly a pass/fail test. The passing score is probably 61% – or a percentage very close to this. (PMI no longer will say what the passing score is, but all indications are that this is the passing score – just like it was when the test was based on version three of the PMBOK Guide.) Please see our blog for more details on background for the PMP Exam.

Yes we do, but for the time being, we are only scheduling “public classes” in the DC metro area. This allows us to keep our costs lower, and provide premium PMP training at a very discounted rate. For corporations that would like on-site training, we welcome the opportunity to discuss providing such training anywhere in the U.S. or Europe or Asia. We can also provide customized PM Fundamentals classes or classes on specific knowledge areas such as Risk Management, Earned Value Management, or Leadership training.