This is my first post on my site therefore forgive me for any mistakes 🙂
I wanted to help people who want to take PMP certificate so I decided to prepare a basic guide with my experiences. This guide is prepared for PMI 6.0 standarts.
Part I: PreparatIon
As you can find from PMI site, there are some requirements for being eligable for PMP certificate. Let’s start with PMI definition of the requirements:
A secondary degree (high school diploma, associate’s degree, or the global equivalent) with at least five years of project management experience, with 7,500 hours leading and directing projects and 35 hours of project management education.
OR
A four-year degree (bachelor’s degree or the global equivalent) and at least three years of project management experience, with 4,500 hours leading and directing projects and 35 hours of project management education.
Practically, you need to show at least 4500 hours(around three years) in last eight years project management experience. Three years are not accepted as concurrently. Means if you have managed two projects concurrently in one year, your experience is counted for only one project.
The key point is, there is no must for being a actual project manager. Being a part of projects as leading/directing role can be enough. You can enter your experience from PMI site. A reference must be given in projects for further audits. You can also use freelance projects if can prove what you have done.
I strongly recommend to take project management education with PMI approach. PMI certificated education center can be useful for that. You can also use “Project Management” courses which you have passed in university. There is no time restriction for education however it is better if you act fast!
PART II: Purchase an exam
This purchasing the exam deserves an another part because it is rather expensive and important milestone to gain a mindset for PMP exam. You can purchase the exam online from the PMI site. It will cost about 534 $(129$ for PMI membership fee, 405$ for exam) Exam without membership is more than 534$(555$ actually) therefore you need a membership.
I recommend to select online examination(CBT) since it is the quickest and easiest way for passing the exam. You need to select the exam location and timing.
While selecting examination language, I recommend to select your native language as aid. While in the exam, a parted screen will display both English and your native versions. This is because your native language helps you to understand the questions.
Purchase the exam at least one month further to make enough study to pass. Cancellation period can be done freely before one month therefore choose a date where you will not be busy other than the exam. After you bought the exam you can plan your study.
PART III: STUDYING for exam
You can hear about PMBOK 5th Edition as a PMP guidebook. It will give the basic concepts of Project Management however I do not recommend to study from the book for PMP exam.
It might be surprising to learn that PMI’s book is not useful to pass PMP exam. My recommendation is Rita’s PMP 8th edition which covers all of the exam topics and guides. Its questions are very similar to PMP exam. Studying from Rita’s book will enough to pass the exam.
While I can not give all the topics for PMP exam, here are the key concept points that you will find useful:
- Learn earned value, planned value, cpi, tcpi, spi concepts very well because the questions will come indirectly.
- Focus on change request(integration management) processes since there will be a lot of questions coming from this topic.
- Know the concepts and differences between quality plan, perform quality assurance, control quality
- What is project charter and what does it include?
- Why do you use performance reports for? What happens if there is a problem?
- What do you do on project closure phase?
- Types of supplier contracts. Where do you use when?
- Types of conflict types and solutions.
PMP exam questions focuses on situations and comments. There are lots of questions about “what is the first thing to do?” on specific conditions. You need to gain PMI’s project management approach rather that “logical” answers. Only thing that is prohibited by PMI is use “gold plating” which means adding extra features to a project.
Confused? Here’s an example that explains the PMI approach: Imagine there is fire in your kitchen. What is the FIRST thing to do? Most people will try to make an emergency call however PMI might want you to use fire extinguisher first. You only need to solve the questions given in Rita’s PMP 8th Edition to understand PMI approach.
All of the PMP topics and relative question are covered in Rita’s PMP 8th edition book. It is strongly recommended.
Keep in mind that studying PMP in English is most advantageous however taking language support will make difference if you did not understanding the question. The monitor will part horizontally for two languages.
PART IV: KEEPING YOUR PMP ALIVE
After you pass PMP exam, you will need to do additional things to earn 60 PDU(Professional Development Units) in about 3 years. Each hour you work is counted as 1 PDU. There are lots of alternatives but I will highlight most useful ones.
You can investigate webinars from PMI web site which are most useful. Some of them are free and some of them are not. Webinars are updated regularly thereforeyou can find updated webinars.
By reading project management books will also help you to earn PDUs. It will be beneficial if you take notes while reading.
Managing a project will also help you to earn PDUs. However maximum 45 hours(PDU) are accepted as managing a project.
When you are in first year, participating a local PMI organization will be beneficial for you. You can attend seminars and gain PDUs automatically given by local PMI organisation.
That’s it for now. I wanted to cover most of the topics from my experiences for PMP certification. Wish you good luck!
Onur Demir 