tips for the pmp exam

8/14/2019 Tips for the PMP Exam

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Tips for the PMP Exam

Work Experience Calculations

Approximately 10% to 15% of applications are randomly selected for audit bythe PMI. Once your application has been approved, PMI will send anauthorization letter, allowing you to schedule your exam. Once theauthorization letter is received, you have one year to take the exam.

One of the main elements of the application is the Work Experience. Toexpedite the calculation of the detailed breakout of your work experience hours

by category, use an Excel spreadsheet. If you do not have a current andcomplete list of the projects you have worked on over the prior five years orso, start with your resume and list all the projects you have worked on alongwith their date ranges. Once you have filled in all the gaps of time, estimatethe number of hours per week you spent on each project, and then extend thatto the number of hours per month. Multiply the monthly hours by the numberof months to get your total hours worked on a project. If during a certainperiod you worked on several projects at the same time, estimate the percentof time spent on each project. Let Excel then calculate the number of hours perproject and per phase (process group). Tweak the percentages and let Excelprovide you with the individual numbers that you will input into the online PMIapplication. The PMI online system will add up the total hours on each projectand will give you a summary.

Before you enter your numbers to your online PMI application, make sure yourestimate of hours truly indicate the hours spent on the project, not just atwork. For example, if you are lucky enough to only work 40 hours per week, itis not realistic to assume all 40 hours were spent on one project, as sometime will be spent on administrative tasks, other meetings, personal issues,etc.

Finally, if you have a university degree, PMI states that experience should begained over a minimum of three years and a maximum of six years. In otherwords, you cannot state that you have 5,000 hours of experience gathered intwo years. Make sure your earliest start date is at least 3 years old !


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PMP Examination Fees

Your status at the time you begin the online application process determines thefee that will be charged to take the exam. The fees are as follows:

$555 Initial Certification Fee (non-member of PMI) $405 Initial Certification Fee (member of PMI) $150 less !

PMI Membership Fee

Annual PMI Membership Fee $119.00Conclusion: When paying for the PMP exam, PMI members save $150.00.Joining PMI costs $119.00 plus a $10.00 application fee, so if you join, it costs$129.00, but later saves $150.00. Not only is that a good investment, but youalso get the benefits that PMI membership provides for one year.

What does "Contact Hour" mean ?

The PMI defines a Contact Hour as follows: "One contact hour is equal to onehour of participation in an educational activity". This means that if you sit in aclassroom for 60 minutes or you spend 60 minutes online on a projectmanagement training you have just earned 1 Contact Hour. To register for thePMP Exam you need to demonstrate that you have earned 35 Contact Hours in

Project Management.

Do you have to go through an R .E.P institution to earn your " 35Contact Hours" ?

Not necessarily. Many universities are not Registered Education Provider(R.E.P) but offer excellent Project Management courses. Also many web sites(including ours) offer online project management training without beingregistered as an R.E.P. You can get your 35 contact hours from varioustrainings and institutions.


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What types of trainings are acceptable as Contact Hours by the

PMI ?

Any type of project management training can be counted towards your contacthours for the PMP certification. The training must be related to projectmanagement and can include content on project quality, scope, time, cost,human resources, communications, risk, procurement, or integrationmanagement. Courses and training sessions offered by one or more of thefollowing education providers apply:

A. PMI Registered Education Providers (R.E.P.s)B. Courses or programs offered by PMI Component organizationsC. Employer/company-sponsored programsD. Training companies or consultantsE. Distance-learning companies, including an end of course assessment (exam)F. University/college academic and continuing education programs

In our case (www.pmchampion.com) many of our products (such as PMP Gold,Platinum and Diamond Packages) fall under Category E. In other words, the35 hours of education that you will receive are acceptable by the PMI as 35Contact Hours, and you will get a Certificate to prove it.

How long ago can the training have been ?

It doesn't matter how long ago you received a training. You can claim contact

hours for it as long as it was on a project management topic. Here is what thePMI says: "Document all education hours regardless of when they wereaccrued." This means that if you took an "Introduction to Project Management"course 20 years ago, then you can still claim it. However, it is always best tohave some form of documentation or proof of your participation in this course.And most of us don't keep training certificates for this long...


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What documentation do I need for the 35 Contact Hours ?

Please note that any form of documentation is helpful. This is because the PMIperforms random audits on all PMP applications. We therefore recommend thatyou use the following rule: If you cannot prove that you have participated in atraining it is best that you do NOT claim contact hours for it.

If the course you took was an online course, then the PMI requires "an end ofcourse assessment". This usually means, that the online training company willask you to take an online test and then you will receive or can download acertificate. That's what happens with most of our courses.

If the course was a classroom course, then we recommend that you have someform of proof that you did indeed participate in the course like: invoice, coursecurriculum, certificate of attendance or any other document that will

satisfactorily show that you were there.

Is " Contact Hour" and "P .D.U" the same ?

Note: PDU stands for Professional Development Unit.

Technically they are not the same, but if you are preparing for the PMP Examyou can "think" of them as being the same. Here is the difference:

You need "Contact Hours" before you apply for the PMP Exam. You will need "PDU"s after you have passed the PMP Exam in order to

keep your PMP certification going.

Maintaining PMP Certification

After passing the PMP Exam, certified Project Managers must demonstratecommitment to the profession by accumulating 60 Professional Development Units(PDUs) over a 3-year period beginning with the first full calendar year after passingthe exam.


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What has changed in the PMBOK Guide 4th Edition?

On December 31st 2008, Project Management Institute (PMI) released thePMBOKGuide 4th Edition. Based on the information published by PMI website:

o Since July 1st 2009, PMP exam is based on PMBOK 4th Edition.o Do not register for trainings that are based on PMBOK 3rd Edition. Ask

before registering.

As per PMI, the Fourth edition of the PMBOK Guide will reflect a focus onimproved consistency and clarity. Great consideration has been given toremove redundant information and add clarifying statements where needed.Significant improvements have been made to improve readability, andterminology has been updated only to present them consistently in a verb-noun format.

The major differences between the Third Edition and the Fourth Edition aresummarized below:

All process names are now in a verb-noun format. For example "ScopeDefinition" becomes "Define Scope".

Efforts were made to distinguish between Enterprise EnvironmentalFactors and Organizational Process Assets.

A standard approach for discussing requested changes, preventiveactions, corrective actions and defect repairs has been employed.

The processes decreased from 44 to 42: Two processes were deleted. Two processes were added. Six processes were reconfigured into 4 processes in the

Procurement knowledge area. To provide clarity, a distinction was made between the Project

Management Plan and project documents used to manage the project. The distinction between the information in the Project Charter and the

Project Scope Statement was clarified. The process flow diagrams at the beginning of chapters 4-12 have been

deleted and replaced with data flow diagrams. A data flow diagram for each process has been created to show where

information comes from as an input and where it goes to as an output. A new appendix was added that addresses key interpersonal skills that

a project manager utilizes when managing a project.

PMI also notes that a complete list of changes will be found in Appendix A ofthe new PMBOK Guide-Fourth Edition. For more information on the changesplease refer to PMI web site. You can also purchase the new Fourth editionHERE but you have to be a PMI member and login first.

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