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Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Steps to Apply for PMP exam

Steps to apply for PMP exam -

  1. Visit PMI at their website – www.pmi.org
  2. Create your profile – mention all the details such as contact details etc.
  3. Go to “Certification”
  4. Click on the icon “Ready to Apply” – you’ll then have to select the 2nd choice on the next page which is for PMP exam which is also the status of your application & changes as you go on clearing the required stages
  5. Once you click on the PMP exam link you’ll be guided to the application form. If you’ve already registered then your basic details such as name, contact etc. will appear as per the details of initial registration, so be careful when you register
  6. The application is arranged in the following sequence – Highest Education -> Project details such as no. of hours for each activity of all the 5 process groups, basic details of the project in 300-500 characters involving objective, key deliverables & outcome and the details of the reference (along with contact no. & e-mail) whom you’ll mention for each project -> confirmation of address -> submission for approval
  7. Please note that the project details should sum to 4500 hrs. (or above) & 36 (or above) non-overlapping months in last 6 years which is clearly summarized & shown as you go on updating the projects
  8. Once you’re finished with updating the projects details & applied for approval, the status of your profile as in “step-4″ will be updated as “under review by PMI”
  9. PMI then takes at least 5 business days to approve your application & does a random audit on your details with the references you mentioned
  10. Once you receive the approval you get an year’s time to pay & schedule the test at your nearest location, the status of your profile as in “step-4″ will be updated as “approved”
  11. You can’t proceed any further from here on unless you pay the test fee of US$ 555 and any scheduling of the test can be done after the same
  12. Once you make the payment, PMI provides a code for test scheduling and the status of your profile as in “step-4″ will be updated with payment details ”Schedule Test”
  13. PMI has hired “Prometric Testing Solutions” to conduct the test on their behalf and when you click “Schedule Test” on PMI’s website you’ll be directed to www.prometric.com for further scheduling
  14. You’ll have to enter the code as received in step – 12 & first four letters of your last name & Prometric then allows you to scan through the availability of test center at your nearest location.
  15. Generally, PMI recommends that the test should be scheduled at least 5-6 weeks in advance. The scheduling should be done as per your confidence level. Please note you can’t even scan the availability of test center unless you pay US$ 555 (= INR 25,000).
  16. The facilities at test center are good & you’ve to take your photo id along, which is also having signature, generally the passport is preferred.
  17. The test is faster than what is available at Simplilearn’ s website, of course, while the test is locally served, Simplilearn takes time as it has to be done through internet
  18. When you attempt the test you can “Mark” the questions that your aren’t sure of & review them later, you can review any question picking from the list or can review all the questions. You can even change any answer you’ve selected during review
  19. Once completed you’ve to click on “End of Exam” & it gives you the final report of your test, instantly, which indicates the result of your test (Pass or Fail) & the level of proficiency (Proficient, Moderately Proficient & Below Proficient) for all 5 process groups & Professional & Social Responsibility.
  20. All in all, the difficulty level is average and not very tough but this may vary test to test.
  21. The test center will give you a hard copy of an auto generated PMI PMP exam test report indicating the result & proficiency levels, this hard copy is the provisional certificate till PMI sends the original in another 4-6 weeks

Courtesy: http://www.simplilearn.com/simplilearn/

PMP Examination changes from 31st August 2011


It’s long been a mystery to PMP’s why Professional and Social Responsibility, which is central to the Project Management profession (as it is to any profession) should be omitted from the PMBOK and treated as a separate subject in the PMP exam – almost as if it is optional!
The PMBOK is NOT changing but the exam is, on Aug 31 2011.
What is changing?
Professional and Social Responsibility will now be integrated into the other questions and no longer a separate topic. So that means (quite rightly) when answering a question, as well as looking for the “technically” correct answer, you will also have to consider the ethical and professional aspects too.
In real terms this means that 30% of the questions on the exam will be changed.
Delay in online Exam results
Another big, but temporary, change is that if you do the online PMP exam from August 31, you will NOT receive your results for 4 to 6 weeks!
This could be very upsetting from many people, but I believe this is a sensible approach.
When the PMP exam switched form third Edition PMBOK to Forth edition, of the first 1,000 to attempt the exam, only a handful of people passed. This resulted in PMP lowering the pass mark, and re-marking all exams. Subsequently they changed many fails to passes, but as you can imagine, this was a traumatic experience for many.
So this time when you attempt the exam, PMI will spend a period of weeks analyzing the attempts, and then tuning the system before finally releasing the test results.
Obviously after the problems with the new exam have been sorted out then you can expect a return to instant results from online testing centers.
As you would imagine, integrating Professional and Social Responsibility into the other topics will alter the distribution of questions by domain.
The new breakdown is:
Domain % of Questions
Initiating 13%
Planning 24%
Executing 30%
Monitoring &
Controlling 25%
Closing 8%
The total number of questions on the exam is still 200, and the total Pre Test questions (i.e. question that receive no mark) is still 25

For Your Information: You can Visit http://www.simplilearn.com/simplilearn/