Project managers can gain official certification as a "Project Management Professional" by completing the certification requirements laid out by PMI, the Project Management Institute. To become a "Project Management Professional", aka PMP, one must fulfill coursework, educational, and experience requirements, as well as take the PMP exam. The PMP exam is a 4-hour multiple choice exam with 200 questions.
Registering for the PMP Exam
In order to even register for the exam, you must apply to take it by submitting proof of your eligibility to PMI. There are 2 standards of PMP eligibility depending on your educational level.
No Bachelors Degree: 60 months worth of experience managing (non-overlapping) projects, and 35 hours of formal project management education taken at an approved school or training program.
Bachelors Degree or Higher: 36 months worth of experience managing (non-overlapping) projects, and 35 hours of formal project management education taken at an approved school or training program.
Once you have submitted your application, it will be reviewed by PMI and they will issue you a testing permit to take the PMP exam. See the PMI Handbook for more discussion. The testing fee is $405 for members of PMI, and $555 for non-members. The retake fee is only $275 for members and $375 for non members.
PMP Exam Administration & Structure
The PMP exam is usually administered computer based testing format, CBT. Unless there is no computer testing within a reasonable distance, you can arrange to take the paper based PMP exam. For computer based testing, you will be given a confirmation number that allows you to schedule the test at a Prometric Testing Center. You can take the test at any time or date that the testing center is open. You will need to bring your ID and the PMP testing permit that PMI mails to you. The PMP exam permit is valid for one year and you can take the exam up to 3 times during the validity period.
There are a total of 200 multiple choice questions on the exam and they have 4 answer choices each. Of the 200 questions, 25 are unscored experimental questions or control questions. You won't know which PMP exam questions are control questions, so approach every question as though it counts.
Since there are 240 minutes of testing and 200 questions, this works out to 72 second per question; just a little over a minute. The questions will test your knowledge of facts and terminology used in project managing, the basic principals of risk management, budgeting, and other aspects of managing complex projects. There are analytical and computational problems as well. Here is a break down of the exam by question type:
Initiating: ~11% of exam, or 22 questions
Planning: ~23% of exam, or 46 questions
Executing: ~27% of exam, or 54 questions
Monitoring and Controlling: ~21% of exam, or 42 questions
Closing: ~9% of exam, or 18 questions
Professional Responsibility: ~9% of exam, or 18 questions
You are allowed a 1 hour break during the exam.
PMP Exam Scoring
The PMP exam is scored on a qualitative scale, not a quantitative scale. If you correctly answer at least 137 of the 175 real questions, you are granted a "pass." If you miss more than 38 of the 175 scored questions, you will not pass.
Additionally, you will receive qualitative scores for the 6 different subdomains of the test. The 3 qualitative scores are "Proficient," "Moderately Proficient," and "Below Proficient." They should give you an idea of the areas in which you can improve your knowledge.
A Note on Completing 35 Contact Hours of Project Management Education
According the the PMI handbook, you can obtain project management credits from the following types of institutions and programs:
- PMI Registered Education Providers (REP's)
- PMI Component organizations
- Employer/company-sponsored programs
- Training companies or consultants
- Distance-learning companies, including an end-of-course assessment
- University/college academic and continuing education programs
