How to Become a PMP in 6 Steps

If you are planning to take the PMP exam based on the PMBOK Guide Fourth edition, read the revised How to Become a PMP in 6 Steps article.

The following information would be obsolete soon, so refer to the link above.

Dear PMP aspirants,

The objective of this topic it to help jumpstart your journey towards a successful career in Project Management.

There's a plethora of information available about the PMP exam on the internet. However, the challenge that faces most PMP aspirants is to figure out where to start. Sometimes, it may take upto 6 - 12 months for an individual to just figure out all the requisite information. This topic will help you focus on the essentials by providing you with filtered content.

This topic explains my proprietary (*winks*) 6-Step approach to achieve the PMP credentials in minimum amount of time, with reasonable effort and with the most economical means available.

If you want to read this information in a more colorful format, here's the link:

    How to become a PMP in 6 Steps

!! DISCLAIMER !! Please use this information at your own discretion. Remember, what worked for me may not work for you !

6 steps to achieving Project Management Professional (PMP) credentials:

1. Set your target certification exam date, and sign-up for Project Management Institute (PMI) membership. Detailed information about membership and exam is available on the PMI website.

This should be done before you even begin your preparation. Let's assume an average preparation time of 6 months. So, you should sign up for PMI membership about 6 months prior to your target exam date.

At this time, PMI membership fee is USD 129. There are several benefits of PMI membership. Some of the obvious ones are:

• Save on exam fee: Do you know that PMI Membership plus PMP certification exam fee for members is less than just PMP exam fee for non-members. Here's how:

PMI Membership (USD 129) + PMP Exam Fee for members (USD 405) < PMP Exam Fee for Non-members (USD 555) Refer to the PMP Handbook for more details.

• Free soft-copy of latest edition of Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) Guide.
• Free access to Project Management books at books24x7 online.
• Free access to award-winning, informative publications.
• For more details, refer to The Benefits and Types of Membership.

2. Get the right study material and resources:

• Books:
• Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) Guide by PMI, 3rd edition: This is the most important book for PMP certification exam and so called the official guide for PMPs. You can get it for free (soft-copy) with PMI membership.
• PMP Exam Prep by Rita Mulcahy, 5th ed.: This is by far the most popular book for PMP certification exam and almost a must-have.

These 2 books plus the free online books available on books24x7 (for PMI members) should be sufficient to pass the exam.

• Join online forums and/or study groups. My recommendation:
• PM Hub: PMP Lesson Learned / PMP Exam Tips & Tricks forum. This is the good online forum for PMP aspirants but I do feel that as the popularity of the forum has increased, so has the high-headedness of the moderator. The moderator seems to be driven more by commercial interests, and edits out any information that goes against his/her interest.
• Free mock exams available online:
• Q & As for the PMBOK Guide by PMI, 3rd ed.:Available free on books24x7 with PMI membership. All questions are based on PMBOK guide.
• Oliver Lehmann 1: 175 questions (downloadable)
• Oliver Lehmann 2: 75 questions (online only)
• Head First PMP: 200 questions
• PM Study: 200 questions
• Other exams (priced):
• PM Fastrack by Rita Mulcahy: Contains a question bank of 1400 questions. Highly recommended.
• Whizlabs PMP Exam Simulator: Contains about 1000+ questions. The quality of the questions on this exam is not top-notch. However, it can help you achieve the PDU requirements for the exam. See point 3 below for more details.

If you were to attempt all the practice exams mentioned above, you would be staring at a mountain of 3000+ questions ! With this amount of practice, your chances of success would be very high.

• Review the extra topics mentioned in my Lessons Learnt post.
• Research the World Wide Web, if time permits.

You can spend about 2 months in studying all the material one time (first pass). From my experience, you would need to review all the material 3 times before you take the exam, to have a realistic chance of success (your mileage may vary).

Important: Changes to the PMP Exam

Starting June 30, 2009, PMP Exam will be based on PMBOK Fourth Edition.

3. Get the 35 contact hours or PDUs, which is a pre-requisite for the PMP exam. There are several classroom and online trainings available that can help you meet this requirement. Classroom trainings may cost upto $2000. Online courses are more economical.

I used one of the cheapest alternatives available - Whizlabs PMP Exam Simulator. Read my detailed review here. It cost me about USD 100. It will not only give you 40 PDUs, but also provide 1000+ exam questions to practice. The simulator consists of 5 exams of 200 questions each (same as in the real PMP exam). You need to pass all the 5 exams with a certain percentage (62% or so). Since these exams are lot simpler than the real PMP exam and clearing them with a high percentage should not be an issue. Once you clear all the 5 exams, you need to submit (email) your report file to Whizlabs and they will email your PDU certificate (scanned copy) to you.

Plan to achieve this in the third month of your preparation. If you decide to go for the Whizlabs option, use the third month of your preparation to do a quick second pass of your study material. By this time, you would have a good handle of the subject.

4. Apply and register for the PMP certification exam with PMI. The explanation of the application process is a topic in itself and I won't delve into it too much. You can Google it and find a lot of help online. At a high-level:

• You need to report your project management hours to PMI as part of your application. Record your project management hours in an excel sheet first. This will come very handy when filling up the online application form. A sample worksheet is located here.
• You need to achieve at least 35 PDUs at the time of application. Therefore, step 3 is a pre-requisite for step 4.
• Apply online on PMI website.
• Register (pay fee) for the exam after the application has been approved. Note that your application approval is only valid for one year. You must register for the exam within one year from the approval date.

Note that PMI does not ask for any documentary or other evidence at the time of application. However, it may pick up some applications for audit on a random basis. If your application is selected for audit, you will be asked to provide evidence of your project management experience and PDU certificate(s).

PMI typically takes about 1 week for application approval. If your application is picked up for audit, PMI may contact you even after your application has been approved.

5. Book the exam with Prometric well in advance (at least 3 months in advance), as slots are limited in Singapore.

You can do this immediately after you register for the exam. Note that you have exactly one year to take the exam from the date you register (and pay) for the exam with PMI. It is your responsibility to ensure that you book and take your exam with Prometric within one year from the date of registration.

6. Use the last 3 months to study hard and finally go for it. If you follow the schedule from step 1-5, you would only need to study for about 1 hr per day for the last 3 months in order to sail through smoothly. You can take the exam even earlier if you feel you are ready and manage to find an earlier exam slot with Prometric.

Good luck to all PMP aspirants !

Please feel free to post your questions and comments.

If you are planning to take the PMP exam based on the PMBOK Guide Fourth edition, read the revised How to Become a PMP in 6 Steps article.