John visited a doctor for a regular health checkup. After examining him, the doctor asked him to go for a medical test. John took the test next morning, and the report was delivered to him in the evening. As he was reading the report, his body started trembling, heart started pounding and senses went numb. He had tested positive for a dreaded disease. He called the doctor, but the doctor wasn't available. After spending a long night in agony and distress, he got a call from the lab next morning. They told him that the report he received actually belonged to another patient!
Imagine if this had happened to you. What would be your reaction? It would not be an exaggeration to say that something similar happened to dozens of PMP® aspirants last week.
The PMP exam changed on Aug 31, 2011. PMI® made the following announcements before the change:
- PMP candidates who take the updated computer-based examination on or after 31 August will not receive immediate results at the Prometric testing center.
- All candidates who take the exam 31 August or shortly thereafter can expect to receive their examination results by mid-October.
Many of them turned to online forums for answers. Some reported their results on this blog. Within a few hours, I got several such reports and decided to setup a survey form to track the results. I told people not to lose hope, and follow the PMI Appeals procedure to request re-verification of their result. But some seemed to have resigned to their fate.
After spending 2 days in distress, they finally got an email from PMI on Monday. The email read:
Now what do you make of this blunder? PMI claims to be "the World's Leading Professional Association for Project Management". Are such mistakes going to do any good to that claim? Given that they have a history of such issues, shouldn't they have made a special effort to avoid a repeat of previous mistakes? Could these issues not be avoided by implementing the same project management best practices that PMI preaches?
Please use the comments section below and share your thoughts on this matter.
Image credit: griffithchris
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Some said that they dropped the passing score! Is it true?
ReplyDeletePMI totally failed in their Project Mgmt process in this project. Never expected from PMI...
ReplyDeletesome one said that they may dropped the passing mark??
ReplyDeleteGTU
This incident reflects very badly on their Project Management Capabilities.
ReplyDeletePMI should practice what they Preach.
Harwinder,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your all your suggestions and very useful information in Deep Fried and BrainBOK. Passed PMP on 11th Nov.
Regards
Geoff
Geoff,
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! I'm really glad to know that you found DFB and BrainBOK useful, especially the latter because I'm putting a lot of effort into it these days. It will be great if you could post a comment or two on the BrainBOK Reviews page.
Also, try to post your lessons learned on the Lessons Learned page.
Thanks, and good luck for the future.
PMI failed in their Quality Assurance and Control process. It's a shame.
ReplyDeleteI failed the exam I took on 12/16. Is there anyway to get to know the scores so that I can plan better OR ask for re evaluation of the criteria they are using to arrive at PASS if scoring marks is not the only way
ReplyDeleteHello Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to hear that.
Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do about what has happened, but you can certainly prepare more and pass the exam in the next attempt.
If you strongly feel (absolutely positive) that you did very well on the exam, then you could try your luck by filing a dispute (refer to the PMP Handbook for the procedure).
Click on the "Passing Score" Category link on the right to read more about that topic.
Good luck.
Don't worry just clear it this time around! Cheers
ReplyDeleteSo is there any data on how many people pass % vs. fail?
ReplyDeleteOf those who fail, how many % come back to try again, vs. give up?
How many % pass on the second try?
How many of those who take long courses for exam prep, not just weekend cram-camps, pass on the first try vs. those who take the weekend reviews?
Those are good questions, but I don't have the answers.
DeleteMy guess is that lots of people fail in the first attempt, maybe 30% or even more. Many of those come from boot camps that claim 99% passing rate. There's a also a large population that takes those 5 day courses, but eventually don't take the exam.
Probably I'll setup new surveys on these questions.
Thanks for your comments.
In all the texts and sample exams I've been using, there have been an appalling number of questions written in really poor English, to the point where the question is not even understandable. Are the questions on the exam that bad as well, or am I just seeing various author's poor attempts at replicating exam questions without the benefit of critical editing?
ReplyDeleteWell, if the questions are not even understandable, then you shouldn't be spending too much time on them. The real exam had a few mistakes too and some of the questions were not particularly well written, in my opinion. But that was four and a half years ago. Others who have taken the exam recently can tell better.
DeleteI am finishing a masters degree in Construction Engineering Management and studied for the PMP using the Rita M Manual. I can almost recite the book cover to cover. I failed my first attempt
ReplyDeleteat the PMP. I can seriously say that the test I took bared no resemblance to the practice tests or flash cards in Rita's guide.
Clearly, the test was derived from IT manuals and not Project Management Material. Sadly , I will retest in early 2013 and hope for a test with less bias and more common sense. Tragic!!!