Learn from an expert project management professional (PMP) trainer the process for applying and attaining the PMP credential from PMI.
Hello my name is Edward Shehab in this video I’m going to cover the steps that you would need to follow to become PMP certified the PMP stands for project management professional and it is by far the most important industry recognized certification for project managers the PMP is issued by the project management institute which has been around since 1969 and having this PMP credential tells others that you can speak and understand the global language of project management it puts you into the club of people who are certified in a field that is one of the most widely needed across the whole globe we can see here that we have nine hundred and eleven thousand certified PMPs across the whole globe and that is bringing us pretty close to 1 million people very soon the next one up from there is the CAPM which is a junior level one which does not require any kind of experience just a little bit of training 21 hours of training and you see we have 38,000 people certified at CAPM c.a.p would sound to be easier to get certified in but once you’re certified as CAPM you have you know you will after five years they expect you to pursue PMP so if if I were you and if you want to go by my recommendations if you’re going to study for CAPM then you might as well just aim for PMP and let’s see if we can work on your qualification criteria and hopefully you can qualify for the PMP the PMP does require that you have three years experience in leading projects will talk about the qualification criteria in a little bit there are other credentials you can take a look for program management we have almost 2600 people we have almost 2,000 people that are certified in scheduling professional over 5000 people for risk almost 27,000 people for agile little more than 600 people for portfolio management incidentally I was the first to be certified in the USA for portfolio management and second globally and I take great pride in that seeing that this is a credential that comes from the project management institute okay on this slide we start this the steps that you have to follow to become PMP certified the first step that you have to take is attend a PMP course the PMP course can be an online course it could be a classroom course it could be a book it could be a PMP exam prep book the course has to qualify for 35 contact hours meaning PMI needs to see that you have completed 35 training hours so how you accomplish that if it’s not going to be through a classroom training from an endorsed education provider then you would need to or maybe PMI could ask you for proof for the 35 training hours that you have completed so your best path if possible for you and if financially feasible or even from online courses also which can be reasonably cheap is to go for a course that has already been pre-approved from PMI because it is being offered from a PMI registered education provider we arm a PMI global registered education provider and so our certificates when we issue 35 training hours are already approved from PMI the 35 training hours need to have covered the standard here that is shown in this picture which is the PMBOK guide which stands for project management body of knowledge we’re currently on the sixth edition of the PMBOK guide you want to be sure that your training is based on the sixth edition of the PMBOK guide and if you’ve started an application to sit for a specific exam that application would be saved and so your information is safe in there so once you’ve created your profile the next thing that you want to do is you want to apply to take the exam on the PMI dot-org website once you’re in once you log in with your PMI log in there will be a place where you can go to certifications and select PMP on the next slide here you can see a zoomed in view so you click on certifications go to a PMP and there’s a few other credentials there and there will be an apply Now button if you clicked on PMP you’re gonna get a lot of information and details regarding the PMP certification who it’s for the number of hours so basically all the stuff that we have on this video you can actually get from their website but we’re just trying to make it easier for you and provide it in this video so you’ll have a button that says apply now and then you’ll click that when you click the apply now it’s going to ask you for your information company that you work in and it’s going to require that you submit proof of a certain number of hours of experience and proof that you have taken training you’ve taken training so they need to see that you’ve attended 35 hours of training on project management attended or let’s say covered that training requirement whether it’s online or some other form if you want to read a book on exam preparation for PMP and you want to send that to PMI that would also work but the courses that you might that you will take with a registered education provider which can be online or classroom would be pre-approved from PMI for the 35 training hours and not just that it’s going to be focused on latest addition of that pin book guide the other things they need to see is that you have 7500 hours in leading and directing projects this would be 7500 hours only if you have secondary degree but if you have a four-year degree like a bachelor’s degree then all you have to show is 4,500 hours so if you have a university degree something that is a equivalent of a four-year degree then you can show three years or the acquittal forty four forty five hundred hours which is the equivalent of three years because the way they see it is 1500 hours per year yeah I know what you’re thinking we work a lot more than that at 50 hours a week times 52 weeks we’re probably working 2600 hours but I think PMI is assuming that you’re applying 1500 hours on projects basically about 30 weeks of the whole year is going on projects the rest is probably gonna go on vacations or some other activities so I would advise you to show more than three years and more than 4500 hours typically when we help our candidates or delegates and filling out their applications review it for them we’re trying to ensure that they they’re showing maybe at least seven eight thousand hours in leading and directing projects so you will need to fill out an application online with them on their website and list all of your projects and this what you did on the projects contact details of these projects and also show the breakdown of the hours the total hours and so on and you need to show at least 4,500 hours leading and directing projects this is obviously with four-year degree if you don’t have an equivalent of a four-year degree then the requirements are higher you will need to have 7500 hours of experience leading and directing projects and the term leading and directing means that you are an active driver of these projects so that’s the qualification criteria for the application process once you’ve submitted the application the application will take maybe a week or two of review by PMI and they would just review the information that you’re sent and if they feel that everything sounds good then they will send you an email PMI saying that your application has been approved and to go ahead and pay and schedule your exam my suggestion from the date that you submit the application and even after you’ve been approved start studying you could study in different ways if you have taken a class with a PMI re P then they probably have given you some study material so you can study that you could also rely on exam help books so there are there’s quite a few out there one of the most common one most popular ones is the book by Rita Mulcahy and some people like it I personally you know I’m not a big fan of a lot of these exam help books the reason is these books tend to be bigger than the PIN book the PIN book is big as is and it has a lot of contents and a lot of these exam help books are very focused on how PMI is going to trick you on the exam and how you can maybe go around these tricks and figure out these tricks they also might suggest that you need to memorize certain things so they give you cheat sheets and some other tools personally I don’t think you need to do that and I don’t think you need to rely on help books you can if you think that’s your style that’s the only way you can learn that’s okay but if you have attended a class from a PMI registered education provider they should have walked you through the whole pin book in a fashion that you can go home and maybe review the material and be ready I would you know if I had to do this at this point I would read the pin book guide or review the material that was provided to me from the training provider if I feel that is thorough enough but if you read the pin Gide that’s where the exam questions are going to come from PMI is not looking to trick you regardless of what these books say in regardless of what some friends and colleagues are going to tell you or some internet forms are going to mention they are not looking to trick you they’re looking to make sure that you know your stuff when it comes to project management all right so I would say just read the pin book guide or whatever material you got from your trainer one thing to note is that once you’re approved you have one year’s 365 days to take and pass the exam and that’s assuming you pass the exam also in the first attempt if you don’t pass the exam on the first attempt you can attempt it again and again up to three attempts altogether within one year if you don’t pass in all three attempts then you would have to wait one full year from that point before you can start this whole cycle all over again so my advice don’t fail if you can afford it the only way one of the best ways to ensure that you’re not going to fail this exam is to study released elective if you’re gonna pay for training with a registered education provider or anyone who’s claiming to be a trainer make sure they have real experience make sure they’ve been certified for a very long time make sure they have some references make sure you you feel they’re credible they’re out there in the market and they’ve been doing this for a while make sure you can understand them that you know their style works for you make sure they are teaching your project management and not just reading slides to you there are many trainers out there that just read slides to you you can equally read it and you can equally just read the pin book guide you don’t need someone to read slides for you don’t listen to people who tell you that PMI is going to trick you with questions don’t listen to people who tell you you need to read certain books three times five times and so on that’s just gonna scare you from studying it’s gonna make you panic my advice read that pin book guide once if you have to otherwise just read the material that was provided from your trainer when we do our trainings at our Center we provide summarized content from the PMBOK guide content that focuses on the key areas that you need to know for the exam and for practicing project management and we even advise people don’t read the PMBOK guide it’s too big it’s too scary too many charts that you don’t really need in the exam just read the material that we give you which is going to be the printed copy of our PowerPoint slides just read that just go through the bullets and any notes that you may have taken during the training and you are fine there’s other supplementary material that we provide and that helps you understand an expanded view of project management things related to let’s say communication contracts and some other areas quality things that may not be in the pin book guide specifically but would show up on the exam so my advice is you know read either the training material if it’s enough or read the pin book when you see terms you don’t understand go google them or find some youtube videos but you know I wouldn’t really trouble myself with exam prep books I’m not really sure that they’re really going to help you they’re basically going to use the PMBOK guide and creating that exam prep book and the way they explain it may sometimes confuse you or make you panic make you feel that it’s too much information I’ve looked at some of these textbooks and the amount of details that they cover I don’t think you really need that much to actually sit this PMP exam make people make it sound like it’s a miracle to pass this PMP exam it is not over 900,000 people have certified it so I’d say it study study really well from the pin book look things up on Google and YouTube rely on yourself not necessarily on exam prep book alright so along with the studying what you need to do is what you once you’ve done all of the studying what you should do is this was some sample exam questions these sample questions exist in many different places on the Internet you could buy them but you could also get a lot of them free so you really don’t have to buy these questions and it doesn’t matter what some of these websites tell you and promise you that this is the best set of questions study with these and you’ll pass on first attempt this is just BS nobody can guarantee that you can pass on first attempt incidentally all the websites that claim to give you training online training or classroom training and that you’ll pass on the first attempt that’s just BS there is no record of or there’s no proof and there’s no confirmation from PMI that what this Center is telling you is correct those that claim to have a 99.7% pass on first attempt track record that’s plain BS word training center and we know that PMI does not provide these kinds of details and there’s absolutely no way that that tested that that training center it can have that information so it’s always made up whenever they tell you what their pass rate is and you shouldn’t be bothered with the pass rate of a training center what you want to be bothered with is the quality of the trainer and whether you trust that this person is credible and can coach you through this anyways practice some sample questions many are available online that you can download many will provide you at least 200 questions which is the size of the exam the exams can be 200 multiple-choice questions that you have to do in four hours there is no negative mark or wrong answer so if you don’t know the answer just select C trust me C is good C has 25% chance of being correct and so those B and so does a so it is d but just don’t leave it blank on the exam you I might make another video on this but on the exam you have a way to market Chinn for review later on so even if you don’t know it then just mark it for later and you can come back to it and review it towards the end of the exam if you still have time but before you market just you know listen to me just put C right choose C and then mark it for review in case you don’t have time at least you’re selected something and you have a 25% chance of being correct alright so again study practice with some sample questions so that you can be more ready for the exam when you feel you are ready right and make sure you’re doing this you know fast enough because you have a whole year from the date you were approved to take and pass this exam and a lot of people take it easy and wait 9 10 months and they say I’m gonna do this I’m gonna do this and they never make time for it and the time comes and they’re in a hurry they’re gonna pay them they pay the money take the exam and they fail that’s because they’re rushed or it you’re better off studying you know slowly and grasping and understanding the information I would recommend that you do three times a week spread them apart and do like two hours each because if you overdo it then you’re gonna hate it it’s just like anything else exercise or any anything if you feel that this is going to be pressure you’re not gonna like it so I would recommend you do two hours three times a week and that’s sufficient and you can probably be ready in like six weeks eight weeks six to eight weeks the the two hours study that you do sometimes may feel like a problem for you that you can’t even get yourself to get started so also I have a recommendation there what you can do is just tell yourself that you’re not gonna study that you just want to flip through the pages that you’re gonna spend ten minutes just looking at it you might be drinking a cup of coffee or tea or something and you just say you know I want to look at it I’m not gonna study I don’t intend to study I just want to look at it just so I can stay in the loop so I’m you know I’m keeping my memory fresh on what the topics are and start flipping the pages some some articles or videos have claimed that once you do this you may most likely end up studying for like half an hour or one hour even though you didn’t have the intention so I suggest that you try that just tell yourself you’re going to look through the material you’re not going to be studying but if you can get into the discipline of studying two hours three times a week then I think you’ll do just fine alright so once you’re ready you want to pay the exam fees to PMI remember you’re already approved so all you have to do is pay and the the one year of the one year cycle that in which you need to complete the exam is not from when you pay it’s from when you are approved so if two months is already gone by studying you only have ten months left so you pay the exam fees on the PMI website okay when you pay it’s going to be five hundred fifty-five dollars but if you are a PMI member it’s only four hundred and five dollars these are US dollars for you to become a member it’s going to cost you one hundred and twenty nine dollars so there is a section in there that says you know you can buy membership you buy the membership and you’ll be a member for one year the first year that you become a member you’re paying the one twenty nine plus ten dollars when you renew the next year it’s only one hundred and thirty it’s one hundred twenty-nine going forward but only the first year they charge you ten dollars just so you know being a member does not make you a PMP certified membership does not mean that you are PMP certified what it means is that you are a member of PMI and that’s all and when you remember there’s a lot of benefits there’s a lot of articles there’s a lot of white papers and excellent information that you can access from the PMI website in addition you get to download all of the standards for free and there’s a lot of other books that you can also download for free so there are benefits to it but regardless you should get the membership the first year try it see that monthly magazine they have p.m. Network magazine magazine and some other material that they have publications become a member for the first year only for the money savings if you have to if you look at it it’s 5:55 if you not remember it’s 405 if you are a member so that’s $150 less and it’s costing you less than that to be a member so be a member the first year pay the 405 peter 1:29 and the ten and it’s still going to cost you less than the 555 are almost the same right so do that the first year and once you pay what’s gonna happen is that PMI is going to send you a code by email and that’s like your exam code or voucher code it comes to you by email and I believe that’s automatic you can use this code now to schedule the exam date and time you don’t have to rush this make sure you’ve studied enough so even if you wait till you’re six months into that one year right since you’ve been approved within the six months at least make your first attempt at the exam and hopefully that’s the last attempt that you wouldn’t need to take anymore so if you’ve studied well it should be sufficient schedule your exam date and time at a time that’s suitable advice for you don’t pressure yourself with this a lot of people think that if they put a date out there and they schedule it with PMI that that’s going to motivate them because they only work with such tight schedules and they have to have a set date for them to be inspired to actually study I would HIGHLY discourage that I I don’t think that would work I think maybe for a few people yes but the majority of people will panic and you’re going to try to change the date and you may struggle doing that so my recommendation within the first two or three five six months whatever study really well you’re feeling confident apply for the exam apply for the exam pay schedule and don’t worry there’s a lot of time slots that will be available just so you know when you pay you get the exam voucher code and it tells you to go ahead and sketch the exam they also provide your PMI by email they provide your instructions or and a link and they tell you what to click on to go and schedule your exam so you don’t need to manually go look for testing centers that’s not something you need to do they’ll give you a link you click it you put the location you want let’s say you want to attend in a specific city put the city and you’re gonna get all the available testing centers you click on that testing center and there’s something on the right that would say got directions another one that says you know view available time starts you click it and it’s gonna give you different times during the month where you can take that exam and different time slots on specific days also so you may have twenty different days in a specific month when you can take that exam so don’t worry about exam availability it’s not one of those where it’s you know affects two times a year like the CFA it’s not like that there’s a lot of time slots to take this exam so don’t worry about that okay make sure you’ve studied enough before you before you go and pay and set a date all right so don’t pressure yourself doing that finally the last step here is to actually show up on the day of the exam take the exam which is four hours 200 questions multiple choice and past that I I will make a second video that explains the examination process not the examination process but the exam itself the details of it what you need to know about the exam the number of questions the nature of it and maybe how to prepare to sit for the exam so I will make another short video in a few days but this one I’ll just summarize it here take the exam and pass based on the fact that you would have studied enough the exam just so you know it is going to be a lot of people confuse it and they think it’s computer-based or online actually they say online it is not online it is computer-based so you’re going to go to a testing center you can’t do this from anywhere you have to go to testing Center as directed from PMI wet when you scheduled it so you go on the day of the exam and they will scan you make sure you’re not bringing in any devices you’ll not be allowed to take devices in you’re not gonna have your phone or your watch you got to keep all these things in a locked box that you’ll lock it and you go in they will provide you with a little white board that is erasable some people think you know if you memorize stuff you can go brain dump them I think memorizing makes you panic I would not recommend that you do that but the white board is for you to do some simple you know calculations or a little bit of thinking and they will allow you 15 minutes to practice with that system and when you’re comfortable your term that you you’re ready to go ahead with the exam once the clock starts ticking on the exam it is for hours it doesn’t matter if you if you go to the bathroom and such that clock is gonna keep taking ticking they will not give you any access to call anyone there will be a calculator on the screen in case there are calculations have questions and there will be calculations have questions so make sure you’ve studied enough make sure your confidence is pretty high make sure you’ve slept well and that you’re ready to go face this challenge don’t be scared about the exam people tell you a lot of stuff I’ve seen a lot of these videos that tell you to read that many times read the book three times read this exam prep book three times four times I don’t see the value of reading it that many times read it the first time in stop to look up anything that you don’t understand so one round is sufficient and then you start practicing with questions and answers when you practice what questions and answers you get you get a very good sense of where your weaknesses are and then you can go read them again that’s how you should do it now obviously I am just another video here and you might say well you’re another video and you’re claiming just read it once the other guy is saying read it three times who do I believe believe yourself right so if you feel you need to read it three times by all means rated three four five six times if that’s what it takes right I think once is sufficient anyways that’s all for now I hope I was able to explain the process for how you would go about applying to sit for the PMP exam and I hope I simplified it for you so you don’t have to go look up the information and maybe hopefully I’ve answered some of the questions that you might have in your mind if you have additional questions on qualification criteria or the process overall or the exam and so on I can help you just put your questions below in the comment section if you like this video please subscribe because there will be follow-on videos that would explain the exam itself what what you need to know about the exam the structure of the exam what to do to get ready for the exam and hopefully some nice videos to discuss some of the key challenging areas of the PMP like earned value the scheduling finish to start and start to start and maybe a lot more than that so if you would like to get an update on when the next on when we when we release the next video please subscribe we plan to be releasing once a week or twice if we have time and these videos will be quite relevant if you’re trying to prepare for PMP we do plan to put the PMP training online if we can but we’ll see how that works out but for now we’re just progress we’re just providing some guidance on what you need to do to actually go sit for the exam again I would appreciate if you share this video with those who you feel might benefit from knowing about the PMP certification process if you like it again subscribe and I assure you you’re going to have access to a lot more videos that you’re going to feel are of value not just for exam purposes but for project management program portfolio anything in that realm we will be adding videos on a very free basis so subscribe and enjoy the benefits and let us know what you think down below we’ll be looking for your feedback and let us know what else you would like us to discuss we’re there for you we can help you out thank you for watching and hope to see you on the next video
