What are the Requirements of Project Management Professional (PMP) Certificate?

The Project Management Professional or PMP certificate is known to be a certificate that has recognition globally. it is helpful in management positions for a company because it tests the candidate and his or her compatibility for managing the team, the process of business management, and the various priorities that a business may have.

The Project Management Institute says that there are more than 10 lakh people who have the PMP certification worldwide. the Project Management Institute is the institute responsible for providing the certification of Project Management Professional certificate.

There are some requirements that a person should meet to get the certification, in this article we will overview the requirements of this certification as well as the certificate’s eligibility criteria and how it can help you stand out in the industry.

Eligibility Criteria

Let’s understand what are the requirements for a project management professional certificate for you to take the exam you will have to validate your education as well as your project management experience that you may These follows:

1. It includes a training of 35 hours of project management that involves the coursework provided to you by the course which also addresses some specific objectives for you to learn in project management it can also be exchanged with something known as a certificate associate in project management or (CAPM)® certification as well.
2. Secondly, it involves 36 months of experience where you will be where you need to have leading projects if you have a degree of four years but if you have a secondary school degree or an associate degree then you need to have 60 months of experience while leading the project.

Cost of PMP Exam

1. As of today January 2024, the fees of the exam for project management professional stands at 42,863 for non-PMI members and for those who are PMI members, it will only cost ₹23,459 now.
2. If you are wondering how much a PMI membership costs then please know that a PMI membership costs rupees 9963 per year plus ₹772 for the application fees as well so overall if you take a membership the exam will be slightly less expensive.

PMP Exam Overview

The exam for the PMP certification is usually started with a tutorial and then a survey is also conducted on the window, as the tutorial is short it only takes around 15 minutes for any average student to take the tutorial and begin the examination after it.

As we have discussed the exam itself gives 4 hours to complete which excludes the time for the survey to be completed, which means that we get extra time for the actual exam. The questions that are asked are based on the foundation of the PMBOK and PMP’s code of ethics and the specifications that are provided in it. let us take a look at the domains where you have to gain the skills to score better in the examination:

S. No.	Domain Expertise	Percentage of Question
1	Starting the project	13%
2	Planning of the project	24%
3	Execution of the project	31%
4	Monitoring as well as the control of the project	25%
5	Closure of the project	7%

Application Process

If You want to get the PMP certificate then there are simple steps that you can follow to get it let’s understand this step by step:

Step 1: Complete the Requirements

The first step is to complete the requirements as you have seen in the above section there are only two requirements that you have to fulfill so read the requirements mentioned above and fulfill the requirements the first step will be completed and you can move on to the next step.

Step 2: Apply for the Exam

This is the minster where you have to apply for the examination for this you will have to make an account with PMI and then start the application for the project management professional certification exam for this you will have to enter your basic information education background etc and the details of the various projects that you may have worked upon once you complete the details you will have to wait to get approved and then you can pay for the fee of the exam and then schedule the exam is for your convenience.

Step 3: Prepare for the Exam

Now that you have applied for the examination you can train for the exam for this you can go through the syllabus and the coursework on your own, Or you can rather take some examples of prep because there are many examples of prep providers in the industry so you can follow them and prepare for your examination.

Step 4: Give the Exam

Now that you have to take the exam, You can simply go and give the examiner testing site if you have one nearby or you can simply give the exam online as well please note that the duration for this exam takes close to four hours to get completed.

Exam Format

Before 2007 the PMI officially used to release the results on a percentage basis but now they have changed the exam format and no longer use the percentage criteria, they are now mentioning proficiency level for each of the domains in the test results. which also means that you can not know the percentage in the domain you are certifying for.

1. The PMP exam for certification consists of 200 questions and they are MCQ-based questions in nature, from these questions, only a hundred and seventy-five (175) questions are scored while the rest are known as “pre-test” questions which means that they simply do not contribute to your score.
2. These questions are simply asked for experiments to test and retain the validity for future exams.

Resources for Preparation

The PMP examination for a certificate requires you to use the right resources which is why we have compiled PMP exam preparation resources that can help you clear the exam with ease:

1. PMP Exam Prep – by Rita Mulcahy

This is a book by Rita Mulcahy that provides comprehensive details for you to master some of the most important topics and elements of the Project Management Professional (PMP) certificate so that you can easily study and learn the concepts.

2. A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) – by PMI

This is the most standard guide because it provides you with the foundational scope of the resources required for you to learn and apply some of the world’s best principles and practices of project management.

3. Head First PMP: A Learner’s Companion to Passing the Project Management Professional Exam – by Jennifer Greene and Andrew Stellman

The PMP examination can be started with the book “Head First PMP” book written by two authors namely, Jennifer Greene & Andrew Stellman the book provides a very unique and easy-to-grasp way to the concepts of project management which ensures that you have a strong and efficient learning base for clearing the exam.

4. PMP® Exam Prep Course (Self-Paced)

If you are not interested in books or for some other reason want to study using a more display-based or online approach then you can use this resource, the resource we are talking about is called the PMP ® Exam Prep Course (Self-Paced) course and it is a self-paced course offered by the brain sensei company which works in the project management education sector. you can use the following link to check out the course and see for yourself if you like it:

PMP® Exam Prep Course (Self-Paced)

5. Project Management Professional (PMP)® Live Classes Online

This is also an online course resource that provides a lot of good opportunities for you to learn and enhance your knowledge in the project management field, it offers the support of various professional project management experts who guide you on various types of models and topics to help you understand the concepts easily.

Project Management Professional (PMP)® Live Classes Online

Benefits of PMP Certification

Now that we have grasped some understanding of the Project Management Professional (PMP) certificate, if you manage to get the certification then it can get you a set of benefits for your professional project management career, let us take a look at the benefits that we can have from this certificate as well:

1. Obtaining the Project Management Professional (PMP) certificate makes you more credible and skillful in project management work.
2. As we discussed, the certificate holders are also required to earn PDUs which means this will help you continuously learn the industry for project management and expand your knowledge.
3. The Project Management Professional (PMP) certificate can help you land better jobs and hence you can expect better job opportunities as well as promotions etc.
4. This certificate can help you to gain global recognition as the certificate itself is globally recognized which can help you to get opportunities worldwide.
5. The certificate itself is based on a standard framework of project management which means that the certificate provides a standardisation for your career as well.

PMP Certification Renewal

1. The renewal of the PMP certification is very simple and easy, you just have to get 60 PDUs (Professional Development Units) you can earn these by attending the events and courses offered by the authorized party. 35 out of these should be mainly used for learning and 25 must be for giving back to people or colleagues.
2. The PMI is officially responsible for auditing the PDUs that you report and then they verify if they are valid or not, once it is verified they will send the confirmation of eligibility to let you know whether you are allowed to renew your certificate or not.
3. If you are eligible for the renewal of the certificate then you can simply pay the fee of 150$ (non-members) or 60$ (members) and then your certificate will be renewed for another 3 years.

Conclusion

Now that we have completely understood the project management professional certificate requirements and how we can obtain one of these certificates we also may have a question which is whether a PMP certificate will be worth it or not and it totally depends on your skill set the PMP certificate is recognized industry wise which helps you in learning new skills as well as getting higher salaries as well so if you are well prepared for this exam then it can certainly help you land a good job.