A word from our PMP course advisors on the positive future of PMP

PMI has introduced quite a few changes when it comes to taking the PMP exam. From changes in the application process to the supporting material and to the exam itself, PMI makes it clear that the old format of the exam can only be attempted until the end of the year, after which there will be a shift to the new version of the exam permanently commencing the 2nd of January, 2020.

Our course designers Joe Keim and Mauro Zaffalon - who bring in decades of both managerial and training experience into training hundreds of PMP aspirants worldwide as GreyCampus instructors - discuss these changes and what that means for someone aspiring to become a Project Management Professional in the forthcoming year.

Mauro highlights that one of the key efforts of PMI with this update is to level the playing field when it comes to candidates across the globe aspiring to take the PMP examination and get certified. PMI does this by standardizing the training with a basic set of uniform materials that instructors have to train in accordance with.

The exam shifts its focus to testing the candidate as an experienced Project Manager. This is a clear move from PMI to see to it that only candidates with authentic experience as Managers can take the exam as opposed to simply taking a bootcamp without credible work experience as a project manager. Joe explains that PMI will test for this by posing questions that are story-based and situational, asking the candidate what a PM would do in the given scenario. Joe adds the possibility of PMI looking for responses in a video format.

One of the key discomforts for the test takers has been the duration of the examination and answering the 200 questions all in one go. PMI introduces a smart resolution to the problem, an optional ten-minute break can be taken halfway through the exam, but the questions attempted prior to the break would be rendered inaccessible. 

Joe thus suggests that the test taker review these questions before taking the break and moving on to the next set of questions.

Given the pandemic lockdown, Mauro and Joe then discuss the prospects of taking the test from the home. PMI’s proctored exam involves the test taker answering a few questions, take pictures of the surroundings, and pan the monitoring camera around to check for any study material.

Coming to the application process, PMI has made it significantly easier for applying to the PMP exam. While students had to earlier account for their engagement in the initiating, planning, executing, monitoring, and controlling & closing phases of their projects as project managers in terms of hours, PMI has decided to drop this stressful format of application and make the requirements to just 36 months post a bachelor’s degree with non-overlapping experience. This means that students would have to describe their projects and their roles. Mauro highlights that the interface for application now required far less information with a few additional fields such as the budget of the project and the size of the team. 

When it comes to the application field of project description and one’s role, Joe recommends that the following points be covered :

• What are the things that you did?
• What were the deliverables?
• What were the timelines? If there was a delay, what was done about it?
• What were the project outcomes?

Mauro adds that this field is responded to in less than 500 words with a minimum of a hundred.

The last point Mauro and Joe make is about the drop in the requirement for the years of experience for students that have studied or taken courses recognized by GAC (Global Accreditation Center). The courses that had 3 or 5 years of experience as a requirement would drop to 2 and 4 yeas instead respectively for GAC accredited universities or courses. Additionally, GAC recognized courses would count towards the 35 contact hours. 

To summarize, the examination checks for your experience and that can be seen even in the application process but PMI has made the experience of both applying and test-taking a little less stressful along with making the educational experience more uniform.

GreyCampus is a registered education provider with PMI and instructors like Joe and Mauro ensure that you don’t have to walk the PMP journey alone. With a tried and tested educational platform, our certified instructors don’t just provide excellent training but are here to motivate and mentor you so that you don’t just gain the knowledge that comes with this globally recognized certification, but you hone the necessary skills that go along with it.

Click here and check out how you too can get PMP certified.