Eligibility & Exam Pattern

Tips & Tricks

Your Experience?
 Do you routinely experience two or more of the following problems
on projects?

 Cost or schedule overrun

 Unrealistic Schedules
 Excessive Changes to the scope or schedule
 Communication problem and increased conflicts
 Running out of time near the end of the project
 Unsatisfactory quality
 Low morale
 Team members uncertain about what need to be done
 Excessive rework and over time
 Too many project meetings
Projects …..
 Olympic games,
 Great Wall of China,
 Taj Mahal,
 Publication of a children’s book,
 Panama Canal,
 Development of commercial jet airplanes,
 Polio vaccine,
 Human beings landing on the moon,
 Commercial software applications,
 Portable devices to use the global positioning system (GPS), and
 Placement of the International Space Station into Earth’s orbit
Important: Trick of the Trade
 Consider yourself working on a “LARGE PROJECT” as Project
Manager and keep it in focus throughout the study

• Always consider a “Large Project” having

following characteristics:-
 A large project requires full breadth of Project Management processes
and tools
 Requires weeks/ months of Planning, execution etc

Example:: Project of duration of more than 01 year, utilize resources from

many countries, has more than 200 people and budget more than 10
Million USD.
Think about large Projects
On large projects, project manager does not have time for
incorrect project management activities.

A project can easily get out of control, if the project manage

spend too much time on firefighting rather than preventing
issues or micromanaging the people instead of making sure
they need know what they need to do before the project
starts.
IMPORTANT: “TIP” for Exam
 When preparing for the exam, think about the concepts
presented in PMBOK in terms of what a project manager
of large, plan-driven project should be doing.

 This will help you to identify gaps between your own

project management experience and PMI’s approach to
managing projects, and better prepare yourself to answer
questions on the exam
PMP Certification Process
PMP Eligibility Requirement
PMP Eligibility
No. of Months of Project Management Experience
PMP Eligibility
 Contact Hr. for Project Management Education
 Verify at least 35 contact hours of specific instruction that
addressed learning objectives in project management.
Record all education hours regardless of when they were
accrued

 One hour of classroom instruction equals one contact hour.

If you have completed a university or college course on
project management that met for three hours per week for
15 weeks, you would record 45 contact hours.
PMP Eligibility
 The course hours may include content on project quality, project scope, project
schedule, project budget, project communications, project risk, project procurement,
and project integration management.

 You can satisfy the education requirements by demonstrating the successful

completion of courses, workshops and training sessions offered by one or more of the
following types of education providers:
A. PMI Registered Education Providers (R.E.P.s)
B. PMI chapters
C. Employer/company-sponsored programs
D. Training companies or consultants (e.g., training schools)
E. Distance-learning companies, including an end-of-course assessment
F. University/college academic and continuing education programs
PMP Certification Fee

Note: PMI Membership Fee: 139$

PMP Exam
PMP Exam Blueprint
PMP exam Questions Pattern
 The exam tests knowledge, application and analysis. This makes the exam
more than a test of memory.

 Majority of questions will be “situational” type. “DO NOT” expect the exam
to have all straight forward, definition type questions

 There may be instances where a case study or same data be used for
multiple questions, such as with network diagram questions.

 Expect 10 - 12 questions requiring you to identify inputs & outputs

 Expect 15 – 20 formula related questions

 Expect 10 – 15 earned-value questions

PMP exam Questions Pattern
 Situational Questions
 The questions on the exam are mostly situational, many are
ambiguous and wordy, and some even seems likely to have
two or more right answers. Be prepared for the following
type of questions, so you will not waste time when you are
taking exam

 These questions requires project management experience.

Such questions requires you to integrate your real-world
experience and PMI BOK knowledge
PMP exam Questions Pattern
 Example: Situational Question

Question:: You receive notification that a major item you are

purchasing for a project will be delayed. What is the best
thing to do?

A. Replan your project to accommodate this delay

B. Notify your manger
C. Let the customer know about it & discuss options
D. Meet with the team, identify alternatives
PMP exam Questions Pattern
Situational Questions:-

Always think what you will do “FIRST”

as a Project Manager

Keep the Concept of “BEST THING TO

DO NEXT”
PMP exam Questions Pattern
 Questions with extraneous Information
 It is important to realize that not all the information in a question
will be relevant.

Question:: Experience shows that each time you doubled the

production of the doors, Unit Cost decreased by 10%. Based on
this, Company determines that production of 3,000 doors should
cost 21,000$. This case illustrates:

A. Learning Cycle
B. Law of diminishing return
C. 80/20 rule
D. Parametric Cost Estimation
PMP exam Questions Pattern
 Many questions will be much longer then the previous
example. But again you may not need all the information
presented to answer the question. Imagine we change
previous question to include even more information.

 “Your company is a major manufacturing of doors and has

received numerous award of quality. As the head of
manufacturing department, you have 230 people reported to you
on 23 different projects. Experience shows that each time you
doubled the production of the doors, Unit Cost decreased by 10%.
Based on this, Company determines that production of 3,000
doors should cost 21,000$. This case illustrates..”
PMP exam Questions Pattern
 Trick of the Trade:
 Don’t get upset with long situation questions
 Majority of information/data provided in question might is “just
distracter”.
 Look at each question to determine, what the question is
“asking”, rather than getting lost in all the provided information
 Use “Strikethrough” or “highlight” features of your exam system
to highlight relevant information and strikethrough unneeded
data
 If you are not sure of the answer, mark the question and come
back to it later.
 Stay calm and do not loose the confidence.
PMP exam Questions Pattern
 Questions using made-up terms

The exam often include “made-up” terms. If you consider yourself

well trained and see a term in the exam that you do not know,
chances are it is not the right answer.

Question: The ongoing definition of a project as more information

becomes available to the team is called:
A. Scope Validation
B. Strategic Planning
C. Progressive Elaboration
D. Quantitative Elaboration
PMP exam Questions Pattern
 Questions where understanding of project management practices &
processes are important

Question:: The process of decomposing deliverables into smaller, more

manageable components is complete when:

A. Project justification has been established

B. Change requests have occurred
C. Cost estimates can be developed for each work element
D. Each work element is found in the WBS dictionary

Note: In order to answer this question, you must understand the terms
used, including the concept of decomposition and what value this
technique has in the project management process.
PMP exam Questions Pattern
 Question with more than one item in choice:

Question:: When managing a project, which of the following is the best order to deal
with the problem:

A. Go to the team, go to the management, go to the resource managers

B. Go to the resource managers, go to the management, go to the customer
C. Handle it yourself, go to the customer, go to the management
D. Resolve problem with the resources you control, go to the resource manager, go to
the customer

Trick: Use process of elimination, one item at a time. Consider the first item listed in
the choice and eliminate the choices that contains an unlikely choices. Keep going
until you have only one choice remaining.
In this case, you need to look at each choice independently to see if the process listed
is correct.
“The Standard for Project
Management”
 PMBOK is based on “The Standard for Project Management”

 “The Standard for Project Management” is a foundational

reference for PMI’s project management professional
development programs and the practice of project management

 The standard identifies the processes that are considered good

practices on most projects, most of the time. The standard also
identifies the inputs and outputs that are usually associated with
those processes. The standard does not require that any
particular process or practice be performed
“The Standard for Project
Management”
The scope of PMBOK is limited to the discipline of project
management, rather than the full spectrum of portfolios,
programs, and projects.

Portfolios and programs will be addressed only to the degree

they interact with projects.

PMI publishes two other standards that address the

management of portfolios and programs:
 The Standard for Portfolio Management
 The Standard for Program Management
Project Outcomes
 Olympic games,
 Great Wall of China,
 Taj Mahal,
 Publication of a children’s book,
 Panama Canal,
 Development of commercial jet airplanes,
 Polio vaccine,
 Human beings landing on the moon,
 Commercial software applications,
 Portable devices to use the global positioning system (GPS), and
 Placement of the International Space Station into Earth’s orbit