What is PMP?

The project management Institute (PMI), is one of the largest project management organisations in the world. They sponsor the PMP exam which is fast becoming the the fact so standard or project management skills.

PMI was founded in 1969, and was first examined in 1984. There are over 150,000 members worldwide. There are many reasons why you should become PMP certified, among them:

• it demonstrates proof of your professional achievement
• it gives you many more career opportunities in your particular field or industry
• it increases your marketability
• it increases customer confidence in you and your organisation

There are many training organisations both offline and online who offer accredited courses leading to your PMP certification.

You must have had several years of experience as a project manager, including 35 hours of formal project management education, before you can sit the 4 hour exam.

The exam consists of 200 randomly generated questions, but only 175 of the questions are scored. To pass, you need 141correct answers.

PMI has details this process at its web site. Go to http://www.pmi.org, and select the professional development and careers tab for further information

There are six main process groups and areas:

• Initiating
• Planning
• Executing
• Monitoring and controlling
• Closing
• Professional responsibility

Here is some general advice for when you take the exam:

• check out the PMI web sites to find a testing site near you
• gets to the exam centre early so that you can relax and review your materials
• read each question carefully and make sure you fully understand what the question is asking
• if you leave a question unanswered it will be marked as a wrong answer, so if you are not sure of the right answer, make your best guess
• if you're not sure of the right answer try to see if you can eliminate the remaining answers to get to the correct one
• as soon as you arrive at the exam centre you'll be given scrap paper. As soon if you get to this, right down all the formulas and any reference aids you used while studying

Good Luck.