PMI PMP Certification

Several of my classmates have asked me about how I passed the PMI certified Project Management Professional test. Although this is not strictly related to the Executive Masters degree program, it still might interest some one who is reading this blog . . .

I first heard about PMI and their PMP certification in 2000. My first impression was that the certification would look nice on my resume but it wouldn’t do my career any practical good. After all, I had already established my experience as a project manager. Back then PMI had a sample certification test on their website, and I gave it a try without ever having looked at the PM BOK. I didn’t pass that test but I was within 15 percentage points of passing. Given that I did so well on the first try, I sort of lost interest in PMI.

Things had changed quite drastically in 2004. I needed work desperately and was willing to try anything to land a job in that depressed economy. So I decided that PMP certification would be worth it.

I looked for a book to help me pass the test. I trolled through the many PMP test prep books and many, many book reviews on amazon.com before finally settling on The PMP Exam by Andy Crowe.

I studied this book probably about 2-4 hours a week for about six weeks. I worked all the exercises in the book and I took all the sample tests. I also made flash cards by writing out key facts on index cards. I went through the index cards, repeatedly testing myself until I had the vast majority memorized. All told, I probably spent a sum total of no more than 30 hours on preparing for the test.

On all the exercises and sample tests in the book, I just couldn’t get my scores to get much above 80%. While that was a passing grade, I wanted a wider safety margin than that before I took the actual exam. But regardless of how much a studied and tried to memorize, my scores just wouldn’t go above 80%.

So I went ahead and took the certification exam. I passed with about 80%.

I believe that The PMP Exam by Andy Crowe is an excellent tool to help you pass the PMP certification test. Unless you have a photographic memory, I believe you will probably not get much above 80% on the test. I think the only way to score higher than that would be to spend months literally memorizing the PM BOK. Sure, you could do that, but it wouldn’t make you a better project manager, and you wouldn’t get brownie points for passing the test by a wide margin.

It is my belief that the PMI PMP is a necessary but not sufficient qualification for a project manager. If I were hiring a project manager, I wouldn’t hire some one who is not PMI certified. However, a certified PMP still would have to demonstrate project management experience and have a great interview before I would hire him or her.