Is the PMP Exam Hard To Pass? A complete guide to passing it in one go

Are you in the process of preparing for the PMP certification? Or are you currently just thinking about pursuing it? If yes, then you are at the right place. The demand for project managers has been increasing in the market and to cater to this need Project Management Institute (PMI) has specially designed this certification to help you chase career advancement.

The next question that intrigued you the most is: is the PMP certification exam hard to ace? No, it is not a difficult one but it is quite challenging. A small number of candidates can pass the exam and only 15% of the employees get the chance to be hired.

So for your guidance, we have constructed a blog in which we are going to dive into a detailed overview of the exam, syllabus domain, the factors that contribute to its difficulty, and effective preparation tips to pass the PMP exam on your first attempt.

Overview of PMP Certification

The Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification, is one of the most demanding certifications in the IT industry. This certification is specifically designed by PMI for those who want to demonstrate their leadership, team development, and negotiation expertise while executing and managing multiple projects. The main motive of this exam is to direct and boost the morale of team members while implementing advanced business processes to perform a diverse range of projects to get measurable results. In this, project managers will experience practical project management.

PMP Certification Exam Structure

Before we discuss the exam’s difficulty it is important to go through the exam structure, so let’s explore the exam structure of the PMP Exam:

Exam Name	Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification		Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification
No of Questions	180 Questions		Add New
	Add New	5 are Pretested Questions(they are unscored one)	175 Questions (Scored Questions
Time Required	230 Minutes (10 minutes break given between each section)		Add New
Validation Date	3 Years		Add New
Languages	Arabic, Chinese (Simplified + Traditional), English, French, German, Hebrew, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish (Poland), Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, Spanish (Mexico + Spain), and Turkish.		Add New
Vendor	Project Management Institution (PMI) New		Add New

Domain Outline of PMP Certification

The PMP Exam is particularly created for testing project management abilities among candidates. Below are the details of the domain of PMP Certification:

Domain of Project Management Professional (PMP) Exam		Domain of Project Management Professional (PMP) Exam
Topic Covered	Weightage
People	42%
Process	50%
Business Environment	8%

Target Audience

The intended audience for the PMP exam is those who want to pursue their career as project managers. This certification is considered beneficiary for those who will develop and demonstrate advanced expertise in project management.

PMP Certification Cost

The PMP Exam cost is $284 for members and $575 for non-members in the US. Here is how the cost varies depending on location:

Country	Members	Non-Members
United Kingdom	£223.84	£453.20
India	₹23749.05	₹48,083.46
Hong Kong	$2216.39	$4487.40
Europe	€264.84	€536.22
China	¥2061.98	¥4174.79
United Arab Emirates	AED 1118.17	AED 2111.99

Look Further: ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PMP: Exam, Cost, Requirements, Worth etc

Retake Policy of PMP Certification

The validation of PMP certification is three years. But if someone does not conquer the exam at the first attempt, he will get three retaking attempts. And these three attempts will be taking place in the first year. But if you couldn’t pass the exams in these three attempts too, then you need to wait for almost 1 year. And when you complete the requested time, you need to reapply for the exam.

In the waiting period, you will get the chance to get yourself enrolled with other recommended certifications of PMI.

Renewal of PMP Exam

The PMI will expire after three years. So to renew your PMI certification, you need to earn 65 professional development units (PDUs) to align with the CCR system. These units will define how much time a candidate will spend on performing professional development activities in a set timeframe.

One you pay dues to get the information regarding the price incurred for renewing the certification. And this renewal process will again need the next three years.

Explore more: All you need to know about PMP Exam

Possible Job outlooks

A PMP professional will demonstrate their mastering proficiency to maintain the quality of projects, deliver excellent services, and improve the image of an organization. You will apply effective strategies to direct a diverse range of projects by a specified deadline. As this certification is a globally demanded one it offers career development opportunities to certified and skilled professionals.

According to PMI, in 2030, there is a high demand for up to 25 million new employees to fulfill the demand of around 2.3M job opportunities.

Salary prospect

The salary of a PMP project manager is $122,388 yearly. Whereas the salary varies from place to place some of them are;

City	Annual Salary
Palo Alto, CA	$148,653
Stanford, CA	$146,373
Orange, CA	$142,982
Berkeley, CA	$156,197
Daly City, CA	$148,504

Read more: PMP vs CSM: 10 Major Differences

Is acing the PMP Certification Exam so hard?

The PMP certification is quite tough. This exam is specifically designed to enhance and test the knowledge of candidates regarding project management practices and concepts. It requires a lot of practice, if you are not prepared enough you will face difficulty while attempting the exam and it will be hard for you to score well. All you need to know about the exam format so that you have an idea of how to attempt the exam.

There is no specific number of questions that you need to answer correctly in the exam, but as mentioned above you have to solve almost 180 multiple-choice questions within the given time. These questions will evaluate your knowledge and ability regarding how you will solve the problems in real life. In these questions, you will get some portion of theoretical parts along with graph drawing and calculations.

Why is passing the PMP Exam challenging?

The PMP certification will verify your upgraded skills and expertise regarding project management. PMP did not set any specific percentage to pass the certification because the percentage of the exam is always based on the difficulty level of every exam.

The PMP exam does not only share the guidance questions but they can ask you questions from any project management areas. Moreover, your experience in project management will decide whether the exam is difficult to pass or not.

1. Importance of Eligibility Requirements

Below mentioned are the detailed requirement eligibility criteria requirements

Educational Degree with associated level of experience in project management		Add New
Educational Background	Prior Experience
If the professional has a secondary degree in project management (including a high school diploma, any associate level experience, and global equivalent degree)	Have 5 years or 60 months prior years of experience in handling a diverse range of non-overlapping business projects
If you have 4 years of graduating degree (bachelor’s degree or globally recognized equivalent degree)	At least have 3 years or 36 months experience in executing non-overlapping professional projects.
If you have a Bachelor’s or Post-Graduation Degree (including a bachelor’s degree or master's degree) from the Global Accreditation Center (GAC) Program	Should have prior experience of almost 2 years or 24 months in non-overlapping professional projects.

2. No Specific Passing Criteria for PMP Exam

There is no specific passing mechanism defined by PMI but you will get estimated ideas regarding passing percentage of PMP certification from different dumps providers. The passing rate for the difficult exam is always lower while for the easier one, the passing percentage is higher.

3. Diverse Range of Syllabus Topics

PMP has been divided into three domains which are already discussed above. There is no specific targeted syllabus but the main focus of this exam is on People, Process, and business environment topics. The motive of this certification is to evaluate your knowledge and expertise regarding the proper execution of project management, agile, and hybrid approaches.

4. Time Duration to Solve the Exam

The certification exam is one of the toughest exams because examiners have to answer at least 180 questions in 230 minutes. It is very difficult for a candidate since one person has only 76 seconds to answer each question correctly.

5. Changing of Topics in Questions Section

The questions of the exams are quite difficult and all the options seem to be correct. PMI also involves almost 5 questions which are pretest questions out of 180 questions. You must respond to every question. PMI can constantly add new questions to level up the difficulty.

Learn more about: PMP vs Agile: Which Project Management Method is Better?

Preparation Tips to Pass the PMP Exam

You can make PMP easy to pass by making a strategy to prepare for exams while studying. Key points to pass the exam include.

1. Utilize official resources

Here are the official resources you can utilize to prepare for the PMP exam.

The PMBOK Guide

The Project Management Body Information Guide is published by PMI to deliver a guiding roadmap for candidates. It is very important to be familiar with the PMBOK guide to pass the exam. This guide has shaped the topic questions in such a way that you will get a proper understanding of diverse topics. If you start focusing on your daily plan, it will help you to ace the exams easily. In these questions, some questions are situational bases which help you to understand the questions easily.

However there are plenty of other books available, and none can replace the official guide. The guide is lengthy and it requires a lot of attention to absorb the diverse range of topics. If someone follows the PMBOK guide, then there are fewer chances to fail the exam.

Bootcamps

PMP specifically designed boot camps that will help you to understand advanced project management techniques and processes to execute a diverse range of projects. In this, you will have a practical implementation of project management. Candidates can take assistance by joining the camp virtually and in person.

Download the Original PMP Exam Prep course

Firstly, you need to download the PMP exam prep course. This course consists of everything that you need to know regarding the certification exam which includes the proper structure of the exam and other related information. It will give you knowledge regarding various exam objectives. Moreover, the PMI has recently launched a new PMI Authorized On-demand PMP course that will help you enhance your skills in project management. The most interesting thing is that this course pack is available in English and it will offer you 35 hours of training to ace the exam.

Tailored and Instructor-Led PMP Training

PMI facilitates an Authorized Training Partner program that will connect candidates with PMI-recommended resources that will lead them to prepare for the PMP certification exam. When one gets connected with this they will get updated, authentic, and customized content. This will help the candidates to chase the career development opportunities in the market.

2. Prepare a study calendar

Preparing a study timetable is the best way to prepare for your exam. You should make a plan and should strictly stick to it. Stickling to the study plan will help you to prepare for your exam and will give you an idea of how many courses you have covered and where you are lacking and need to practice more.

3. Implement Active Learning Techniques

Candidates should add active learning techniques so they can easily ace the PMP exam. Below mentioned are some of the tips:

You can take detailed notes of each topic and make short pointers in your own words.
You can join different online discussion forums where you can share your knowledge with others and solidify your concepts.
You can download their affordable PMP preparation Study Performance tracker which will boost your confidence and set your path towards success.

4. Practice exam questions

Practice plays a vital role in ensuring effective preparation. This is because practicing with sample questions allows you to identify weak areas that need more attention and work. Furthermore, it also helps you familiarize yourself with the related exam structure and format which can significantly boost your confidence come exam day.

PMP Exam dumps, especially the ones offered by Edurely, are the perfect comprehensive practice resource to boost your preparation! You can also practice for the certification exam via the PMP Practice Exam. The PMP Practice exams check your knowledge and prepare you for the exam with 175 exam questions.

5. Reliable Training Courses

You can prepare for your exam via online resources like articles, blogs, or online lectures. This helps you to explore more regarding your niche. Many training courses incorporate hands-on exercises that allow you to implement theoretical knowledge in real-life situations.

6. Prioritize Self-Care

Don’t ever let your mind and body feel like a burden. Get enough sleep and watch out for your diet. Eating through a proper diet plan manages your stress level. Your mind will process even faster when it is getting the nutrition that is needed.

Conclusion

So are you the one who is still thinking that preparing for the PMP Exam is too difficult to pass? If yes, then we would like to tell you that it would be challenging but not so difficult. In this blog, we have explained detailed exam structure, future job perspectives, and comprehensive preparation tips, so you can take guidance. Moreover, this PMP certification can lead your career toward successful project management.

Read More: Most Popular IT Certification

Is the PMP Exam Hard To Pass? A complete guide to passing it in one go