The Project Management Professional (PMP) is the most renowned and globally valued individual accreditation awarded by the Project Management Institute (PMI).

In some cases, it's a necessary qualification for a project management career. A project manager with a PMP credential can work as a project manager in any industry vertical worldwide.

PMP Exam Criteria

Anyone can sign up for the PMP examination considering the candidates satisfy the PMI-set criteria.

Let's see what those prerequisites for the PMP exam are:

PMP Exam Syllabus and Format Outline

PMP Exam Syllabus

According to the 2019 PMP Examination Content Outline (ECO), the credential covers three domains based on the PMBOK Guide latest edition by PMI. This structure came into effect in January 2021.

Later, PMI has announced that the examination would be based on PMBOK Ed 6. However, the Guide latest edition (PMBOK Guide Ed 7) is available.

About half of the credential tests will have predictive project management methodologies, and the other half will have agile or hybrid methods.

The PMP knowledge domains cover many essentials and understand concepts such as managing business environment changes, continuous improvement, and process analysis. 

The PMP credential test doesn't need mathematical knowledge to a more significant extent. However, participants must be average in the calculation present value, performing PERT analysis, and schedule variance.

The arduous part of the test is that understanding terminologies and concepts are never enough. The candidates must use that knowledge for complex scenarios mimicking real-life project situations.

Designed by project professionals, the PMP credential validates that you are among the top-notch skillset in:

PEOPLE (42%)

The 'People' domain emphasizes the soft skills you require to lead a project team in the changing business environment efficiently.

Some of the tasks in this domain include:

• Conflict management
• Team leadership 
• Supporting team performance
• Ensuring adequate training for team members
• Project negotiation
• Stakeholder collaboration, and more.

PROCESS (50%)

The 'Process' domain strengthens the technical aspects of successful project management.

Some of the tasks in this domain include:

• Communication management
• Risk assessment and management
• Project execution to deliver business value
• Budgeting planning
• Plan and manage schedule, and more.

BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT (8%)

The 'Business Environment' domain displays the relation between projects and organizational strategy.

Some of the tasks in this domain include:

• Plan and manage project compliance
• Determine project value and benefits
• Supporting organizational change
• Addressing external business changes

Read to know more on domain tasks: What are the Domains in Project Management Professional (PMP)?

PMP Exam Format

• Total no. of questions: 180
• Question types: Combination questions (MCQs, fill-in-the-blanks, hotspot, etc.)
• No. of scored questions: 175
• No. of pre-test questions: 5
• Duration of the exam: 230 minutes (approx 4 hours)
• Exam mode: Online and offline

For the PMP test, there are two 10-minutes breaks. The first break appears when you complete questions 1-60 and review all the answers. Then, after you are done with 120 questions and confirm that all the responses are checked, you can take the next 10-minute break.

With so much new content to focus on, it's understandable that the new PMP test will facilitate a broader study scope to cover everything. However, there is much more to learn and outshine; therefore, the credential test will be more difficult.

Passing Score for the PMP Exam

PMI has never disclosed the actual passing score or the percentage one needs to get to be PMP-certified. Therefore, we as training providers often suggest our students aim for more than 70 percent, or 126 questions, to get right out of 180. 

As the exam is scored based on the difficulty of the questions, PMI uses psychometric analysis. Since the questions will be randomly placed, candidates can't find which one is difficult, pre-test, or easy. Hence, we recommend that you answer all the questions with equal seriousness.

Retaking PMP Examination

PMI offers you three chances to pass the PMP examination within an eligibility period of one year. Now there are two scenarios:

1. If the one-year eligibility period expires without you taking the examination, you must reapply for the certification.
2. Suppose the candidate fails in all three attempts. In that case, they will undergo a suspension period of one year from the last examination date before reapplying for the certification.

Remember, during the suspension period, you can apply for any other PMI certification. 

Final Thoughts

We know that PMP is the most challenging certification test, as it covers a wide range of concepts on project management. Moreover, one needs to have hands-on expertise of these concepts and terminologies.

However, with the best exam prep plans and resource materials, any individual can crack the exam on the first attempt.