Certification Updates and Guidance

PM1World Friday PMP Certification News - 28th Feb 2020

Writing the PMP Experience Statements and a Few Exam Tips

Q. How do I describe my work experience on the application?

You only have 500 CHARACTERS (not words) per project!
Each project must be entered separately with its own description
You must include the project objective/purpose in every project description
You must group the experience statements by each of the 5 domains (process groups)
The statements must demonstrate project management work that you did yourself
Don't include tasks that are not 'project management tasks' (i.e. project management work).
The domains can be abbreviated: IN, PL, EX, MC, CL

Here is an example for reference. PLEASE DO NOT JUST COPY AND PASTE THIS example.

The objective was to increase productivity by 20%. In my role I led and directed a team of 4 team members. My tasks included: Initiation: assisted in the project charter development and completed stakeholder analysis; Planning; developed the scope, created the schedule, created the communications plan, updated the overall plan; in Execution I led the team, conducted team meetings, updated the schedule and distributed project reports; in Control I measured progress and developed status reports and managed changes; in Closing: I collected lessons learned and managed the transition.

Q. Do I have to send my resume or project documents with the application?

No, you don't have to send anything in with the application. The only time you need to send something is if you are chosen for an audit. See below.

Q. What if I get Audited?

You can get selected for an audit at various points. Usually it is a random audit where you get notified immediately when submitting the application. The other way that audits happen is if PMI has to ask you to correct the application wording and ask you to resubmit. In this latter case, you generally get audited automatically. These are only the typical cases and PMI could audit for other reasons.

If you get audited, you will need to send PMI an audit package (best to courier it) that includes:

Document that proves the 35 education hours that you listed in the application.
Copy of your University degree or diploma or letter that proves your educational level
Signed experience forms (these are provided by PMI and is basically a PDF of your application statements with a signature page for your 'referee').

You will need to take these to one or multiple people for the projects that you listed. Each person will sign them confirming they believe what you wrote is true.
You can have ALL the experience statements signed by one person (i.e. your current director, manager, or a colleague). They must be familiar with that past work because they are signing that they do. It does not have to actually be the people you did the project for (some companies don't even exist anymore!).
FOLLOW the instructions provided by PMI fully

Q. Is there anyone who can review my draft statements and provide me with feedback?

Yes, I can. Please write them and email me at Gina.Davidovic@PM1World.com. I'd be happy to take a look and give you some feedback on whether they are written properly.

Q. Do you have a few tips for the exam itself ?

Focus on understanding the documents, plans, tools, techniques. Memorisation will not help you except for maybe 10-15 questions. If you understand then you don't need to memorise anything! PLEASE IGNORE anyone that is telling you to memorise ITTOs (Inputs/Tools&Techniques/Outputs), it is not a good use of your time for the PMP Exam (If you were taking CAPM, it can help).
Read and try to understand every single task in the ECO (Exam Content Outline). The exam is designed from this document, not from the PMBoK. Does that surprise you? The PMBoK is certainly an important input and reference for the details. Not everything in PMBoK is tested and also there is knowledge tested that does not come from PMBoK.
You need to be familiar with the concepts of Predictive, Adaptive, Hybrid lifecycles. In the current exam you may get a few questions and in the new exam (from 1st July) you will get many questions on this. Don't however go and start trying to learn every Agile framework in detail. This does not replace the PMI-ACP or other Agile exams.
Understand how questions are actually designed:

Questions are written to test the ECO tasks. One task could be related to many questions.
ECO does not have all the detail so PMBoK and other books are references
Each question has a STEM (the body) which is normally just 2-3 sentences long (the old question types where a question was like a paragraph do not exist in the real exam). The STEM will normally contain important details that will likely tip one answer as better than another answer -- pay attention to every word.
The 4 choices can be very close to each other and requires good understanding of the content and also ability to analyse the question quickly (1.2 seconds per question!)
A good quality and reputable course and trainer will help you understand this.

Q. Will the PMP application change in line with the new July Exam ?

PMI has not announced any changes to the application, however it is very possible and likely that it will change at some point. I suggest you submit the application now and get it approved if you think you might take the exam within a year. You normally have 1 year from approval in which to take the exam.

Q. What does it take to pass the Exam ?

The PMP exam is a difficult and long exam. It is important to not only understand the content of the exam but also build up your endurance and timing 😆 by doing a lot of practice questions. However, please be careful because if you practice with the wrong types of exam simulators, it can be detrimental. There are hundreds of people and companies out there who are selling exam questions and simulators with questions from 10 years ago that are nothing like the real exam today.

Q. What Instructor led training is recommended?

My classroom courses and corporate mentored learning are very popular and highly recommended by anyone who has participated. This is because of the quality, currency, and care that we focus on. We take pride in helping each student pass and provide personalised attention to our clients. Our 97% pass rate is extraordinary for this difficult exam. I teach public courses in Australia and dedicated corporate training anywhere.

Q. Can't come to a Class? What online training and or simulator is best and recommended?

We searched and compared the best simulators online out there to partner with and I would like to personally and strongly recommend Prepcast to you. Here is why ...

We (PM1World) have been a PMI Registered Education Provider for over 15 years and I have been teaching the PMP courses since then. Most of our PMP classes have been in-person instructor led classes. We still run our incredibly popular classes (97% pass rate) in Australia. We did not have the resources to maintain a high quality online simulation product and recently set out to find a reliable high quality company to collaborate with. We are including this and bundling it with our classroom courses. precast has great support, realistic questions, great student feedback -and if you license through one of our links you get extended personal support from me.

After a lot of trials and speaking with customers, we selected Prepcast. We signed up as an affiliate.

Why would you not just go directly to them to buy it?

- Free extra support:
Because if you purchase from us with our link, you get my free personal support to pass the exam. If you come across questions you don't understand, if you have a topic you are not sure of --- you can contact me for help to use any means you like, such as Skype, Zoom, Whatsapp, email.
- It does not cost you anything extra and you get extra support
You will also be helping me to keep engaged with the community to provide good accurate information and news. There is so much misinformation out there, scam products, and bad advice.
-Free SCRUM e-learning course to pass the PSM Exam.
Yes, totally free e-learning included which also includes our support if you decide to take the PSM Exam. You can even start it later once you earn the PMP so you can get PDUs

Our link is noted above and you can just click or click here to purchase the best exam simulator for the PMP Exam.

Please note that the extras noted above are ONLY available if you purchase the Prepcast Simulator using this link.

👉Gina

Gina.Davidovic@PM1World.com
www.PM1World.com

PRINCE2^®, PRINCE2 Agile^®, MSP^®, MoP^®, P3O^®, M_o_R^®, MoV^® and ITIL^® are registered trademarks of AXELOS Limited, used under permission of AXELOS Limited. All rights reserved. PMP^®, CAPM^®, PMI-ACP^® and PgMP^® are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.